As I expected, Iwata focused heavily on downloadable games. The use of the camera on the DSi with the game (the new DSi cartridges) further differentiates the DSi software from things like the iPhone. I was surprised about the news for the downloadable content for Wii.
I’ve always thought the ‘storage problem’ was overblown on the Wii prior to WiiWare. The only games that took up any space were N64 games, and there weren’t many of them. Wii’s harddrive space was more than adequate for playing NES, SNES, Genesis titles.
Trying out the new SD solution makes me feel giddy as if I have a magic console. It is the magic console I’ve dreamed that can play games from every previous console and have them all ready and waiting. It makes me want to fill up my SD card with hundreds of games. The lack of storage was helpful for my wallet at least.
I am disappointed that I could not get Gates of Thunder to play off the SD card. Turbographx 16 CD games take up a significant amount of space, and I’d like to play them off the card. Unfortunately, I re-downloaded the game to the SD card, and it still wouldn’t work. Other system games worked fine.
Arcade Games
The arcade games were a nice move. When Nintendo launches a new system, they always put up games on it no one wants to maximize revenue. It’ll be a while before we get the games we really want (like Turtles in Time or X-Men).
Back when the Virtual Console service launched, Miyamoto said he wanted to put arcade versions of games like Donkey Kong up there. So even Miyamoto wants to see his work in the arcades live on.
One of the reasons for Nintendo’s success this generation is ‘software sells hardware’. Virtual Console, you have to admit, is full of software. I can’t keep track of it anymore. There is just too much I want to play. (Currently, I am finishing up Super Mario RPG). Nintendo’s belief is that people buy the hardware to get to the software. If I just looked at the Wii’s Virtual Console, I’d be gobsmacked by how much quality and classic software is up there available for one machine.
Ironically, Sony believed that the hardware sells the software. “Our machine can do many things, like play Blu-Ray movies.” So PS3s sit there as Blu-Ray machines while customers play their games on another machine.
Punch-Out
I’m a big fan of the original Punch-Out, but the new one does not impress me (though I really like Next Level’s Striker games). It looks interesting in video, but I just don’t want to play it. I’d rather just play the 8-bit version. It doesn’t seem like a new punch-out game, just the old content placed in a shinier wrapper.
Meh.
Excite Bots
Multiplayer looks interesting and might be something kids will get into (Excite truck was a big hit with my testers, i.e. little kids).
But this game has no mythos. Bots? Come on. Excite Truck at least I instantly knew it was going to be trucks. I understand trucks. I do not understand ‘bots’. Excite Trucks name seemed somewhat like a redneck game (like a ‘monster truck game’ or so).
If it was ‘Excite Carts’ or ‘Excite Cars’, the game would be more understandable at a glance. Excite Bots sounds like a nerdy programmer game which is quite the opposite of the redneck sounding ‘Excite Truck’.
Iwata’s Speech
Nothing in it was really new (though I’ll look at it more in detail later). Iwata talking about great inventions selling during the Great Depression made me laugh and cry. It made me cry since the president of one of the top companies in Japan, which is the second largest economy of the world, is using the depression word. It made me laugh because it is something I’d say. I just wish he mentioned video games’ predecessor that was formed by the depression: pinball. Pinball became huge because it was cheap entertainment.
Recessions can provide more opportunities due to everyone running away scared. We should remember that Nolan Bushnell formed Atari during the late 70s, during the era of stagflation and gas lines. Yamauchi put out the NES in America when the console market had completely crashed. Recessions can bring out many new opportunities.
Zelda: Spirit Tracks
I am now 100% convinced that Nintendo is suffering from the ‘Content Problem’ that is afflicting the entire games industry.
This would make a fascinating article in itself, but the concept goes like this: gaming is in the content business. So are movies, music, and books. And by content, I do not mean raw data or the size of discs. I mean the ideas, the mythos. Super Mario Brothers has more content in it than million dollar blockbuster games do today. Why? It is because of its mythos. What is the mythos that is powering Super Mario Brothers? It is Alice in Wonderland. This is why so many franchises can be made from those 8-bit games. Customers do not buy ‘franchises’. They buy ‘universes’.
For every Core game, the content issue keeps raising its head (to me). Grand Theft Auto sold because of its content. Do I mean content in huge sandbox world? No, I mean content of its mythos which was a bad boy gangster doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Games like Civilization have very bad and repetitive gameplay, but the content and mythos is so overwhelming that one’s imagination just flies away when playing such a game. The secret to World of Warcraft’s success is its content. People do not pay $15 a month for “innovation”. They demand new content. This should highlight what customers are looking to exchange their money with. Content.
(You know why newspapers are failing? It isn’t really the Internet. The problem with newspapers is the content. They are putting out news which no one thinks is news. Instead of giving what the customer wants, newspapers have stubbornly spit on customers’ faces. Now, they are going bankrupt.)
I remember when new Zeldas appeared since Zelda II. The big draw was the mythos of the game. The Zelda series is not a sum staple of gameplay and iconic characters, it is a mythos in and of itself. It was so marvelous that it had to appear in a golden cartridge. Before Twilight Princess was released for example, there were people speculating about the ‘two timelines’ and intense interest in how Twilight Princess fits in. Some people love the triforce so much they tattoo it on their arm.
It used to be that each new Zelda game was a further exploration of that mythos. The gameplay could, and was, radically altered. But exploring that mythos was fundamental to the loyal fans. Zelda II was radically different form Zelda I, but it expanded the mythos of the series and Zelda II was a huge seller (game journalists act as if people hated the game which is the opposite of truth). Link to the Past expanded the mythos further. Ocarina of Time is likely so popular because it is so drenched with the mythos. The Zelda games that followed have been less so.
Loyal fans want to explore the Zelda mythos further. Nintendo is not doing that job with these later Zelda games. Spirit Tracks disappoints because it shows Nintendo is not interested in the mythos and content of the game. A train seems to be thrown in there for reasons not having to be anything with the Zelda universe.
I actually don’t believe that ‘innovative gameplay’ is what customers want. Consider book readers. Do they want to read innovative books? I can point to many authors who try to re-invent the wheel with their writing. They will write a book without using a period, or do something else ‘innovative’. But the job the customer wants is to absorb content. We see this with movies and television as well. With movies, a director might try to be ‘innovative’ with weird camera angles and lenses, stuff customers don’t really want. They just want good content, a good universe to explore.
I suspect gaming is much the same way. When people buy Starcraft 2, it won’t be for ‘innovative gameplay’ for Blizzard does not really innovate. They want to return to the mythos of Starcraft and further explore that universe. They want to see what new tricks the Zerg can do.
Zelda has really fallen from its revered status back in its cartridge form. Zelda I, II, Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, and Link’s Awakening were considered the crown of the system’s library. No one thinks that about Wind Waker, Minish Cap, Oracles, Twilight Princess, or Phantom Hourglass. Young gamers are now growing up without knowing the magic of Zelda. But who can blame them as these later games are not magical.
Gameplay to a game is like writing to a book. Good writing means it is easy on the reader to get into the book and devour its content, i.e. a ‘turn pager’ in an addictive way. Good gamplay also means it is easy on the player to get into the game and devour its content. Since no one in the games industry, except for maybe Blizzard, cares about content anymore but “innovation” on the gameplay, we get games that get old very fast because it is feels like reading the same regurgitated story by a different writer. These games get sold fast to used game stores, and publishers become frustrated. Meanwhile, they trot out another game from that ‘franchise’ without realizing that people do not like ‘franchise’, they like the universe and get annoyed when this new game doesn’t add anything to that universe.
Some might say, “But look at the success of the so-called casual games!” These players do not view gaming as a way to absorb content. The core market views gaming as a way to experience content. Nintendo cannot put out the fire in its core market because Nintendo keeps focusing on “innovation” rather than content (or view content in developer terms as art assets and sound rather than how customers view it, as ideas, as mythos).
Does anyone honestly believe Spirit Tracks will be at the same level as a Link’s Awakening? The game looks like it is the Wind Waker world. Isn’t that world flooded? How on earth is a train even in there?
When an entertainment franchise starts going against its mythos, fans begin to revolt. Watch what happened when one of the biggest franchises in entertainment history, ‘Star Trek’, did in its later shows.
In a game industry that keeps championing ‘user generated content’, it goes to show how little they think of ‘content’ anymore. Imagine if the game industry championed ‘user generated gameplay’. It’d be maddening because of how critical gameplay is. ‘User Generated Gameplay’ would be the industry saying ‘gameplay is not important to us so we are ceding it to the players’. Yet, this is what they have done with content.
Next time someone asks where my new articles are, I will tell them that there is only ‘user generated content’. “Instead of putting up an article for you to read, you load up a word processor, and you get to make your own article. You are so lucky! You can make it whatever you want!” The response: “That sucks! This isn’t what we want.” And I will say: “But I am only following Iwata’s example. I think it is time to have more innovation in articles. And what is more innovative than user-generated-content? So I sit here, twiddling my thumbs, while YOU writer the articles!” The response: “That is insane!” But I say, “But it gets even better! You get to pay me for the pleasure of generating my content!” “What!” “Don’t blame me,” I purr, “I am just following the latest trend of the game industry.”
And what can they say to that!