I hate this game. I hate this game so much. I just want to make it absolutely, positively clear: I hate LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias.

Read my review of LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias

I've never heard of the Cartoon Network series The Secret Saturdays, but it appears whoever created the show has strange, esoteric interests. How else to explain why the series is built around cryptozoology, which is the study of creatures like the Yeti and the Loch Ness monster who may or may not exist, or why the video game based on that series, The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun, centers on the belief of the Aztecs that this world has gone through four suns and is on its fifth and last one.

Read my review of The Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun

Sales of the Wii console have taken a hit this year, doing somewhat over half the business of last year. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata blames the lack of big titles.  Meanwhile, an interesting essay on Basement.org suggests the Wii's day is over because the casual gamers Nintendo went after lack the interest in anything beyond simple casual games and are happy with the games they have or have just stopped playing the Wii altogether, while hardcore gamers prefer the PS3 and Xbox 360.

What will Nintendo do?  Well, they'll put out games that appeal to the Nintendo base, like the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and they may come out with an HD version of the Wii sometime soon, or a new Wii 2 altogether a little further down the road.  And even though it seems to be a losing strategy at this point, they will probably continue trying to woo those casual gamers with lame pseudo games.

What should Nintendo do?  I've long held that  focusing on the casual gamer at the expense of the hardcore gamer was ultimately a losing proposition.  Casual gamers bought the Wii because it was a novelty, and tend to buy games only if they are also novelties, which is why Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort have done so well.  But these people aren't serious gamers and they're just not going to buy a lot of games. This is why the Wii started off as such a phenomenon and has now fallen so dramatically.  Nintendo had a brilliant short-term marketing strategy but didn't think far enough ahead.  Had they focused more on core gaming (Nintendo only has one title on my top core games list), they could have built their market; instead, their boom has been followed by a bust.

I still believe the Wii's appeal can be broadened, although New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn't the answer; it will sell well, but it's strictly for Nintendo fans who bought a Wii long ago.  HD isn't the answer either, because games on an HD Wii are still not going to look as good as on an Xbox 360 or PS3.  A new Wii with much more powerful graphics will help some, but as Nintendo should have learned with the GameCube, it's not all about graphics.

It's mainly about games, and the Wii's game library is weak and riddled with shovelware.  Nintendo needs to focus on broadening it's own offerings and somehow encouraging third party publishers to broaden theirs.  Unfortunately, this cannot be done quickly, and the Wii is going to lose a lot of ground now that it's lost its initial momentum.  The question is whether they can find their footing again or whether Microsoft's Project Natal will sink the Wii altogether.  Nintendo needs a major course correction now, and the question becomes whether such a big behemoth can turn quickly enough to stay even with the competition.

If you've got a Target nearby and you'd like to pick up a few Wii games, there's a sale this week: Buy two $50 Wii games and get a third game (of that price or lower) for free.  The sale is good through November 7.

So, you've installed the homebrew channel on your Wii. Now what? Here are five applications to help you get the most out of your homebrewed Wii.

Read: Homebrew: Five Essential Homebrew Applications.

Some games can be played on everything from the PS3 to the DS, but other games come out only on one platform. Wii exclusives are especially notable, because without having to worry about making a game that works on multiple platforms, game designers can think entirely in terms of motion control, creating games that could not be replicated on other systems. This is a list of the games that should make PS3 and Xbox 360 owners jealous.

Read: The 8 Best Wii Exclusives of All Time.

Game Informer has a fascinating interview with Warren Spector in which he explains a little about his upcoming Wii game, Disney Epic Mickey.

It's a long interview, but the gist is, Spector thinks Mickey Mouse was a lot more interesting in the 1920s than he is now, and he is planning to bring back an edgier, cooler Mickey for the game.  In fact, when Disney proposed he do a Mickey Mouse game, Spector said, "You've done an incredibly good job of making Mickey lame and irrelevant to anybody over the age of eight over the last thirty years. I don't do games for kids."  And the Disney folks said, go ahead and make a better Mickey.

The game is set in "The Wasteland," a place for all the rejected Disney ideas, waiting for the day the world is ready for them.  A main character is Oswald the rabbit, a creation of Walt Disney's that predates Mickey Mouse.  Oswald hates Mickey, feeling he should have had Mickey's life.

Spector says the game will be very funny, but he plans to offer some scary moments:  "I really want to scare kids."

Gameplay involves drawing and erasing.  Spector talks about making a world that is more than just action in front of a backdrop, and talks about seeing what's beneath the surface, so I'll assume you'll be able to erase parts of the game world to find other things underneath.  Presumably you'll also be able to create additions to that world.

You'll also be able to create things from blueprints that will alter stuff somehow.

Spector talks about giving players choices.  This is a theme of Spector games such as Deus Ex, which allowed players to approach obstacles and challenges in radically different ways.  Spector has called it "abdicating authorship," the idea being that the game is a collaboration between player and designer in which each individual will have a unique experience.  Spector won't work on any game that doesn't offer choices, saying:

"I really believe in the value of emergent situations, things that are not planned. When you get simple systems that interact with a simulation that is just deep enough to support unexpected behaviors, when you start getting things happening that the developers didn't know could happen, that's when you start to win. That's the big win, because then players discover solutions to problems that we didn't even know existed."

Surprisingly, Spector didn't choose the Wii as the platform for this game because he was drawn to the console, but rather because he felt the people who own the Wii will be far more willing to play a Mickey Mouse game than those hardcore Xbox 360 and PS3 players.  He just wants the Mario crowd.

All the same, I'm sure he'll find something really cool to do with the Wii's controls.

Full Warren Spector Interview.

It's a dangerous world out there, so grab your gun and your sword before entering that foreboding house or that dank cavern or that alien compound; you're going to have to fight if you want to stay alive. And if fighting for your life is your idea of fun, here are the funnest Wii games for you.

Read my list of the 7 best action games for the Wii.

The excellent rail shooter Dead Space: Extraction is not selling especially well, according to Edge Online, but as the article points out, Electronic Arts hasn't marketed it with the same gusto as their core games for other platforms.  There is a frustrating catch-22 to core games and the Wii; publishers have doubts about whether there is a market for more mature Wii games, so they don't push them as hard, and they don't sell as well, convincing publishers they were right to begin with.

It is sometimes suggested that core gamers who own a Wii also own a PS3 or Xbox 360, and look to those platforms for their hardcore fix, but I don't buy it.  The Wii offers a way of playing games the other consoles don't; it's all a matter of creating a game that gives players something they can't get from a PS3.  Even though Extraction is an excellent game,  it's still an old-fashioned rail shooter, which is arguably a niche genre unlikely to generate huge sales, no matter how good it is.  I've heard the FPS Call of Duty: World at War sold well for the Wii, suggesting that core gamers will buy a core game they like, they just won't buy one simply because it's a "core game."

As long as we're on the subject, check out my list of the 9 Best Wii Core Games.  Then buy a few of them.

When I started playing the rail shooter Dead Space: Extraction, I was instantly riveted by the game's jittery camera work, intriguing story and exhilarating action. Yet, two days after completing the game I barely remember it. Why is that?

Read the rest of my review of Dead Space: Extraction.