The emails! They keep coming!
Or mostly, the Nintendo Network.
1) Achievements/Trophies (imagine getting a 1-Up Mushroom Trophy or a Power Star Trophy for platinuming a game), Leaderboards, Speed-run times and ghosts, High Scores. Basically the stuff Nintendo’s been missing from their online services. Give me more ways to play my favourite games and more ways to match up against and show off to my friends. This should be worked into their old games somehow too. Imagine trying to race your friend’s best speed-run ghost in Super Metroid, or having leader boards so those points in 2D Mario games actually matter, or getting some kind of Triforce Marker added to your account achievement list to show that you’ve beaten Zelda 1.
2) Free online multiplayer. I have never paid to play a game online, whether it be an MMO or an X-Box Live Gold subscription or anything like that, and I don’t plan on starting.
3) Patches. It sounds like they’re finally patching Mario Kart 7, so I hope they continue along that route and fix the problems that make it into their retail games quickly and easily.
4) Downloadable demos. I should be able to play a bit of every single game before purchasing. Especially Nintendo brand games.
5) True, third party multiplatform support. I have access to an XBox 360 and have played about five or six games total over the console’s lifespan, all of them third party. I’m figuring (hoping) that the power gap between the big three consoles will be a lot smaller this time around, and what I’d want out of the next Nintendo console is to finally be able to play those four or five games per generation that get released on every other console except the one that I chiefly want to own.While I’m not too big on the achievements thing, I do like the social recognition one would get for completing an old game like Zelda 1. It could be a way to breathe new life into the classics like “Beat Super Mario Kart’s Special Cup using Bowser” or “Complete Super Mario Brothers 3 with gaining no power-ups and use no warp zones.” It could be fun. But would that soil the classics?
2) Free online multiplayer. I have never paid to play a game online, whether it be an MMO or an X-Box Live Gold subscription or anything like that, and I don’t plan on starting.
3) Patches. It sounds like they’re finally patching Mario Kart 7, so I hope they continue along that route and fix the problems that make it into their retail games quickly and easily.
4) Downloadable demos. I should be able to play a bit of every single game before purchasing. Especially Nintendo brand games.
5) True, third party multiplatform support. I have access to an XBox 360 and have played about five or six games total over the console’s lifespan, all of them third party. I’m figuring (hoping) that the power gap between the big three consoles will be a lot smaller this time around, and what I’d want out of the next Nintendo console is to finally be able to play those four or five games per generation that get released on every other console except the one that I chiefly want to own.While I’m not too big on the achievements thing, I do like the social recognition one would get for completing an old game like Zelda 1. It could be a way to breathe new life into the classics like “Beat Super Mario Kart’s Special Cup using Bowser” or “Complete Super Mario Brothers 3 with gaining no power-ups and use no warp zones.” It could be fun. But would that soil the classics?
The idea of patches I really like. Here is why. Patches get a bad rap because they have been used by companies as mandatory to fix a broken shipped product. But the problem isn’t the patches but with the game company itself.
Patches would be necessary to maintain the value of multiplayer games. Cheats and hacks could be patched out. Game balance could be maintained. Gamers are very smart and millions of them will eventually find imbalance. Games like Smash Brothers could be consistently patched with game balance tweaks to make the game fun for much longer. Obviously, I’m thinking of the Blizzard approach to keeping their games fun. It can be done right.
Malstrom's Articles News 