A few days ago Forbes has posted an article titled “America’s All-Time Favorite Videogames’.  An article at Aeropause,  Joe Fourhman brings up some good points that question the motives of Forbes. Ok even if you accept the skewed parameters and the blatant exclusion of any Nintendo titles, why absence of The World of Warcraft. Also, what about The Sims? Something is definitely fishy here.

Article here

I really don’t understand how there are game review sites and blogs out there that are claiming that using Wii Fit cannot get you in shape. That’s almost impossible. If you bother putting the energy it takes to turn on the power put in the disc and start up Wii Fit, you’ll find that you’ll be doing real exercises. For instance, one has you lying on your back working your abdomen muscles by lifting your legs and arms to meet in the air. For those that know, this is a V-crunch. How can you make the claim that doing 15-30 reps of V-crunches a day will not eventually lead to a loss of fat if not tight abs? You dont need a gym to get a 6 pack, you only need a floor and the will power to do it. So does that mean game reviewers are going to say using the floor wont get you fit either?

Although Iwata stated that Wii Fit’s purpose was to make you more aware and not necessarily make you fit, the latter is a given if done intelligently. You can’t do crunches a day and NOT get a result. However, if you use Wii Fit and you are shoving Fried Chicken, Cheeseburgers and French fries with Ranch Dressing in your mouth, then yes, you are wasting your time. Nintendo did not include instructions on how to diet, so it’s pretty clear to me that if you want to get fit you have to learn how to do that part on your own. It’s not Nintendo’s Industry to tell you how to eat right. Given that, I imagine Iwata said that Wii Fit is not intened to make you Fit as a CYOA statement (‘Cover Your Own Ass’). However, Nintendo did create software that states “look if you do exercise daily, we will measure it for you and even make mini games out of it”. Unfortunately, neither Nintendo nor NASA has the technology that will make people do exercise on a daily basis. I’m sure there are millions of people that would prefer Wii Fit be nothing but an In-Home-Do-It-Yourself liposuction kit.

The folks at Penny Arcade have achieved what every video game blogger could dream of… which is get a video game based off of their creations. Today, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness arrives on Xbox Live Arcade. The characters are alter egos of Penny Arcade creators Mike ‘Gabe’ Krahulik and Jerry ‘Tycho’ Holkins. If your not familiar with the Penny Arcade characters, the web comics are located here. I am looking forward to playing this game.

A ranter at techradar.com tends to sound dumbfounded in his article, by success of the Wii and why roughly 25 million people have purchased one. If you read many game site rants towards the Wii you can see the same pattern. Traditional gamers just don’t seem to understand the Wii’s success. In my opinion Nintendo has come up with an amazing business plan and it worked! As long ago as 2005, Satoru Iwata made it clear that they would focus on nontraditional gamers and go after the non-gamers or the parents of that gamer. Well turns out, Nintendo did Just that!

What does it take to attract a non-gamer? Well take a look at the Wii games current gamers are calling crap on the Wii. Take a hard look at their ugly faces and realize this is the face of success. Nintendo has found out what non-gamers like and are creating games to cater to them. This doesn’t mean Nintendo developers are not creating traditional games. However, It appears the “Hard-core gamer” doesn’t want to see these casual games at all. It seems in retaliation, game reviewers give these casual games very low rating scores and horrible reviews. There is enough evidence in sales to show how ineffective game reviews are on these casual games. For instance, look at the reviews or rankings of Carnival Games, Mario Vs Sonic, and Wii Play. These games have been very successful in sales.

The Nintendo bashing article here.