2006 THE YEAR OF "NEW FUN" FOR NINTENDO

Remember that bit at the end of Carrie where John Travolta tips a bucket of pig's blood over the Prom Queen mere seconds before she goes on her telekinetic rampage of split-screen descruction? Well, we're beginning to feel a bit like that this afternoon - only swap "John Travolta" for "Nintendo" and "pig's blood" for "lots of Nintendo-related news". Apart from that, the rest stays the same - our dress looks fabulous.
Anyway, in YET ANOTHER Nintendo news item today, Miyamoto (Shigeru, Mr) has been speaking further on his company's action plan for the coming year. To kick start the new year, Famitsu interviewed the games guru about all manner of topics, including Yoot Saito's upcoming Feudal pinball... thing, Odama.

As far as Miyamoto sees it though, 2006 is the year when Nintendo will "create new fun". Summarising the company's philosophy, the Mario creator explains (as translated by Next-Gen.biz) "A game that keeps a smile on the player's face is a wonderful thing." This year the company's mantra is to "'Spread the fun of games to everyone.' To do this, we must return to the beginning, to recapture the essence that made people who enjoy games even now enjoy them in the first place."
Sounds to us like Nintendo is happy cementing the strategy which has so far proven so successful with its DS handheld, across games as wide-ranging and appealing as Nintendogs, Brain Training and Animal Crossing: Wild World. So, "company announces plans to continue impressively successful strategy" then - good news for Nintendo fans and maybe non news for others. Still, Miyamoto's comments were so sweet we thought they deserved a story of their own. Which is probably the lunchtime pie talking.