If you look at sales data and see that the Wii is continuing to sell, you probably wonder “how can that still be selling even if everyone already has one?” I point you to my mom’s birthday present, a Wii she asked for from my stepdad.

I just got off the phone with her and she is so excited to be playing Wii Sports. SO excited. She can’t wait to go buy Wii Fit and try that out too.

My mom’s pretty rad.

Hey, Nintendo. Please put Pokémon Red and Blue on the 3DS Virtual Console. Then, add Pokémon Stadium to the Wii’s Virtual Console, and let us link them up just like we were using the Transfer Pak back on the Nintendo 64.

I have extremely fond memories of both games and I’m willing to throw money at you to relive them again.

Your pal, Joe

With Nintendo being the big man on campus for so long, it’s really weird to see them in panic mode.

As you are no doubt aware, Nintendo is cutting the price of the 3DS from $249.99 to $169.99 on August 12, not even five months after its North American release (with similar price slashes occurring across all regions). Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has announced that he is taking responsibility for the lukewarm sales of the 3DS by cutting his salary by 50%, with other Nintendo executives taking similar, yet smaller, cuts.

It goes without saying that this isn’t the same Nintendo that we’ve grown accustomed to the past few years, who would dedicate a good chunk of their E3 presentations to showing off their astronomical sales numbers while so-called “hardcore” gamers pouted in the corner. They had confidence, they had swagger. Now they’re flailing, and it’s really, really weird to see.

So Club Nintendo is a pretty rad setup. You register your Nintendo games and systems (which extends your system’s warranty as well), tell Nintendo a little bit about where you bought the item and what you think of it, and you earn “coins” to redeem for free prizes. Each year if you earn a certain number of coins you achieve either “Gold” or “Platinum” status which entitles you to a special bonus gift that you can’t get otherwise.

Since Christina and I put several Nintendo employee’s children through college with the amount of money we give the company, we’ve hit Platinum status each year since the program started (in fact, once we hit Platinum for the year, we stop registering games and save them for the next year, so we typically hit Platinum again for the following year on the first day). The gifts have been pretty awesome so far. The first year we got Mario’s hat. Last year we got this impressive statue of the Mario cast that came in a super cool ? block:

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on February 29, 2011)

Hey everyone, Joe here, and I’ve got some totally rad stuff for you: information on Nintendo’s upcoming console, the Ultra 64!

The Ultra 64 is Nintendo’s follow-up to the hugely successful Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and from the early information I’ve come across, it’s going to be a real game-changer! If you need any more convincing, just think about this: Super Mario and Zelda in 3D. Oh yeah. The future is here, baby!

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on May 1, 2011 – when Wii U was still known as “Project Café.”

This also just in: it’s either going to rain or be sunny tomorrow. Or foggy. Maybe.

Noted industry analyst Michael Pachter (whose last name, I’ve just learned, is “PACK-ter” and not “PATCH-er”) has claimed that Nintendo’s next console could very well go the way of the Dreamcast and be doomed right out of the gate.

“It is an open question whether the Wii successor is an in-between console, much like Sega’s Dreamcast was back in the late ’90s—too late to compete with the PlayStation and N64, and not sufficiently advanced to compete with the PS2 and Xbox,” he said, according to Industrygamers.com.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on March 1, 2011 – Well before the Nintendo 3DS came out!)

I’m like a little kid when it comes to impending releases for things I’m excited for. I lay in bed thinking about them, counting the days until I can finally play with them. When it comes to games, it’s even worse, because I can’t bring myself to play anything else! Nothing is appealing and I just get bored right away. It’s like being given a Jolly Rancher when you’re starving to death.

(Potent imagery, isn’t it?)

Being the huge Nintendo fan that I am (when I worked at GameStop, I was given the moniker “Captain Nintendo” by my manager), I’ve been hungrily pawing at all of the information that’s been coming out since the 3DS went on sale in Japan a few days ago. New hardware hype is something I savor, like a juicy orange on a warm day. It only comes around every five years or so, and it gives me an opportunity to drive my wife crazy with my childlike insistence on sharing every bit of new information, whether she wants to hear it or not.

(She’s a gamer too, so me being capable of driving HER insane with game chatter is an even more impressive feat than you may think.)

Since we’re about three weeks away (give or take) from the North American and European launches of Nintendo’s latest handheld revolution, I wanted to write a bit about the five things that have me the most excited, not counting the games themselves. Let’s all take this journey together.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on April 7, 2011)

Nintendogs + Cats is a tough game to review, because there’s not much “game” here at all: there’re no goals, you can’t win (or lose), and there’s not much challenge to be found. However, as a piece of software designed solely to entertain, Nintendogs + Cats succeeds.

Nintendogs was one of the original Nintendo DS’s biggest sellers despite being released very early on in the system’s life cycle, so revisiting it to launch the DS’s successor was a no-brainer. Little has changed since then: you still take care of your virtual dog by feeding him, grooming him, taking him on walks and taking part in various competitions.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on March 10, 2011.)

If you read my article about being a Pokémon Master, you know that I am well-versed in the field of Pocket Monsters. I’ve poured hundreds of hours into each game, catching over 493 monsters, beating thirty-four Gym Leaders, and becoming the Champion of four different regions. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to Pokémon. Therefore, you can take it on good authority when I say that Black and White are by far the best entries in the Pokémon series.

Anyone who immediately brushes these games off as more of the same is sorely mistaken and will be missing out on the biggest leap forward the franchise has taken since it first prompted us to catch ‘em all over fifteen years ago.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Wii U since it was revealed last week, and while I’m interested to see what Nintendo can do with a console with HD graphics and online capabilities that WORK, I still can’t make myself get genuinely EXCITED, despite the fact that I love Nintendo so much I’ve probably given them over seven million dollars through my life.

I know the tablet controller is an awesome concept. I know it’s going to offer a lot of new ways to play games. Is that enough for me now, though?
Nintendo wants to entice third parties back to their camp. Some third parties are going to do amazing things with that tablet controller. A lot of them, though, are going to tack on some functionality and just port over games they’re releasing for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Realistically, if there’s three HD systems, why should they bother focusing on one new console when the other two will have astronomically higher install bases?