The Wii - Let's Deconstruct This

[elkatas]

wouldnt it be the publishers that decide?

Publishers decide platform, developers develop. There is very good reason why company's business decisions are done by different people than those who develop games.

[phorenzik]

I finally sold my Wii. I'd been threatening to do this for a while. I want Mario Galaxy, so I will no doubt be buying anther Wii at the end of the year. I couldn't justify leaving my current Wii dormant for months on end though as I can put the cash to better use.

I agree with a lot of people on here that Nintendo seem to have alienated the hardcore market. Nintendo are a business though. They don't really care about what people think as long as the money comes in.

I get concerned when I think about Mario Galaxy. This has taken years of development time, and has cost Nintendo a lot of money to develop. It'll sell fairly well because it's a Mario game. It probably won't set the mainstream gamer's world on fire though.

This could leave Nintendo re-evaluating their entire strategy. Why bother spending years, and millions of pounds developing software that makes a bit of profit, when they can spend a quarter of the budget and time developing novelty party games that sell loads?

I hope this doesn't happen, but I'm fairly certain that it will. Look at the DS at the moment. I can only think of Phantom Hourglass that seems to have had a long development time and high budget. Everything else Nintendo have done within the last 12 months seems to fall into the casual/novelty/throw away genre. This could be because they have been focusing on the launch of the Wii though?

I hope Nintendo take a Hollywood Movie-type-stance.
Basically, Hollywood needs the big summer blockbusters so they can fund smaller independant movies that the critics praise.

These are entirely my views. I'm sure some folk will agree, whilst others will disagree. It's human nature.

I'll get off my soap box now.

[Skull Commander]

Totally off topic, but the dude above me, that is the best avatar ever!

[elkatas]

I get concerned when I think about Mario Galaxy. This has taken years of development time, and has cost Nintendo a lot of money to develop. It'll sell fairly well because it's a Mario game. It probably won't set the mainstream gamer's world on fire though.

Considering that New Super Mario Bros has so far sold 10 million copies worldwide, I think that Mario platformers have more than enough mainstream appeal*. BTW, Here is how Iwata actually commented on accusations about "Nintendo not caring about hardcore", etc:

"It does seem that there is a level of misunderstanding among some people, and I am really concerned about this. It's true that Nintendo is reaching out to non-gamers, but this does not mean that we are ignoring game fans. I believe that if we don't make moves to get people who don't play games to understand them, then the position of video games in society will never improve. Society's image of games will remain largely negative, including that stuff about playing games all the time badly damaging you or rotting your brain or whatever. If that happens, then even people who enjoy games will start to feel a strange guilt when they play them. If people who haven't played games up til now start playing them, and appreciate how enjoyable they are, it is highly likely this situation will change.

Society will be more accommodating towards people who play games, and it will become even easier to produce "traditional" games. In reality, while Nintendo is looking to reach out to people who don't play games, it's not as if we've become less committed to Zelda. On the contrary, we've invested four years and a huge amount of effort into developing the new Zelda. There's no question that we are passionate about it. For the people who are willing to wait for them we will absolutely continue to produce games like that. But I think if we don't also develop things for non-gamers, the future for game fans will become bleak."

* In fact, NSMB has sold more than Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto 3 or Gears of War.

[elkatas]

I hope this doesn't happen, but I'm fairly certain that it will. Look at the DS at the moment. I can only think of Phantom Hourglass that seems to have had a long development time and high budget. Everything else Nintendo have done within the last 12 months seems to fall into the casual/novelty/throw away genre.

Here is all titles that Nintendo has released / funded for DS during last 12 months:

Metroid Prime Hunters
Tetris DS
Brain Age
New Super Mario Bros
Super Princess Peach
Magnetica
Big Brain Academy
Sudoku Gridmaster
StarFox Command
Mario Hoops 3-on-3
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends
Children of Mana
Tenchu
Elite Beat Agents
Yoshi's Island DS
Kirby: Squeak Squad
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Diddy Kong Racing DS
Wario: Master of Disguise
Pokémon: Diamond Version

So called "casual and novelty genre" has been easily minority during last 12 months. And don't even try to argue that Metroid Prime Hunters, Pokemon, HDR215, Yoshi Island DS or NSMB didn't have long developing times (all six were announced about 1½ years ago).

[Ady]

Will I have games with depth like Final Fantasy XII? Not likely.

Final Fantasy games (and a lot of RPGs for that matter) aren't deep, they're just long!

Elkatas, mate you're wasting your time with that list. If nothing else, this thread proves people only see what they want to see. :/

[phorenzik]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. That's the whole point of a 'forum' You make some valid points Elkatas, and I respect you for it. I disagree with some of the games on your DS list though. How many were actually great games and how many were lazy ports or re-hashed franchises? Only time will tell if Nintendo do what they say they will do.

I love Nintendo, and sincerely hope they do well and cater for everyone.

[MarioMark]

Considering that New Super Mario Bros has so far sold 10 million copies worldwide

In fact, NSMB has sold more than Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto 3 or Gears of War.

That's good to hear, I didn't know it had done that well!

[Lyris]

Like any newish console, the Wii is full of games that are either, IMHO, underwhelming or crap. There, I've said it.

Zelda is fantastic, Wii Sports is good fun. But Trauma Center, Monkey Ball, Elebits, Excite Truck, Sonic and the Secret Rings, Rayman, even Super Paper Mario, I've bought and sold. They don't grab me. I realise that good games will come... Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros... but where the hell are the release dates?

Haven't powered mine on in quite a while, to be honest. My friends are slowly beginning to sell theirs...

I only buy Edge magazine, so I can't comment on other mags, but Edge seem to award most Wii titles ' 5/10 ' or less. From my perspective, it looks like the majority of games for the machine aren't very good.

I'd agree entirely with that. Out of what I've played, Zelda has been the only stand-out title, with Wii Sports being a fun 7/10ish pack-in.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I'm surprised you didn't like Paper Mario Lyris. How far did you get through it? I just finished world 4 and it was pure genius, especially the dating game section with Peach. Tons of in jokes and really witty writing. The funniest game I've played in a long time, probably since Psychonauts.

As for the Nintendo will just make casual games argument, their output certainly does not back that up, and Iwata said only a few days ago that many of their absolutely epic list of in development games are hardcore stuff. I think it's more a care of Nintendo developing more games overall, with no reduction at all in the amount of old school games. (if anything they too have increased in quantity)

[elkatas]

Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros... but where the hell are the release dates?.

Well, I believe that we are going to hear about them very soon. Why I believe so? When Iwata was interviewed by Bloomberg two days ago, he said that Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros will be out on "late summer - autumn". Interestingly enough, he didn't comment on Metroid Prime 3's release date*, but said that game's QAs (betatesters) has been very satisfied with the controls. This mean that MP3 is on final phase of development.

Secondly, Hideo Kojima said during his latest podcast same day that he had played new Smash Bros at Sora's office, and according to Kojima's own words, game is "lots of fun and felt very complete". There has also been rumblings that Nintendo is actually keeping its own press event this May. My personal source**, Matt Cassamina, Chris Kohler and various press members from GAF have hinted about this.

* This was mostly for two reasons. First of all, interview was for japanese press and Metroid Prime isn't popular series in japan. Secondly, it is always released 4-6 months later there, because it is one of those rare 1st party games that are written in english. That's also main reason why game can be localized for European languages at same time that game is still under development, and why Metroid Prime's main series have always seen nearly simulatenous release on USA / Europe (Metroid Prime Hunters was done by NST, so it doesn't count).

** My personal source was right about Nintendo buying Monolith Soft, so I tend to believe he is trustworthy.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Metroid Prime is a strange one, as it was originally supposed to be a Wii launch title. I've heard various rumours explaining it's delay from controls to online play to revamping the visuals. Perhaps all three.

It would make sense for Nintendo to position it as their main competition against Halo 3, which would mean including a pretty substantial online component. And frankly from what I've seen of Halo 3 so far, a well written Wii game should have no trouble matching those visuals (albeit in SD).

[Extra Terrestrial]

There's a lot more than that. How about Call of Duty, Red Steel, or Far Cry? Hardly games for kids.

But then people tend to conveniently forget about games that don't fit into their nonsensical argument.

I cannot believe you brought that rather pathetic argument up!

They are in no shape or form any good and are a poor indication of how FPS 'should' be done on the Wii when half the world expected the Wii to deliver in terms of mouse/keyboard control when it hasn't been the case at all.

You have raised some good points in this thread but that is just poor.

Again - I and others have already said this several times before - the Wii right now isn't the most appealing console in terms of software but once the Christmas season approaches and we start to slide into the New Year once again, I'm sure the Wii will be a great system to play and own.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I cannot believe you brought that rather pathetic argument up!

They are in no shape or form any good and are a poor indication of how FPS 'should' be done on the Wii when half the world expected the Wii to deliver in terms of mouse/keyboard control when it hasn't been the case at all.

I raised them to counter the claims that the Wii was only filled with 'kiddie' and mini games. Regardless of what you think of Call of Duty etc they remain adult oriented video games.

[Extra Terrestrial]

I raised them to counter the claims that the Wii was only filled with 'kiddie' and mini games. Regardless of what you think of Call of Duty etc they remain adult oriented video games.

Fair enough, I agree with the point you raise but they are still quite disappointing considering the Wii was suppose to offer a new way of playing FPS when I enjoy playing Call of Duty 2, F.E.A.R. or Resistance more on the traditional pads.

Lets hope Metroid Corruption and other upcoming Wii FPS can change that - speaking of Red Steel, I wouldn't mind a sequel providing they sort out some of the woeful issues in the original and stop making every single enemy shout 'bastard' at you for no reason all the time.