There is little doubt that Nintendo was the first revolutionary console ever released. Atari and Odyssey were released prior to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but Nintendo is the name that stuck, mainly because of its creation of the 8-bit plumber known as Mario. The Super Nintendo (SNES) was also incredibly popular, and then Nintendo kind of hit a rough edge with the Nintendo 64 (N64). The console had competition from the Sega Genesis and the PlayStation and ended up selling an unsuccessful amount of systms in its run. However, the N64 did have many games considered extraordinary, such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is still rated the #1 game of all time on some websites; Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64, which set the bar for the 3D platform genre; and Goldeneye, which really defined the first person shooter genre (while proving that the N64’s graphics was sub-par). The GameCube wasn’t really a success or a failure, but it had massive competition from Xbox and PlayStation 2, and the latter is currently the top selling home console of all time. And then with the Wii, Nintendo, at least for some time, seemed to have raised the bar yet again, with its motion controller and intuitive games. Unfortunately, they chose not to care about the graphics, keeping the video quality at 480p, below the 720p that Xbox and PS3 display. The Wii’s video game library started strong and stayed strong for about a year and a half, until Nintendo decided to stop releasing good games.
My opinion on which games are the best is going to be somewhat biased because I grew up with Nintendo, playing Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Country SNES as well as the classics on the N64. I can still play all of those games today and I still find them to be just as good as they were back then, even though the graphics are clearly outdated. Regardless of my preferences on games, it’s not what I’m arguing here. I don’t know what is going through Nintendo’s head nowadays. The Nintendo Wii was released back in 2006 and had a great start, selling out in almost every store in North America. It was released with Zelda: Twilight Princess, and many other popular Nintendo games soon followed. But after April of 2008, when Mario Kart Wii was released, the number of good Nintendo games being released plummeted. I myself did not buy a new Wii game for a full two years. It was as if they’d forgotten about their fans. Mario Party 8 was pretty bad, but for some reason, they didn’t bother to create a new one, even though the series is incredibly popular among Nintendo fans. Nintendo was clearly past the point of developing new fun and interesting platformers like Banjo Kazooie or Conkur’s Bad Fur Day for the N64. Of course, the developer of both those games is Rare, who works for Microsoft nowadays. Nintendo continued releasing very poor spinoff games including characters such as Mario and Sonic, but there weren’t any big games and truly memorable games being released. One of the best releases last year, Donkey Kong Country Returns, was a sequel to a series of video games not seen since the mid-1990s. I really enjoyed the game, and I’m thankful they revisited the series, but I want some more original games, as I’m sure many older Wii owners do as well.
Nintendo’s problem was that they decided not to invest in third party developers like Microsoft and Sony did. Nintendo didn’t realize that their original fans, those who are 20+ years of age now who still like to play video games, have grown up and want to see other games besides Mario and Super Smash Bros. I won’t lie, I love those games, but today, shooters and sports games are a lot more popular, especially among the older generations, and they really suck on the Wii. NBA Live was disgustingly bad, and Medal of Honor 2 was terrible compared to the shooters on the 360 and PS3, even though it received good ratings (I guess for the Wii it was good, which says something about how crap the Wii’s shooter library is). I’m always going to love playing the Nintendo originals, but as you grow up, it stops being enough. Nintendo’s strategy seems to be pretty obvious recently. They want to attract gamers by being innovative. The recent announcement of the Wii-U proves this, but besides being innovative, I really hope they carry out on their decision to invest in third party developers. I have another problem with the newly announced console: even though the controller is very unique and I look forward to trying it out, apparently only one will be usable per system. But even if they make it so that two are usable, the cost of the second controller will most likely not be worth it. This is a problem again in today’s video game generation because multiplayer is such a huge part of gaming. I appreciate Nintendo always trying to be different, but I really believe they should go back to the classic style with a normal controller (which they actually haven’t had since the SNES) and focus more on their games. Wii-U is most likely going to have a lame starting line-up of games because they are probably going to continue to spend time on their controller to make sure it works perfectly. Another similar problem that occurred for Nintendo was the Nintendo 3DS. It’s definitely innovative, being one of the first devices to offer non-glasses 3D, but it didn’t launch with any great games, and their best release was a remake of Zelda, two months after the 3DS launched. It doesn’t seem like Nintendo is putting their best efforts at satisfying their fans through gameplay. The handheld is also not very sturdy; once again Nintendo put too much time into their perfecting their idea (the non-glasses 3D) instead of making the overall handheld better. Maybe they’re incompetent and take an incredible amount of time to get anything right, but it’s no excuse today after more than 20 years of video games being in the market.
What should Nintendo do? They should try and attract core gamers through developing a high tech system that focuses more on power than on innovation (their strive for innovation leads to systems less powerful than their competitors). Unfortunately, since the release of Wii, Nintendo’s reputation for older and more experienced gamers have severely fallen because outside the core Nintendo games such as Mario and Zelda, there aren’t enough notable games and most of them are for those of younger age. It worked for them, seeing as they sold the most consoles in this generation, but while selling all those consoles, they slightly pissed off their older fans. Since they are again focusing on innovation with the Wii-U and its LCD-screen controller, I can only hope that they end up investing in third party developers and release, in good quality, the majority of games that are out on the PS3 and Xbox 360, such as Call of Duty and Bioshock. But again, even with an original and cool controller, most gamers, including myself, will still not be happy playing a game like Call of Duty with a massive controller that takes up most of our lap.
I don’t know what to expect in the future for Nintendo. What I do know is that in order to be on top ever again, they will have to invest in what’s popular and what most core gamers want. They should stay as the top sellers (the younger generation of gamers will usually own a Nintendo because it will always be the most appropriate system from their parents perspective), and might even win back some old gamers who have switched to the other consoles in the past few years. I own a Wii and an Xbox 360, but if the Wii-U does what it is supposed to, it might be the only next generation system I will own. I can only hope Nintendo starts listening and caring for its fans.
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Maybe Nintendo has always prided itself on being revolutionary, and is too stubborn to change that. They seem to strive to be different rather than better, which is not a bad thing, I think they have the right idea, they just cant forget about current fans while trying to attract future ones.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably unlikely that nintendo will be able to make better shooters and sports games when compared to microsoft or sony, so why not make more of what got them there in the 1st place? I say they make some platformers and RPGs to appeal to original fans and a few new ones, since they seem to be extremely creative with those kinds of games. Overall, i agree with what you say, except mario galaxy 2 should have been mentioned as maybe their only great game to come out in the last 2-3 years, since it could be argued as a top 5 game ever made.
ReplyDelete^Agree, In addition, it seems that people who did not own or play Nintendo back in the 80's and 90's will never switch to it now. You alluded to the point of online gaming and how huge it is, and the fact is that Nintendo is so far behind when it comes to this, that it might have great difficulty attracting new fans, in reality its fan base has too many die-hards to compete right now
ReplyDeleteI agree that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is probably the best game on the Wii, but it doesn't make up for two years of bullshit where Nintendo released nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Nintendo does have many die-hard fans, but eventually they're going to get pissed off as well. I owned a PS2, not a GameCube, and I have an Xbox 360 because its third party library is so much better than the Wii's. And I consider myself to be pretty close to a die-hard fan.
the Wii-U is there to enhance game play, but the problem is that theres no games to play
ReplyDeleteYea the advancements in online play have destroyed the platforming genre. I know that personally i will never be satisfied unless a legit n64 like platformer gets released again. Galaxy 1 and 2 were more like SNES games, with the smaller levels and quicker gameplay. I would love to see games with worlds to explore like in BK, BT, SM64, Conker, and DK64 (although it was a bit too big). This wish will, sadly, never get fulfilled, but one can only hope.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Nintendo is its stuck on their past successes, it continually tries to redo what its done before but what it really needs is to overhaul their businesses to adapt to the present. Unfortunately the present is asking for more than just Zelda remastered.. as this market consist of about Jovan, Sale, Me and a few other die hard fans lol. As well, the computer is consuming much of the platform based gaming, as since about last year you can already run Wii emulators better than the console itself! (http://www.dolphin-emulator.com/) I personally don't think the Wii-U will save them either, as the performance just matched what both the 360 and the PS3 put out 5 years ago... Expect that console to be emulated within 2 years of its release. Online interaction is the next step for any game to last, unless your Jovan, you wont be playing a single player game over and over again.. which is what Nintendo has focused on way too much. Lets see some SSB online with leader boards.. that's money right there. Additionally going back to the platform genres, I will admit they have their niche market with Mario and friends but if you keep on polishing a game, its still going to deteriorate unless you bring something new to the table.. which they arguably have not done for a long time now. (2 years?)
ReplyDeleteYou can say I may be over reacting, but when a company cuts its forecasted earnings by 81%, and reduces the price of its latest handheld by 40%.. you know they are feeling the heat. Expect to see Nintendo scramble until they can tailor to a more mature audience... BF3 on Wii-u? =)
-Mare