Around E3, I wrote a bit about how I felt kind of sorry for Nintendo. No matter what the company achieves, traditional gamers always seem to be disappointed with any announcement it makes. I dubbed Nintendo as bearing "The Curse of the Gifted Child," if you recall -- overachievers never make their parents happy.
Anyway, at Satoru Iwata's GDC keynote yesterday, (if you follow me on Twitter you caught my N'Gai-inspired liveTweet) his primary objective seemed to be to challenge the most common criticisms of the company: That Nintendo's success only benefits Nintendo; that no one can be successful on its platforms except Nintendo, and that Nintendo has forgotten about its hardcore audience.
Check out the link and see if you think Iwata made a compelling argument to any of those points. What I'm most interested in is that he made a couple major announcements that fans have been waiting for for a long time -- essentially, the things I think people were hoping to hear out of E3. For one, he finally announced an available-immediately storage solution for Wii Ware. Too long in coming, perhaps, but it's finally here.
Second, the longing for Nintendo to announce a new Zelda any time anyone from the company steps foot behind a podium has become so commonplace that it's practically a meme. If I worked at Nintendo, I'd probably want to bean the next person who said "announce a new Zelda" across the face.
Anyway. Iwata actually announced a new Zelda, as I'm sure you've heard by now. They fixed the storage solution! They announced a flippin' Zelda! They're adding hardcore arcade to the Virtual Console! All well, right?
Nope. Everyone I spoke to at those evening festivities was still ho-hum underwhelmed.
I'm not sayin' anyone needs to take to the streets and start flipping cars over with glee, but it does prompt the question: Really, what do you guys want? What were you hoping for? I find it more than a bit annoying that many people I know continually demand "more" from Nintendo without defining exactly what that "more" is.
"A Wii Zelda," someone told me last night.
Seriously? Yeah, because the last one was so groundbreaking. Come on, you guys. Help me out here. What does Nintendo need to do to impress you? What announcements would it need to make for you to consider it significant or pleasing?
Here's a challenge for the especially creative-minded among SVGL readers: In the comments, post your own description of the ideal Nintendo keynote, serious or satirical. You can even write it as a "script," if you want, whether from Iwata, Reggie (oh! I bumped into Reggie this morning while chatting to analyst extraordinaire Michael Pachter), Cammie, or anyone else. If you guys pull it out, I'll post the best ones in a "Best of SVGL" next week.
46 comments:
The way I see it Nintendo has painted themselves into a corner. The Wii lacks in horsepower which is something lots of gamers crave. The lack of HD was a crucial mistake as when gamers updated their home theater to HD for Bluray players, PS3s and 360s. Granted innovating their control scheme is great, it doesn't matter if the visuals aren't nearly as good as the current generation. Not updating the visuals keeps the Wii in "toy" territory while the 360 and PS3 are considered serious gaming machines.
Announcing yet another first party exclusive isn't enough. To really get people back on the brand as fanatically as they flock to 360 and PS3 they'd need 1) a hardware revision. HD, even if it's just a scaling of the current meh graphics. or 2) a big third part exclusive. Sqeeniq developing a specially designed Final Fantasy for the Wii. Right now it just seems like they're preying on gamer nostalgia for the Nintendo that was. Mario, Link, and Samus.
To be honest... Nintendo doesn't have to impress me. They shouldn't have to impress anyone, and we all know they'll never be able to anyway. People love to complain, and even if Nintendo had announced every last thing on a typical fanboy's checklist, those fanboys would still desire more.
I've been gaming for 20 years now, and although I don't call myself a "hardcore" gamer (as I don't like the term), gaming is certainly a huge part of my life. But Nintendo doesn't have to revolve around me. In fact, I'm actually incredibly happy they've broadened the industry so much these past few years. But now that they're trying to appeal to gamers like myself again, all anyone can do is say "it's not enough."
I have no idea why people are complaining about this. I rarely play my Wii, as I don't find a lot of the games interesting (which doesn't make them bad, it just means that I don't personally find them enjoyable). But they announced a new Zelda, and a solution to the storage problems, and you'd think people would be satisfied with that, but as you said... apparently not.
I keep reading comments like "no, we wanted a hard drive!" But isn't a 30GB+ SD card enough? That's a lot more room than my current 360 hard drive holds, and I have less content to store on the Wii. And then you've got the people who are angry because we get a new DS Zelda. I figured people would be happy about this. I know I am. I always loved Wind Waker, never understanding why so many people never gave it a chance, so playing Phantom Hourglass and now getting yet another game in the same beautiful art style has me incredibly excited.
Maybe the hatred stems from Nintendo being so successful and that we aren't the only contributor to that success. Who knows. The whole "we hate Nintendo" thing is getting kind of tiring though.
Yes, but can you blame anyone for capitalizing on Squeenix nostalgia when ever Final Fantasy release is met by all but the most devoted Squee fans with "the old ones are the only good ones?"
Just sayin'!
For myself, the hints over the past few years that the next "major" Zelda game (on the Wii presumably) will try to change the formula up significantly have made me much more interested in that. There was also very little shown of Spirit Tracks that makes me have any strong feelings one way or the other about it. I kind of got the sense that Phantom Hourglass didn't really make much of a splash with people. They played it, most enjoyed it, but otherwise had nothing to say seeing as it was apparently more of the same.
As for the storage announcement for the Wii, while it's sorely needed and a great addition, I think that people still have this impression that there just aren't any non-Nintendo games worth playing on the Wii. I read on message boards all the time that "there's nothing to play on the Wii." Even though I think that's completely untrue, it seems that that's the MOST important thing to people, and until they're shaken of this notion, nothing else will really matter to them.
I'd like to see some love for the quirky titles: Mother 3 for DS! Earthbound for Virtual Console! Captain Rainbow and Nanashi no Game brought to North America!
...of course this wouldn't excite most people :P
The big question is why hasn't the Wii become the DS? The DS faced much of the same criticism the Wii had. Why was it underpowered? Why have a touch screen? But the DS became fully accepted.
Personally, I'm completely happy with what came out of Nintendo at GDC. The storage solution IS way late, but it's perfectly workable and I downloaded 2 more WiiWare / VC titles last night to celebrate that I finally have space for them. Phantom Hourglass was a fantastic DS title, and I'm sure Spirit Tracks will be just as solid.
Frankly, I think there are still a lot of gamers with really unrealistic expectations about what Nintendo wants to accomplish in gaming; if you haven't caught on yet that the Wii isn't about glitzy HD... sorry, but you really missed the boat. There's plenty of content on both of Nintendo's current systems (Wii and DS) good enough to warrant owning them in addition to your fancy-shmantzy 360/PS3/PSP, and many of us do. Microsoft does its thing, so does Sony, and so does Nintendo.
Nintendo's thing very clearly doesn't have to be most popular amongst the "hardcore" crowd (whatever that is) to be the most successful. It stuns me a little that so many "enthusiasts" are still unable to come to grips with that, or respect the success it has generated for a company many people were counting out at the beginning of this gen.
I read about the Keynote on 1up and...
I loved it.
I'll try to come up with an "ideal Nintendo" later but right now... I'm fine.
I know that I'm probably in the minority here, but the reason I wanted the expanded storage was for bigger games to hit the WiiWare/VC: Saturn titles, 90s-era Capcom arcade stuff like the Darkstalkers games, etc.
The expanded storage was the pitch. Covering more mid-90s retro gaming would knock it out of the park for me.
While I haven't been among those who lambaste Nintendo at every opportunity these past couple of years, I too didn't find the announcements at GDC to be all that exciting. I didn't like Phantom Hourglass at all really, and the new one doesn't seem to deviate from PH significantly enough for me to care about it. And this comes from someone who thinks Wind Waker is the best Zelda.
The storage solution is good news. I understand that, and I'm glad they finally got around to offering one, even if it is two years late. It doesn't affect me personally 'cause I don't have enough VC games for it to be a problem, but I understand good news when I hear it.
The arcade announcement has potential. I don't care for the games that are out right now, but if they can get something like the X-Men arcade game, I'd be ecstatic.
What would I like to hear from Iwata at the podium? A Zelda game that breaks the mold, rather than offers a gimmick. Or a new franchise that doesn't begin with 'Wii' that takes advantage of Wii Motion Plus. Hell, a new franchise that appeals to the core gamer in general would be nice. Or maybe that Kid Icarus Wii we've been clamoring for since we first saw the reimagined Pit years ago.
It's like, they offer a few treats to the core gamer on occasion, hoping to appease us. But when the best they've offered for the past year has been an Animal Crossing game that's hardly different from its predecessors, that's a problem. And when all we have to look forward to this year are re-releases of gamecube games with waggle controls, that's a problem.
I still have fun with my Wii. I love Brawl. I love Galaxy. I love Twilight Princess. But the pond has been running dry for a while now, and these announcements are nothing more than a light shower when we need a rainstorm.
"Seriously? Yeah, because the last one was so groundbreaking. "
That is EXACTLY the reason I want a new console Zelda. The last one bored the hell out of me, and I would really love to get my Zelda fix without some gimmick like playing as a wolf. Just give me epic Link action, and I am set.
I honestly wasn't expecting anything from their keynote though. I've come to terms with the fact that Nintendo's mission statement doesn't match up with what I want to play, so I wholly assumed any announcements they made would be for games that I wouldn't care to play.
I've been a Nintendo handheld fanboy since I was 12, and even before that I had a Game Boy Colour to play Pokemon Gold and Silver on. Times have changed, but the high quality of Nintendo's handhelds haven't. Was I the only one who liked Zelda: Phantom Hourglass? Apart from my snarky remark that "Ozzy Osbourne called, he wants his Crazy Train back" in reference to Zelda: Spirit Tracks, I couldn't say I'm not excited about that new Zelda. I don't have a Wii but I do have a DS Lite so it works out fine for me.
My PS3 I won in a Sydney Morning Herald competition is barely played compared to my DS because for one thing, my parents hog my HD TV, and another thing, most shoot-em-up games on PS3 make me all shaky and panicky because I react badly to games which have too much loud noise and too much going on.
Things Nintendo didn't even have to say to impress me:
New Advance Wars games for DS.
Y.M.C.A. in your Elite Beat Agents.
Wireless Mario Kart DS, in which you can be schooled by eight people each with a DS you've never met before in the schoolyard, or vice versa.
J-RPGs on DS that rock. The World Ends With You and the upcoming Rhapsody are an example of this. Chrono Trigger being released on DS after years of Squeenix neglecting us Australians is a plus too.
Single cartridge download play, for friends too cheap to buy the damn game themselves, it's a reality people.
Rune Factory. That game is awesome.
GTA: Chinatown Wars on DS instead of just PSP.
Exclusive DS titles that are worth caring about. Like Henry Hatsworth.
They haven't shown any new applications for the Wii since Wii Fit. Iwata's keynote was one of the best pieces of rhetoric I've heard at a gaming event. It was an excellent presentation, but compare his rhetoric about new opportunities and inspiration and then look at the software they showed. There is a gap there. Zelda is a non-issue. There's going to be a new Zelda. It's not in doubt. What remains unanswered is what people are supposed to do with the Wii after Wii Sports and Wii Fit. Who is actually building on those revolutionary design paradigms?
You characterize this as an issue of fanboy-ism. That may be the case in some circles, but the long-term story is not about resurrecting old IP's it's about keeping the platform relevant in a way that builds on what they've started (brilliantly started). If they're taking a backseat so that third parties can share the spotlight, fine. But where were all the remarkable third party games? They showed plenty of content, but almost all of it (DSiWare and R&R Climber aside) was recursive. That is an issue and a legitimate criticism and the pleasantry of getting a Zelda expansion pack doesn't do anything to answer those questions.
Advance Wars Facebook.
Simply announce interesting titles for the Wii. Stuff like Oboro Murasama? Some RTS/TBS maybe - the Wii has a pointing device after all. And so on. I mean, I don't dislike the Wii - it's just there's nothing to play on it.
Now their annoucement? New DS Zelda. Whoop-dee-do. I can't be the only one getting tired of Zelda; it's really a bit too formulaic at this point. I'm not too excited at the idea of playing A Link to the Past 5.0, sorry.
And I don't think lack of HD is an issue at all. Sure the Wii cannot render games at 720p, but neither can the 360 or PS3. They merely GPU-scale their outputs to 720p or 1080p. If people think it's so important, and the built-in upscaling of their HDTV sucks (as most do), they can just buy an upconverter box. Problem solved.
I've been thinking "How much is it Nintendo's problem and how much is it a problem from the Third parties or the Gamers?"
Nintendo, as a business, is doing great. As videogame developers: they have Brawl, Kart, Galaxy and at the same time they are expanding what videogames ARE (Fit, Music, the DS, etc...) So I may say they are doing great too. And don't forget what Cammie said: there IS a new Mario and Zelda being cooked (they will take a lot of time, I know).
Maybe they are not doing everything but... they CAN'T do everything.
Now, the gamers:
We complain there's not enough time to play all the games that are out and at the same time we complain there's not enough games...
[insert many question marks here]
Some years ago, we had a lot less games and we played them a lot... and maybe that's why we got so familiar with them.
The third parties... I think they could help make all those games that the "hardcore" want to see. As I said, Nintendo has its hands full. Why don't they lend a hand?
The Wii has some potential to do what we all wanted to see on the 8bit era... we all wanted Mario to jump higher if we moved the control upwards each time he jumped... Now that is possible. And at the same time it's possible to do so much more, and that's something for what I'm impressed with Nintendo, how they are pushing the boundaries of what a videogame is (almos single-handed) so more people can have fun with them. And as Leigh said some time ago: that could make more "hardcore" gamers and it may actually become a virtuous circle.
As a Hardocre gamer I do feel kind of forsaken... but I know there is a good reason. Maybe I won't have a game that really appeals to me right now... But I think there WILL be a game that will do that in the future thanks to Nintendo efforts right now.
First, I'd like to point out two typical objections that I don't share - I don't think the Wii's relatively low-power hardware is a problem and I don't begrudge Nintendo their success with the casual market.
Given that, I'm still disappointed. Why? Because frankly there's just not much that's been made for Wii that interests me. Brawl gets played with friends, Fire Emblem gets occasional play - but gamecube games get played more than either.
Nintendo's problem, as far as I see it, is that they have a very narrow focus for their prestigious in-house teams. They make Mario games, they make Zelda games, and with the advent of the Wii they now make "Wii XYZ" games. And that's it. I think it's telling that so many of Nintendo's huge successes on gamecube, GBA and DS have come from second or third-party developers working on a Nintendo IP, under Nintendo's iron-clad quality control supervision, but with their own creative licence and their own idea of what makes a game fun.
F-Zero GX from Amusement Vision, the Metroid Prime games from Retro, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem and Paper Mario from Intelligent Systems - all of these games have seen enormous success and critical acclaim, and yet they still play second fiddle to increasingly repetitive Mario and Zelda iterations.
What sort of announcements would Nintendo need to make in order to impress me? F-Zero for the Wii would be a nice start, especially if Amusement Vision were brought back to make it. A new Metroid game for the DS (and a platformer, not an eye-searing touchfest like Hunters) would definitely do the trick. But those are just examples - what I want to see from Nintendo is a reassessment of their production process for "hardcore" games. There are two changes that I would like to see result from this.
1) Reintroduce difficulty into their games.
I'm not a masochist, but I like to be challenged by games. The difficulty curve of first-party Nintendo titles (most especially Zelda and Mario games) has plummeted over the last decade to the point where there is more genuine challenge in many of their new "casual" games than in Twilight Princess. I realise that excessive difficulty can be a big turn-off to the non-dedicated market, but to be frank I don't think many mums and dads will be buying Zelda or Metroid titles anyway.
2) Try to offer some more mature titles
I use "mature" here not in the sense used by classification boards (IE, "inappropriate for people who are not mature") - I mean it literally. Give us some games that make us think from time to time. This is more a criticism of the industry in general than of Nintendo in particular, but they are exceptionally well-placed (tremendous financial success, untouchable sales lead over their hardware competitors) to start pushing boundaries. Once again, they've been pipped at the post by second and third-party developers on Nintendo consoles (Another Code and Hotel Dusk from Cing, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin from Intelligent Systems, and in many ways the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles games from Square Enix). I'm not asking for The Dispossessed in interactive button-pressing form, I'd just like my games to consist of more than pretty colours and flashing lights.
...whoops. I've been quite verbose here, but I hope that I've conveyed my points adequately.
Anyone who says there is nothing to play on the Wii that isn't a kiddie mini-game needs to go out and buy MadWorld, like right now.
The only way you're going to get what you want is to vote with your dollars.
Why is EA releasing a Wii Fit knock-off? Because Wii Fit sold a boatload of copies at $90 a pop.
Why is there a glut of FPS games on the XBox? Because Halo sold a boatload of copies.
Why is there a glut of JRPGs on the Sony systems? Because they sell a boatload of copies on the system.
In any event, if you can't find games to play on the Wii, you're not looking. And if you're not looking, you're not buying. And if you're not buying, then there really won't be anything on the Wii except for a bunch of shitty mini-games and shovelware.
I dunno, the casual appeal of the Wii has taken over any serious attempt to do something interesting with motion control. I still feel like all anyone does is scratch the surface, because that's all that you need to do to make money.
Honestly, I'm not any less disappointed with Nintendo than I am with Sony or Microsoft... I really just can't hardly find anything engaging this generation. The only area of real promise is indie, which can't seem to pull itself out of the casual game ghetto, except for the occasional "art" title which just goes ignored.
At this point, I just want more games like Braid, and I don't care who they come from. As far as I'm concerned the days of the "Big 3" are over... I no longer care about the identity of each console or their respective manufacturers, especially as they all become more like each other with each firmware update.
I don't get it, either. Just look at the vast majority of the comments in this post.
First off, I think people don't quite understand that GDC isn't a trade show, like E3 or TGS; it's an event that's for game developers, and when it's viewed in that light, Nintendo's announcements were relatively high on the "megaton" scale. On that note, I (like Stephen Totilo) was rather surprised that there were no updates on the status of Wii MotionPlus -- especially since EA is launching Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 this summer, and both games will ship with MotionPlus support.
I don't really know what else Nintendo can do to satiate the voracious appetite of the core gamer. It's good to see that more and more third-party developers (like EA Sports, who I mentioned above) are building games from the ground up for the console, and there needs to be more of that. The Wii is a runaway success, and with such a massive install base, there's obviously lots of money to be made if games are designed to take advantage of the console's unique capabilities. Just play to the Wii's strengths instead of trying to build realistic-looking games, because you're going to inevitably fail (especially in comparison to PS3/360).
As one of your twitter followers, I really loved what I was hearing from your live tweets for this panel. I've been mourning the loss of the GBA slot with the DSi, but showing new uses for the camera and such are getting me interested. I love that as successful as the DS has been, they're still trying to push its capabilities.
I agree with previous commenters regarding third-party games. As Iwata said, good software drives good hardware, and while Nintendo's doing a great job coming up with games for the Wii, I'd love for the console to have the same level of diversity in its third-party library. I don't know how much influence Nintendo has on third-party developers, but I'm wondering why no one's really taking advantage of the Wii the same way that people have for the DS.
So yes—I'm really happy with the GDC announcements. However, different titles with varying difficulties and maturity levels would make me happier, though I understand I might have to look to a different kind of event for that, rather than expecting it from the GDC panel.
"We are leaving the hardcore gamers in favor of greener pastures." That would satisfy me. I feel that after their failure to appeal to the hardcore with the Cube, they decided to open up the casual market, which wound up printing them money, and that's absolutely fine, I hope it continues to work for them, but they should not keep teasing us with this masquerade that the system can be hardcore, and they are doing their part. If they want to do nothing but release mini-game collections and broken Mario Karts, I think that's great, so long as they don't continue to try and tell me they are doing it for me.
My ideal keynote... was the one we just got. I am beside myself with glee. Do you have any idea how much money I'm about to throw at the VC and WiiWare?
The problem when it comes to 3rd parties is partly cultural, I think. Watching the Ken Levine/Todd Howard panel at Comic Con, made me realize that so many western (ie. American) developers are too obsessed with being the "best" in tech that they'd rarely ever 'degrade' themselves by developing for the technically inferior console. Both Ken and Todd expressed this pretty clearly, as respectful as they were, the platform is clearly a joke to them. And I think it's developer attitudes like that which are the core problem.
Both of Nintendo's current platforms are like this; technically inferior but they offer new experiences which have gone largely underutilized by 3rd parties.
We wouldn't have this problem if developers didn't feel such shame in developing for technically inferior machines. This has always been a similiar affair with the portable consoles too, sadly.
Personally I'm not fussed what Nintendo show, I'd rather have the 3rd parties stand up and do some talking. Still it'd be nice if Nintendo would throw some NTSC-only games onto the PAL Virtual Console, I'd appreicate that.
I've gone through my own little arc with Nintendo. I was the complete fanboy package for a while, then I briefly careened to the opposite side of the spectrum completely, and now I've centered to just not really caring either way about them.
So Nintendo doesn't have to impress me. I get the vague idea that there are things they could say that would impress me, but it's hard to pull those out of my head. What's easy to pull out of my head is what would impress the disgruntled Nintendo fans at large:
Iwata would have to reveal a time machine that could give those disgruntled fans the same emotions from games as they had during their earlier years. Because I think all this talk of wanting an "epic new Zelda," or a "challenging new Mario" all boils down to wanting to recapture that flame that was lost not server-side, but client-side, if you know what I mean.
-Online multiplayer updates for virtual console games.
-A firmware update that lets the Wii play DVDs.
-A holiday 09 lineup that includes three or four non-remake first party games for both the Wii and DS.
-Updates that provide in-game Wii Speak support for Mario Kart Wii and Mario Strikers Charged.
-A Wiiware multiplayer Metroid death match mode with Wii Speak support.
-Netflix streaming.
-Wii achievements applied to all future games, and functionality that allows you to see when your friends are online, what their achievements are and what they're playing.
-A promise that Nintendo will never, ever create something as stupid and pointless as Home.
That said, I'm THRILLED with the advent of the DSi as well as the SD storage expansion. Best Nintendo press conference announcement set in years.
One thing - they need to fix their social networking. I can't play Wii games online easily with anyone I actually know, which is ridiculous in this day and age.
It's called the Wii, it should live up to it.
http://is.gd/pgc2
A Wii HDD/SD fix was promised at last year's GDC. In typical Nintendo fashion, we got it a year later.
http://is.gd/pgcJ
http://is.gd/pgez
We've known about a new Zelda for some time. Pachter, among others, has been quoted at Gamasutra as expecting a new Zelda in 2009. I expect we'll also see a new Wii Zelda this year with some sort DS/Wii connectivity between the two titles.
http://is.gd/pgjF
Anyone who doesn't have his fanboy head up his ass will know that third party software sells on Wii.
And finally, more Squeenix love for Nintendo? Wow, who would've thunk. Revisionist history of the past two years ftw.
Nintendo is hiding their cards, as always. They know the hardcore pay attention to GDC: it's been a PR playground for some time now. But Nintendo expects us - the hardcore - to be pacified with Zelda and VC: Arcade?!?? Fuck them.
The only Nintendo Keynote that will ever satisfy the truly rabid fanboys:
SUPER MARIO SMASH BROTHERS LEGEND INFINITY
A fighting platformer set in Hyrule that generates levels on the fly, so it has an infinite number of levels.
And the game would be hand-delivered by beautiful Asian girls dressed up as Princess Peach who will then stay with the fanboy and alernately make sweet, sweet love to him and bring him sandwiches. Or for the ladies, they have their choice of Mario, Wario (for those who like "bad boys") or Reggie Fils-Aime himself.
Outside of that, I doubt the slavering hordes of mutant fanboys will never be satisfied!
:)
Errol
It's amazing how unimpressed people are with everything. Many things get taken for granted regardless of complexity, novelty, enjoyability, or utility. I mean, think about the internet-- it is a vast interconnected network of computers that spans across the globe that connects people from across the world allowing them to share their thoughts, their music, their information, their art, their businesses, their love. The aggregate result is the world's largest self-organized computer that has yet to crash. This whole thing developed in only a few years time and now the entire world relies on it... and yet, the most amazing thing about the internet is just how unamazed we are by it.
In short, I don't know what is wrong with people. We should be impressed by each breath we take, but we never are because we always imagine the next one could be better.
Well, being as GDC is a trade show, big announcements would have been out of place. But since you asked about announcements in general rather than about GDC, I'd like to see Nintendo resume employ their great talents making games that don't feel like they assume the player to be an imbecile.
I was excited about the new Zelda, of course, and although a big part of that is because I've been predicting a Zelda with a train for years now (honest!), it provides an opportunity to describe what a lot of core gamers aren't liking about Nintendo's design philosophy. Many people wanted a Zelda game that doesn't slowly pan the camera across all the puzzle elements in the precise order that the player will need to manipulate them, and without a chatty sidekick that pulls you out of the action every few minutes to wonder aloud with slow-scrolling text about the mystery that the person holding the controller is well on his way to solving. If the central franchise that's supposed to prominently feature problem-solving just gives you the answer every time, then that's a sign that the people who design the game no longer consider important the customers who relish the feeling of solving a difficult puzzle on their own.
Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Music (or so I'm told) - those are great titles. They're designed well and they're slick and fun. But they don't scratch the itches that draw in traditional gamers: learning and mastering a complex system, or developing an attachment to a character or setting, or testing their skill against an escalating series of unique challenges. But that's fine. A company can make many different kinds of game. However, when elements of those games begin to take over the others, that generates some worry among fans.
As a publisher and hardware developer, Nintendo is doing a lot of things right (though, as has been amply noted, the online platform appears to have been designed with the primary goal of preventing alarmist headlines rather than providing a convenient user experience), and the Virtual Console announcements are more good decision to add to the list. But there is a growing, if exaggerated, sense that Nintendo the software developer is homogenizing its product line: slick, polished, and fun, but hard as a feather, deep as a puddle, and smart enough for goldfish.
Are you kidding? I'm thrilled that they finally announced the new storage! I love that! Also, the whole 1,000 DSi Points free with a new DSi is cool too. Maybe I'm just easy to please.
To impress me?
Do something different.
All recent Nintendo announcements seem to either be a rehash of a flagship series, a toy spinoff of a flagship series, or new franchise in some sort of super-casual non-game. The non-games are actually good, don't get me wrong, but we already know Nintendo can do that: it's not impressive anymore.
So to impress me, I think Nintendo would have to either announce new IP in a traditional genre - they still could use a Wii realtime strategy game, for example - or announce a new game for a flagship series that shakes things up considerably. I want a new Zelda II or Paper Mario, you know?
Or a new Pikmin. They don't even need to innovate for me to want to play a new Pikmin.
I've always been a fan of the Big N so this is purely a rattling off of the things they could do that would have gamers gushing.
1) GoldenEye 64 on the virtual console.
2) New 2-D Mario game with a map editor that you can distribute online and make anything you want with it. Works like LBP.
3) Wii Motion Plus launch date, greater details.
4) Wii Fit expansion disc with harder work outs.
5) New 2-D Metroid game with map editor that you can distribute stuff like in LBP.
I dunno, just rattling off some basic stuff they could do right now.
Leigh, I read this yesterday and thought about it overnight so I could post some great insights about Nintendo's missing hardcore element.
But the truth is, I can't think of many, and I don't there really are any.
What's so remarkable about how Ninty has "changed" recently is how little change has actually taken place. Nintendo brought out a somewhat underpowered box in the U.S. in 1985 that appealed to a wide demo: kids, families, both boys and girls, and even my best friend's dad who beat the original Legend of Zelda (the godfather of all 'hardcore' games) and never touched a videogame again, ever.
One part of that original demo grew up and became today's core gamers. Nintendo's consoles steadily sold less than the one before as the niche grew smaller, but louder. So N simply went back to the well, and here we are. I loved what commenter Ben said about the issue being client-side. Bingo.
As for people being unimpressed, well, this is the Internet and people are either rabidly excited or totally degrading - nothing in between.
And FWIW, I am a longtime N fan, "core" player, and a Wii holdout so far, and the SD storage announcement was a big step in pushing me closer to finally buying a Wii.
Major third party studio bringing an established triple-A franchise to the Wii as a console exclusive.
We've gotten spoilt; since the first announcement of the Wii, Nintendo announcements have not just been exciting new products but also exciting new ways of thinking about gaming.
Now Nintendo aren't getting exciting third party titles and if they're still innovating it's in ways that are simultaneously playing catch-up to Microsoft while going further down their niche-peripherals backroad.
Iwata's entire address seemed, to me, like an attmpt to reasssure/reinvigorate Wii developers (it was GDeveopersC). I think what the Wii and Nintendo would benefit from, assuming that a gain in hardcore dollars consitiutes benefit, is a system of second party developers. I want to see something much like what epic and microsoft game studios have going on (or sony and Q Games/thatgamecompany). This is not to say that the Wii needs a Gears, but rather that Nintendo needs to reinvest in the development community so that developers will invest in thier console. Getting games like World of Goo and Bit.Trip Beat out on the VC are wins, for sure . . . more like that please.
I just want them to touch my heart again.
When Nintendo pull out their top effort its like a drug and you want more. More takes years to make.
Moments like turning into a rabbit in ALLTP or returning to Kanto in Pokemon Silver, and the first moments of Mario 64, Zelda OoT and Metroid Prime were pure magic. They put a smile on my face and all was good.
I look at this generation and I see Galaxy making magic just as well as all my old favourites, I see it in the same light as those classics. Yet Zelda TP merely had moments I liked strewn throughout the average. Zelda is getting stale. Pokemon Pearl had maybe one moment that stands out as impressive to me, otherwise the series is tired.
Every generation thus far has had those magic titles, that doesn't stop us wanting more. Its often good enough, I just think the increase in B-grade games like Metroid on DS makes us think Nintendo is getting worse.
Look at Square-Enix who used to release less than a dozen titles a year, most stellar and now release dozens with only a few standouts. They get the same rap as Nintendo.
While the increased storage is a solution, it isn't perfect. You are still limited by the flash memory on the wii itself. You will still not be able to launch anything from the SD card. Everything has to still be moved to the internal memory to run. Now they have made this process more seemless, but you are still limited in size by what you can do. It also will not even be able to pull saved game data from the SD card either.
These are good solutions to existing problems but still do not provide the perfect ease of use that an internal hard drive supplies.
I don't bemoan Nintendo's success with the casual audience but they should pay attention to the hardcore crowd more. Casual fans come and go. The hardcore crowd is always there and will carry them forward when they stumble.
I agree with the commenter that said that Nintendo games while simple and fun always leave the traditional gamer itching for something just a little more complex. For some reason it seems like Nintendo think it can only be one or the other. They should really take a look at what EA has done with their sports games on the wii. They have managed to introduce the All-Play control style for the casual crowd while still maintaining the complexities of their games for the traditional gamers all in the same game.
What I personally would like to see from the Wii is more unique and interesting ways to use the motion control. Right now for the most part, the motion controls are implemented okay in casual games or poorly in more hardcore games. It doesn't help that Nintendo has the stigma for poor 3rd party support either. This just leaves them with tons of crappy party games and few quality 3rd party software.
The other and probably bigger thing for me is a more intuitive online play for all games. Its too hard to get hooked up with a friend. It should not be that much work. And why Boom Blox does not have an online vs. mode, I'll never know. They aren't even including it in the sequel. That games screams ONLINE PLAY and yet it has none.....
novel done.
All we want is an Wii Zelda, running on High Voltage's Quantum 3 engine, preferaby with some new groundbreaking mechanics and an M-rating.
For the longest time (ever since the N64), Nintendo was the company you could count on for a solid first party line-up consisting of both old and new IPs that appealed to it's fans. It's ironic that these days, that description works more for Sony than Nintendo (especially since Sony were the ones who started to push gaming to a larger market with the original PSX). I guess it's just us old fans wanting Nintendo to return to the "good old days" when they would constantly wow their core audience with some game they made that was only available on their system.
Okay, all that stuff I said? Square Enix seem to be well on the way to resolving a lot of it with FFCC: The Crystal Bearers. Game looks gorgeous, seems to have different gameplay, and might even be throwing some of the worst cliches in the bin. If Nintendo (or any other third parties developing for the Wii) can match this game, then I'll be more than impressed by the Wii.
Another impressive bit of Wii news is that they will be getting the follow up to Odin Sphere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejKvr_JSaiE
@Franz
Sony is the new Nintendo.
If Nintendo wanted to impress me, your average whiny 'I gave up on Nintendo because of all the shovelware they allow out on the Wii' gamer...well, that about sums it up? Their first party stuff is great, but Jesus, try walking into a Gamestop / Walmat / K-Mart / Your friends place and looking at their Wii game collection...it's worse than pop-up ads. Jesus. I wouldn't be surprised if the next game magazine I read had an announcement for 'Ball on a Cup' exclusively for the Nintendo ShovelWii! I don't care if they make the next holy grail of gaming, I can't find a single decent game when I walk into any store, because the crap's so piled on it stinks. It isn't because they aren't there. It's because I don't want to sift through garbage to find a great game.
One word: innovate.
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