I’m not surprised Mortal Kombat topped the charts. What I’m surprised is that it did so despite the damage to the brand with all the countless lame Mortal Kombat games that have been out.

One consistent theme on this site is that Old School, especially arcade values for home consoles, are an antidote to gaming’s decline. Mortal Kombat was designed entirely around ‘Old School’ with ‘arcade values’ everywhere. Listen to Ed Boon describe his direction with the game. This is the direction fans want Mortal Kombat to go. The ‘New School’ direction Mortal Kombat was going in was doing absolutely nothing.

Nintendo has now successfully transformed the Wii into a Gamecube. Nintendo was handed a golden Wonka ticket this generation. And look how they’ve destroyed it. Damnest thing I’ve ever seen. Really shows the incompetence going on at the strategy makers for Nintendo for the past few years.

3DS, above all, demonstrates this. These are very bad sales. “It just needs hit software, Malstrom.” You mean like Nintendogs or Street Fighter IV? It’s already there. “But Face Raiders!” (laughs). You have to really love how Nintendo is continuing to make more AR games even though no one wants them.

Years from now, as Nintendo systems are lying dead at the market bottom, people will ask, “Where did the Wii audience go?”

Answer: “Who is Sean Malstrom?”

The reader frowns and asks, “I do not get it.”

It is the only way to answer that question. Years from now, people will wonder, “Where did that Wii audience go?”

And you will respond, “Why ask such useless questions? How deep is the ocean? How high is the sky? Who is Sean Malstrom?”