It has been suggested that I have forgotten how to write at a fundamental level. Typically, the suggestion actually comes from myself, frequently as I am sitting on the bus idly remembering that I actually own a website. So please consider this my attempt at testing that assertion.

Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to attend Nintendo’s Gamer Summit in Redmond. I had the good fortune to make the invite list because my day job affords me a title that implies I am some kind of real journalist with actual prestige or something, even though this is false. Any time I’m at one of these press junkets, I feel like I have actually infiltrated the thing like I was Sam Fisher or something. Whenever I’m approached by someone new I fear that I have been discovered and tense up, ready to drop a smoke bomb before beating a hasty retreat. Unfortunately for everyone else, I have not yet had to employ the covert operative moves that I foolishly believe video games have trained me to perform, as there were actual video cameras at this thing and I’ve no doubt that I would have already ended up alongside the Star Wars Kid on torrent sites around the globe.

Anyway, if there was one message I took away from the two day event, it’s that Nintendo wants you to buy a DS very, very badly. Indeed, the first day was devoted entirely to the device, with a heavy focus on its miraculous new wifi capabilities. To their credit, they’re providing some very solid reasons for you to make that purchase. If you will, pause for a moment and consider what it means for me to have written that previous sentence. I have spent the entirety of my time between the unveiling of the DS at E3 2004 and the launch of Kirby’s Canvas Curse ridiculing the device, so when I tell you that I carry my DS with my everywhere while my PSP sits at home gathering dust, you need to understand the weight of such a statement. It’s certainly not a position I would have ever imagined myself in even a short time ago.

We were also the recipients of a short presentation by Nintendo’s VP of Marketing, Reggie Fils-Aime, most of which you can view for free over at IGN, if you are so inclined (you can actually see the back of my head to the left of some of the shots). He talked mostly about how the industry has become stagnant and needs “disruptive technologies” to shake things up, the idea being that while improved resolutions and more texture passes are all fine and well, they’re not the kind of innovation that will really expand the games market. It was all very interesting stuff to hear, but I can’t say that I’m totally convinced this was much more than simply towing out the company line. He quoted some interesting but incredibly bleak numbers regarding channel growth, but the problem is that they were so bleak that I eventually mistrusted them. But assuming you take the assertion that the industry’s primary demographic is becoming steadily less interested in games, it’s not too difficult to understand why Nintendo might feel that abandoning the race for HD to focus on catering to non-hardcore gamers is the way to go.

A quick aside about Reggie: Maybe I’m the only one, but I felt like he had a very commanding, intimidating presence. It could easily be the sort of thing one simply learns in business school, I honestly don’t know, but I would certainly not care to cross him. At one point during his presentation, he had set his red DS (which will be available as part of a Mario Kart bundle later this month) down on the table I was sitting at, so I reached over and grabbed it so that I might examine it and take a photo. It slowly dawned on me that I might actually be stealing his personal property, and I was immediately filled with fear. It would not surprise me to learn that he could leap over the table, snap my neck, and land like a cat in the space between Powerpoint slides.

Anyway, back to the actual games. There are a lot of good ones; too many to talk about them all in detail, really. Suffice to say, in the immediate future you’re going to want to acquire Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing DS, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The first two of those three are an absolute blast to play over their new Nintendo WiFi service, which is perhaps the most ridiculously easy online gaming experience I’ve ever had. I have not played any of the Mario RPG games since the original Super Mario RPG, and Partners in Time has reminded me what a mistake this was. The interesting thing is that each of the buttons on the DS corresponds not to an action, but to one of the Mario brothers (Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi), which I’ve been told eventually leads to some kind of Zen state during gameplay. If I get enough time later in the week, I’ll try to make some more detailed posts regarding these titles.

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