Hello Mr. Malstrom,
“Nintendo Land is a huge title for us, and it is also the epitome of showing off what Wii U has to offer with the controls, what the Wii U GamePad… having a different role, having a different perspective compared to what the other players using the Wii Remote Pluses are having. So it is an extremely important title for us, and will be one of the anchor titles for the launch of Wii U, no doubt.
Our presence at E3 was very much about Nintendo Land. Even our whole booth looked like Nintendo Land, because it’s super-fun and what it’s able to show. Sometimes we say what Wii Sports was to Wii, Nintendo Land is to Wii U, except the major difference is– and this is something that we really want to get across– is that it’s not just mini-games, but there’s actually different levels, different things available in each of the attractions… a lot more than what was available in Wii Sports. We want people to know that this is a full game.”
Game companies, listen up. People get uncomfortable when you make games around the company. No one knew of the companies who made the arcade games. No one really knew the companies who made the 8-bit games (except for the more famous Capcom and Konomi branding). To us, Zelda was a game. It was not a Nintendo game. Just a game.
One big difference between Modern Nintendo and Classic Nintendo is that Classic Nintendo didn’t bother waving the Nintendo flag with every game. They let the games prove themselves. I really do blame Smash Brothers for part of this. But when I go to the store, I want to buy a game. I don’t want to buy left-over scraps all assembled into ‘Nintendo Land’. What a dorky name anyway. How can any adult male walk out of the store with a copy of Nintendo Land? You might as well just post a kick me sign to your back.
One great thing about Wii Sports is that it ditched the Nintendo branding. The game didn’t say, “I’m a Nintendo game.” It didn’t shove that in your face. It seemed at the latter 16-bit generation did Nintendo start being more interested in doing ‘Nintendo themes’.
Before, it was a Mario theme. Like seeing Mario appear as a referee in Punch-Out or NES Tennis. But Mario was cool, and he was acting like Hitchcock appearing in all these games. But this overuse of Nintendo themes is just obscene.
Nintendo Land would be much better by ditching all the Nintendo themes from it and making it unique.
The thinking that goes on in NCL is that adding more Nintendo themes makes it ‘more salesworthy’. Hahaha. Nintendo themes didn’t sell Wii Sports or Wii Fit.
The Nintendo themes of Nintendo Land is the lamest thing I’ve seen in a long time.