Guess I'm ineligible for that free 3D Excitebike..

Eh, Nintendo? I mean it's not like getting hacked by LulzSec would delay matters any, right?


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Iwata should look around a little.

With Nintendo's president biting back at Apple for all their oversaturation "tactics", it's more than a bit funny that they should tout the fact that they have more software on their console as a positive thing. Quality over quantity, the oblivious president parrots to an audience surely scratching their heads in confusion. He implies the innovations in social gaming are going to kill the industry if we aren't careful. He says Apple is mostly to blame with their implementation of the app store encouraging "garage" developers to produce cheaper content, and mobile games are dragging the quality bar down even further by lacking the value and personal satisfaction that a $40 game carries with its purchase.

You know. Like Nintendo's $40 games.

This sounds less like a concerned parent of the industry and more like the lamentations of one unable to keep up with it's baby's development.

The Wii may have more software from its competitors, but how much of that is quality Software? Anyone even keeping up with the industry a little, or even owning a Wii knows that the system has become a dumping ground for shovelware and garbage titles, and outside of some select third party offerings and Nintendo's own First Party lineup, there isn't anything on the console worth picking up. Is that really a better alternative?

So they're effectively the App store, just in a physical form. Just ask their "Seal of Quality", which went from being the beacon of light that saved the industry in the 80's to having it's meaning removed entirely. Hardly coincidence.



The seal speaks louder than words.


It's interesting seeing Nintendo react to competition for once, but this is just childish. While they were able to sit and casually laugh at Sony's bid for power over content in the portable gaming space, Apple's iOS and social platforms like Facebook are starting to cut into the big N's market share in a huge way. With cellphones getting more advanced by the day and digital distribution not having the same costly hangups as retail (including piracy), they are going to have to work harder than they ever have to maintain their position as number one.

Perhaps, moving forward, Nintendo should focus on avenues of profit that will benefit them, and make them seem less like a pigheaded company who's been profiting off the misinformed indifference of the casual consumer. If cellphones and mobile gaming platforms are making your premium priced offerings seem overpriced and stale, the solution is to make better games, and a consistent string of quality across titles. Not try and insist that such games shouldn't exist.

Even though I have no doubt that the 3DS will be successful, its version of Super Street Fighter 4 costs more than even its console incarnation at $39.99, boasting little over the original incarnation. Aside from that game which is admittedly well done, it's sharing the shelf with half-baked ports of Rayman, Madden, Pilotwings, Asphalt, and a who-asked-for-this new version of Nintendogs, all for $39.99 as well.

This is going to be a bit of an uphill battle for them, especially with so many options for the consumer as far as platform is concerned. While ports like this are fine in the beginning, I hope that they're ready to outdo their competitors in terms of content, or they're just going to end up with another Wii situation, where lazy developers will turn out gimmicky piece of software after software, charging the same high prices that will drive their audience into the arms of their competitors. It's easy to purchase the racing game Asphalt on an iPhone for $3, and lament the loss if it's terrible. It's a much bigger pill to swallow when the game is $40.

Hell, I bought the (234237th) port or Rayman 2 on my phone for $1 over a year ago. There's no way I'm buying it for the 3DS. 3D butterflies aren't worth that much, I'm sorry.

Like it or not, this is the exact kind of social gaming and open environment Nintendo helped initiate, culminating the minute they decided to involve the world by making their console's name a euphemism for it. So now we're playing Farmville, Angry Birds, and portable versions of games like Dead Space that are of such a quality that they could've existed on a DS or PSP for large sum. Instead, they're available for six dollars, confortably in a climate that allows them to be so.

No point in trying to turn back now.


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Nintendo - Getting Better..But...

Nintendo had quite a falling out after last year's E3. It seemed that the runaway mainstream success of the Wii made them lose touch with their core audience, the gamers who supported them through thick and INCREDIBLY thin. The console as a whole has been very divisive for quite some time, causing a rift between all the new adopters, and the hardcore fans who want actual games. It's almost as if Nintendo was trying to deliver at first, but once they realized people were content to screw around with Wii Sports for hours on end, they stopped trying.




Now, the system is caught in a pattern of streaming garbage, with very few actual gems worth sticking your hands in the muck for. Sega's been trying hard since this year began to bring gamers back to the fold with excellent gems like MadWorld and it seems as if Nintendo's taken notice. Sure the new people are great, but what about those of us who've been around since '86?

This must be the first wave of appealing to us. Not half bad, guys..

If there's anything Nintendo can do that no other company can, it's extend a franchise...to death. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other company whose strategy revolves around reinventing the SAME dozen characters ad nauseam, but somehow...it's usually fresh. And as much as I complain, I want to play a new Mario. A 4-player reimagining of the DS hit New Super Mario Bros. doesn't sound bad to me..



Nor does a sequel to The Best Looking Wii Game(tm); Mario Galaxy 2. Is that YOSHI?!



If anyone'd ever told me Team Ninja was making a Wii game, I would've laughed harder than the judge at Vanilla Ice's infringement trial. I mean, it's a Wii! TN is renowned for being graphical snobs. The house that Itagaki built is set on proving everyone wrong though with this new title, and even more unbelievable, it's...a Metroid game?

(I wonder if there'll be boob physics...you know you're wondering too. C'mon. It's Team Ninja we're talking about here.)



Third parties are getting in on things too, and I'll be damned if EA Redwood (now named Visceral Games) isn't trying to one-up Nintendo for Best Looking Wii game with their new game Dead Space: Extraction, a rail shooter/exploration game in the vein of RE: Umbrella Chronicles..



An excellent looking 2D brawler/platformer in the form of Muramasa: The Demon Blade



...and a reinvention of the first Silent Hill in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I'm honestly on the fence about this one, what with there being news about the removal of combat, and tinkering with some story elements, but it looks like it's coming along nicely.




Interested in the DS titles incoming? Links:

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Golden Sun DS

Other than these great announcements (which admittedly, took some time to get rolling), the majority of the show had me scratching my head. Yes, Wii Fit was a hit, but do we really need another one? Yes Nintendo, I'm glad you want to bring the family together, but Mario alone is enough. With all the accessories, add-ons, minigame compilations on the way in the form of another Wii Sports, exercise games, and THIS inexplicable thing:


(Are you serious?)

I'm really beginning to wonder whether or not Nintendo's tired of making real games, and just wants to settle into the low-risk, low-effort route of fad programming. I rarely touch my Wii as it is, and can barely look at it as a gaming platform the way I do my 360 and PS3. I wonder if this is what Nintendo really wants for us, or if they've simply become blind with success. It's no wonder the President of the company came out and said high definition wasn't a priority unless deemed necessary. If the system is going to do little other than calculate your health and distract you with fluff, why does it need to be in a higher resolution?

Also, with Microsoft and Sony busting out with their own takes on motion-based gameplay, how will they continue to compete? They're no longer the lowest price point, and their number one gimmick is about to broaden it's horizons. Nintendo's complacency is going to need a boot in the ass by 2010, and they'll have to push things in the right direction.

This year was a bit hopeful, but still reeks of the same kind of negligence. I have a feeling after this little spark, we'll be in for another drought on this console.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.
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