Hey Game Spot. I wrote this a while back for Game Informer and am finally posting it. I hope your staff enjoys my two cents on Nintendo.
Nintendectomy The ever changing sands of the core gamer by Jeff Melnick
As I sit here writing this article, I've come to the realization that Nintendo's story is a difficult one to explain from my point of view. Like many gamers, I grew up loving Nintendo dearly and gave them my business exclusively over any other gaming platform. Why, now that I'm 22 years old, do feel differently about the company? Why am I playing my Playstation 2 and my Xbox 360 more than I play my Wii? Surely a 5th generation console would be more tantalizing than two 2nd generation ones, correct? Unfortunately for my demographic that is not the case. Aside from the hardcore fans, core gamers who grew up with Nintendo are finding themselves more and more unsatisfied and even alienated from this new Wii. Now, before I flame Nintendo into a hot red glow, I should probably start from the beginning in my days as a little boy watching Ninja Turtles and saving Princess Peach so Mario can hook it up. I'll try to keep it brisk, so bear with me.
I launched my fledgling hobby of gaming with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) because I was lucky enough to have an older brother with a huge library of games. The system offered everything and more. Groundbreaking titles of every genre for the time were at my fingertips and I loved it.
Naturally, after this system I quickly transferred over to the Super Nintendo. Again, the experience was like that of the warmth of a woman on a cold lonely night – something that few current core gamers have enjoyed. It had all the titles tailored to my liking at that point in time.
Next came the Nintendo 64. The system had great titles and, for the first time, had wonderful 3D graphics. Although, to tell you the truth this was the beginning of the end for Nintendo, much like the first Megaman Battle Network game only not as horrifying. The thing was the N64 had solid titles but at this point they started becoming scarce. It was the receding hairline of Nintendo's once full head of greasy Italian plumber hair. The diversion that blinded my better judgment was the new amazing graphics. At this point in time I looked at the Playstation 1 as the enemy; they were the Alliance and I was the Horde. I wouldn't even touch one because of my loyalty to Nintendo, not even with Thrall's wang.
After that came the Gamecube with all of its shining promise. This promise started strong and hard for me but quickly turned into flaccid and low hanging disappointment. The first year of the system brought a few solid first party titles, and, as we all know, the following years' "A" grade titles were few and far between. I lost interest and became bored with what I had so loyally stuck with for so many years. I'd love to go on about the Gamecube, but there really isn't much to say other than I can count the amount of good titles on one hand.
For this reason, I mastered owning n00bs on my PC gaming as well as started to play another console: Sony's Playstation 2. In the first couple weeks of what I like to call "Playstation Assimilation" – like the Borg from Star Trek only somehow more pale, I realized it had massive amounts of electronic bliss to offer. I boogied through Dance Dance Revolution, enjoyed the unique **** of Shadow of the Colossus and Okami, ran through the streets of Liberty City and countless other experiences both familiar and unfamiliar – a few of which Nintendo tried to emulate unsuccessfully. Not only did the PS2 offer a broad spectrum of gaming genres, they offered them and did them well. I could go on for several pages listing great games and game **** the PS2 brought that my beloved Nintendo did not because of their stubborn grip on almost purely releasing first-party titles. It was a sad time for Nintendo, but a prosperous time for my hobby.
At the end of our journey, we have the Wii. Hurray for the Wiimote and all that jazz, right? The new Wii motion sensing was going to bring a new era to gaming and make everything more fun. What we ended up with is a controller that works for some games and not others. It is not a controller that should be used for everything, and the direction Nintendo is trying to move is to forcibly jam it into every game they put out as if the games were a spacial singularity in which all suck in the universe existed at one pin point. Sometimes they let you choose another control method and sometimes they don't. Metroid Prime 3 for example is a great game, but using that Wiimote for first-person-shooters is about as entertaining as using a fun noodle as a light saber. Sure it makes you laugh in glee at first, but then you realize it isn't even close to a real light saber and end up in your room for days depressed because you are not a Jedi and never will be and also no one likes you. The Wiimote simply is not as fluid and does not give you the fast paced twitch response game play of any real enthralling FPS. I know this is only one genre of games, but this is the most apparent case of the lackluster Wiimote controls. To put this more into perspective here are a few other huge titles that the Wiimote simply does not work well with: Super Smash Bros: Brawl, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and even Mario Kart to an extent. I would even say Mario Galaxies, but **Bleep**, what did you even use the motion sensing for anyway? A little twirl does not count in the least. Most games that use the Wiimote effectively are casual games. What does that mean? Exactly how it sounds. Solid titles are few and far between and so far haven't had much to do with the Wiimotes' capabilities.
When I see the Wii I see a few good first party titles and then a ton of Yahoo! Games in disc form – just like the Gamecube, only now it has a motion-sensing gimmick. The vast majority of the Wiis line up are all casual pick up and play for 5 minutes with your friends games and nothing more than that. That's all well and good but for a gamer with my tastes it's like playing a game of checkers by yourself. Here's a suggestion for Nintendo: Instead of making several cheap plastic holders for my Wiimote and selling them to me at inflated prices, I would like to see more fully thought out games with story lines that don't involve preteen anime characters or small animals. Nintendo literally had one single game in GameInformer's previews section for this month of July 2008. And I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in the new "Tales of Symphonia: The Only Wii Game Coming Out This Summer".
Yesterday at E3 Nintendo had an opportunity to chuck their wares and impress the public with all the new great stuff they have lined up for the coming year. Starfox maybe? New Donkey Kong? Pikmin? Oh. Animal Crossing. Cool. Now I know I'm not the first person to say this, but I am more interested in sticking my face into the rear end of an aids infected hippopotamus than hearing about anything discussed in Nintendo's E3 conference. First was an add-on for the Wiimote that gives it 1 to 1 motion control? Golly, thanks for giving us something you promised the controller was supposed to do 2 years ago! Next, for the "hardcore" gamers - according to Nintendo, we have Animal Crossing and Grand Theft Auto for the DS. I'm not ashamed to say that I consider myself to be a "hardcore" player – or maybe I am but that's beside the point. I pick up and play games that most people don't want to sit and figure out the controls for, I spend vast amounts of time to get that next prestige on Call of Duty 4, and I put over 2000 game hours into World of Warcraft throughout 15 different characters. Do I feel any excitement for Animal Crossing? Absolutely not. GTA for the DS? God no. A friend's defense to that argument is that Animal Crossing sells big, therefore is a huge franchise. Sure, it's a huge franchise, but think about it - When a game is fun and easy to pick up and enjoyed by everyone, does that make it a "hardcore" game? I think that's actually the definition of a casual game. So no, Nintendo did absolutely nothing for my demographic this year.
By now you're probably thinking this article is about how Nintendo has failed the industry and its fan base. It would be, but I realized something the other night, the "the big picture" if you will. While Nintendo has failed my demographic, it is by no means a failing company. In fact, they haven't failed per se because they weren't trying to keep me there in the first place. Nintendo's Wii is one of the highest selling consoles out there with the widest targeted demographic in the entire industry – Everyone. Nintendo used to target children and you know what? They still do. Only now they target children and anyone with 5 fingers by creating a gaming experience that anyone can pick up and enjoy. Financially genius, I'll admit it. The problem is that a system meant for everyone is bland to those who are looking for more. It's like seasoning delicious potato soup with salt and pepper so everyone likes it, but **BLEEP**, I want some Cajun seasoning in there to spice it up!
Now here is the explanation for my rant. You see, what happened is I enjoyed Nintendo when I fit their target demographic: I was a kid. As I got older I grew out of the franchise and became smitten because my favorite console was not growing up with me. This does not mean Nintendo was or is making a mistake, it only means I, like many in my generation of core gamers have grown out of them. This is the reason why the entire industry is giving Nintendo so much flak. Let me be clear that the only people who write about or broadcast about games are the people who are interested enough to. Nintendo's target now encompasses those who do not care enough to speak out more than those who do by a factor of 100 to 1 (I made that up). They are casual; they are males, females, smelly old people, smelly young people and your smelly dog too. None of which care enough to write anything about the industry, therefore no one is there to pat Nintendo on the back other than an automated 400 foot tall Mario statue made of solid gold powered by pure phazon.
In conclusion, who cares? I realize what Nintendo is doing and from now on I will expect them to follow suit in a very successful manner. I will either take what I can from them or just drop them entirely because you know what? They don't care either. They are doing what is best for the company by trading you off for a hundred other people.
Gaming Industry – Stop your whining and think for a moment.
Log in to comment