You can tell how far behind I am on my email. Unfortunately, the more email I put up, the more that flows into my inbox! You won’t believe how many Sonic 4 emails I need to go through. So I am trying to go through older emails.
I’ll never get it. People hiss and complain about New Super Mario Bros. Wii and call it a “casual” title. They complain about the lack of online multiplayer.
Now Donkey Kong Country Returns is coming out and people are doing the exact opposite, saying nothing about online multiplayer and even saying to play the game by yourself. Oh, and apparently it’s “hardcore”:
In any event, I’m getting my copy tomorrow and blasting through it with a friend. This is why I love Sunday releases (a Nintendo staple this generation). No midnight release crap.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy the game if you’re picking it up too.
Nintendo’s roots have never been ‘hardcore’. Nintendo was an arcade game company. The ‘hardcore’ games during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras were on the PC. This is why the NES explosion was such a shock. The little gray console was popular with children and families which PC game companies, such as Electronic Arts, had totally written off.
You know there was something fishy going on when NSMB DS was hailed by everyone yet NSMB Wii, a superior sequel, kept being written about as if it was LittleBigPlanet rip-off or that Nintendo was cheating customers because of lack of online. It became really clear when IGN trashed Mario 5 in their Nintendo podcast to such an absurd extent. Nintendo’s competitors were scared to death of Mario 5.
I’m also amazed how some big game publications kept giving Nintendo the wrong advice. “Make more 3d Mario!” “Don’t make 2d Mario! Don’t!” “More hardcore games, Nintendo! Stop doing stuff like ‘Wii Sports’!” While there are some fools out there that do believe this, this is also exactly what Nintendo’s competitors want. Sony and Microsoft are not scared of 3d Mario or Zelda in its current incarnation. They are scared to death of games like 2d Mario and Wii Sports.
On websites like IGN, I see ‘articles’ that give advice to Nintendo to make Gamecube games and Virtual Boy (!) games on the 3DS. This is obviously the wrong advice. If anything, Nintendo should look at the DS software and the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance software. Either these writers are extremely stupid (which is a possibility) or they are intentionally giving the wrong advice.
Remember when the Wii came out and there were some writers that said, “Wii Sports is horrible. It feels like my arm falls off when I play. Motion controls suck. Wii Sports suck.” Much of this had to have been manufactured. The response of ACTUAL people, of actual gamers, was totally different. Next thing we know, the Wii is sold out for years. Clearly, this had to have been elements of a competitor’s marketing campaign trying to create a narrative.
What is the hardcore gamer? It is a marketing invention. People who play games all the time are considered dorks in society. Game companies don’t want you to feel like a dork. They want you to keep giving them money. So instead of being a dork, marketing is making these gamers as if they are ‘cool’ and ‘sophisticated’ and ‘cultured’ and even ‘mainstream’. What I liked with Nintendo’s approach with the Wii was instead of lying to gamers by telling them they are ‘mainstream’ was to actually make games mainstream and combat the ‘dork’ definition of gaming heads-on.
It is amazing how no one complains about the lack of online with Donkey Kong Country Returns. Amazing!
I’ll pick up DKCR soon enough. My budget must first endure with Christmas presents. And I have to pick up the Mario Collection while I can.
