Kirby's Epic Yarn

Guess what just arrived in stores today?  I'm an old-school gamer, as if you couldn't guess, heh heh.  So I'm rooting for Kirby's Epic Yarn and hope it becomes a hit.  Sometime after the Vikings-Cowboys game, I'll give it a spin.  Early reviews have been enthusiastic, and it's a bit funny to see all these macho boys suddenly turn into gooey teenage girls.  This may be the "cutest" video game ever created.

Success breeds success.  New Super Mario Bros DS led to Super Mario 5 on Wii.  Now we are seeing the new Kirby, and next month, the new Donkey Kong Country.  I hope Nintendo is paying attention.  Now if we could only get more games like this, and fewer vanity projects like Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2.  Please please please let this game be good.

Super Mario 25th Anniversary Wii Coming to Japan and Europe

 
...But where is the American version?  That would be a curious oversight.

This Wii package certainly looks impressive, with the red colors, Wii Remote Plus, Super Mario 5 as the pack-in...and is that the actual, arcade Donkey Kong?  I would certainly hope so.  I wouldn't be surprised if this was only the NES version.  Nintendo certainly is cheap enough.

Speaking of which, the 25Th Anniversary Super Mario All-Stars (Super Mario Collection in Japan) is another brilliant-looking package, with soundtrack CD and large booket, but it's really just the 1993 Super NES cartridge.  Couldn't Nintendo have bothered to remake this collection using the Super Mario 5 engine?  That would be a worthy celebration of their most successful videogame.  Sadly, no.

This only reinforces the cynical impression that Nintendo's superstar producers run the show, and to hell with the president and the company strategy.  To hell with that Expanded Audience who bought the Wii, for that matter.  2D Mario is Nintendo's most insanely successful cash cow this side of Pokemon.  3D Mario is nowhere near as successful (Mario 5 outsold Galaxy 2 by a 4:1 margin).  But Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't want to make side-scrolling Super Mario.  He wants to do what he wants, what makes him feel good.  And if he and his fellow producers like Yoshio Sakamoto (Metroid: Other M) and Eiji Aounuma (Zelda) collapse the Wii's momentum by refusing to make games the market demands, then so be it.

Oh, well, the least Nintendo of America could do is release this cool red Mario Wii box.  Perhaps this will spike sales enough for the executives to the hint.