Has Nintendo ever made a game with a compelling storyline?

There you go. A game with a very compelling story.

Nintendo games have more of an agenda than a story. I don't think there's anything wrong with games that actually play like games. Too much of the 'next gen' experience is caught up with becoming interactive movies or profound narratives that are mostly rubbish. I actually relish characters like Mario, Samus, Kirby and Link and I honestly hope Nintendo never changes their format.

Are you asking whether there are any games exclusive on the Nintendo platform with compelling stories or are you asking if Nintendo themselves developed a game with a compelling storyline. I'm assuming it's the first, since there are a lot of 2nd/3rd party games mentioned for the competition. In that case, you have the entire DS library with games like TWEWY, Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center, etc.

As for upcoming, it's not like they're not making an effort to bring these types of games to the market. Look at Xenoblade and The Last Story. Even Disaster could be considered Nintendo's attempt at building something primarily for a cinematic experience.

voxware

There you go. A game with a very compelling story.

AmayaPapaya

First 5 posts = total damage control.

@ TC, you are correct. Nintendo has never made a compelling story line like the one found in MGS4, FFX, Bioshock etc...

hd5870corei7

None of those games were made by Sony/Microsoft. :lol: You're missing the point that when he says "made by Nintendo", this implies "first party games", and thus bringing in third party games here is useless.

Also, the story in MGS4 is garbage. It's not compelling.

[QUOTE="hd5870corei7"]

First 5 posts = total damage control.

@ TC, you are correct. Nintendo has never made a compelling story line like the one found in MGS4, FFX, Bioshock etc...

princeofshapeir

None of those games were made by Sony/Microsoft. :lol: You're missing the point that when he says "made by Nintendo", this implies "first party games", and thus bringing in third party games here is useless.

Also, the story in MGS4 is garbage. It's not compelling.

I agree and disagree with this. The problem with MGS4's story to me was taking an hour to cover a point that could have been made in five minutes. Something got lost in translation along the way, but if you trim the fat I don't think the story is bad at all.

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

[QUOTE="hd5870corei7"]

First 5 posts = total damage control.

@ TC, you are correct. Nintendo has never made a compelling story line like the one found in MGS4, FFX, Bioshock etc...

Game-fu

None of those games were made by Sony/Microsoft. :lol: You're missing the point that when he says "made by Nintendo", this implies "first party games", and thus bringing in third party games here is useless.

Also, the story in MGS4 is garbage. It's not compelling.

I agree and disagree with this. The problem with MGS4's story to me was taking an hour to cover a point that could have been made in five minutes. Something got lost in translation along the way, but if you trim the fat I don't think the story is bad at all.

MGS4's story is good for what it is: comic book entertainment. But trying to dress it up as a compelling work of art is inappropriate. It's meant solely to entertain, not give you some new societal message or make a lasting statement.

It seems like every nintendo game is essentially collect item X in order to free/save Y.

markinthedark

And I guess it depends on what you mean by compelling, but they have made games with more comples story lines.

Compelling Story Games from nintendo:

Paper Mario Series

Legend of Zelda Series

Earthbound Series

Golden Sun Series

[QUOTE="Game-fu"]

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

None of those games were made by Sony/Microsoft. :lol: You're missing the point that when he says "made by Nintendo", this implies "first party games", and thus bringing in third party games here is useless.

Also, the story in MGS4 is garbage. It's not compelling.

princeofshapeir

I agree and disagree with this. The problem with MGS4's story to me was taking an hour to cover a point that could have been made in five minutes. Something got lost in translation along the way, but if you trim the fat I don't think the story is bad at all.

MGS4's story is good for what it is: comic book entertainment. But trying to dress it up as a compelling work of art is inappropriate. It's meant solely to entertain, not give you some new societal message or make a lasting statement.

I agree, but thats the point I was making. Kojima goes so deep into existentialism just to convey a fairly superficial story. This is what makes MGS4 seem so utterly absurd and superfluous. Its like every nook and cranny in the game had its own nook and cranny with a nook and cranny. I mean seriously, during each cut-scene I figured out the message probably within the first minute or two and the rest was just nonsense.

Many of these games listed on this thread were not developed by Nintendo's internal studios, but by either subsidiaries (Intelligent Systems), second-parties (Alpha Dreams), or third-party developers.

Many of these games listed on this thread were not developed by Nintendo's internal studios, but by either subsidiaries (Intelligent Systems), second-parties (Alpha Dreams), or third-party developers.

thom_maytees

[QUOTE="AmayaPapaya"]

There you go. A game with a very compelling story.

AdrianWerner

Ah yes true. I think Nintendo owns the IP though.

i played metroid prime, though i dont remember it much. If the storyline required you to go out of your way to to know it... i probably never bothered. Ive never been a big fan of collecting lore in games... though thats more my fault than a flaw of the game.

I for some reason never played Majora's mask even though i loved OOT.

Nintendo gets praised for not jumping on the cinematical bandwagon, so why should they?

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="markinthedark"]

i played metroid prime, though i dont remember it much. If the storyline required you to go out of your way to to know it... i probably never bothered. Ive never been a big fan of collecting lore in games... though thats more my fault than a flaw of the game.

I for some reason never played Majora's mask even though i loved OOT.

hellhund

I have yet to see anything top the Storytelling of Metroid Prime.

Nintendo gets praised for not jumping on the cinematical bandwagon, so why should they?

kontejner44

[QUOTE="Game-fu"]

[QUOTE="princeofshapeir"]

None of those games were made by Sony/Microsoft. :lol: You're missing the point that when he says "made by Nintendo", this implies "first party games", and thus bringing in third party games here is useless.

Also, the story in MGS4 is garbage. It's not compelling.

princeofshapeir

I agree and disagree with this. The problem with MGS4's story to me was taking an hour to cover a point that could have been made in five minutes. Something got lost in translation along the way, but if you trim the fat I don't think the story is bad at all.

MGS4's story is good for what it is: comic book entertainment. But trying to dress it up as a compelling work of art is inappropriate. It's meant solely to entertain, not give you some new societal message or make a lasting statement.

So, from what I've just read, a story needs some big societal message in order to be compelling?

OK.... :roll:

Ninty thinks of so many things while developing a game, that i have never heard any other developer talk about. We often see a lack of things in their games, but almost as often that lack is there because of the purpose of the game.

Ninty does know how to do a good story. The problem is that You do a story for a reason. You don't just do a story and make a game about it.
The family friendly games that they excell at, are not really games for such a story as You want.

Metroid other M might provide such a story. It sounds like it will be an emotional story, to deliver Samus humanity. If they intend to, i am sure they could write Samus a story, and deliver it so perfectly that it would make every jrpg and western hollywood developer blush.

[QUOTE="kontejner44"]

Nintendo gets praised for not jumping on the cinematical bandwagon, so why should they?

SakusEnvoy

and gamespot was the only site that was off by about.7 points then TP overall score. sometimes idc what gamespot has to say their reasoning is wrong alot of times.

Zelda. I win.

zelda timeline story is messed up

thats pretty compelling if you ask me

I find most Zelda/Metroid games to have compelling stories. The Mother series, Mario RPGs, Fire Emblem series, Advance Wars.. yeah.

[QUOTE="thom_maytees"]

Many of these games listed on this thread were not developed by Nintendo's internal studios, but by either subsidiaries (Intelligent Systems), second-parties (Alpha Dreams), or third-party developers.

IronBass

They were originally a hardware manufacturer for Nintendo and helping other Nintendo teams program the games. Their first inhouse game was Famicom Wars and Fire Emblem.

To answer the question, No they never have and never will.sonicthemegaman

yes they have:|

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"]To answer the question, No they never have and never will.Mario1331

yes they have:|

[QUOTE="Mario1331"]

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"]To answer the question, No they never have and never will.sonicthemegaman

yes they have:|

metroid prime.golden sun.mario rpg's....

were you not reading this thread?

They have Golden Sun and Mother 3.

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"][QUOTE="Mario1331"]

yes they have:|

Mario1331

metroid prime.golden sun.mario rpg's....

were you not reading this thread?

I find some of the Zelda games compelling and the Metroid Prime games. I think you will find a lot of the games you find compelling people may also disagree with, people have different opinions and taste.

It seems like every nintendo game is essentially collect item X in order to free/save Y.

markinthedark

[QUOTE="Mario1331"]

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"] Really? When? -_-sonicthemegaman

metroid prime.golden sun.mario rpg's....

were you not reading this thread?

what kind of question is that. the metroid prime series made you want to find all the lores to understand what was going on in the series. Each game had its own story without the need of voice acting which left a powerful effect after the game was done.

Golden Sun was a brilliant role playing game with a great story without the need of voice acting. Mario RPG's story are very witty and accustomed to attract beginners and veterans that are enjoying the series. Again without the need of voice acting

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"][QUOTE="Mario1331"]

metroid prime.golden sun.mario rpg's....

were you not reading this thread?

Mario1331

what kind of question is that. the metroid prime series made you want to find all the lores to understand what was going on in the series. Each game had its own story without the need of voice acting which left a powerful effect after the game was done.

Golden Sun was a brilliant role playing game with a great story without the need of voice acting. Mario RPG's story are very witty and accustomed to attract beginners and veterans that are enjoying the series. Again without the need of voice acting

To answer the question, No they never have and never will.sonicthemegaman

Paper Mario TTYD would kindly disagree with you.

[QUOTE="Mario1331"]

metroid prime.golden sun.mario rpg's....

were you not reading this thread?

sonicthemegaman

What makes your favorite videogame story "compelling"?

Compelling is not something quantifiable, what is and isn't compelling is completely up to opinion.

not mario, but zelda, metroid, and occanionaly donkey kong hold my attention.

So it's "compelling" because it doesn't use voice acting? I thought it actually told some sort of deep story with a moral or meaning to the overall theme of the game. I guess all you need to make a game "compelling" is to not have add voice acting. sonicthemegaman

Since when does a storyline need to have a moral to be compelling? What he meant is that the atmosphere of Metroid has always relied heavily on giving the player a feeling of total isolation. And believe, me not hearing asingle wordthroughout theentire game adds to that feeling (which is exactly why Metroid Prime 3, which did have voice acting, felt odd).With that in mind, it's still remarkable that there is a very strong presence of story in these games, even if the storytelling elements are largely optional. But that's what the game is all about. If you just keep blasting your way through without actually knowing what it is you're blasting, it's way harder to be immersed by the game than if you actually read and interpret everything, which gives you an exact idea of what you're doing all alone on that godforsaken planet. Not to mention the practical use as logs occasionally contained detailed descriptions of experiments that would come to life later on in the game. The scientific style in which everything was written was incredibly well-done, especially in MP2. There were even welcome moments of comic relief, as some documents contained hilarious accounts of accidents with Metroids.

It might not sound like much, but if you've experienced it you'll know that Metroid Prime is the definition of compelling, as it managed to tell you a story in a very subtle way, yet with the power to make you become totally obsessed with the in-game world. It's a whole different storytelling technique and a well-executed one at that.

That is why Metroid Prime is compelling.

[QUOTE="Mario1331"]

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"] What exactly makes those games "compelling"? sonicthemegaman

what kind of question is that. the metroid prime series made you want to find all the lores to understand what was going on in the series. Each game had its own story without the need of voice acting which left a powerful effect after the game was done.

Golden Sun was a brilliant role playing game with a great story without the need of voice acting. Mario RPG's story are very witty and accustomed to attract beginners and veterans that are enjoying the series. Again without the need of voice acting

Yes. Majora's Mask.

And there have been plenty of 3rd party games exclusively on Nintendo systems that had superb stories.

Majora's Mask and Wind Waker.

Fire Emblem and Earthbound. Advanced Wars Day of Ruin.

[QUOTE="Mario1331"]

[QUOTE="sonicthemegaman"] What exactly makes those games "compelling"? sonicthemegaman

what kind of question is that. the metroid prime series made you want to find all the lores to understand what was going on in the series. Each game had its own story without the need of voice acting which left a powerful effect after the game was done.

Golden Sun was a brilliant role playing game with a great story without the need of voice acting. Mario RPG's story are very witty and accustomed to attract beginners and veterans that are enjoying the series. Again without the need of voice acting

no i was pointing out without the use of voice acting they bring a very good and lasting story to the table.

[QUOTE="PSGamerforlife"]

[QUOTE="Bigboi500"]

Has Sony or Microsoft ever made a game with a compelling story either?

charizard1605

NS of course :|.

No ****..nvm

If you take a look at all the PS exclusive games from the beginning of the PS1 era till now...there are heaps of exclusives with compelling story lines on the PS1, PS2 and PS3.

And from MS, just as ONE example..Halo?

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="PSGamerforlife"]

NS of course :|.

PSGamerforlife

No ****..nvm

If you take a look at all the PS exclusive games from the beginning of the PS1 era till now...there are heaps of exclusives with compelling story lines on the PS1, PS2 and PS3.

And from MS, just as ONE example..Halo?

halo is not a compelling story but its pretty good to me at least

Well essentially most games follows that sort of format where the object/point of it is to obtain a certain items to progress toward the ending of the game. Regardless I can concur with those that mention The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, very well executed that have that dark theme to it along with some memorable moment.