For many years I have been a true follower of the Nintendo philosophy, forking out large amounts of money for the cause. I've had it all since the GameBoy, and have blindly rejected the alternatives Sega, Sony and Microsoft have offered me, mostly because I was constantly reassured that Nintendo did their job better than anyone else possible could.

But now I find myself somewhat confused. For the sake of the market condition, I am noticing how Nintendo is losing the firm grasp it has always had with it's number one selling factor: quality franchises. Something that Sony and Microsoft want badly and Sega is incapable of doing justice to, is being handed over to a handful of companies that, while not intentionally, suck all the magic away.

Nintendo has had close relations with many many developers that have made Nintendo exclusives and franchise spin offs, with varying levels of quality. While many will consider the Donkey Kong Country series to be highly overrated, it's safe to say the series had an exceptional quality control backing it, and Rare gave Donkey Kong the success it needed to get back on track. But unfortunately, it seems there are also many occasions where companies screw the franchise to a level that is just unfair.

Take the Starfox series as a clear example. Two games were made by Nintendo, one by Rare and the latest one by Namco. Obviously, the Nintendo ones started the series and are therefore considered to be the defining games. Starfox Adventures, developed by Rare, took the idea of a bunch of animals who were sent to save the Lylat system, and dumped them in a game which had nothing to do with them. As you may well know, Starfox Adventures is nothing more than Rare's Dinosaur Planet, which was initially planned for the Nintendo64, with Starfox characters thrown in. Rare's additions can be summed up into "Give the lead character an Arwing, make the player think the rest of the team is watching him from the Great Fox, set it in the Lylat System and make Andross the bad guy. Throw in a couple of Arwing missions here and there and we'll call it a day". Despite being called Starfox Adventures, it has nothing to do with the original games, and doesn't add anything worthwhile to the package. While it's not a bad game in itself, it would be fair to consider it closer to Zelda than Starfox.

Then Starfox Assault comes out. Made by Namco, this game promises to go back to the basics and to offer that classic arcade feel we lost in Starfox Adventures. But instead of that, Namco comes up with an on-foot game play mechanism, with "a couple of Arwing missions here and there". Neither of the two main game play modes capture the Starfox feel, nor do they seem to be good enough to make the series spin on itself, like in Adventures, and seem worth the money. All in all, the game seems clumsy, shallow, and unworthy of the Nintendo name. Or my money.

I would talk about Pokémon Dash, but I think it's so appalling that it's just not worth talking about.

On the positive side, though, Capcom have been making outstanding Zelda games for the GBC and GBA for years, and all of them are worthy of the Nintendo name, while also carrying a hint of Capcom magic. The Minish Cap, for example, is a fascinating game which captures the essence of the Zelda series and adds a few bells and whistles along the way. It makes you forget you're playing a Capcom game, since it's so faithful to the franchise. It seems as though Nintendo chose the perfect companion for developing games for a console Nintendo won't spend too much time on.

I am aware that, in this day and age, Nintendo has to strengthen its relations with the top game developers, and sometimes that involves asking them to use their franchises in a totally new game. But this carries a risk which could be minimized, by choosing the right company for the right job. Namco made an appalling game with Starfox Assault, but made an instant hit with Donkey Konga. Namco is definitely worthy of Nintendo's franchises, but they've put their foot in it with one game, which could have been massive if pulled off right.

Now, Nintendo has to do some serious research into each of their preferred developers, and assign each one the ideal franchise, if they decide to do carry on sharing their franchises with other companies. Otherwise, the classics will be washed down and will lose their magic. And Nintendo fans are very sensitive about that.

"DEVELOPER SYSTEM"

Nintendo has used this term to define both the DS and the Revolution. I don't think it's a lax statement. We're all speculating on the 'Big Secret' for the Revolution to be this awesome new control interface, Wi-Fi, or something along those lines. But the term Developer System hints that both these consoles are developer-friendly, and I don't think Nintendo would be focusing this friendliness to the games developers, since they're pretty experienced and are more concerned about hardware potential than an easy learning curve for programming software.

I'm suggesting the whole Developer System, along with the Revolution's 'Big Secret' may have nothing to do with a cooler controller, but of an entire philosophy of making games development more accessible. Net Yaroze, anyone?

Think of it this way. The videogames market is competing with the music and movie industry as a form of entertainment, and even though success may vary, ANYONE can make a decent song or movie, without a lot of experience or money to burn. But what's keeping people from making videogames is the extremely steep learning curve, apart from the high production costs. What if Nintendo designed a videogame development kit for the Average Joe?

There are many fan-made RPG designing studios out there, like RPG-Maker, that have taken the PC RPG scene by storm. It's dead easy to use and allows people like you and me, with little or no C/C++ knowledge, to develop a pretty good 2D RPG, given we have the time and patience to get involved in such a project. This idea could be applied to many other genres.

With the much-touted online capabilities of the DS and Revolution, it would be possible to create large communities of gamers devoted to producing some homebrew content. I would expect this system to run on a PC with Wi-Fi connectivity, and having the game sent to either of the systems wirelessly. There could be an online repository of fan-made games so others could download and share thoughts.

I am pretty sure there are millions of gamers out there who have a very solid idea for a game but just can't produce it because of the high costs. Even those with a high understanding of C++ have difficulties to endure such a project since it requires so many aids, either human or digital. Having tried a simple task such as level editing for the Genesis versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and failing to complete one single stage, I know how frustrating it is to want to do something you KNOW you could do, but not being able to because of the difficulty.

If Nintendo released a system for homebrew game design, which was cheap, comprehensive and easy to maintain and update, I'm sure they would receive many prays from the gamers out there that have a dream they cannot currently materialize.

For my first journal entry, I'll talk about a subject that was once very interesting for gamers and a key reason to buy a games mag: cheat codes.

In the pre 32-bit era, cheat codes were something to look out for. There were button combinations and impossible to pronounce passwords. Some would give you infinite lives, others would let you access a very useful level select screen. What happened to those cheat codes?

It's very hard to find cheat codes in today's cheat sections, at GameSpot or at other sites. The reason? There just aren't any. Developers don't 'make' them any more. With the advent of better game-saving technology making level-jump passwords useless, the whole concept has lost momentum. There are no secret levels, no debug menus, no infinite lives. All the fun is lost.

Today's 'cheat' codes are mere hints. Mario Kart Double Dash code 'Unlock Mirror Mode: Beat all 150cc cups' is a fine example. This is not a cheat code; it's stating the obvious. If you beat the modes that come with the game, there are chances you'll end up unlocking a new mode or character. And you tend to discover this before you even think of heading to the cheats section. It's mostly people who have completed a game through-and-through or are terribly stuck in a particular area of the game that search for cheats. But those cheats hardly ever help them because none of them do what they're supposed to do: make you cheat.

Fortunately, Action Replay still exists, and those of us who want more out of our games and are lucky to own one of these devices, can enjoy our games for longer. But although these systems are cool in their own way, it would be nice to see some more hidden button combinations for today's games.