Nintendo Wii Prepares Stunning Launch

That would be me. The concept is so contrived that it's almost hard to believe that isn't the product of a poor joke.

It's as if THQ figured a downhill racer would be a no-brainer for the console, and decided to slap on the Tony Hawk name to guarentee it some sales, regardless of its quality. Because that's exactly what it looks like.

The TH "brand" seems so poorly implemented in the title. Instead of your usual band of pro skaters, you've got Hawk and a collection of "zany", clichéd characters. The locations are painfully OTT with the courses looking incredibly sparse, given that you're on a skateboard and not something less trick focused (like a snowboard or skiis, for instance).

And as if that wasn't enough, the art style sucks.

im rite bang in the middle of moving house,no internet at the minute,its doing my head in as i cant check spong daily.HELP

Are all these potentially great games becoming launch titles a bad thing?

I think it may be - the 360 might be a good example of this. Lots of games up front, then lots of waiting. Many of the early games aren't picked up, because most people want "new" games.

Perhaps having Nintendo Stagger a few (2 or 3) of its first party titles for say 3 months, and encourage a few of the less stellar 3rd party titles to do the same (again, just for at most 3 months) would help ensure a steady supply of games.

Like you all, it seems like there are a lot of games that could be excellent. however, even with all those great games, I might only buy 1 or 2 within the first month or two at launch. By the time I'm ready to buy another game, Super Mario might be ready. I know I'll buy that one. Then perhaps another new release comes out, and I forget to pick up one of the launch games.

In short, with that many games, some of the 3rd party developers may get burned, and less enthusiastic about the Wii.