It’s the moment I feared: Nintendo Wii, like the GameCube before it - and the Nintendo 64 before that! - has reached a point where selling consoles to their demographic has hit a consistent peak without releasing any noteworthy games, outside of first-party titles.

First off, let me admit to being a Nintendo ‘fanboy,’ whatever that means. I align with the style and ingenuity of their titles, and think their idea of what gaming should be about - a surreal experience that’s fun without being too complicated - is sincere. With that said, all titles that fall outside of their quality imprint fall short. Far too many weak, cash-in ports plague the system, and their stable of AAA franchise revivals lacks inspiration at times. What the Big N needs is a SNES-like revival of equal parts quality and quantity - but can that happen within their niche market?

I remember a time where ‘anticipation’ was for the birds, as they say. Cartridges bearing the Nintendo logo were being released at a remarkable rate. You could take a trip to your local Blockbuster and snag new, worthwhile titles twice, three times a week. And once third-party developers got the jist of Nintendo’s hardware, even the ports were of higher quality than their competition.

Companies were not only using the SNES’s hardware to their advantage, but utilizing their creativity, not cheap thrills, to ensure quality: this is why numerous games from the console (Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Super Metroid, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past) stack up to today’s titles with ease, and in most cases eclipsing them in terms of gameplay and replay value.

Seeing that Nintendo has forged their own path in the console wars - Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 lock horns in tech aspects while Wii covers every niche they can scratch - you would think the newfound independence would trigger some divine inspiration in other companies to create exciting games. Nintendo has proven their prowess over motion-sensored gameplay; third-parties need to follow suit instead of implementing Wiimote swatting into their ports and nothing else.

Even obvious concepts have been left by the wayside: where’s the Mario Paint-esque title for the Wii/DS? Can Square-Enix release a Wii RPG that doesn’t come off like an afterthought? Where are the motion-sensored driving games? Even Warioware Twisted! featured a minigame that was able to accomplish the feat. It’s almost too easy for these companies to reach Wii’s potential.

Creative developers, Wii needs you now more than ever. The system will sell without you, but we (Wii?) fanboys gamers will appreciate the effort.