Gauntlet Mii

The success of New Generation is not so much that it is “New” but that it is returning arcade gameplay that the “Games Industry” has been drifting away from, since the 16-bit generation, in their path towards more cinematic adventures and ‘vision’ games. The Wii has more in common with the Atari 2600 and the NES than it does with the Gamecube or N64.

At E3 2009 Press Briefing, Iwata even said that Nintendo’s research and development is carefully looking at the 80s period of early video gaming. If Nintendo is looking for ideas to attract new customers, why not look at how the first video game customers were made? It just makes too much sense.

One idea for a New Generation game has much in common with an old game… yet is nothing like it. Do you remember the arcade game called “Gauntlet”? It was a very successful arcade game (which is what New Generation games are, ‘arcade games’). For the most part, it was a dungeon crawler. But what was interesting was that four people could play it. And these four people were four very different characers with four different weapons: the Warrior, Valkryie, Elf, and Wizard. The stronger a character’s melee, the weaker their projectiles were and vice versa. So the weak melee of the wizard would have a very strong projectile. The strong melee of the warrior had a very weak projectile.

A video about the arcade version of Gauntlet:

There have been many attempts to bring back Gauntlet. Most of these attempts have been pretty lame. And, ultimately, this blog post really isn’t about bringing Gauntlet back. Rather, it is to bring what was COOL about Gauntlet back.

What was cool about Gauntlet was that it was a four player game, where people could pop in at any time, and each player had a different ability to contribute. Everyone worked together to defeat the baddies and travel deeper into the dungeon.

The closest we have to a modern game experience of this would be World of Warcraft’s instances where a group of five goes through a dungeon with each member, well most of them, being different and having different roles. However, WoW isn’t an arcade game. The gameplay of WoW consists of little more than throwing dice. This is offset by the vast number of equipment players can have to keep varying many different numbers on the dice.

I believe a “Gauntlet Mii” would succeed. In fact, we already have the pieces in front of us. Look at this:

We already have Swordplay Showdown which, as most people can attest, is very addictive. But, alas, your Mii is all alone. Wouldn’t it be fun to have your friends with you?

My idea is simple. Take what we have of Swordplay Showdown, make it multiplayer, and let people have weapons other than swords such as bows and arrows (i.e. Elf), maybe a boomerang orXena’s slicing disc that acted like Frisbee from Resort (i.e. Wizard). Making Showdown multiplayer shouldn’t be too hard. The Miis would be automatically running around, of course. But imagine if your friend had a bow and was shooting arrows while you were swordfighting? (And imagine you yelling about his aim as he accidently shoots you in the back. “What are you? Iolo from Utlima 7? Hit them, not me!”

I love the idea of a game where multiple people (up to four) play together, especially when they are using very different weapons. The players could all be using bows, for example, which would lead to a very different game experience. They could all use swords. Some players, like warriors in real life, will be better with a bow than they are with a sword or vice versa.

Imagining my “Gauntlet Mii”, it would take place on WuHu Island and all the ‘good guys’ would be Miis, of course. Perhaps they are going underground to dungeons and are trying to go deeper and deeper. Anyway, the game would be one player friendly as well as four player friendly. Players can jump in at any time, just like Gauntlet (or like NSMB Wii). Instead of just having Miis as the bad guys, one could have some monsters. Perhaps in between rounds, such as when your player is running forward in Showdown, the party leader (player one) is given a choice in various directions whose choice would end up going a different way and encountering different enemies.

With games like Wii Sports Resort, all the players are doing the same exact ‘thing’. How exciting would it be if they did different things? How interesting it would be to watch a livingroom where one person is swordfighting, another is using his bow, while another is ‘casting spells’ (or something). Like Showdown, the game would be very addictive and fun. But with the ability to have the party choose different weapon combinations, you could end up with very different game experiences.

Nintendo has a rule not to replace the player’s world with the Touch Generation games but to connect to it. This game wouldn’t be trying to draw the player to another world, at least, no differently than Wii Sports Resort does. Having them attack a dragon every now and then would be refreshing than just attacking Miis again and again. Imagine sword fighting a giant monster!

If one needed more depth, you could have the Miis be able to get different equipment from types of swords and bows and armor. But that might be making it too complicated.

The Miis need to star in a game that is more than mini-games to popularize a new hardware device. Frankly, I can’t get the ‘Gauntlet Mii’ idea out of my head. The appeal of a multiplayer, choose-your-own-weapon type of Swordplay Showdown I find VERY appealing…