Now, after you start typing your hateful comments calling me a "stupid moron" . . . pause22, I see you there . . . hear me out.

    The Wii was meant to be a revolution. It was called the Revolution. Was it? Well, a year in, people said that it not only wasn't a revolution, but it was a massive step back for games. With waggle lacking the exacting response of a button-press, and the IR cursor's tendency to jump about unless you are of appropriate distance being less relative than the joystick, it was easy to see why. Games like Smash Bros. and Mario Kart ended up being easier with a joypad to most of us, which we all saw is counterintuitive to the concept of a motion controller, which was making it easier to play. When you add on the relentless assault of subpar party games, including Carnival Games, Game Party and the dreaded barrage of Ubisoft shovelware, some of which were selling damn well, while other, more original games such as Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros's Treasure were floundering on the sales boards, it's easy to see how the longtime gamer, the gaming enthusiast, the educated gamer, would be angry at the consumers of the Wii. It was ruining it for the good developers and the gamers who had followed the gaming world since they had to blow into the systems to get it to run a game, a game that they played with no joysticks.

    The gaming enthusiast looked at the "revolution" as a "clusterfuck" of "epic" "proportions." What they didn't see was that the revolution was underground. It was invisible, creeping up on us. Until now, that is.

    When you think of the standout games on the Xbox 360 or PS3, what do you think of? Well, on the 360, I think of games like Halo, Gears of War, Too Human, BWAHAHAHAHAHA . . . sorry, couldn't resist . . . Mass Effect, etc. On the PS3, I'd think of Uncharted, MGS4, Resistance, LittleBigPlanet. Notice something about those? Of all those games, only one isn't trying in some way to create a realistic vision of a world. By that, I mean all but LittleBigPlanet are keeping themselves more grounded in reality than fantasy. I mean, sorry to go back to a joke, but Too Human toom the world of Norse Mythology and made it into some kind of corporation! Of course, not all the games for the systems go for that, but most do, and almost all the notable ones do. The Wii? I think of Galaxy, Brawl, Metroid Prime 3, No More Heroes, de Blob, Zack and Wiki. Now, of those you have three that involve humans, and one that recreates them in a realistic manner, being Metroid Prime 3. Galaxy and Brawl are both much more focused on a cartoon-like element, but we should exclude those because they were already established. Of the three most notable titles that have made their full debut on Wii, one has humans, one has blobs, and one has animals that talk like humans. Even No More Heroes, which has humans, is so outrageously over the top that it can barely be called "grounded in reality."

    What am I getting at? It's simple; the Wii is not a competitor for the Xbox or the PS3. It is in a whole new league. Games on the HD consoles are considered fresh if they have crisper graphics. Look at Halo 3. It changed very little, but people played the shit out of it. Why? It looked nicer. I can't think of another reason. The Wii, or more specifically, the Wii in 2008, has proven itself to be about something different. Gone is the familiar. What we are stuck with is the visually radical, the aesthetically fresh. I don't even need to explain how important this game is to my argument. Also, have you noticed how the 360 and PS3 are referred to as the "HD consoles" much more than they are the "Traditional pad consoles"? It may be quicker, but there's something else to it.

    Visually, the Wii has refused the confines presented by the modern tech spec races, and has created some of the most aesthetically unique games of the generation.

    That's all I can say for now. I'll talk more of my mind later.