When Nintendo first started talking about the Revolution, I was really hoping that the company would be able to pull out of last place in the console race and really give Sony and Microsoft a run for their money. Back in the day, I was an avid Nintendo fan, owning an original Nintendo Entertainment System and a Super Nintendo as well. I was even one of those people who argued with the Sega Genesis crowd over which console was the superior one. But things started to go downhill when I picked up my Nintendo 64 and sometime later, my imported Nintendo GameCube.

My disappointment in the GameCube and N64 was soon a distant memory when I learned that I would be able to play classic NES and SNES titles on my Revolution. Even Nintendo changing the name of the console to the Wii didn't affect my overall outlook. I'm not a fan of the Wii name, but I don't really care what the system is called, it's about what the system can do and how the games play. Unfortunately, when I finally got my hands on Wii titles in pre-E3 events and again at E3 2006, I was more than disappointed in what Nintendo has coming our way in just a few short months.

The first Wii title I got my hands-on was THQ's upcoming Spongebob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab. I watched as the THQ representative fumbled his way through the single looping level that THQ had on display. I was wondering why this person who had been playing this game for countless hours still couldn't pass the level, but I kept that thought to myself. The THQ rep was making all kinds of elaborate movements with his body and it looked like a decent workout if you wanted to play the game for more than 10 minutes. So I asked the rep what would happen if you wanted to play the game sitting down on the couch in your living room. His response was simply that THQ envisions most people playing standing up. It didn't matter how many times I asked about sitting down, I never got a straightforward answer about it.

Soon after my time with Creature from the Krusty Krab, I got to play Red Steel over at Ubisoft's offices in San Francisco. I looked over at the trailer of the game running next to the modified GameCube where the game was running. The trailer featured fast-paced gun and sword swinging action. So I picked up the Wii-mote started through the simple target practice level Ubi had available. The controls were sluggish and relatively unresponsive, and there was no way I would ever be able to match the speed of what was shown on the video right next to me.

I shrugged off my first two ill-fated experiences with the Nintendo Wii as pre-E3 software issues, and assumed that the final builds of both games would amaze me with their quality... or at least play better than the pre-E3 builds. But when I got to E3 and played what Nintendo had available in its booth, my impression of the Wii didn't get any better. Almost everything I played seemed more like five minutes of fun instead of something that I'd want to play for extended periods of time, or even come back to over and over after my initial five minutes of fun. I understand that Nintendo's aim is at the non-gamer, but does that mean 90% of the titles on the console need to play like two-bit carnival games?

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