Nintendo makes it official, now let's really talk about Project Cafe.

We can now officially confirm that at least two things are true about Nintendo's new console. In a recent investor meeting, Satoru Iwata revealed that Nintendo will be releasing the successor to the Wii sometime after April 2012. We can also confirm that Project Cafe/Stream or whatever you want to call it, will be revealed and playable in June at this years E3. Combine this with the fact that more 3DS games coming down the pipeline, it's starting to look like Nintendo is going to have a pretty decent showing at E3. Sorry Zelda Skyward Sword, looks like you may get bumped as the main event after last years botched stage demo.

Other than that those few bits of information, we've got nothing but rumors and talk from "reliable" sources. So I don't feel like running down the list of things that could be true or not. But I do feel like there are some things that this new system is going to need to accomplish in order to be successful and I want to hear what you guys think about it.

I feel like Nintendo is in somewhat awkward position at this juncture and may have had to push out a new system earlier than they really wanted to. Between the large drop in sales (don't worry Nintendo is still filthy rich) for the Wii and the ever waning support/sales of big third party developers. It's become clear to me that Nintendo saw that it was losing too much support and interest in the Wii brand overall. Plus lets face it, most Wii owners other than the hardcore adopters just don't buy as many games as PS3/360 owners; unless it involves gyrating your pelvis or turning New Super Mario Bros. into a drinking game.

After the jump is a list of issues I think Nintendo needs to address in order help get this console streaming onto your faces... I mean living rooms around the world.

My top 5 NES game intros

This is my first attempt at creating a top 5 list of any sort. Normally I wouldn't bother creating one in the first place since everyone else on the internet is riding the top five things your mom likes to do on a Saturday night bandwagon. You know what? I don't care, I'm going to do it anyways.

Watching game intros was my number one priority as a kid gamer. I would never in a million years press start on that NES controller and bypass the experience. More often than not, NES games lacked any intros at all, but when they did it was often a religious experience for me. Come with me my friends and let's relive some childhood memories as I imitate the Wayne's World time warp with my hands. Here are my top 5 NES game intros.

1. Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2 is probably my favorite NES game of all time and arguably has the best NES soundtrack ever composed. I think this intro just might have been cemented into every gamers mind the first time they saw it. The cleverly timed music lead in with the camera panning up a sky scraper just melded perfectly into something that felt exciting and made you want to kick butt as a kid. Still to this day, I watch this intro every time I boot up the game.

There's 4 more to go. So click the link below, I know you want to.

Sequelitis

I love you! But not that much.

Is the gaming industry relying too heavily on sequels?

I love sequels, I really do. I think overall video games fare well when it comes to the business of creating sequels to beloved franchises, which is much more than what I can say for your average movie sequel (Mortal Kombat II, you’ve failed me). Once a good game concept is implemented those foundations can be easily replicated and improved upon and refined to perfection, creating a massive fan base who cling to every nuance of their favorite characters and demand to see more. Which is understandable, why wouldn’t you want more of the games you love?

But over the years, I’ve been noticing a trend in the industry. Publishers are giving us more of what we want and they are doing it at a pretty fast pace. Sequels are now coming more frequently and what I would argue, less innovation. Some publishers, such as Activision have even gotten to the point of releasing a new version of their games on a yearly cycle. Choosing to develop one franchise with multiple studios in order to hit their yearly sales numbers. This isn’t a new phenomenon by any means and even today we still see sequels to some of gaming's biggest franchises of the last 20 years still being reworked and played by millions of fans worldwide. But I feel like over the last eight years or so the world has been filled with more Marios, Zeldas, Master Chiefs, and games with the number 4 in their titles then I feel comfortable with. Often these games are great in their own right, but often they feel a lot like there predecessors. It may be nostalgia creeping into my mind, but I remember sequels to games really feeling like a whole new upgrade to me when I was a younger gamer. Nowadays I feel like I’m just getting slightly modified upgrades to my favorite games. Pretty graphics and a few new mechanics mixed in.