From game journalists’ reactions to the Wii U… because we clearly need game journalists to write stories about other game journalists.
This is an editorial piece masquerading as a news article. Pretty shameful.
Shigeru Miyamoto’s charming demonstration of Pikmin 3 is universally accepted as both the highlight of Nintendo’s press conference and the single most promising piece of software for Wii U.
Hahahaha. Why is it that game journalists tend to praise the games that won’t move the hardware? Pikmin 3 will sell hardware like Pikmin 1 and 2 did… which means Gamecube sales.
The problem is simple: few people understood the Wii before they encountered Wii Sports, and it stands to reason that the Wii U needs its own great communicator.
Many people understood the Wii before it came out. Unfortunately, game journalists were not among them.
“It seemed exactly the kind of casual carousel gamers associate with Wii software, and to say the least, it was not what those people were hoping for,” writes Eurogamer’s Oli Welsh, who has a generously proportioned soft-spot for Nintendo’s products.
So why doesn’t Gameindustry.biz quote these people instead of a game journalist who decided to ‘speak for the casual gamers’?
Like Wii Sports, Nintendo Land will be a good game that’s unfairly dismissed by many. However, I just can’t see it defining a console and changing games as Wii Sports
But in E3 2006, you guys played Wii Sports and none of you thought it would change anything. You wrote it off as a tech demo.
“Nintendo reps boast that this will be the first Mario game to launch with a Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64’s Super Mario 64. This game is no Super Mario 64,” he writes.
Thank God.
“This feels not like a Super Mario World or Super Mario Galaxy evolution of a great series but more like a Call of Duty-conservative tweaking of a popular thing. This is, in other words, sadly, the safest Nintendo launch game I think I’ve ever seen.
Launching with a 2d platformer is now considered safe? This is news.
The problem with Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 is they didn’t sell much and certainly didn’t sell hardware. Super Mario Brothers 5 moved more Wii hardware than Wii Sports probably did. Its release marked the month when the Wii sold more than any other game console ever. And it replaced Wii Sports in the North American bundle.
Super Mario Brothers is an equal to Wii Sports. Yet, none of these jokers can see that.
“Perhaps Nintendo designers believe that Wii U gamers will need something as comfortably formulaic as New Super Mario Bros. U to clearly demonstrate how a Wii U game can differ from the many single-screen TV console games we’ve played for years, but this really feels like a re-tread with an added gimmick. Worse, Ubisoft’s Rayman Legends which does the same side-scroller asymmetrical, co-op multiplayer straight-up looks better and looks more fun.
These game journalists always praise the games that either don’t sell or don’t move hardware. Always. Rayman Legends isn’t going to sell anything. And I already know it isn’t ‘more fun’.
Believe me folks, there is much fear from the competition of Nintendo using Super Mario Brothers. Microsoft and Sony can never make a game like that. If you want generic and formulaic, just look for the next FPS.
But why don’t these people criticize the 3d Marios as they are also formulaic and quite generic. Why didn’t anyone criticize Super Mario Galaxy 2? How many 3d Marios do we need on a system? But there has only been two 2d Mario games (including Super Mario Brothers 6) for the home console in the last twenty years. Oh noes.
These game journalists always praise and cheer the Nintendo software that doesn’t sell and doesn’t move hardware while putting down the software that does perform. When was the last time you heard any of them praise Wii Sports? They never did. The game was always ‘bad’, and Nintendo should ‘focus on the hardcore’ meaning more Aonuma Zeldas and 3d Marios. When there is a legitimate Nintendo game to criticize (Metroid: Other M), these guys get silent or try to say Nintendo should make more of such games.
After all these years, they still don’t get it. No one is this stupid. It has to be intentional.