One of the feelings I’m getting lately is that sports games, and sports games alone, are moving the Wii upmarket with Motion Plus.
Take the latest NHL game for instance, which wasn’t even made by EA. It’s getting favorable reviews and being praised for loads of content and, *gasp*, online features:
http://wii.ign.com/articles/102/1026259p1.html
I kind of wonder how long sports games will sit alone pioneering Motion Plus features. Perhaps we’ll have to see the outcome with Red Steel 2.
But I honestly believe that it’s going to be the next Zelda title that sells everyone – especially those lovable “hardcore” – on motion controls. In the mean time I think there’s some nice momentum being carried by these sports titles.
I just wish selfish developers would stop making games for themselves and then doing a half-assed port to the Wii like with Dirt 2.
To be fair, most developers don’t get to choose what they make.
But sports games are doing a good job utilizing motion plus. I think it is because the nature of a sports game goes against the usual ‘movie director’ view the “Game Industry” has. I mean, no one is going to play an NHL game for the ‘narrative’ or ‘story’. Wii Sports did such a good job at demonstrating what the job of sports games are. And the sport is already well defined before the game development even begins.
I don’t know about Red Steel 2. While I think makers of sports games understand that Dani Buntoneseque view of games, as well as FPS games (strangely enough), but every other genre doesn’t.
In order to make a game for Wii’s audience, they need to leave behind the Next Generation baggage of ‘narrative’ and ‘zOMG, I’m a movie director!’ as well as making good use of the Wii capabilities. I don’t see games like Red Steel, or RPG or other titles doing this.
It is so frustrating because their problem isn’t so much of what they need to do, but the bad habits they are carrying over. All their Next Gen habits or last generation habits are major turn offs to the Wii audience. For example, tons of gore is a major turn off to females which is half of Wii’s audience (and many men as well).
They aren’t interested in making family games. Or they think family games is ‘casual games’ which means ‘retarded games for retarded customers’. The games need to be child friendly and family friendly. Not child focused or family focused. But they should not be turn-offs in them that send the customers going the opposite direction (like that arachnid game for Wii. Who wants to buy something like that?). A game like De Blob has none of those turn offs and did fairly well. The sports games also lack those turn offs as well. Every Nintendo game lacks those turn offs.
Just as the Wii reduced the barriers between the new audience and gaming, the “Game Industry” needs to look in itself to reduce its software barriers, things that they do not notice. These would include:
-Tutorials of any kind
-Blood and violence (is this necessary for a game?)
-Too much text. (no one wants to READ a game…)
-Cinematics (movie director syndrome from the designer)
-Blasphemy of any kind (why would someone put into a game something that attacks other people’s religion? It is still not common, but shocking that anyone would include such an unnecessary element to their game)
-Anything that would cause children to leave the room.
-Anything that would give fuel to Mom to turn it off.
-Taking control away from the player.
A major turn off is changing the gameplay constantly in the game. This happens often in the ‘cinematic’ games. In one part, you are in 3d gameplay. In another part, you are in 2d gameplay. In one part, you have money and can buy stuff. In another part, you have no money and must survive. When you look at games from the early 90s and earlier, the gameplay didn’t change. It takes time enough for consumers to learn the game. Then you make them start all over to learn the game again? They don’t like that. (worse is if there is a tutorial thrown before it! Tutorials in the middle of the game!)
It is how publishers think. Instead of doing stuff that appeals to ‘the new demographics’ (like making everything ‘cute’), they should focus on cutting out everything that would repel ‘the new demographics’. The Wii audience wants to play games or else they wouldn’t have a Wii in the first place. But something in the game is repelling the Wii consumer. It is likely multiple things. Until I see companies focused on eliminating those ‘turn-offs’, I don’t have much hope for any upmarket move. No one is going to care if the game uses motion plus well if the game is bogged down by tutorials, text, cinematics, and gore.
Malstrom's Articles News 