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Editorial: The Overlooked Importance of Nintendo
- Thread starter lancubap
- Start date
- Status
New Nintendo owned game IPs since 2000 for reference... released games only...
-Monster Tactics (2000) Spiral
-Sin & Punishment (2000) Treasure
-Animal Crossing (2001)
-Mobile Golf (2001) Camelot
-Kururin (2001) Eighting
-Golden Sun (2001) Camelot
-Pikmin (2001)
-Magical Vacation (2001) Brownie Brown
-Tomato Adventure (2002) Alphadream
-Cubivore (2002) Saru Brunei
-Happy Panechu! (2002)
-Eternal Darkness (2002) Silicon Knights
-Densetsu no Stafy (2002) TOSE
-Giftpia (2003) Skip
-Daigassou! Band Brothers (2004)
-Polarium (2004) Mitchell
-Trace Memory (2005) Cing
-electroplankton (2005)
-Nintendogs (2005)
-Sennen Kazoku (2005)
-Brain-Age (2005)
-Chibi-Robo! (2005) Skip
-Big Brain Academy (2005)
-Elite Beat Agents (2005) iNiS
-Clubhouse Games (2005) Agenda
-True Swing Golf (2005) T&E Soft
-Geist (2005) n-Space
-Drill Dozer (2005) Game Freak
-English Training (2006)
-Odama (2006) Vivarium
-Magnetica (2006) Mitchell
-Touch Panic (2006) Aki
-bit Generations (2006) Skip/Q-Games
-Project Hacker Kakusei (2006) RED
-Rhythm Tengoku (2006)
-Chousoujuu Mecha MG (2006) Sandlot
-Otona no Joushiki Yoku Training (2006) HAL
-Wii Sports (2006)
-Wii Play (2006)
-Hotel Dusk (2007) Cing
-Jet Impulse (2007)
-Slide Adventure Mag Kid (2007)
-Endless Ocean (2007) Arika
-DS Bungaku Zenshou (2007) Intelligent Systems
-Wii Fit (2007)
-Soma Bringer (2008) Monolith
-Bokuraha Kaseki Horidaa (2008) RED
-Monster Tactics (2000) Spiral
-Sin & Punishment (2000) Treasure
-Animal Crossing (2001)
-Mobile Golf (2001) Camelot
-Kururin (2001) Eighting
-Golden Sun (2001) Camelot
-Pikmin (2001)
-Magical Vacation (2001) Brownie Brown
-Tomato Adventure (2002) Alphadream
-Cubivore (2002) Saru Brunei
-Happy Panechu! (2002)
-Eternal Darkness (2002) Silicon Knights
-Densetsu no Stafy (2002) TOSE
-Giftpia (2003) Skip
-Daigassou! Band Brothers (2004)
-Polarium (2004) Mitchell
-Trace Memory (2005) Cing
-electroplankton (2005)
-Nintendogs (2005)
-Sennen Kazoku (2005)
-Brain-Age (2005)
-Chibi-Robo! (2005) Skip
-Big Brain Academy (2005)
-Elite Beat Agents (2005) iNiS
-Clubhouse Games (2005) Agenda
-True Swing Golf (2005) T&E Soft
-Geist (2005) n-Space
-Drill Dozer (2005) Game Freak
-English Training (2006)
-Odama (2006) Vivarium
-Magnetica (2006) Mitchell
-Touch Panic (2006) Aki
-bit Generations (2006) Skip/Q-Games
-Project Hacker Kakusei (2006) RED
-Rhythm Tengoku (2006)
-Chousoujuu Mecha MG (2006) Sandlot
-Otona no Joushiki Yoku Training (2006) HAL
-Wii Sports (2006)
-Wii Play (2006)
-Hotel Dusk (2007) Cing
-Jet Impulse (2007)
-Slide Adventure Mag Kid (2007)
-Endless Ocean (2007) Arika
-DS Bungaku Zenshou (2007) Intelligent Systems
-Wii Fit (2007)
-Soma Bringer (2008) Monolith
-Bokuraha Kaseki Horidaa (2008) RED
I always thought that the whole new IP = innovation argument was tired anyway.
Nintendo have always developed a game mechanic and placed a franchise around it, it's not the other way around.
Look at Mario, in that universe you have a platformer, tennis, baseball, arcade racer, fighter, party game, etc. Would taking Mario Super Sluggers, taking out Mario, and adding some new characters in there make it any more innovative?
Look at Mario Galaxy. That's one of the most innovative games so far this generation, and it's still within the confines of a franchise. That's the thing with Nintendo's property's, most of them are flexible enough to make any game they want. They only one I think that suffers is Zelda. They tried to take it in a new direction and everyone pissed their pants.
Nintendo have always developed a game mechanic and placed a franchise around it, it's not the other way around.
Look at Mario, in that universe you have a platformer, tennis, baseball, arcade racer, fighter, party game, etc. Would taking Mario Super Sluggers, taking out Mario, and adding some new characters in there make it any more innovative?
Look at Mario Galaxy. That's one of the most innovative games so far this generation, and it's still within the confines of a franchise. That's the thing with Nintendo's property's, most of them are flexible enough to make any game they want. They only one I think that suffers is Zelda. They tried to take it in a new direction and everyone pissed their pants.
Having quality kids-friendly titles is important to the industry, no matter how much insecure manbabies on message boards and in the video games press love to harp on them.
Besides Nintendo games, most of the titles available for children nowadays consists of random licenced crap, with the occasional good surprise. Most (if not all) Nintendo titles have consistent controls, well-done tutorial sections, well-designed UI, and excellent learning curves.
For example of what's available elsewhere, I once bought a Strawberry Shortcake DS game for my daughter, and this game is terrible : the goals are extremely confusing, the controls are not coherent at all, and the difficulty is broken when considering the audience, which results in intense frustration.
As a side note, anybody knows of a good site that would do kids games reviews ? The large sites (IGN, 1up...) are too busy catering to their 16-25 male audience to bother with them, sadly.
Besides Nintendo games, most of the titles available for children nowadays consists of random licenced crap, with the occasional good surprise. Most (if not all) Nintendo titles have consistent controls, well-done tutorial sections, well-designed UI, and excellent learning curves.
For example of what's available elsewhere, I once bought a Strawberry Shortcake DS game for my daughter, and this game is terrible : the goals are extremely confusing, the controls are not coherent at all, and the difficulty is broken when considering the audience, which results in intense frustration.
As a side note, anybody knows of a good site that would do kids games reviews ? The large sites (IGN, 1up...) are too busy catering to their 16-25 male audience to bother with them, sadly.
Exactly.skinnyrattler said:
This article (allthough I dont agree with all of it) also shows whats wrong with the hundreds of blogs or semi-news articles about Nintendo and their new strategy or lack of new franchises. All written from the view of people who passed the age of 20 years or older. But I dont think these wont stop coming any time soon.
norinrad21
Banned
CorwinB said:
Christan videogame reviews seems like a place to look when it comes to childfriendly games and reviews for the DS/Wii and the other systems
Starchasing
Member
Sadist said:
fixed.
V
Vilix
Unconfirmed Member
jarrod said:
Isn`t Sin & Punishment the intellicual property of Treasure? I thought Nintendo just published it. Rare owns Banjo Tooie and they were a Nintendo second party. Treasure's totally independent.
bigmakstudios said:
What exactly is the hardcore demographic? Do you mean fans of traditional Nintendo franchises? Fans of 'mature' rated games? Regardless, the appeal of those games seems absolutely irrelevent to whether one is a 'hardcore' gamer. And the concept of a hardcore gamer? Do you mean ['12-17 year old male'|'older male w/ immature side']? The sort of people who find action, profanity, and nudity to be markers of a quality film or game?
CorwinB said:
They're, um, pretty adamant on their games being Christian friendly. An otherwise excellent game can score 0/10 if it's deemed potentially offensive to devout Christians (see one of the recent Ninja Gaiden games.) They even marked Mario 64 down somewhat because of it (the Dry Dry Desert boss having an eye on the palm was a no-no, for some reason.)
It was funny reading their review of Doom 3 though.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
legend166 said:
Personally, I think one of the reasons everyone pissed when Zelda was experimented on was that Zelda was, for the uptight adult gamer, the "respectable" Nintendo franchise that wasn't overly kiddy, besides, perhaps, Metroid. The infamous Spaceworld 2001 debacle seemed to happen because when Nintendo showed an even more "mature" Link sword battle, the fans rejoiced that Nintendo was making Zelda even "cooler" for adults.
Then a happy stylized Zelda came out and it was betrayalton. I don't think Zelda is inherently, by its nature, as limited as that. It's not as flexible as the generalized cartoon universe of Mario however, for sure.
But, this reminds me of what I had been pondering after reading comments in another thread today: the double standard a lot of people seem to have with Nintendo reusing franchises vs anybody else. Hardcore gamers do not generally seem to wax emo when Virtua Fighter 5, Madden 2k7, GTA4, or countless other games come out and in the big picture, are only remixes or refinements of their prior incarnations and not wildly different. But there usually seems to be a particularly bitter, aggressive front of discontent when Nintendo makes a new Mario Kart and shockingly, it's still Mario Kart. "Nintendo just shoves their franchises down our throats with no innovation and mediocre efforts! It sells a million copies because you're all sheep!"
Which, even objectively, I think pure bullshit can be called upon. Few developers put as much effort and polish into franchise entries as Nintendo typically does - when gamers bitch about a new Nintendo franchise entry failing to live up to some standard, they are usually holding it to a pinnacle game that was a rare combination of development forces and circumstances, and virtually never equaled by anything or anyone ever again.
By any other developer's standards, a "mediocre" Nintendo franchise entry is often beyond their greatest dreams of success
I have rarely (though it happens) seen a Nintendo franchise title that sells well not deserve those sales based purely on its merit as a game; even if it's not the best entry in the entire series, usually it is a quality, respectable title by itself. (But then, for the hardcore, that never seems to be enough; if a game does not blow away and exceed their already often unrealistic expectations for a series, then it does not deserve to exist, much less sell well. See: infinite whining over Super Mario Sunshine, or a dozen other games.)
D.Lo
Member
My site runs a kids site with kid-specific reviews, gamerkids.com.auCorwinB said:
It's still growing, and while we review every top 'family' game (eg Mario games) separately for the site, the shovelware we review is only that we get as review code (ie we don't go out and buy all the Spongebob games). But we're up to almost 100 kid-specific reviews of all G and PG rated games, and they each have a paragraph for parents about violence etc.
Once I'm happy we've got enough content as a base we'll start promoting it more heavily as a resource for parents.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
I always gotten that impression. The whole industry milks the hell out of their properties and no company is immune. Any company that attains a successful IP will eventually milk the hell out of it if they are a big player. Halo has now spawned 3 titles with an upcoming spin off. GTA has spawned the 'stories' titles and we can expect similar milkage of GTA4 this gen. What Devil May Cry, Gran Turismo or Star fox are we on again? I can't keep up. Hell, IPs that have not seen massive success in recent years get sequels and milk (castlevania...oh wait, I already put a capcom game down..damnit). Yet, Nintendo gets the brunt of nerd rage.Kaijima said:But, this reminds me of what I had been pondering after reading comments in another thread today: the double standard a lot of people seem to have with Nintendo reusing franchises vs anybody else. Hardcore gamers do not generally seem to wax emo when Virtua Fighter 5, Madden 2k7, GTA4, or countless other games come out and in the big picture, are only remixes or refinements of their prior incarnations and not wildly different. But there usually seems to be a particularly bitter, aggressive front of discontent when Nintendo makes a new Mario Kart and shockingly, it's still Mario Kart. "Nintendo just shoves their franchises down our throats with no innovation and mediocre efforts! It sells a million copies because you're all sheep!"
Which, even objectively, I think pure bullshit can be called upon. Few developers put as much effort and polish into franchise entries as Nintendo typically does - when gamers bitch about a new Nintendo franchise entry failing to live up to some standard, they are usually holding it to a pinnacle game that was a rare combination of development forces and circumstances, and virtually never equaled by anything or anyone ever again.
By any other developer's standards, a "mediocre" Nintendo franchise entry is often beyond their greatest dreams of success
But, they are a big target and easy to hit. They do things how they see fit. They don't cater exclusively to the hardcore. And they unfortunately have a demographic that includes 10-21 yr olds, a group notoriously influenced by appearance and image.
I'm not even going to get into my entire argument for 'different shades of excellent'. Every Zelda game is judged by that. Excellent games with polish that most devs could only dream of that. Check out GTA4 and how some wacky aspects of the game still have yet to be polished. You have to wonder what's the difference? Why can't Rockstar polish various aspects? Why haven't they changed the driving camera at all since GTA3? But, reviewers, gamers et all overlook it and seemingly reward it. Galaxy revamped the camera system (destroying a free look camera system from SM64) and took out your input and did it well. But GTA4, when I drive around a corner, either going up a hill or down a hill (different height levels) the camera aims, not where I'm going but usually at the side of the car.
People don't care, is what I think. They just care about superficial stuff and not necessarily on the gameplay. I'm just pointing out how a good chunk of Nintendo games have excellent polish and fine tuned gameplay and it get's overlooked. And this isn't an argument that Nintendo games need more respect or higher ratings. I just finished a marathon GTA4 session and got a little frustrated with certain aspects (how can a motor bike have a worse turning ratio than any car? Seriously? Why does it have similar physics and controls as various cars? ) I hate to bring it up but Kajima hit a pretty good point.
D.Lo
Member
Reminds me of an anecdote.skinnyrattler said:
One time I saw a friend show another friend Wind Waker. 'Why does it look so bad' were the exact words of friend 2. He couldn't get past the idea that cartoon=kiddy=cheap. All subtlety was missed, all detail, all gameplay.
He then very happily returned to playing the 'awesome' 'much better looking' game Enter the Matrix. It was even the GameCube version - there was no system bias, he genuinely preferred Enter the Matrix.
GenericPseudonym
Banned
One of the first games I ever played was StarCraft. Nintendo does not have a monoploy on fun, engaging and easy-to-play games.
GenericPseudonym
Banned
Arde5643 said:
I don't even read VG Cats I just picked up the avatar in a thread because it was better than LOLCHAIR.
GenericPseudonym
Banned
Terrell said:
It was 1999 and I was eight. I didn't play online until years later.
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I agree with the article.
Ok, I have played both, and I think Wind Waker and The Matrix exist in the same plane of mediocrity. In fact I don't understand the appeal of Zelda games. They are not good exploration games (limited world), not good platformers (subpar mechanics), not good RPGs (no moral choices/options), lack good combat mechanics, lack of a story, etc. I respect the fact that people think that the games are great, but I have still to figure out why. I have played the 2 Zelda games on GC, and one Zelda game in SNES. I just dont get it and gave up a couple months ago.D.Lo said:
dslgunstar
Banned
For me the appeal of the Zelda franchise has always been about great pacing, great world design, and a nice balance of exploration, combat and puzzles.
godhandiscen said:
Exploration is fine for the most part, they're not TRYING to be platformers, nor are they trying to be full fledged RPGs, combat is okay for what is needed, story might be cliche, but works out well for the most part without coming off pretentious like most games (hello, FF), but possibly the most important reason why Zelda gets a lot of love is that the games have some of the best designed dungeons in gaming.
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