I am a long time Nintendo fan. I own all the major console systems dating back to the NES. When the Playstation 2 and Xbox came out, I stubbornly shunned them and bought a GameCube instead. I let everyone else have their fancy systems - I stuck with Mario.

Nintendo games have always had what others don't - originality and simplicity. While everyone else was playing the 83rd incarnation of Madden or Need for Speed 17: The Road to Hell (Street Edition), I was playing Super Mario Sunshine. Sunshine was simple. You ran around jumping from rooftop to rooftop with your water jetpack, collecting coins and stars. And I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the most entertaining and engaging games I've ever played.

My friends and I admittedly jumped ship a couple years ago and bought Xboxes just so that we could play together online when we couldn't get together in person. And for the most part Xbox Live has been great. But as more and more games become online-enabled, the novelty is wearing off. And I'm starting to miss the days of playing Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart.

Now that the next generation of consoles is upon us, I'm starting to gaze longingly at Nintendo once again. My brief absence from the world of Nintendo has left a hole in my gaming heart that must be filled, and I think the Nintendo Revolution is just the system to do it.

With a dearth of compelling and innovative games these days, some pundits are drawing comparisons to the gaming crash of the early 80's. And while I don't think that will happen, I do sense an overall stagnation that is going to cause a lot of gaming companies to go under or at least rethink future projects. Companies can't continue to spend millions of dollars on YAFPWG (Yet Another First Person War Game). And do gamers really need another baseball or football game? Developers these days just don't seem to get it. Games don't have to be complicated and real. They don't have to involve gritty street thugs or army death squads to be fun. Games don't even have to involve humans. Games just have to be fun and, most importantly, be accessible.

We're seeing a boom in the casual gaming industry these days, and it's mostly due to accessibility. Accessibility of the games themselves but also of the game-play. Players don't have to memorize 14-button combos, or use a controller with 3 separate joysticks and more buttons than they have fingers. They don't have to read a 36 page manual to learn how to play a game. And that's why I have high hopes for the Nintendo Revolution.

Nintendo gets it. All of their games are accessible and fun. And now that they have a world-wide wi-fi network to build upon, there will be no reason not own a Revolution. A lot of hard core gamers scoffed when Nintendo announced the details on the Revolution controller, but I think they're all missing the point. The industry desperately needs innovation, and the Revolution controller has it in spades.

When you step back and try and explain why gamers will need to upgrade to an Xbox 360 or a P3, there really isn't a compelling answer. Sure, games will look prettier and more realistic on the new systems, but that just isn't enough anymore. Current games already look real. So while a typical game company spends more and more time and money making blades of grass in the background sway in the breeze, and make the shadows of street lamps realistically drape across parked cars, they fail to realize that they're the 5th company this month to come out with a first-person crime syndicate game.

So I am putting my faith back in Nintendo in the hopes that they will lead us into a new age of gaming. An age that will see a return to gaming - not just another bunch of derivative games. Will I miss playing Halo 3? Probably. But I'm sure I'll be much happier navigating Mario through his next adventure.