I didn't mean that kids games and casual games shouldn't exist at all, only that Ninty needs to be more in balance with the general gaming public to include games that a veteran gamer like me could enjoy too, that teen and adult gamers can enjoy without having to wade through so much tripe to find. And those $1 cell phone games put a HUGE dent in what Ninty (and their 3rd's) has relied on primarily for the last few years; the casual market.
I never said that Ninty's (and it's 3rd party's) library of games were ALL garbage, just that the majority of them are. 20% of over 1000 games per region is still a lot of good games. But that other 80% is what people see rotting on shelves. That is why the Wii is suffering in sales right now. THAT is what's making gamers hesitate before buying a 3DS. It's not only the high price of the 3DS system or the weak specs of the Wii or the age of the DS that's hurting them, but the tendency for Nintendo (and their 3rd party's) to ignore mainstream gamers in favor of casual and non-gamers that has caused their slump in sales.
As far as the 3DS, this Christmas will truly dictate whether the 3DS is a failure or not. To be honest, with the amount of loyal Nintendo fans out there, the brainwashed sheep that seem to accept any old crap as worthy of purchase, and the over-protective parents who try to shield their kids by buying them cutesy shovelware games their kids don't actually want, I don't see how it could possibly be a complete failure. But if Ninty and their 3rd's don't change their strategy and start catering more to the mainstream gamers as opposed to the non gamers, casuals and trying to stick to that "family friendly" mantra too much, it will never reach the popularity the Wii and DS achieved. I think that just like the retro gaming fad of around a decade ago, the casual/non-gamer market is about tapped out. Ninty "says" they are going to focus on "core" gamers more this time around, but do they even know what a "core" gamer is anymore? Well, many of those "core" gamers are waiting to see if they do or not. They aren't just blindly slapping down the cash before they know for sure that there will be games they actually want to play getting released. Ninty has betrayed quite a few people's trust by mostly ignoring the "core" gamers with the Wii and DS. They won't be fooled again. That's why I said, "What'cha gonna do, Nintendo?"
Someone in this thread asked me what's wrong with RPG's. Nothing is wrong with them, it's just that not everyone wants to play (or has the time to play) an RPG ALL THE TIME. One genre can't and shouldn't carry a whole system. Most of what is considered the best games for the DS are RPG's. That cuts out a lot of people who don't care for them, or at least people who want more than just RPG after RPG to play. I burnt-out on RPG's about 25 years ago on the old Commodore 64, where I played almost all the ones ever made for that system. I just can't get into them anymore. I try, but I usually don't even get halfway into them before I lose interest. For example, the furthest I've ever gotten in a DS RPG was 27 hours into Infinite Space before I lost interest. I got up to 66% in Fighting Fantasy before losing interest in that. They just don't do it for me anymore. Simple as that. The DS needs more than just RPG's all the time is what I meant.
Some have asked what is shovelware.....if you don't know the answer to that, then you aren't what I'd call a true gamer. Over half the DS library is shovelware. Another 20% is just bad games. I thought I was being very generous to say that 20% of the library is actually good.
How about the sadly lacking fighting game genre on the DS? Most of the ones that do exist for the DS are based on anime cartoons, many of which I've never even heard of before a DS game came out bearing its name, and very few of them were actually any good. In fact, unless I'm mistaken, there was only ever one REAL fighting game made for the DS, that was Ultimate Mortal Kombat. No Street Fighter (not even the SFII stuff, which is all I really expected), no Tekken, no King of Fighters. No REAL fighting games (except for UMK) that a hardcore gamer has ever heard of before. If it wasn't for flashcarts and the NeoGeo emulator, I wouldn't have any decent arcade fighting games for the DS at all. I never really was a fan of the MK series of games myself. Tekken and SF were more my style.
The DS completely missed an opportunity to be more than JUST a game machine for adults. With the touchscreen, it could have had a whole genre of apps that adults could have used in everyday life that would have resulted in adults carrying around a DS too, like a calculator app, an appointment/address book app, etc. But no, homebrew developers had to fill that bill. All that got officially produced in that respect was a few cookbook programs and stuff like KORG.
Or how about no-brainer games like a 2D Metroid on DS? F-Zero? Gradius? Where are those? No, instead we get RPG number 2462, we get Imagine: Baby Diapers, we get My Petzz Animalzzz, dozens of pointless hidden-object games, endless copycat puzzle games, shovelware galore......and only the occasional game that someone actually wants to play that isn't just another RPG or just try to tolerate for lack of anything else to play. The balance is way off from what mainstream gamers actually want. THAT is why I ask Nintnedo, "What'cha gonna do?"
You may ask why I'm focusing on the DS so much? Well, because other than a GBA, a PC and the emulators I have on my PC, the DS is my only current gaming device. It's what I've been focusing on for the last 7 years and so it's the most fresh in my mind to rant about. I am not a Ninty fanboy (I was actually more of a Sega fanboy in the 16bit days), nor have I been brainwashed into thinking mediocre games are to be tolerated. That line in my sig isn't just some witticism I arbitrarily came up with, it's the truth from my perspective. I was a gamer before video games were mainstream, so I think I know at least a little something about what I rant about. Just my opinion though, feel free to think whatever you like. When you get to be my age and look back over the history of video games, you will see that what I say about video games is more correct than it may seem to you right now.
And no, I haven't had a drop of alcohol (or any other intoxicant) in over a week. I might be slightly nuts by some of you guys' perspective, but I'm 100% sober right now. I'm broke and I'm bored, so I rant. Don't take it personally. I'm just in a verbose mood and none of my real-life friends give a crap about this stuff, so I post it here, where there are people who do care about such things.