I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man...I just know it....


I currently have the Wii and the PS3. I never jumped on the PS2 bandwagon, finding nothing that really caught my eye and forced me into buy territory (I did have an Xbox several years after it was dead, but even that didn't keep my interest....I donated it and my 8 games to Goodwill.) I haven't been into handheld gaming since the days of the Game Gear (I did have at one point a few game boy games to play on my girlfriend's Game Boy Advance just so it wasn't relegated to island duties for Animal Crossing for the GameCube, but even that didn't last.) I don't consider things like the iPad and mobile phones as game devices. I know they are popular ways to play games these days, but I just love the feel of a traditional controller in my hands. Most of the games I have seen so far are either puzzle games (a la Angry Birds) or (in my opinion) inferior installments of games made popular on the consoles (while Madden 12 looks nice on the iPad, I feel like I would be playing an oversized handheld console and I'm sorry...I love playing on the big screen with friends huddled around!)

A little side note on the WIi and the PS3...I'm practically a generation behind. I bought the Wii in mid 2008 in anticipation of the new Animal Crossing game in November and some Mario games that looked pretty awesome (like Mario Kart Wii, which had just been released) and I probably won't buy the Wii U until at least a year or two into its cycle, if at all. I just scaled back my collection by a large margin (you can just imagine how frustrated the guy at Game Stop was when I traded in a bunch of Wii and some PS3 games and could not convince me of a single game to preorder), not that I had a lot of games compared to some people! I just got the PS3 a little over a month ago. The only reason I got it was because a friend gave me a spare that needed a new hard drive to function. I have a measly total of 6 games for it and do not have many plans to buy more. Most of the popular games (sports, FPS, racing) do not catch my interest. The PS3 is mostly on PS1 duty, replacing the PSOne that occupied space under my television. I give SEGA some credit this generation, though. They actually released a compilation of Genesis games that seems to function like the originals should and in a much higher resolution. I usually prefer to play a game in its original media, but the HDTV makes some games look like ass! I just don't have the room for an "old school" tv either....so no Duck Hunt for me!

The Xbox 360 doesn't make me want to run out and buy one, either. The early problems spooked me quite a bit, and the realization that it would probably collect dust while I was going through Super Mario Bros. 2 for the umpteenth time convinced me to skip it. I do admit the R2-D2 edition with Kinect is pretty awesome looking, though. It just isn't worth my hard earned cash. I'm sure it has plenty to offer other gamers who do not have such a limited view on modern gaming. I couldn't get Marvel vs Capcom 3 or Super Street Fighter IV on PS3 to stir my excitement and they looked AWESOME! (I did opt to keep Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and GTA IV, however.)

Anyway, that's my take on modern gaming. It may be scewed by nostalgia in which "everything was better when I was a kid" takes precedence, but we all have our preferences. Others may rather leave those old blocky games to history and pick up Super Ultra Tiger Madden '13 and be happy playing in on their wristwatch. Me? I'm off to play Mike Tyson's Punch Out!