Like many, I was utterly bewildered by Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference. The missing "core" game announcement was disappointing, but not quite as unsettling as the unshakable notion that I was ultimately wrong about Nintendo's intentions towards gamers who've stuck with it since the beginning.

And as I walked out, I had the concentrated sense that as a longtime Nintendo fan, I was being forgotten, or at best, misunderstood.

With an hour to burn at its E3 conference, Nintendo offered up Wii Sports Resort, Wii Music, Animal Crossing: City Folk and just a few others, plus a swift mention of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on DS to get those pesky 18-24 year-old males out of the way. See? We've got something for everyone.

What's troubling isn't that the title for hardcore gamers never materialized--it's that Nintendo thought it had.

More about bad Nintendo. There are a handful of titles that are the epitome of the slide that Nintendo seems oblivious to having taken. Take Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Square took one of their most arduously detailed, completely adult games--nevermind the fact that you can ride chickens into battle, you're fighting a corrupt, doctrine-bound church that has torn a depressed, war-sickened nation in two, from the perspective of a bastard dauphin. That's some cool stuff right there. What did they give us?

A game where you're an elementary-school student who finds a magic book and gets suckered into a mystical wonderland that he hates, even though his gimpy little brother is like, normal, and also, they're both freaking god-kings! The sequel, at the very least, minimized this, so instead, you're a loner kid who finds the book and likes where he ends up.

I've already seen The Never-Ending Story, I just want to play Ramza slaughtering more angels.

And have you played The World Ends With You? It's like, got enough emo to stop the clotting. You can play the game and cut all day, so you can pain and only die on the inside. I like the game, it's fun to play, but I keep subconsciously slashing my wrists with the stylus.