I’m sure you’ve gotten more that enough emails and “casual players” to treat Dr. Malstrom so I’ll keep it short. The WiiU and modern Nintendo games are abominations. There is nothing inherently wrong in a tablet made for a game console, I can see some value in it and think it’s fun. The problem is, we already have one. It’s the uDraw GameTablet. It was made with the family in mind with games (game?) like Pictionary where everyone can work together (actually there aren’t that many games out for it but it shows what I mean). Not only does the WiiU not need to exist, it fails its job as a gaming device. If it should exist it should be at most an accessory and NOT a full console. It should not try to be some tablet computer and should not promote the seclusion of family members!! There is no reason why even a simple Wii remote could not do the WiiU controller’s job in-game. Draw on the face of a character? Sure its got a pointer. Become this window to see inside the unchanging apartment on your TV screen to find a Miyamoto mii? Can the Wii remote not just point at the TV and reveal a small section of the apartment and LET EVERYONE AROUND YOU SEE WHAT IS GOING ON? And what’s the purpose of the TV in the case? You might as well just point at the wall if the TV’s not going to show anything but the unchanging exterior of a building and…oh wait, sounds like the AR 3DS games. (The apartment thing was from one of the Wii U debut videos). Transfer the entire game onto the controller? What’s the point of having a home console then?? The Vita might be trying to be a PS3 but at least Sony emphasized playing games on a TV.
Also Skyward Sword, you can’t be the best Zelda game ever by becoming a conglomerate of recent Zeldas with this Great Sea in the Sky, doing more flying minigames or by collecting Tears of Light again….and for the third time now.
Do you really collect Tears of Light again? That would be very lame if true.
E3 was a disappointment for me. The only thing I looked forward to was the announcement of an international release of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on ANY device. Even that hasn’t happened.
I haven’t met anyone who is happy with E3 this year. Everyone seems disappointed. Usually, one group of console fans are happy.
So you know what? You were right. We are customers and we are selfish, we know what we want and know we aren’t getting it. Obviously, there are many who know what games should be unlike the “game gods” who just want to satisfy their developer fancy. Think of the Metroid games. Who do you think understands what Metroid is? Sakamoto, the supposed “creator” of Metroid and Samus, or a little team based in Texas? So what should we do? Make games, since so few are making games for the masses anymore. I’ll try to do it even though I probably won’t do so well or get too far, but heck what else is there to do? I’ll try to make real games. Not cinematic experiences. Just games. Video games should try to be what they are, games, not bad movies the require button presses, not devices to show off how talented its makers were.
When looking at recent Iwata Asks interviews, what strikes me is the tone of how they are talking. Let me use a cafe metaphor. I am eating in the Nintendo Cafe, and I say, “My soup tastes funny.” I am told that it must be my particular tastes. I respond, “No, let’s have that person over there taste it,” where I give a spoonful of soup to my neighbor. He makes a face and says, “Wow! That soup does taste funny!” “See,” I tell the Nintendo Cafe. “I want my soup fixed.”
Nintendo Cafe then brings Chef Miyamoto out where, looking down on the patron such as myself, says, “You do not understand how things are done in the kitchen. The creation of a soup starts with…” and then he goes on and on about how soup is made in the kitchen. I just shake my head, interrupt him, and say, “I don’t care how it is made in the kitchen.” I point to the soup. “I am saying your soup tastes funny! What you do in the kitchen doesn’t matter. I’m telling you the end product doesn’t taste right!” The other patrons in Nintendo Cafe begin to nod in agreement. The soup keeps tasting worse and worse. Chief Miyamoto then declares we are a bunch of idiots and returns to his kitchen. We just shrug and wonder why we are paying for bad soup. Perhaps it is because of the memory when the soup was once good. And we keep expecting the soup to improve back to its ‘normal’ status. Unfortunately, Nintendo Cafe believes its current soup is ‘normal’ and nothing can convince them otherwise. The only alternative is for us to go to a competitor’s cafe or stop going to cafes altogether.
I’ll learn to program. I’ve already made a cruddy version of Missile Command so we’ll see. If anything the programming knowledge can’t hurt.
And you can make money with it!
P.S. I’m that 15 year old that emailed you a while ago. It was so funny to see you refer to me as “he.” It will be a sad day for me to see this blog go, but thank you for having created it. Life Force really is awesome.
Whoa! A girl that plays Life Force!
I remember first playing Life Force. I rented the game and played it with a friend on a muggy summer night. It was two player co-op so it was a great game to rent together. We would die over and over and over again. It was too much fun. It was great how the other player could steal your lives should he/she run out of lives. And you can retake your options when you came back. The game just stunned us. Giant arms coming at us? And what were those walking blobby things? And then giant teeth! Nothing made sense. Even to this day, the creature variety in Life Force is amazing. The music and sound effects are also amazing. Even though we didn’t know the 30 life code, we had great fun dying over and over and over again to see how far we could get.
With old school games, you could rent them. Today, it appears people just ‘buy’ games and then resell them if they don’t like them. That is the ‘new’ form of renting, apparently. This could indicate that the software sales are nowhere as healthy as they are since so many people buy games and resell as the new form of ‘renting’.
Above: Chicks dig it! Who knew!?
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