This week is the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) confrence in L.A., where all the video games companies traditionally show off all their future releases and make announcements, although recently the event has become much less of a big deal. Nintendo have been facing some criticism from the specialist games media for a conference that leaned heavily towards the casual or mainstream games (including Wii Music and a Wii Sports sequel). Some have felt they neglected their hardcore fans. Criticising them for releasing mainstream games is daft- they have proved have very successful and opened up the gaming market to a much wider audience. And the likes of Wii Sports appeal to practically everyone (if you think "not me sir!" then you've probably never tried it!). There have been a few tidbits of info for the hardcore though- and these should be enough to temper any sense of disappointment. New games for Wii are in development in the Mario and Zelda series, as well as a long awaited third installment in the Pikmin series that started on Gamecube. There may have been nothing to show at the show but Nintendo often don't show games until their near completion- unlike certain competitors who have been know to mock-up footage for such events. The most unexpected announcement though? Grand Theft Auto is coming to the DS. Hands up who saw that one coming?

Mario Kart Wii was released this Friday, so naturally I had to get my copy. If you have a Wii, and you haven't got it, then you need to correct this as soon as possible (if you don't have a Wii, then you have a couple of extra steps- you need to get a Wii, then get Mario Galaxy, then get Mario Kart, then thank me). It comes with the Wii Wheel (missed opportunity #42- shoulda been called the Wiil) which is great fun to use -although alternative control methods are available. Best of all though is the fantastic online features. I made my first steps into online gaming, and found myself racing against 11 strangers spread from across the world. And it was awesome. So those Wii owners out there might just find themselves racing against me one of those days (and probably beating me), so I'll see you on the track!

It's just coming up to a year since the Nintendo Wii came out. And what a year the plucky little console has had. Just over a year ago it would be a brave person indeed who predicted that the console would not only hold it's own against it's more technologically advanced (well, in terms of graphics) rivals but actually outsell them. However fast forward a year and the dinky white box is still selling out everywhere having broken every record going and shows no signs of slowing down. Neither Sony or Microsoft were really worried by the release of the console, and were noticeably complementary in some statements before it's release, perhaps indicating they didn't really see it as a credible threat. Many games developers missed the boat too. Now of course seeing the huge success it's having everybody wants a piece of pie (mmmm, pie!) and MS and Sony are aggressively going after the casual market (In MS's case with Scene It a 360 version of a DVD board game. Wow. Board Games! Ninty must by quaking!) It's not all rosy in Wii land though. The stock issue is a real problem as some people who can't get one might turn to the dark side and pick up a High Def Console that's readily available instead. There's also a lot of lazy mini-games collections, bad PS2 ports and movie and TV licenses as developers rush to cash in. It's only now that the really big guns are starting to come out, with the likes of Metroid Prime and The Officially recognised Best Game Ever Super Mario Galaxy. However this is only one year in- we can only imagine the many delights that the big N have save up for us Wii gamers in the future!

Sod Halo 3. Stuff GTA IV. Gears of War? Gears of Bore, more like. For the true Connoisseur there was only one game worth waiting for this year, and it's finally here. I'm talking of course about Super Mario Galaxy, the long awaited Wii incarnation of the world's best loved platform franchise. I was going to wait until Christmas but in the end I couldn't. It's therefore somewhat gutting that I can't really play it properly thanks to my recent eye-operation temporarily rendering the world in Blur-O-vision. Even through a slight haze I couldn't quite manage to not give it a good go so I am already able to let you know that it lives up to expectations (and the average 97% score awarded to it by metacritic- a website that works out the average review score for games across many review sites and magazines). The Graphics are gorgeous (why can only Nintendo make Wii games look like this?) the design is amazingly imaginative and the gameplay is spot on. In comparison to the overwhelmingly brown and grey games that make up the vast majority of the Xbox and PS3 line-ups it's a breath of fresh-air. Now I just have to wait until I can really appreciate it. Bummer....