You know, I haven't been impressed with Nintendo in, well, just about ages. I much preferred playing Golden Axe on the Sega Genesis than Mario on the NES.
True, that was many, many years ago - but some things never change.
For example, I have long suspected Nintendo excels in little else but marketing, as the corporation seems to have an uncanny knack of convincing people they absolutely must buy a subpar system and play mindless games until their eyes are red from sleep deprivation.
Admittedly, I probably do sound like an aging curmudgeon, but I always believed the color Lynx was miles ahead of the monochrome Game Boy.
But what did the mindless masses end up buying? Yeah, the Game Boy. Sure, the quality was lacking, but so friggin' what? Obviously, high-end graphics have never mattered to Nintendo.
So that's why I wasn't at all shocked to learn the bloated corporation had faked video game footage ostensibly rendered by its "next-gen" (*cough*) Wii U console this week at E3 in Los Angeles.
That's right, some of the clips were actually snatched from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games, both of which, IMHO, probably boast superior graphics to whatever advanced "console" Nintendo is working on.
But Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime seemed rather nonplussed by the controversy, telling GameTrailers the presentation was perfectly legit, as the graphics on the Wii U would definitely be comparable to what was shown at the LA game show.
"We're talking a year away from when the system's going to launch. The system's going to be 1080p," Fils-Aime claimed.
"You're going to see games that take full advantage of a system that has the latest technology and can push out some incredible graphics."
Yeah, right. If I was an optimist, I would say Nintendo needs to internalize the following age-old slogan:
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
But they won't, because they really don't have to. Unfortunately, modern consumers tend to fall for slick marketing campaigns, and never seem to learn that spin just can't quite make up for lack of quality.
