Color commentary

Nintendo's game catalogue has been dismissed as "kids" stuff by any number of people over the last decade or so, but that is, in a word, rubbish. They're games that can be enjoyed by kids, because they don't use violence or gratuitous swearing as a substitute for natural charisma. But as we know, the likes of Mario Sunshine or F-Zero GX are as frustrating as going on a camping trip with a bunch of hungry ducks, and thus clearly not primarily designed for sticky-fingered simpletons. Yet they're decried as such by insecure developers who view anything that's a brighter hue than a house sparrow as a threat to their masculinity. It's their loss.

The Wii's biggest achievement may yet prove to be forcing gaming to grow up. Certainly, it's fun to watch the likes of Epic (a firm critic of the Wii from its conception) panic-stomp around the room as if their tailfeathers were on fire because people are choosing Cooking Mama over Gears of War. And Mario Galaxy has therefore got to be the quintessential one-digit salute to their line of thinking. Storyline? Context? Who needs them? You're flying from one planet to another; why wouldn't the next one be made of turquoise avocados? With Nintendo, the future's bright, the future's orange. And red. And yellow and pink and green.