Consoles Now Only 40% Of the Videogame Market Says ...

... the CEO of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello. It used to be 80%. In an interview with Industry Gamers, the big boss of the biggest game company on the planet says that iPad is their fastest growing market, the Wii U is just fine, and people need to basically get a grip on the seismic changes in the electronic entertainment industry:

We have a new hardware platform and we’re putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn’t exist 18 months ago. So the idea that we’re categorizing the industry as being [cyclical]... Nintendo is off cycle with what? I mean, the point of reference is gone. And so Nintendo is bringing out a new platform that brings together some of what we’re learning from new media and new platforms like the iPad and then integrating that with a console. It’s the perfect time for that in the industry."

As I've been saying. Somehow videogame analysts got locked into this idea of cyclical hardware updates (PSX, PS2, PS3, etc..., every 6 years) driven by a demand for more processing power. Nintendo blew the second half of that equation out of the water with the under-powered Wii, and they're about to blow the first half out of the water with the "off-cycle" Wii U.

I'll say it again: the old patterns are dying. The next dinosaur to get a comet upside the head is the militaristic FPS genre. If Activision thinks they can spin Call of Duty sequels out to infinity, they're in for a rude awakening. I'm in the process of surveying the entire electronic industry for the Games 100, and I can tell you without hesitation that the only consistently creative and innovative platform is mobile gaming.

The First Look at the New Wii U

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is an annual trade show where game companies roll out new hardware and software. The biggest news so far is that a new Wii is on the way in 2012. It's finally hi-def, and has a crazy new wireless controller with a screen. Check out the official launch trailer:



And here's a closer look at that touchscreen controller:

And here it is functioning as a supplemental control screen for the new Zelda game:

I'm not at E3, but the word is that game journalists are scoffing at the new system. Maybe it's good or maybe not, but try to remember that these are the many of the same people who scoffed at the Wii. I read some article complaining that Nintendo was trying to jam an iPad into the Wii experience, as though the stupidity of that idea was self-evident.

Look, dedicated gamers hate the Wii. Except for a few titles, I'm not a huge fan of it myself. But it's not made for me or for people who go to E3.  It's made for everyone else.  It's a perfect family machine. It will not appeal to the teens or to the adult hipsters who cover games for a living, and it's not meant to. So, if you read a lot of negative comment on the Wii U in the upcoming months, take it with a grain of salt.

Frankly, I'm intrigued. Nintendo has been trying to work some handheld-to-console support into some games for years. As far back as 2004, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures connected a GameBoy Advance to a GameCube via cable, with the GBA functioning as a supplemental controller and screen.

Nintendo is going to sell this as a chance to buy a new Wii and get a portable iPad-style experience in the bargain. The controller can function independently of the Wii U, which means people get two game platforms for the price of one.

I showed this video to my resident ten-year-old and got four exclamation of That is sooo cool! and a concluding That looks awesome! All of the opinions you'll read about the Wii U are irrelevant in the face of that kind of reaction. Nintendo knows how to sell their product to kids and families. Guys who write about games are not their intended market.

Nintendo 3DS on Jimmy Fallon

This is a pretty slick demo of the 3DS, and shows just how mainstream electronic entertainment has become. I mean, really: Reggie Fils-Amie on Late Night television? That's just weird.

The Great Gatsby: The Long-Lost NES Game

Kotaku pointed me at a "lost" gem of the classic Nintendo Entertainment System days: the 8-bit adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Writer Michael McWhertor fills in the details of just how lead developer Charlie Hoey created a spoof of the iconic Great Gatsby cover art done in an 8-bit visual style. It was such a good idea they decided to turn the whole thing into a flash videogame done in the classic NES style, complete with a period advertisement and scans of the "real" insert for the original cartridge.

There's a certain mad genius in the game, a classic platformer in which Nick Carraway hops around Gatsby's mansion and other locations, collecting money and martinis while dodging flappers, Wilfred the butler, and other foes.

You can play the game online at GreatGatsbyGame.com. Can a version of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel, complete with avenging ghost of Ben Gant, be far behind?

REVIEW: Super Scribblenauts

Grade: A

Platform: DS

The original Scribblenauts made a splash on the DS gaming scene by allowing gamers to conjure almost anything out of thin air. Thanks to a vast database of nouns and the use of jointed sprites, people could type in a word and see an item materialize before them.

Was there a portion of the game level you couldn’t reach? Well, you could type in LADDER and a ladder would appear, just in case you wanted to prove to everyone that were boring and pedantic. Typing in WINGS was a bit of an improvement, since you could attach these to you character and just fly where you needed to go. Or you could type PEGASUS and ride a flying horse. The only limit was your imagination.

This immensely appealing gameplay was placed at the service of a pretty good puzzle/arcade platformer. There were some things to fight, but most of the gameplay was centered upon collecting stars by solving problems or getting access to hard-to-reach areas.

Super Scribblenauts has expanded and improved this gameplay in a number of ways, though not all are sure to appeal to fans of the original. The most notable change is the addition of adjectives to the game database. Now, instead of just conjuring a VAMPIRE, you can conjure a GIANT vampire, or perhaps a RED VAMPIRE or even a GIANT RED VAMPIRE. You don’t just have to ride a flying pig to reach that higher lever: now you can ride a BIG POLKADOT FLYING PIG.

The folks at 5th Cell, who also gave us the original Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life, have used this adjectival bounty to reshape the gameplay a bit. The original game tended to suffer from JETPACK/WINGS syndrome, in which people just banged through puzzles by typing in the same couple of objects over and over again. Super Scribblenauts focuses on more structured puzzles that require more precise nouns and adjectives to solve. It may be as simple as making a red key for a red lock, or creating a sequence of animals with long necks.

This leads to some awkward word fishing, as you try to read the minds of the designers to come up with the word DIETICIAN rather than HEALTH TEACHER, but an in-game hint system makes these problems minimal.

Fans of the original might not like that the game is less freewheeling, but the invidual puzzles are simply better with more structure. And there’s still a sandbox mode in which you can pit CTHULHU against HUGE SANTA and see who wins. That's good, because I like to get two mismatched enemies fighting and then use a catapult to fling DIRTY ANGRY PEASANTS and PUDDING at them. The knowledge that a game can do such things should be all the recommendation you need.