Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Review

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is like a delicious casserole crafted from the finest ingredients every game in the series up to this point has to offer while at the same time trimming the excess, unhealthy fat from the product. The end result is arguably the most polished Metal Gear game to date.

While the Metal Gear series was never particularly bad, there were always a few nagging issues that kept each game from being as good as they could be, particularly in the area of control schematic. Metal Gear Solid 4 completely revamped the play control style to reflect contemporary action games and the game play felt far more natural as a result. Unfortunately for Metal Gear Solid 4, the game still had that “interactive movie” feel that most of its critics site as a reason for why they don’t like it. The first PSP outing, Portable Ops had the right mindset in theory; less talk, more action, however it failed to execute as most of the gameplay concepts just didn’t work as intended. Peace Walker manages to mend the problem plaguing both games. The camera is much more user friendly. Enemy recruitment is much less cumbersome. Instead of dragging them to the truck, simply attach a Fulton balloon and they're on their way. Gone are the lengthy cutscenes. Instead of one long mission, Peace Walker is instead broken up into short, mini missions, while radio conversations and cutscenes are mercifully kept to a minimum during the mission so the player can focus on the gameplay. For those who don’t mind hearing a lot of backstory and enjoy the rich world of Metal Gear, there are briefing files before each mission that discuss the plot in detail, or reveal a bit more backstory regarding the characters and events taking place. Like Portable Ops, cutscenes are handled via comic book style visuals by Ashley Wood and they look much like the Digital Graphic Novels of the series. Most of them have interactive moments that involve the player to press the right button or make the right decision at the proper time. Such interactivity is not only welcomed, but adds a bit to replayability as sometimes failing at a juncture can produce slightly different changes in the storyline. Metal Gear Solid as a series has often been praised for well developed and intriguing plots and Peace Walker is no exception. The game further serves to bridge the gap between the original Metal Gear and its prequel, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. For all intents and purposes, the game is a direct sequel set ten years after the events of Snake Eater, ignoring most of what took place in the first sequel starring Big Boss, Portable Ops. As with most games in the franchise, playing the previous Metal Gear installments are not particularly required for enjoyment of the plot, but it is much preferred as it helps to have a background on some of what has happened prior to the events of the game. Peace Walker makes no effort to catch new players up to speed on what’s taken place in the Metal Gear universe. This game was written with already established fans in mind.



The gameplay was designed with already established fans in mind as well. Players new to the series, or even players who played the previous games on easier modes will be in for a rude awakening with Peace Walker. There are no difficulty settings and this game features some of the toughest boss battles in the series history. While this may seem a bit off putting, this game provides more options and tactical approaches than any game that has come before it. Literally every weapon and item from past games makes an appearance here, plus a few more. Different camouflage designs and set ups can be utilized. Choose camo that has an all around percentage of blending in, or one that is well suited to a specific area? Choose an indoor suit designed for optimum stealth or one designed for battle and protection? Literally the levels are designed in such a way that players who favor run and gun tactics over traditional stealth can enjoy equals amount of success. That’s not to say emphasis is not placed on stealth. Peace Walker is brilliant in that while it doesn’t punish run and gun tactics and being discovered as much as previous games, it does however reward stealth much more than previous games. Given all of the new stealth options at the player's disposal, it's honestly more fun to use non lethal ways to dispatch. CQC has been improved to allow players to take out multiple enemies at once provided they are in proximity. Attacks can be stringed together to take out at least three at once and soldiers can now be thrown into objects or against other enemies. Many times taking out a group of enemies with CQC is faster than simply gunning them down. Not being seen and dispatching enemies non lethally not only raises your score at the end of each mission but enemy recruitment is a vital part of success. Dispatching enemies using lethal means not only runs you the risk of killing them, but most captures will display hostility towards your crew and not join automatically. So be a nice guy, it helps.



Capturing soldiers is not only fun, but vital to the management of your home base. Snake is not the only one who is available to take on missions. Often times, the soldiers recruited will have to take up the call to arms and in many missions Snake isn’t even available. Almost RPG like in it’s management; your home base has a variety of areas to which your recruits can be assigned. Each soldier has a variety of statistics that show which areas he/she excels. They can be assigned to a duty they must perform to help the base grow. Helping the base grow in turn increases productivity and your base can provide items and new forms of weaponry for use in the field. Other soldiers can be deployed to various regions around the world to gain battle experience in strategic engagements. How many soldiers that are captured and how well they are utilized can make the game significantly easier to complete. New to the Metal Gear franchise, missions can now be played with a buddy at your side. While most boss battles when played solo represent an enormous challenge, most of them can be played with up to 3 other players. Should an ally fall in battle simply charging over to the body and spending a few seconds to revive them basically ensures that no one will fail at any juncture and almost makes boss battles too easy. Most missions can be played with at least one other person, but they aren’t all that particularly challenging to begin with, and most veteran Metal Gear players might get more challenge out of simply just going it solo. While fun, Co-op gameplay is wholly unnecessary and it’s just as well; the game doesn’t support infrastructure and instead utilizes Ad-Hoc. So unless you own a PS3 and Ad-Hoc Party you may not be getting a whole lot of multiplayer in at all.



Multiplayer issues aside, this represents not just arguably the best Metal Gear game to date, but one of the best PSP games to date, if not the best. This is definitely a must have for any Metal Gear fan or fan of action games in general. If this is the final Metal Gear Hideo Kojima plans to personally produce, this then is quite the swan song.

What did Xbox 360 owners do to deserve this?

Seriously, what in the hell EA? It's not like you guys design the most original covers in the world anyway, the least you could do is put up a picture of Tim Tebow that doesn't look like he has to go to the bathroom/having a fit of roid rage with some winshield wiper fluid and confetti splashing on him in the background. I'm not sure where this ranks in the pantheon of bad game covers but it definitely is up there.

This 4th of July, Respect the Guile.

If there is any real true American patriot out there, it’s Guile ladies and gentlemen. Respect the Guile. Honor the Guile. Guile is more awesome than you could ever possibly imagine. Seriously, the guy has a freakin American flag tattooed on his arm. If that doesn’t scream “patriotic bad ass” I don’t know what does.

Not only that he can rock the camo in just about any color, even pink. Yes, he’s bad ass even in a pink camo uniform because of the way he simply destroys his opponents. Ken, Ryu, Zangief, Chun Li. They all fall victim to the Flash Kick. Flash Kick has priority over all. Shoryuken? Flash Kick. Spinning Bird Kick? Flash Kick. Spinning Pile Driver? Flash Kick. It is the answer to all of life’s problems. Flash Kick can cure cancer and stop world hunger.

But enough about the amazing Flash Kick. Let us not forget the hairdo. The epic hairdo that only the Guile can pull off. Never does he allow it to be molested or tampered with in anyway. The hairdo is always in a constant perpetual state of perfection. Never does Guile allow the hairdo to succumb to any flaws.
I can already feel you laughing. But you fools have no idea. You have no clue as to the power that Guile possesses. You see Guile only unleashes a smidgen of his power because most times that is all he needs. But when he needs to truly unleash his unfettered wrath and fury; he utters two words that make the Gods tremble.

SONIC BOOM.



That’s right. The mighty earth itself is shattered when the Sonic Boom is unleashed, destroying all who dare step into it’s path of destruction. Losers like that naked Pepsiman Seth try to emulate the Sonic Boom; a pretender in a feeble attempt to usurp Guile’s throne. No, you fools have no idea of the true power of Sonic Boom. Only one who is worthy such as Guile can attempt such a maneuver.
But do not worry, for Guile is on America’s side. He fights for truth, justice and the American way. I feel comfortable at night knowing that Guile is ever vigilant, protecting our nation at home and abroad. Evildoers beware when Guile brings his force of Captain America and Ken Masters. Such a trio of jingoistic American awesomeness can barely be contained. When the power of the Shin Shoryuken, Final Justice and Flash Kick mesh into one massive attack of United States patriotism, often times the arcade machines and consoles explode, unable to contain the power within. I’m glad they’re on my side. So for this 4th of July, respect our hero Guile and try your best to even amount to a fraction of his complete awesomeness.

Videogames are art and have always been.

So Roger Ebert has finally confessed that games may be considered art, eh? That’s not surprising at all. Game design itself, is a form of art and expression. The definition of art is thus according to Encyclopedia Brittanica: "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." This can be achieved in many forms whether it be in writing, sculpting, painting, movie making, game design. Creating games is no more different of a form of expression than any other medium. Instead of canvases, they have consoles. Art is anything that is created by an individual, regardless of the medium used. Art does not have to conform to a particular idea or even have to tell any sort of traditional story with characters and a plot. Many paintings don’t tell any story in any traditional sense, yet they are conveying the painters feelings and those feelings emerge from the painting and are expressed to the viewer. Game design often achieves the same effect when a game is played.

Game design is like a fingerprint. Most of the prominent game designers have a stamp on their games where the player can say “this game was made by this person.“ Because game designers, just like anything that is created, often draw upon things they enjoy in real life and transfer that feeling and emotion into their games. It’s very easy to tell a Sakaguchi designed Final Fantasy from that of the contemporary ones designed by Nomura/Kitase. Even guys like Tomonobu Itagaki leave some sort of a fingerprint so to speak. For as much as we roll our eyes and say things like, “Oh God, Team Ninja and their boobs”, there’s an element there where we recognize his stamp on his games. Shigeru Miyamoto has stated on several occasions that many of his inspiration for videogames comes from his childhood. He mentions growing up in Japan and playing in the fields, wondering what was underneath a large rock or inside a large cave. Thorough his game design he transfers those feelings he has a child onto his games. In his game creation he tries to convey that same feeling he had as a child, the sense of wonder and exploration and discovery into his games. Hideo Kojima always has a commentary on philosophy and how he views human interactions and relationships in the world. Joke about Metal Gear Solid 2’s plot all you want, (and honestly, it was pretty out there) but the game had some very interesting commentaries on society as a whole. All of his games attempt to convey this emotion he tries to express, only his other works achieve this in a much more subtle and graceful fashion, not resorting to a proverbial swift kick to the nads to make sure you got the point. David Jaffe’s fingerprint is all over God of War. He has stated on many numerous occasions that game design for him is a way to lash out and vent his frustrations. God of War is likely the ultimate expression of that. His anger, his hate and frustrations with life’s issues all live vicariously in the form of Kratos. For all the God of War bashing I do and as much as I simply do not like those games very much, I will concede that with every eyeball gouged, every harpy wing ripped and every minotaur throat skewered, Jaffe achieves his idea of venting frustration and transferring that visceral emotion of simply just wanting to kick the crap out of everyone that we sometimes get perfectly. Koji Igarashi’s Castlevania games all find that artistic way of finding beauty within chaos. Sure you’re maiming and killing hideous monsters within a queer and grotesque castle, but it’s always done with a Phantom of the Opera-esque sense of beauty and style. The game looks and sounds beautiful while you’re doing it.

Ever since the days of Pong, game design has always represented a form of expression. Games have always been a form of art. Just like any other medium, those ideas can be better expressed with the improvements of technology. No one contests that the early silent films of at the turn of the century have no less artistic merit than say, American Beauty. No one would dare be foolish enough to argue that Casablanca is any less artistic of a film than No Country for Old Men. High value production stage plays on Broadway hold the same artistic value as anything Shakespeare wrote in the Globe Theater. The poetry of John Updike typed on a typewriter is taught in schools alongside poetry written by Robert Browning likely written with ink and paper underneath a candle light. No one contests that it isn’t art. Ever since Miyamoto created Super Mario Bros. he has tried to capture his vision of childlike innocence and wonder. Kojima has always tried to make some sort of social commentary; the very idea of Metal Gear, use your brain and only use violence as a last resort is often expressed in most of his games. David Jaffe has had a bone to pick with life ever since he decided shooting rockets with a mad clown truck was awesome and a great way to vent after a bad day. Castlevania has always had a sense of making normally grotesque things have a sense of beauty and refinement and of course Itagaki has left his….off beat style in his games ever since the first boob bounced in the original Dead or Alive.

Games are art. It’s often a debated subject that apparently still rages to this day, but honestly, this discussion should never even had taken place to begin with. Games have always been art. From the day Ralph Baer created his “Brown Box” he was creating art. Gaming has been and will continue to be a form of art and expression and deserves as much respect as any other form of media.

What's the story?

I will contend that videogame writing is probably as difficult as other mediums to write for. In some ways moreso. Now I’m not saying that videogame writers are on any level of writing skill such as those of William Shakespeare or other classic literary writers, no, however I think that writing a story, well a good story for a videogame requires more skill and knowledge than one would think. It’s very simple and easy to craft a scenario for a videogame; but it is vastly more difficult to successfully execute that scenario and evoke the intended emotions and responses than books or film would. Videogames have an element that those other forms of media simply do not have. It is from that where it becomes more difficult. Videogames have an element of interaction that is simply not present in other forms of storytelling. In videogames, the player becomes the character. We assume the role of that person. We are not simply onlookers of the events unfolding, we allow the events to unfold itself. That is why it’s difficult for story writers to craft good videogame stories that stick with us. The ever present challenge is finding the balance. Allow the player to dictate the story so that we feel as if the world is alive and that we can mold and shape it and feel part of it and not realize we are simply moving along a set path that an invisible puppeteer is subtly leading us, yet at the same time not throwing us out there into a vast, soulless world completely devoid of any structure so much to the point that plot is nearly nonexistent, giving the player little reason to care.

"Oh God, why couldn't I just work at Team Ninja? They don't bother with this story business.

More than ever, technology has allowed for more interaction and larger, more complex tales. After all, it’s hard to find any game that has little reliance on story, even simple platformers such as Super Mario. Yet a lot of these stories don’t resonate as well with people as some of the games that many fans consider classics. A good example is the often debated JRPG genre. Many contend that the reason JRPGs aren’t fun anymore is because they have become stagnant; that they lack fresh ideas. However, fans continue to flock to The Legend of Zelda every time despite knowing how the story will unfold. Technology has allowed for larger stories, with voice acting to convey emotion on the screen yet the Final Fantasy debate rages on to this day about which one is better; many debate the old 16 bit games are the best ever and swear by them despite new technology allowing for more advanced forms of story. The answer for this contrast is that all great game writers know how to best evoke emotion or a response out of a player within the context of game design irregardless of the technology available.

Want to know why many fans staunchly stand by the Final Fantasies of old? It’s the simple fact that they knew how to best evoke an emotion from the player. For all it’s simplicity, FF4 garners more respect among most gamers than say, FF13 because of this fact. Cecil didn’t simply become a Paladin via a cutscene, that task was delineated unto the player. The player had to discover for themselves the way to become a Paladin through brilliant game design. As a result, the emotion that Cecil elicits mirrors that of the player and we are able to connect with him more as a result. Its why many fans still jerk a tear at seeing Celes hurl herself off of a cliff despite being a pixilated sprite and not a detailed 3D model. Because the player worked to keep Cid alive. We had to actually fetch the fish ourselves. What served as a seemingly pointless minigame was actually used as an effective tool for storytelling that simply adding a cutscene wouldn’t have achieved. The Legend of Zelda continues to resonate with gamers despite recurring themes in every game; despite the fact that Link is a mute and none of the characters are able to deliver voice over’s to help convey the emotion. The game evokes the proper emotion of making you, the player feel like a legendary hero. The reason why people flock to games like Ocarina of Time and call it the greatest Zelda ever is in its realization that the best and most endearing videogame moments are the ones you do yourself. Link simply doesn’t just open the treasure chest, a sense of wonder and amazement is created as the music beautifully mimics the actions on screen and the glow of the chest and the gaze upon Link’s face as he slowly opens it up to reveal the contents inside before finally holding the item on high makes us feel as though we discovered something truly special. It’s why we feel more like a legendary hero when we get to the final area and save Hyrule. We led the princess to safety out of the castle. We defeated Ganon. Not the cutscene. Zelda games won’t win any awards for originality, but when it comes to evoking emotion within the player, they’re often masterpieces and its why Shigeru Miyamoto is such a well respected game designer. He understands and has always understood this fundamental concept of game design.

This is why Hideo Kojima is a well respected game designer and the Metal Gear franchise has the most die hard, loyal fans out of any stealth action game. Hideo Kojima is a master at evoking emotion within the player. We as players connect with Snake more than most videogame characters despite not even knowing his full real name or background. We experience key moments as Snake because we actually get to play those key character defining moments and the characters’ reactions to them. Liquid reminds Snake of the amount of men he’s killed at the end of his mission in MGS1 and it’s true. He’s also in turn reminding the player of the amount of men that’s been murdered and both Snake and the player each have an epiphany and realize they hadn’t really thought of it that way until now. It’s why the player is called upon to shoot The Boss instead of simply letting a cutscene handle it. It’s why the player is forced to mash the hell out of the buttons when Snake is crawling through the microwave tunnel at the end of part 4. These are all reasons we as players connect and understand Snake as a character far more than some bio or flashback cutscene telling us of his background could achieve.

Why can't more people get it like these guys do?

While technology has advanced videogames forward and allowed us more interactivity than ever before, sadly, the ways to effectively craft a meaningful, memorable tale using these new options has not. Many FPS games capture the intensity of being on a battlefield, but little else. They capture sounds and explosions and environments, but not the important stuff. They fail to capture any sense of loss. Often times your storyline buddies can’t die until the game dictates it. There’s never a moment of downtime in between the battles to take any of it in, to learn about the people you battle with, or to dread the next onslaught. Some games such as Heavy Rain have managed to merge technology with effective storytelling. Heavy Rain achieves suspense far more effectively than jump out scare games like Resident Evil ever could. The designers force the player to cut their finger off themselves rather than let a scene play out. There are real consequences to the player’s actions and when they die, it wasn’t the fact that they may have pressed the wrong button at the wrong time that bothers them, its more the fact that they made an error in judgment, the ultimate error resulting in death that has consequences that the player is forced to reflect upon. The story simply doesn’t end and allow the player to forget the erroneous decision. No. The player got that character killed and the story is now altered because of it. The player is forced to reflect and not pretend it didn’t happen and simply “reload.”

Videogames are the toughest style of storytelling there is. Not many have the ability to do it effectively, so my hats off to those game designers out there who have taken the time to truly make attempts to mesh technology with storytelling and make videogames a respectable means of storytelling comparable to books or film. I truly believe they can in their own way inspire us, make us cry, make us feel joy and enlighten us in ways that books or film simply cannot achieve.

Why Nintendo wins not just E3, but the industry itself.

To tell the truth, I hate this console generation. I really do. Never in my life have I felt so apathetic toward videogames. I’m not sure if that was due to just my own personal issues in life. And yes, while real life issues may have been somewhat the cause of it, I couldn’t help but feel as if there was perhaps something wrong with the industry itself. I saw no clear winner in the “console wars” in fact I couldn’t care less about dumb console wars, never have. It was all just laughable pointless bickering amongst fan boys each pimping their own merits of the console they bought failing to see any of its weaknesses or just flat refusing to accept them all together. They all sucked to me. They each had their problems and I just hated the direction the entire industry was going.

Until E3 this year.

E3 this year gave me a sense that maybe videogames aren’t moving in such a bad direction after all. Sadly, the only ones I saw an indication of good things to come from this year was Nintendo. But at least someone gets it. To tell truth, Nintendo has always gotten it for the most part. The only difference is that now, they’ve finally got some results to go along with their vision. Initially, back in 2006 I was contemplating on which console I should get first and my initial knee jerk reaction was to support the Wii. After a few months my interest waned. While Nintendo had the right mindset, sadly the industry wasn’t on board or catching up to them quite yet. My biggest problem with the Wii was that the only ones who cared about making products for it were Nintendo themselves. Everyone else saw its technology as nothing but a gimmick and dump their shovel ware titles and flood the system with it, not bothering to take care or interest in the design of the game itself. Nintendo sees the technology as more than a gimmick but rather a useful tool with which to design a good game around. The technology supports the game, not the game supporting the technology and that is the difference to me. However at this years E3 I finally got the sense from other developers in the industry that they too finally understand this concept. In short, the Wii has become more appealing to me because it finally looks to have some quality variety.

All of the greatest consoles in the short history of the industry have all had variety in games. That is the number 1 reason a console is successful. Nintendo showed me that they understand this concept. Emphasis was not placed on gimmickry, but rather on showcasing a variety of games that people want to play. The Super Nintendo, Playstation 1, the original NES, all of these had the most variety of good games for everyone’s tastes. That’s when I realized what I had been irritated with concerning this console generation. The sheer lack of variety games lacked anymore. Contrast the original Playstation with the Playstation 3. When comparing library of good, varied titles it puts the PS3 to shame. Sure the PS3 does hit the mark occasionally (Heavy Rain/Little Big Planet), but more often than not they’re simple rehashes or knock offs of other titles that don’t bother to utilize the power of the PS3 and are instead HD versions of games I already played on PS2. For example, I played about 3 stages of God of War III, realized it was just a goof in clashing red and white paint killing every damn thing on the screen, screaming about Zeus again (except this time its in HD!) and got bored with it.

I eventually settled on a PS3 in early 2008 after holding out for a long time after seeing no real reason to launch to the next generation. I was perfectly fine with my old PS2 and Game Cube. But eventually the fan boyish lure of Metal Gear Solid 4 finally enticed me to make the plunge because I felt it was the first game and still 2 years later one of the only games on that system to utilize the PS3 to its fullest. I chose the PS3 over the other two because I honestly felt it to have the most potential out of the three to deliver a truly next generation experience, and in some cases it does. However more often than not that is simply not the case. Most games don’t utilize the full resolution they’re capable of, Six Axis use is all but ignored, or at worst given applications that don’t have even a modicum of sense or purpose (Ninja Gaiden Sigma’s jiggling boobs comes to mind). PSN is a joke, lame avatars, no cross game chat, constant getting signed out of the network while you’re playing a game, freezing…of course a PS Plus membership might fix all that but screw you you’ve given me little reason to warrant a purchase in the first place.

I hate this console generation because more than ever game companies flat don’t get it. You want to know why Wii is outselling the market consistently? It’s not motion controls you damn fools. It’s the fact that Nintendo puts emphasis on games and product quality. Basically they view games as more important than the other two companies, because that’s all they do. It’s what they specialize in. Its not just another piece of the corporate pie. Now I’m not naïve enough to think that Nintendo isn’t just like any other business and doesn’t care about things like sales figures and marketing, but the difference with them is that that’s not just all they care about. Sony and Microsoft just flat don’t have a freakin’ clue and are painfully attempting to mimic the success of Nintendo rather than focus on their systems own merits. PS3 sadly sees Blu Ray capabilities as not a way to deliver a truly revolutionary game play experience, but rather as a way to sell some movies.

Microsoft was an even unbelievably bigger joke offering absolutely nothing of merit. You know when you open up a press conference showcasing two multiplatform games you know haven’t got anything to deliver but shit on a plate. Once again they’ve shown that Xbox 360 is almost all about guns and guns and blowing things up and in the case of Gears of War manages to fail on that front more than anything the PS3 has to offer with Killzone or Resistance. How fitting they end with the biggest joke of all the Kinect, a piece of hardware costing up to 150 dollars that allows you, yes you to bounce around like an idiot as long as you stand 6 feet away from the TV standing up. You know if you want to stand up and move around I have a better idea that doesn’t cost 150 smackers. It’s called go outside. Walk your dog, shoot some hoops, jog; you know, the old school way to exercise. You fools don’t have a damn clue, you never did and the only thing you’ve ever done is ride the coattails of Sony’s successes and mimic them. You suck and have been more harm than good the industry. Not that Sony is a whole lot better mind you. While on the handheld front, Nintendo delivers the promise of fresh revolutionary technology supported by a plethora of games each with variety, Sony delivers the promise of even more lame ad campaigns telling me about how games are “the bizness” instead of actually focusing on those games. I don’t care if my console does EVERYTHING when it excels at NOTHING. I just want a damn game to play and a variety of them.

But there is perhaps hope on the horizon. For the first time I’m seeing a clear “winner” of these companies. Finally the industry is on board with Nintendo’s vision. Nintendo has always had the right mindset, but needed industry backing to get there. I truly believe still that the PS3 has the capability to shine and deliver, but that’s all it is, potential. Potential never got anything anywhere. Being the most powerful dog in the yard doesn’t make it the best. No one still talks about 3DO despite it being amazing for it’s time after all. I’m holding out hope that Nintendo can make me enjoy the direction video games are headed. They’ve managed to accomplish one thing, they’ve at least made me feel hopeful for the future and that’s more than the other two have managed to accomplish in ten years.

Sony and Microsoft need to get on the ball.

I just finally watched all of the press conferences and to summarize, basically neither Microsoft or Sony get why Nintendo is getting all of the praise and are making fat profits. It's not stupid motion control gimmicks particularly its the fact that they promote games that people want to play. Games with variety, a little something for everyone. They had optimism, a sense of looking forward to the future.

Sony and Microsoft had guns, guns, and uh....GUNS. Oh and Marcus. Ugh.

Basically I felt that Nintendo is going places and it made me want to own a Wii and definitely a 3DS. For Sony and Microsoft it was just rehashing the same games they've already released or talking about new versions of them with another number tacked on. If it wasn't that it was promoting knock off software that Nintendo had already introduced 4 years ago.

In short, buisness as usual and that's why you two fail.