They've done it again

You know, I'm not a big gamer. I love old school video games, you know, where the story is short and you can't save and all that. Today, they call those "platformers." Today's platformers have more in-depth stories and such, but it's a very, very rare game that captures my attention enough to play it all the way to the end (I really miss the days when games didn't have ends).

Anyway, I love the Playstation 3, for its beautiful graphics and mostly for its Blu-Ray player. But so far, not a single game on the PS3 has kept me interested for more than an hour or two. The Nintendo Wii, on the other hand, is pretty great.

I mentioned a few months ago that Super Mario Galaxy ranks up there with the best games ever created. Prior to it, the only modern games I'd played all the way through were Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts, and really, I'd lost interest in both of them by the time I was done. I just finished them because I'd already put so much time in.

Well, Nintendo recently released Super Smash Brothers Brawl. It was their present to me, because it came out on my birthday. I didn't get it for my birthday. But I got it as an Easter Bunny present for myself and for Eric. And it's FANTASTIC.

For those of you who don't know, the Smash Brothers games take characters from the most popular Nintendo games, like Mario, Pikachu, Kirby, and Zelda, and put them into a fighting game. It's a Nintendo-fied fighter, though, because there are all sorts of bizarre "weapons" that you can use. New for this edition is the "Superspicy Curry," which will make your character breathe fire for a few seconds. There are 35 characters in all, and a number of them have to be unlocked. Plus, for the first time in a Smash Brothers game, there are some characters that aren't owned by Nintendo, like Sonic the Hedgehog (I haven't unlocked him yet).

In addition to the fighting game, there's a platformer with a story featuring all the characters that will take probably 10 hours to play. I'm about 8 and a half hours in, and it's loads of fun. I haven't tried it yet, but it also has online play, so you can battle against people all over the world.

Like I said, it's loads of fun, and you don't have to know the original games the characters are from to enjoy it... I certainly don't know all of them, and there's even one playable character who is from a game that wasn't ever even released in the U.S.

So the Wii is just wonderful, even though it isn't in high def (it will support 480p as its highest resolution) and even though it has virtual surround sound (Dolby Pro-Logic versus true 5.1), it has absolutely the best games. After the dominance of Sony's Playstation 2 for years, I'm really glad to see Nintendo on top again. The Wii outsells the PS3 four to one in Japan, and apparently they're still hard to come by here in the States.

If you've got one, go get Super Smash Brothers Brawl. You won't be disappointed.