Nintendo's rebirth

Michael Allen | Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 9:00PM

At long last – the dawn of a potentially new era of gaming, ushered in by none other than the original purveyors of classic video game culture: Nintendo.

Every new beginning is some other beginning's end. And so it is with the demise of the likes of "Wii Sports packages,” 480p output, DVDs, and the stunted growth of the Wii's thin library (that is games worth actually paying $50 for). After fumbling sluggishly for the past 5 and a half years with the Wii, Nintendo's populist answer to previously non-gaming demographics, it looks as though the Kyoto-based company has decided to pull all the stops and create something of unbridled creative vision and technical prowess – something not characteristic of Nintendo's philosophy in years past.

Crimson drained from the logo in 2006 is now to be reintroduced in the form of the red meat, that is the essence, of what the company represents – being #1 in innovation and having production quality so polished that it sets the standard for all other games of its kind (creating characters like Mario – figures that are so distinct, iconic, and immediately recognizable that it's hard to imagine a world without them). Without the free-roaming expanse of Super Mario 64 or the infrastructural paths carved by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one would be hard pressed to admit that our current video game market would look anything like it does now. The “Stream," aka Project Cafe, is the big N's latest ambition, and it's looking also to be their greatest.

Mr. Satoru Iwata (Nintendo's current CEO & fourth president) described Nintendo's target demographic for the new video game console to be a return to the company's "core" gamers, that is the “hardcore," the now adult generation that grew up with the NES, SNES, and/or N64. Stream will likely output in 1080p, and it has been confirmed that it will have a dual-stick style controller w/ a built in screen. Set to be unveiled next month at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Nintendo fans everywhere are assuredly holding their breath and anticipating the return of a stronger, bolder, more contemporary Nintendo, one that is well equipped to once again lead the pack, playfully redefining the cutting-edge, pushing the industry onward and forward in new and more brilliant ways.