Aliens in the Desert

My husband’s family and their friends back East have - well, a decent amount of money.This pretty much assures that their kids have the tendency to get the ”hot new thing” for Christmas. Rock on kids!

But not this year. This year the ”hot new thing” was the XBox 360. But not a single kid got one. A couple parents looked and couldn’t find one. But from most of the parents I talked to, I simply recieved a sense of blah ”been there, done that”s. The fact is, even these southern parents, who had never heard of the Hot Coffee Mod and barely understand the ESRB rating system see the XBOX 360 for what it is-a newer, faster prettier XBOX. Hey, the kids already have an XBOX, a PS2 and a Game Cube. Why do they need another clunky box in their playroom? As for the kids themselves, they didn’t seem to miss the new XBOX either. They happily opened and played their XBOX, PS2 and Game Cube games, perfectly content with their now obsolete graphics.

And me? I could care less about the 360. Same with the other 19 people at my game company. And my gazillion gamer friends.

Here’s the thing about the 360: It is designed for better, cooler, graphics. And that’s really about it.

There is only one launch title that I find even remotely intriguing, and that one not intriguing enough to justify a purchase. The focus on graphics means that in order for developers to show off, they show off the spiffy graphics they can do. On the other end of the spectrum, I got a Nintendo DS for Christmas. Built into the DS are features a handheld hasn’t had before. Two screens, a stylus, a mic with voice recognition capabilities, and the ability to connect over a wi-fi network. I already own four games for this groovy little system, and there are more that I’m itching to get. The new features offer a whole new sandbox for developers to play in, and they have been taking advantage of it big time. Kirby’s Canvas Curse lets me watch the map while I manuever a level. My Nintendog comes when I call its name- out loud. Playing puzzle games like Zookeeper is bliss using the stylus and I can invite players from across the country to visit me in my Animal Crossing town (Jetville, of course).

Is it a case of “if you build it they will come “?

Is the path to game innovation paved with new ways of thinking about console capabilities?

I have been a die-hard Playstation fan since I ripped open the box on my original PS console. But if the PS3 is anything like the XBOX 360, then they’re going to have to wait until they< have multiple must have games to get my money.

The Nintendo Revolution on the other hand? I’ll be in line with the fifty other people who love cool games on its release day. And I bet I’ll be much happier with my purchase than the thousands who waited hours in line for their XBOX 360s.

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