I finally got the chance to try NSMBU last night with my family, and I must say that this is the first time I have felt really disappointed by a 2D Mario platformer for a console. Maybe my expectations were just too high, but I was excited to see the eye popping HD visuals and immersive music in glorious 5.1 surround (7.1 if you count the gamepad speakers). Instead, I was met with more of the same. Sure the levels were newer, and there was a new power up and baby yoshi (Oh, and the gimmicky boost mode. You know, because they just HAD to include that touch screen somehow.), but it looked and sounded exactly like NSMB Wii to me. If a game is intended to be a system seller, it should show off the system’s abilities so that people will have a reason to fork over the money for the newer console, right? NSMBU includes no system selling features or enhancements. Why should anyone spend $60 on this rehash AND $300+ on a console when they can get the same experience on the Wii? Nintendo really dropped the ball here, so I ask: Where is Nintendo’s first party system seller? If it’s not Mario, it’s definitely not Nintendo Land. That’s just a tech demo with lots of fluff. Pikmin will not sell the system. No Zelda in sight. No Metroid. No 3D Mario (as unappealing as it may be to the pre-3D generation). Could it be a 3rd party game that will sell the system? I only realized today after also trying the Rayman Legends demo that this game may be the system seller. The visuals are gorgeous. The music is stellar. After playing through this quick demo, I’m left wandering why Nintendo couldn’t have at least matched this level of quality with NSMBU? Maybe it’s time Ubisoft got into the console business. Ubisoft does what Nintendon’t!
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Nintendo wants to put out new hardware (which the consumer pays for) but refuses to put out new game engines (which Nintendo pays for). Talk about a cheap ass company. And this isn’t some complicated cutting edge game engine. We’re talking about a 2d game.
Why could Nintendo offer new game engines for 2d Mario twenty five years ago but cannot do so today? Nintendo has more money today. They have more manpower. What is it?
I think inside Nintendo they think 2d Mario is ‘beneath’ them. They don’t want to make it. Note that you haven’t heard Miyamoto associated at all with NSMB U or NSMB 2. He doesn’t think those games are worth his time. But boy oh boy, Pikmin 3, yeah, that is what he wants to make.
There is a definite disconnect between the Nintendo software developers and the average gamer. This disconnect should have been fixed a long time ago.
You hear the Game Industry upset at the NSMB games as well as anything to do with the Wii or DS, I imagine the same resentment is within Nintendo. Believe it or not, Nintendo despises the Wii. What I see with the Wii U is the attempt to make Gamecube games for the Wii audience (hence Nintendo Land to teach these ‘idiot casuals’ a simple introduction to these games).
I believe Nintendo Land’s game play will be a forerunner of what is to come. That Metroid game in Nintendo Land will be nearly exactly how any Metroid game is played on the WiiU (behind the character viewpoint and in 3d). Zelda will likely use more motion controls.
When I think ‘New Game’, I assume ‘New Game Engine’. To me, the two are one. ‘New Game’ without ‘New Game Engine’ becomes a ‘Level Pack’. “But it changes how the game engine works slightly.” Then it is called an ‘Expansion Pack’ which was invented by Origin with Ultima VII (prior to that, PC games only had ‘mission packs’).
I suspect there is much more problems inside Nintendo than we ever can imagine. Only many, many years from now will some of it come out to public. I see a broken company who’s turmoil will come to the surface likely once Nintendo’s market reality catches up to what is currently going on.