Email: Money on the table

Ya know what’s funny, that guy just emailed you about the Phantasy Star games, and guess what?  I own a PSP and own the Sega Genesis Mega Collection, a collection of old Sega Genesis games put on UMD (there’s other versions of it for different systems, though I don’t know if it’s for the Wii).  This collection has a wide variety of games on it, including such titles as Golden Axe 1/2/3, Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2, Ecco the Dolphin 1 and 2 and Ecco Jr., Comix Zone, a Tetris-like game called Columns, several Shinobi games, Altered Beast, Gain Ground, Alex Kidd, Kid Chameleon, Vectorman 1 and 2, Phantasy Star 2, 3, and 4, and a bunch of other games including arcade game ports.

So why am I bringing this up?  Well, because this is a pretty well-executed way to put out a collection of old videogames for the modern day.  The games feature little bonus features, artwork, developer interviews, facts and trivia, and other little tidbits.  The best thing, however, is that the games have the ability to save wherever you are in the game whenever you want. This means that if you need to stop playing Sonic, you can just save your game and then load it up and pick up right where you left off, no more starting over again.  You also have the option to freely customize your button layouts and functions for each game you play, so if you don’t like how it’s laid out on whatever hardware you’re playing it on, you can just change it.  The overall quality of the games on the collection is pretty good, even for my PSP version, though some of the games have shown their ages, many of them are still as good as they were when I first played them years ago.

Mind you, I’m sure none of this was particularly hard, but at least more effort was put into it than we’re seeing from Nintendo as of late.  There’s also a similar collection of SNK games for the PSP but I don’t know if they have the same saving features and such that the Mega Collection has.  I think the point to take away here, however, is that Nintendo is leaving money on the table by not doing this.  They *could* have done something similar with the Wii for people that didn’t have internet or use the VC, it wouldn’t have been hard, and I think such a thing would have been welcome, but they didn’t do it.  Oh wait, they DID do that with Mario All-Stars but put no effort in whatsoever.

You pointing to Sega monetizing their old games, however, makes me think sooner or later the rest of the bigger third parties may start doing the same for themselves (such as maybe Capcom or Konami).  While Sony’s PSN is far from perfect, I’m able to play my old PSone games on both the PS3 and my PSP whenever I want.  I can get a big memory stick and cram a bunch of digital games off the PSN store into my PSP and have a wide variety of stuff to play without having to lug around a bunch of cartridges or discs or whatever if I feel like playing something else.  If Sony had more game-focused management (and some semblence of common sense) they could very easily leverage their game library and their PSN into a major asset, but the last two points cripple them every time.  Still, right now it’s a hell of a lot better than what Nintendo is offering, which is nothing.  GoG is definitely setting the bar here in how you do digital gaming right, and so far their willingness to make it easy for people to play games that would be hard or impossible to play otherwise and actually getting people to pay for them is showing that there is definitely some serious blue ocean in this, but Nintendo (or parts of it) are stupidly ignorant of this fact.

People used to say that Nintendo marched to a different beat, but honestly I think it’s more like they are out of touch with reality and this has caused them to be woefully behind the curve in the past and is now doing so again with their lack of support for digital-account-based gaming across multiple platforms.  Hell, if they had pushed heavily on this with the 3DS and carried it over to the Wii U it *might* have actually helped sell 3DS hardware…maybe.  It would have at least been something for people to feel good about after the novelty of the crappy 3D games wore off.  Anyways, it’s probably saying something that I’m vastly more interested in reading our posts about the upcoming election than I am about whatever it is Nintendo is doing these days…which is really just a whole lot of nothing.

I do recall that Nintendo said they had set a goal of 24 million units sold by a certain date, can’t remember when, however, but I’d bet that’ll be their “if we don’t match this we’ve done goofed” benchmark.  Something tells me even with the holidays, they aren’t gonna reach it unless a miracle occurs.I’m quite upset that Nintendo doesn’t seem interested in learning the fundamentals of how the Internet has changed consumer behavior. The way how Nintendo is looking at the Internet is like a box full of gimmicks. When it comes down to fundamental things like a digital account that even indie game websites have, Nintendo won’t allow it.I’m more concerned with where the ‘soul’ of Nintendo is going (if that phrase makes any sense).The way how we obtain information has changed so much that back in the 1980s, there were many Americans who thought the NES and Mario were made in America. “That’s because Americans were stupid.” No, it was because all game consoles since then were made in America. Globalism wasn’t common then. There still was this Cold War thing going on. There was nothing in the NES games, aside from the Engrish which most people ignored since there was very little text in games, that gave people the impression they were not made locally. Unless you read Nintendo Power, you had no idea Nintendo was a Japanese company or that there was a thriving video game market in Japan. While you got Dragon Quest 1, Dragon Quest 3 was being released in Japan.

Contra was made by the Japanese but it doesn’t SEEM to be like a Japanese game. It looks and feels very American. You have these big muscled guys with machine guns pulverizing everything.

Life Force and other shooters were Japanese made. Yet, there was nothing in them that made them feel like they were from Japan. There was no anime in them or ‘characters’.

One very popular game at that time was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. You would have no idea it was made from a Japanese company.

Look at Donkey Kong. There was nothing in this game to suggest it was a Japanese game even though it was. Everyone thought of King Kong which was an American movie.

Look at Super Mario Brothers. Nothing Japanese comes out at you. Miyamoto said, and then denied after I highlighted that he said it, that Super Mario Brothers was influenced by Alice in Wonderland. You have mushrooms, you have the tiled floors of Mario 3, the beanstalks seem like something from Jack and the Beanstalk. There was nothing Japanese in the game.

I can go through example after example. Allow me one more. Look at Zelda. There is nothing in Zelda to suggest it was made outside America.

You might say, “Well Malstrom, this is because in the 8-bit generation there wasn’t enough computer power to express Japanese sensibilities. All games looked and felt similar.” But this was not true. EVERYONE knew Tetris came from Russia. It was saturated with Russian themes from Russian music to Russian backgrounds. The game that came before Double Dragon couldn’t be exported to the West because it was too Japanese. Many games were left in Japan because their ‘Japanese artwork/style’ wouldn’t work well in America or in other parts of the world.

When Final Fantasy II came out in America, we thought that was actually Final Fantasy II and not IV. It was only in the 16-bit generation did everyone become cognizant of Japan’s market and how many the games were Japanese. Most people had no idea in the 8-bit generation.

What I am seeing from Nintendo today is a very different attitude from the 1980s and 1990s. Instead of specifically making ‘internationally designed’ video games (which is a nice way of saying designing games for American tastes since American entertainment tends to be more global), we’re seeing Nintendo specifically design their games around Japanese themes and then shove them in our faces.

“Examples, Malstrom,” says the reader. “You talk and talk, but I need the proof.”

You need the proof? Here is the proof.

Metroid: Other M has its problems, but the biggest one is that it tries to be anime. No one cares about the damn baby! The game just screams ‘Japanese’. If you said it was made in America, no one would believe you unless you said it came from San Francisco or Seattle.

Was the problem Wind Waker’s art style or Wind Waker’s Japanese style? We don’t want Japanese culture in our games.

Nintendo Land just screams Japanese. What is with that logo? Is that *thing* sucking or blowing or whistling? Whatever it is, the game feels uncomfortable let alone the crappy mini-game substance. “But it is not mini-games,” chimes Nintendo on cue, “they have much more substance.” They’re mini-games…. in HD. Oooohhhh.

Take a look at Final Fantasy’s rise and fall. There was nothing ‘Japanese’ in Final Fantasy except for some of the more Eastern myths like airships.

God, I forgot how glorious that music was. Aside from the ‘too much chatter’ at the beginning, there is nothing to suggest this game has any connection to Japan. I still remember playing it for the first time and being blown away by how the game felt like a mythological fire hose shooting so much at you that you could only gulp as the water soaks your entire body.

Now, look at Final Fantasy 13.

In the golden days of Japanese gaming, they HID their Japanese eccentricities. But today in the Great Decline of Japanese Gaming, they place their Japanese eccentricities on a pedestal! Is this the result of those eccentricities being locked up in the attic for so long? Have they all come bursting out?

Nintendo wants Metroid and Zelda to become Japanese animes and Mario to be ‘adventures in 3d’. Yet, the market keeps rejecting them. Mario Kart, which by its nature cannot have a story or ‘character exploration’, sells much better. Wii Sports and Wii Fit, by their nature, were also scrubbed clean of the Japanese eccentricities.

Take the issue of Retro making a Zelda game. The reason why people want Retro to make a Zelda game is because of the pent up frustration people have for Zelda today. Zelda is too Japanese orientated, too anime, and plays like a crappy Japanese adventure game. In the past, Zelda used to be influenced by Western RPGs hence the non-linear nature of the early Zelda games. In the past, Nintendo said, “What do we learn from those Western games to make an even better game?” Today, Nintendo says, “Let’s purge all Western influences from our games” resulting in Nintendo games becoming extremely creepy. I think we’re at the point where parents will feel uncomfortable giving the game even to their child. It’s just too weird. And these parents today are those that grew up with Nintendo games.

I think there is another story going on here. Korean culture has more international presence today than Japanese culture. Korean culture in movies, music, and games has to be controversial in Japan. Is this all some nationalist venture? It made more sense to go Japan culture back in the 80s when Japan was on the ascendency. Today, Japan is a rapidly shrinking country especially with its aging population. What is to gain by making games that tilt so heavy to the Japanese tilt?

The reason why we want Retro to make a Zelda game is because we are sick and tired of the Japanese eccentricities in Zelda. “But Zelda is about story and puzzles,” says Miyamoto which is nonsense. We want Retro to make the game or any Nintendo game because we want a more cultural neutral game.

The reality is that Retro is actually a Japanese company that happens to be located in the United States. Nintendo doesn’t see Retro in the way how you or I see it. Nintendo’s relationship to Retro is for Nintendo to tell Retro the Way How It Is. Retro’s job is to soak it up. Retro is not allowed to go, “Hey! This is wacky Japanese stuff which is just crap. Here is how real game makers do it,” where Retro outdoes Nintendo on Metroid or on 2d platformers. A Retro Zelda sounds pretty damn good at this point. Miyamoto talking about how communication is needed for the puzzles and story is actually Miyamoto saying: “The soul of Zelda is Japanese.” But if we look at the classic Zelda games, we find the soul of Zelda is Western. Zelda is the combination of arcade gameplay with the Western Role Playing Game. Nintendo seems intent on crashing the Zelda franchise rather than admit that the Western RPG is the soul of classic Zelda gameplay.