"Innovation?" Whatever.

"Innovation" is a word that's been thrown around a lot latelyin the video games biz. Innovation is supposed to be something new or creative. I'm not seeing it. I'll go through a few things that have been called innovative lately.

Shadowrun. Not innovative. This game built up a good deal of hype because of how "new" and "different" it was. If this game intrigues you and you haven't played it yet, I can save you sixty dollars. This game has two game types. One is a single life neutral flag. The other is the same thing, except there's nowhere to take the flag. You cannot change any game options. You will play first to six rounds. You will play neutral flag. Some things you could maybe bring up are the different races you can play and the weapon and magic purchases at the beginning of the round. What this boils down to is a class system like dozens of other games have and the weapon and item purchasing from Perfect Dark Zero. In fact, this game plays so much like PDZ that it seems to me like the game uses the same game engine. Movement and shooting is all the same. I played in the beta for Shadowrun.It had two maps and all of the races were available. If you get the retail version of this game, you get better lighting, one new magic spell and five or six more maps than the beta. And no campaign mode. Also don't expect this thing to be anything like the RPG it's supposedly based on. Nothing new there either.

Nintendo Wii. Not even close to innovative. Two words: Power Glove. I didn't like the idea for this 20 years ago. Why is it any better now? I prefer my video games to require some kind of precision. If you can flail your arms wildly about, you can play anything in Wii sports. This is just a gimmick. The Wiimote is so clunky for games that aren't designed specifically for the system that they sell a real controller that plugs into it for their Arca... I mean Virtual console games. This means less third party support because most game companies don't want to spend the extra money to put in motion controls for one out of two systems. Most companies making games for this system just tack on some awkward kind of motion controls. They don't care. With the awful drought of quality games for the Wii, you'll buy anything with Wii stamped on the box. If you buy a Wii, all you have to look forward to is a Mario game, a couple new sports games with Mario in them and the new Smash Brothers with, that's right, Mario. If you like Mario, you're set. You could've gotten the new Zelda game for the Gamecube.

That's right. I spoke poorly of the Wii. I don't care how many units they've shipped. It's still a glorified Gamecube. They could have made a unit that plugs into the bottom of the Gamecube with a sensor bar and wifi and exactly matched the functionality and graphics of the Wii for fifty dollars. You know why they didn't do that? Because they killed the Gamecube, just like they're killing the Wii. Just wait. They'll make a real console in a couple of years.

Lastly I'd just like to say that to be innovative, don't you have to be doing something that's never been done before?