Not that I really cared about what was shown at this year's E3 (in fact I learnt that it had been held and was over just this morning!) but c'mon the announcements made me crack a good laugh. It's all pointless rehashes if you ask me... Sony and Microsoft are really good athletes at rehashing stuff over and over but Nintendo is king of the hill in this subject: Mario 3000, Zelda 1504, Mario Kart 300, Mario Party 4000 .. etc. There was nothing interesting or innovative. The reality is that the console gaming industry has been declining constantly since the mid 2000s, and now with the blow of the smartphones, which cost less, which in many cases you can do whatever you want with, and have innovative features and games which are fun and go just for some dollars, their status is more and more worrying for the gaming industry companies. Compare this to the situation on consoles: totally locked platforms with games that cost top dollar, from $30 to $60, (except the downloadable rehash of old, like VC, or Sky-like subscription services like PSN or Xbox Live where you have to be their puppet and sell your soul to not be banned), games that are neither fun nor long which you can finish in just two hours. At this point one one wonders: how much time is left for them? That's why now they cater to the casual gamer with "games" like Brain Academy or Wii Fit/Sports/whatever. Many smartphones games have simple, yet addictive gameplay, not stupid stories made up full of boring repetition or cutscenes. I do not feel that these are just my opinions. Case in point, some weeks ago on the main news programme in Italy, the TG1, a video of a song in which Mario and other game and comics star is aired. Up to that point, nothing really wrong. But then advertising time comes, and you know what advertisement is aired in that space? Super Mario Kart Wii! Our corrupt public television doing hidden product placement yet again. But there was one thing I thought about Nintendo: if in May 2011 they still have to advertise Mario Kart Wii to sell, they're really in bad waters. Mario Kart Wii is 3 years old at this point. In these three years surely some blockbuster games would have come up and those would be the ones you advertise. Instead, MK Wii. So this is real proof that Nintendo has nothing, absolutely nothing to offer. Every console after the DC is just a sack of shitty endless rehashes, cash cows to milk until they die. 'nuff said.
I will admit that while I think the hardware is innovative, the software doesn't strike me as "Nintendo". It really IS too many rehashes. I mean, I want a 3D Mario game and an epic Zelda game, but I also want to see new original franchises. Kid Icarus is effectively a new franchise because it was dormant for so long that it requires a complete reinvention to appear on modern hardware, so I'm okay with that one because it really is new.
WiiU looks like a handheld brick and I'd rather a brick, much more useful. They should have called it 'UWii'... it's more.... fluid But seriously, these 'i' 'u' titled stuff are the worst names on the planet. Not only do they sound cheesy but they make no sense. Xbox... usual sell out with kinect games no-one wants. Minecraft Kinect - I AM DISAPPOINT, MOJANG. I thought you were better than that. PSVITA - I WANT. This will be the downfall of the gaming industry. Games are becoming like fashion, what's in one month is out the next and it's replaced with something new and people flock to it like zombies to a brain. And casual games like so are also known as: shovelware. Nintendo needs to be more creative in terms of games. They've been hanging on to Mario and all their series of characters far too long...
Wow, what the hell are you DOING Nintendo? First showing no actual footage from your new console, but dressing up competitor footage and pretending it's yours... THEN announcing games that don't EXIST! "At Nintendo's E3 press event, Nintendo honco Satoru Iwata revealed that Smash Bros. was heading to the Wii U and the 3DS. There are no screenshots of the games. Nothing. That's because work on neither title has begun. According to Smash Bros. designer Masahiro Sakurai, "Honestly, at this point, we shouldn't be announcing these games to the general public, but since we need to assemble developers for the games, we made them public." Sakurai added that work on the games has not started, and their future is dependent on the ability of those recruited to work on the titles."
Well yeah, post-Wii Nintendo anyway. Nintendo still did original titles on Gamecube. Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion, etc. There was enough there for me to be happy. Seems like all of the new franchise content on Wii was non-games like Sports, Music, Fit, etc. I don't need an NES-era deluge of riches, but 3-4 solid new 1st party franchises over the life of a console would be nice.
This was embarrassing, yes. It would be more classy to show the logos with the names of the games and then throw some specs. But the other 2 already used the same tactic, so we can't really criticize nintendo. Anyway, here's some interesting hands-on on the WiiU controller and it's tech demos: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/we-played-wii-u-plays-tech-demos/ As for Nintendo, i wonder why they don't think about becoming big partners of Sega and Capcom and start making exclusive games from old franchises like Alex Kidd, Megaman, and so on. SEGA for example has tons of old franchises that are sleeping for too much time. Signing a deal with the company to make exclusive games of those franchises would add more interest to the new console.
Didn't the exact same thing happened with SSB Brwal? I remember I read somewhere that when the game was first announced in 2005, no work had been done on it, and Sakurai didn't even know about the game.
They probably saw how apathetic everyone was about Luigi's Mansion 2 and threw SSB out at the last minute so they could have a worthwhile surprise.
I think nintendo had a Sega moment with the GC in that it had a lot of great games yet nobody gave a shit about it. So for me the Wii is their way of saying: fuck'em, they wanted a dumb iconsole? they got it... Now with moar epoxi!:lol:
The reason is simple: because those franchises don't/wouldn't sell. Let's face it, most gamers today have never even heard of Alex Kidd.
The 3DS lineup from nintendo's conference was fantastic. The games they showed are the most exciting of the show for me. As for the new console, no specs and no game lineup, and a controller prototype that just streams video from the box. I think the reason they didn't give us specs is because they don't exist yet. One page I saw had it listed as a "dual core processor". Pretty vague. And the flying bird tech demo was extremely average for todays hardware. Its amazing that with the wii so far behind now hardware wise that nintendo would not have been preparing a new console sooner for release this year. It really makes you wonder what their R&D department is doing.
Really? I disagree. The whole gaming press would drool over some classics being brought back to life. Plus, what kids these days know about Excitebike? But they made a 3D version of it anyway. Starting new IPs is a huge risk and with the gaming world full of modern combat FPS and sports games, i bet Nintendo could make tons of money on great new versions of old popular SEGA franchises. And i'm not talking about of just Alex Kidd. The whole family and casual audience Nintendo got because of the Wii would like more old "family oriented" franchises.
They already made new, great versions of After Burner and Out Run and they didn't move the needle one bit when it comes to more casual gamers. Really, most of Sega's franchises are from an era where the arcade was king and realism didn't matter one bit, today's gaming world has changed into something where storyline, gritty realism and blood & gore are the main selling points.
Those were just arcade ports. And Nintendo didn't had those. Plus, if those are the main selling points how Nintendo made millions with the Wii and DS? Don't get me wrong, i think that many people would like some classic fun back instead of just focusing on realism. Anyway, we're going off-topic.
Massive hype because of the "innovative" new technology and marketing towards casual gamers. It helps that franchises like Mario and Zelda are ingrained in popular culture at this point, while Sega franchises except for Sonic have failed to achieve the same status.
They made millions because with the Wii you could have granny playing the bowling game after a few sherries and had the DS not had Brain Training it wouldn't have sold a quarter of what it has, again in part because it was aimed more as an educational item to older people than it was as a games console to the 'regular' demographic.
