Last
week marked the start and end of this year's annual Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3). It was the time of year that most of the
major power players in the world of gaming emerge for a few days to
talk about the near-future of gaming. While I have my own opinions on
this year's E3 (which are well documented on my
twitter account),
this week's article is not exactly about that. No, this week I will
be focusing on one specific company in the console race, Nintendo.
Now, this one is a tough one for me to write. Even though I stopped
buying and playing Nintendo consoles and games long ago, I still have
a soft spot for the company in my heart because of there influence on
me in my formative years. However, the more I hear from them,
especially lately, the more concerned I become. This has invoked a
number of mixed feelings. This week's article is my attempt to
organize my thoughts and write my feeling down regarding Nintendo.
I
should start with what I really like about Nintendo. The best thing
about Nintendo, and I do not think this is hyperbole, is that they
are some of the most creative people in terms of gameplay and how
players interact with the games they play. Nothing exemplifies this
more than the Wii and its successor, the Wii U. Both of these pieces
of hardware attempted to revolutionize gaming with a new twist on
control schemes rather than release the same console again but with
better hardware and an internet connection. The Wii used motion
consoles to try and immerse players more deeply into game worlds (to
arguable success, but I digress) and the Wii U is attempting to build
on this by adding a touchscreen to one to two of the controllers to
allow for “asymmetric
gameplay”
or the ability of one player to see/do something completely different
than the other players. This concept is a totally new and unexplored
territory in gaming that has many people rightfully curious regarding
its application. This is one thing Nintendo does very well. Nintendo
understands that not all games have to be serious and that not every
game needs to be a “gritty” and realistic. As such, they are
willing to play around and think of concepts that might be fun for
the consumer. I have great admiration and respect for this.
However,
this strength can also be a weakness. While Nintendo is interested in
breaking new grounds in gaming, most of the third-party publishers
that console makers rely on to make games and push their products
lack either the same drive or the same creativity. They are unable to
make experiences that cater to this new technology, making it
effectively worthless. This becomes more obvious upon inspection of
the lineup advertised on the Wii U. Two of the most notable games on
the lineup, Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City, are both ports of
games that have already become old news. Once the Wii U is released
this holiday, they will have long been absent from the game
industry's radar. The
rest of lineup
also consists of several ports like Darksiders 2, Ninja Gaiden 3,
Assassin's Creed 3, and more. All of the potential of this new and
interesting technology is being used to port games with audiences
that already have consoles capable of playing them. It gives the
impression that nobody can really use this technology to add to the
experience in any significant way besides Nintendo.
Which
transitions nicely into my next point: While Nintendo is very
creative and ambitious, it appears that they may be trying to
proverbially bite off more than they can chew. Nintendo's strength of
creativity is also a weakness because no one seems to be able to
reign in their creativity and put it towards something much more
manageable. The best demonstration of this is the “MiiVerse”
announced for the Wii U. The unique feature of MiiVerse is that
people will be able to send messages that will be able to be seen
by anybody playing the same game (to ask for help, give help, brag
about high scores/accomplishments, etc.). While I would prefer to
avoid a deluge of messages clogging my single player game, I admit
that this is an interesting concept. The problem with this is that
the internet, being the way that it is, will always have somebody
that will swear up a storm and draw penises on everything. Nintendo,
trying to stay as kid-friendly as possible, will naturally be trying
to avoid that. In order to keep their console kid-friendly, they will
of course be using the standard language filters used in many chat
programs. In addition, they intend to have teams of people dedicated
to going in and actually reading every single message ever sent on
MiiVerse. Every!
Single! One!
I should not have to tell you how impossible such an undertaking
would be. Even if it was possible, such a brute force censorship
would require an untold amount of resources to be anywhere near as
successful as it should be. When planning a feature like MiiVerse,
Nintendo should have put more thought into how it would be policed. I
am not against Nintendo policing its own service, (After all, we
all know how the internet tends to behave.)
but I think that they need to be much smarter about it than that.
My
last gripe with Nintendo is in the use of its IPs. This is something
that I know I will be in the minority when I say it, but Nintendo
does not do nearly enough with their IPs. While they definitely alter
the gameplay with each iteration, it is hard to not feel like they
keep treading and retreading the same ground over and over again.
They rarely do any significant change-up of their core franchises. To
be fair, this is partially the fault of their fan-base that complains
if they do so much as change
the art style of a franchise.
However, it often feels like if once one has played one Mario/Zelda
game, they have played every other one as well. Even when they change
up a franchise, it often feels like it is just another reiteration
with a gimmick attached to showcase some new technology. In other
words, it becomes a glorified tech demo. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward
Sword was a good example of this on the Wii and New Super Mario Bros
U, Nintendo Land: Luigi's Mansion, and Pikman 3 are examples from the
Wii U. There is nothing wrong with Nintendo using its own IPs to
showcase its own technology, but they need to do something more than
the same old thing with a slight twist.
There is a chance I am just being unnecessarily harsh on Nintendo.
However, most of these grievances are legitimate concerns that
Nintendo does have to address to its fans at the very least. The Wii
U has the potential to be an awesome platform with a variety of
completely unique, interesting, and fun gameplay experiences, but
potential is the only thing I have seen. I want this to succeed. I
want the Wii U to deliver on the potential that anybody who keeps
tabs on this industry can see is there. I am just concerned that
Nintendo may not be able to deliver. I will close with the following
statements: Nintendo should have definitely revealed the price for
the Wii U at that press event. This is because Nintendo has never
been known to sell their products at a loss, unlike the other two
console manufacturers and that touchscreen GamePad looks to be
expensive. Announcing a price point would have allayed many of the
fears people have. Nintendo can succeed, but they have to be smart
about their next few moves.
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