“I think that this illustrates an obvious point: Nintendo first party titles dominate on the Wii.”

BIG DEAL! It's just a return to normal. The Wii returns to where the GameCube and N64 were also. It doesn't take an MBA to figure that out. Nintendo was always been about Nintendo games.

The reasons being simple... someone who likes Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc... knows he won't ever be disappointed with the new ones. Some GameCube games were a bit weaker (mario kart and sunshine), but other than that buying a Nintendo game is a no brainer and a guaranty of quality.

I know there are exceptions, but overall it's not a new that third party publishers are having an hard time finding success on a Nintendo console and some of them tried really hard on the Wii. Hopefully, they will keep fighting for it and they might find it.

Heck, I'm not even a Nintendo fan and I can admit that!

I agree. The only valid reason for me to do such thing would be for backward compatibility with the PS2 and I'm not even talking about playing pirated copies of PS2 at all, simply the original ones I own. Basically, I would be willing to hack my system to play legit games just because Sony doesn't want me to. I know they want to keep selling PS2 consoles, but it's a bad argument considering that I OWN a PS3, why the heck would they want me to also buy a PS2? People who actually buy the PS2 are doing it because it's cheap and there's a huge library that comes with it. We are talking about 2 different types of customers. Also, when it comes to the PS2 big library, if they would allow backward compatibility, even more people would buy the PS3... which sounds even more profitable, no?!?

It seems like you haven't read the part were I said "the Wii and DS are the first real innovations since the original NES and Gameboy". You don't have to convince me about what these 2 consoles brought to the industry. And don't worry, I'm not too young. I bought the Atari when it came out. I think you are a bit quick at judging me saying I should go on Kotaku. I'm not saying Nintendo is bad. I'm saying that Pachter's statement about Nintendo's innovation cycle is innacurate. I agree with you on everything that Nintendo created. I would believe the Wii and DS are the first ones to be as strong as the NES was. And yes, the Virtual Boy was ahead of it's time, but the 3D (nowaday's new trend) was also available on the NES and Master System. Look... I didn't wanted to start a debate on Nintendo. I have a lot of respect for them. I'm sorry if I made it sound that way. I wasn't my intention.

Ok, let's put the N64 controller aside for a second. I kinda agree with you to certain level.
However... this doesn't make this “It’s unlike Nintendo to go this long without a gameplay innovation..." more true. And that was the point I was trying to make.

There are no patterns to be found here. Nintendo doesn't have an "innovation cycle".
Before the DS and Wii, they were doing the same as the others.
I don't believe that 2 consoles is enough to see a pattern in what's next to expect.
Don't get me wrong, they might release a new console with something totally different.
That I don't know, but it's wrong to say that it's not in their habits to remain 5 years without innovations.
Come on... take the GameBoy for example.
It started with a green screen.Then they added 4 colors.
Then they changed its shape, calling it the Advance version... which the screen had a serious lack of backlight.
Then the fixed the backlight with the SP (which was a great console by the way)
And finally, the micro version, which was just a really small GBA.
Where are the innovations? They just adapted it to the current available technologies.
Home console wise.
There was the 8bits, then the 16bits, then the 64bits (which had one of the worst controller ever made), then the Gamecube.
Then again, just following the available technologies without any specific innovations.
Yes they came up with the analog stick, but it was so poorly placed and a horrible controller, that it's hard to see that as an innovation.
Again, the DS and Wii were pretty much the first time they took the lead and came up with a real innovation since the original Nintendo and Game boy.
By "real" I mean stuff that has nothing to do with the Virtual Boy or R.O.B.
A HD version of the Wii is likely to happen. Not because everybody else is doing it, but because more and more people have HD TVs now and the current Wii is not at its best on a HD TV.