Among all the Call of Duties, Halos and Assassin's Creeds, one of the biggest announcements at this year's E3 conference in LA this week was the unveiling of Nintendo's latest cutesy motion-controlled gamesfest, the Wii U.
Interactivity seems to be the key for Nintendo, with their retooled Wii U GamePad (the original prototype was debuted at E3 last year) featuring a touchscreen, plus built in monitor and webcam so you can praise fellow gamers for their princess rescuing abilities.
Then there's something our Japanese fans of Italian plumbers are dubbing 'asymmetric game play', allowing two players to work together on the same game despite perhaps seeing different aspects of it from their controller monitor.
Nintendo also used E3 to showcase their new online world, the Miiverse. Looking like a rather more elaborate version of the original Wii Plaza, the Miiverse will allow gamers to speak to fellow Miis - such as asking them for advice on a certain level - all without ever leaving the game.
Despite all this apparent jolly Nintendo loveliness, analysts are predicting a tough time for the Wii U, with the market having significantly changed since the heady initial Wii days in 2006, thanks largely to those Angry Birds and a vast and growing library of iPad games.
Whatever the result, so long as there's a decent new version of Mario Kart on the horizon, we'll be happy.
No news on when the Wii U will be available in the Middle East, but expect them to be online soon for vast sums of cash.
