i feel like nintendo land is a real cynical grab for the people who play facebook games and ios games. 'now that you played this version, you dumb fucks will love the full game!'
Well, there was no need for swearing. Certainly some games (Donkey Kong, F-Zero, Yoshi) offer experiences similar to those on Facebook/IOS, others offer experiences and play styles much deeper than what I assume the average player (I assume you're looking at the Angry Birds/Farmville crowd, rather than the TWENYios Crowd) would be used to on that system. None of the single-player games offer the same amount of content as Angry Birds on their own, either.
wii sports and nintendogs and brain age felt like honest-to-god experimentation with hardware. and more than that, there was a clear idea of what those things were. the ideas behind those machines were very easily communicated. 'oh, it's a bat. oh, i can pet the dog. oh, i just enter my answer here.' and more importantly, it was new and different.
Maybe it is cynical of them - but the casual market is now playing these sorts of games, so I can't fault them for including them to try and lure some people in.
i might not be so negative about nintendoland had it been a ds game in 2005 or even 2006 (yeah yeah, i know a lot uses motion controls, but they could have had that on the ds as well). but nintendo's had eight years to figure out touch screen controls and they couldn't deliver one piece of software that shows off what makes the platform so unique or what it could add to a game experience. i mean, ubisoft did, but that's probably due to montpellier and michel ancel's guys.
Well, it couldn't have been multiplayer in the same way on the DS, but apart from that I feel like Yoshi, Pikmin, and Luigi's Mansion offer a good taste of what could be possible with a more deep experience. Ubisoft did out do them in regards to innovating with the controller - but a 3rd party doing something like that on a Nintendo Console should be celebrated, in my opinion. I honestly do hope Zombi U cracks whatever arbitrary number required for a sequel, because (even with my short time with the game), I can see how rushed the team was to get the thing out for launch and a bit more time and knowledge (and budget, hopefully) could lead to something even more special.
Anyway, I know it's a $60 in the US, but Japanese pricing puts it ~1,000 yen lower than NSMBU and ~2,000 less than most 3rd party titles, which might help give it some legs (along with positive word-of-mouth). It's also possible they'll bundle it here eventually to try and move some units.
wii sports 3 would be like nintendogs + cats- a lazy effort (like wii fit u), but not a super cynical one.
I don't think Nintendogs + Cats was lazy, per say, just iterative. Wii Sports 3 is coming and, like Nintendogs + Cats, I don't blame them for trying because Resort still managed to sell ~30M, if I remember correctly. Perhaps they'll bundle Sports with the Basic Set over next summer/when it launches.
I know it may be obvious to you, but I'd like to know which one(s) you consider better.
