Hey Sean, I wanted to pick at your brain a bit, what do you think Nintendo’s actions for these franchises will be after these three games fail?
Nintendo knows they aren’t going to push hardware which is why they are coming out during the graveyard period of spring and summer. I do not believe Other M or Galaxy Expansion Pack were made with the intention of sales. With the Wii becoming popular as well as Wii Fit, Nintendo developers believed they were geniuses and really “let go”. We got ‘genius’ titles like Wii Music and Spirit Tracks.
One thing is that Nintendo will never, ever, admit a game failed in public. So if you are waiting for that, then you will just be waiting.
It appears Nintendo is placing the ‘mission’ for Galaxy Expansion Pack and games like Other M to keep our hardcore friends from totally abandoning the Wii. What I find amusing are scribblings like this which ponder why Nintendo is putting their big hits all together in the spring. The answer is because they are weak games; weak in the sense of pushing Wii hardware momentum. There is already a 3d Mario and Metroid game on the Wii and neither pushed hardware sales. So why would their sequels do the same?
I did catch Dunaway saying she hoped the people who bought a Wii for NSMB Wii will buy Galaxy Expansion Pack. I wonder if she is just doing a PR statement with that or if she really believes it. I can tell you, with absolute conviction, that people who bought NSMB Wii will NOT be buying Galaxy Expansion Pack. People who buy 2d Mario and not 3d Mario are not just ‘uninterested’ in 3d Mario, they despise it.
Nintendo needs to study the gamers of disinterest in more detail. “Accessibility” isn’t the big reason that is keeping gamers away. They are not so much ‘disinterested’ as they are boycotting. For example, someone like me who has bought every Metroid game will not be buying Other M. It is not just ‘disinterest’. I am boycotting the product by not buying it. Sakamoto’s vision of Metroid is not Metroid. I am voting with my wallet.
People were not buying 3d Mario because they were BOYCOTTING it. Making the game more ‘accessible’ makes the assumption that the 2d Mario people really want to play it but cannot because it is “too hard”. The reality is that the 2d Mario despise 3d Mario. Why do they despise it? There are numerous reasons, but mostly it is because 3d Mario is a completely different game. In 2d Mario, you just run to the right. In 3d Mario, you have to find a ‘star’ and you re-visit the same stage half a dozen times to find another star. I can’t believe anyone at Nintendo even saw 3d Mario as remotely the same as 2d Mario.
We have yet to see 2d Mario’s gameplay be created in 3d. A true 3d Mario would have every stage be different, would have the player keep moving one direction, and would have no scavenger hunt for stars.
I think Other M and Galaxy Expansion Pack are recognized by Nintendo as being ‘weak titles’ in terms of pushing momentum. The only people who do not realize this are the forum dwellers who are still in orgasm over the Nintendo summit.
(As disclaimer, keep in mind I do not think these games are ‘bad’. They are very well made. If you liked Galaxy, you will love Galaxy Expansion Pack. I am saying these games will not push hardware as, say, Wii Sports or Wii Fit or NSMB Wii did. Still, these games are a zillion times better than the User Generated Content software. And that begs us to ask, “Why the hell is NOA releasing that Warioware DS game?” It is just going to die.)
The emailer continues below:
As for Motion plus games, what are you expecting, so far motion plus seems to be more focused on sports and swordfighting games, What if any new directions for motion plus do you think Nintendo will unveil at E3?
If I knew, I would be working at Nintendo implementing my crazy awesome ideas instead of writing walls of text on a gaming website.
Motion Plus might work in Starfox. See the flying game in Wii Sports Resort.
But you bring up a good question of using Motion Plus for non-combat purposes. Well, imagine Motion Plus and a game like NES Shadowgate. You would use the Motion Plus to look around with the torch (and set fire to the carpet, hehe). You could pick up items or throw them. A non combat adventure game might be pretty cool with Motion Plus.
But the biggest issue I see with Nintendo is not so much Motoin Plus but the lack of content. Games need substance, they need ideas. Why is it during the NES and even SNES Era, Nintendo could crank out brand new content such as Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Mach Rider, Star Tropics, Star Fox, and so on while today we just get sequels-with-a-twist? Sure, there was Pikmin, but is there anything else? Are there any new fictional universes that Nintendo can make? Keep in mind that this criticism will soon be falling on Blizzard once Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are out. People will be asking, “Can’t this company do anything new?”
Here is what I want:
I want genuine sequels to Metroid, Mario, and Zelda. I do not want Zelda with train or Metroid with soap opera. I want these series to stay true to their original spirit. If you want to explore new gameplay, make a brand new game for it. I find it insulting that developers are inflicting us with their ‘gameplay ideas’ that have not been tested by injecting them in solid franchises. For example, FLUDD from Super Mario Sunshine or the train from Spirit Tracks.
When Nintendo made Super Mario Kart, they did not inject ‘racing’ into Super Mario World. They made Super Mario Kart its own game. They made their gameplay idea stand on its own. And it made a new franchise.
With Starfox, Nintendo did not put Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach in Arwings. They put in new characters.
When I get a Metroid game, I want it to be Metroid. I don’t want Sakamoto’s stupid visions of how it “should” be. I would prefer no radical changes to the series games. If you want a radical change, make it a brand new game or a brand new universe. If your new gameplay idea is so good, then the IP shouldn’t matter.
With a new console, I expect to see an incarnation of Mario Kart, of 2d Mario, of Zelda, and of Metroid and all the rest of the usual suspects. I do not expect any of those games to be *weird*. And once Nintendo puts out those type of games, they can turn their attention to BRAND NEW games. Instead, we are getting sequels to these games instead. This makes the Wii seem stale.
The best approach would be to mix it up, to have the sequels to our favorites combined with new games at the time. So instead of Mario and Metroid sequels one fall, how about Mario sequel and a brand new game? And then next year, have the Metroid sequel and another brand new game?
“But what about Wii Sports and Wii Fit, Malstrom? They are new! Huh? Huh!?”
They are new IPs, but they are not new content in terms of an immersion. Nintendo seems unable or unwilling to create immersion games that are not a sequel. Not even on WiiWare!
Google has the philosophy of having employees dedicate like 10% of their time to a project they want. Why can it not be so with game developers? Why can’t they have a little project of their own the size of a WiiWare title? This way, they can get all their eccentricity out in their own WiiWare title instead of stinking up Zelda or Metroid with it (and if they are the genius they see themselves as, their WiiWare title will be big, and they can make a big title based on it).
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