catlhere said:
Well 1.) 2 new consoles, are coming out. Although you said spending $300 is too much, the new Nintendo will be even less than $250, so it's not terribly expensive, and no worse than an iPod or whatever. It has a really intuitive controller, opens up alot of new ways to play. Plus you can play all NES/SNES/N64/Sega/Turbo Grafx games via their download service LEGALLY 
but you may not be interested in that lol. Xbox360 has a bright future ahead with its online service and the webcam i posted info on a post or two ago you can do alot of different things with it, and it has some great graphics and games of course. PS3... well that's too expensive so we won't go there.
2.) You seem to enjoy the old-school games you can play on emulators and those are getting new titles for this next-gen. Zelda, Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Duck Hunt, etc are all coming back in new games, same style of gameplay and fun, just with alot better graphics (and 3d obviously)
3.) handhelds are doing really well. The PSP may be 2nd but it offers alot of different multimedia capabilites like umd movies, web browsing, music playing, plus really nice graphics and a good screen, but its a little pricey. The DS Lite is coming out June 11th, and it already has an incredible library of games.
Mainly it's just a good time to be a gamer because every company seems to be pushing the limit in terms of power or innovation and there are tons of great titles coming out for every current and next-gen system. You just have to look for them.
Duckhunt? I never thought I'd see the day that a sequel to Duckhunt was made. Althought I always thought that part of its charm was its primitive graphics.
Anyway....I just hate the way consoles are sold these days. "It can play CDs, DVDs, it's backwards compatible with games from our last system, it can connect to the internet, it can play mp3s, [sarcastic]it can make your coffee[/sarcastic], etc"
If I buy a console, I'm not buying it to play CDs or DVDs or games from the last system or to connect to the internet or for any of that jazz. I'm buying it for the games. If you want me to buy your console, sell me your games, not your console. And video game companies just aren't doing that anymore. I want games to capture my imagination. I won't even mention XBox because I despise it. PS2 is a good system and there are some good games for it, but after the PS1 I expected more out of the GAMES. I will admit that I've never played Final Fantasy X or X-2. But I have friends that have and they've all said that they're a big step down for the FF series. GTA games are fun for a few hours, then they get boring. The Sims is an ingenius idea but it gets VERY repetitive. I'm sure there are good games for the PS2 that I just haven't played, but like I said, my imagination wasn't captured. As for the Gamecube....this was the first console generation ever for me where I've never played the newest Mario and Zelda games. On one hand, that kind of hurts, but on the other hand, I was surprised by how much I kind of...didn't care.
This is the debate I have with myself. First, I say that the games today, even the Mario and Zelda games, don't grab my imagination like the games of yesteryear did. Then, I say, wait a minute, maybe it was just easier for games to grab my imagination when I was 13 then it is now that I'm 21. I mean, I know for a fact that one of the reasons emulation appeals to me so much is that it is a MONUMENTAL nostalgia trip for me. When I play Sonic 1 or Castle Of Illusion or Super Mario World or Street Fighter II or Link To The Past or Final Fantasy II, or whatever, I'm back in 1992. When I play Mario 64 or Ocarina Of Time or Goldeneye or Final Fantasy VII or whatever, I'm back in 1997. This is not to say that the games themselves aren't actually that incredible...they were fucking life-changing, that's what they were. So I don't know...were the games really so much better, or am I just romanticizing the past?
Nintendo sure makes games that take constant work.
