Column: Gaming - is Mario doomed?

One my pet peeves - not that I haven't done it myself - is when those in the media give "advice" to major companies, as if CEOs running hugely complex multi-billion-dollar global businesses care about what any of us think.

And these days, one of the most common recipients of this advice is Japanese video game revolutionary Nintendo (OTCMKTS:NTDOY), which, before its recent stumbles, was the darling of the industry, courtesy of its revolutionary Wii console and DS handheld.

If you have a short memory, you may have forgotten that the Wii had perhaps the most innovative user interface in any technology product released in the past decade, easily on par with Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone, which brought touchscreens to the masses.