First up - somebody please explain why that GIF is odd? I have no idea?!?!
marc said:
They seem to count on three or four games to keep themselves going and bring out new hardware to run them. If you want the latest Mario you need to get the latest hardware etc.
Mario and Mario Kart were the two most repetitive games I've ever played and I got the n64 for them. Think I played them for a few hours before I never loaded them again.
Yes some people love them but when you read hardcore gamer sights they are always at the bottom. They have a market yes, but they would probably sell more games if they made them for other consoles.
I think you may come from a similar gaming generation as me Marc? I spent years, probably from about 1980-1992 (maybe later) playing the same kind of games. Games were linear and based on repeating the same actions over and over to make your way further into the game. The only reward was a harder version of what you'd already learnt to get past.
Nintendo essentially do this to perfection. It's all about the same game over and over and the reward is how it's now being presented and how perfected the mechanism is for playing those games.
If you loved Super Mario, then Super Mario U is the best experience of that you can have. The problem is (for gamers like me), I want progression, story, advancement and some kind of feeling of real progress. That may be seeing the final competition coming up, or the story progressing in a twisting and turning way that engages me. I see games as an entertainment like a motor racing season or film. Nintendo games to me are Road Runner cartoons "how many ways can the coyote get splatted this time?"*
The "joy" of Nintendo titles is replaying the same levels over and over until you achieve... well, usually another star which you can trade in for..? Erm, you can't even show them off to friends actually with a trophy system.
However, I really enjoy Mario and Mariokart in short bursts, especially playing with MMF. I find them frustrating though after a bit, feeling like I'm not actually achieving anything for some of the suffering you have (sudden loss at the end of a race on MK due to getting hit by a blue shell, or the really painfully hard Mario levels). The fun is in the actual playing though, not the achieving, but there isn't 100% joy, it's 50/50. I find it so hard to like Nintendo games because of it.
I have to say though, the music and sound is stunning
Should Nintendo compete with Sony and MS? No, they don't produce the the best games. However, they support developers who DO produce the best games. They can do that because they offer development platforms that excite gamers and sell horrid brown cross-platform dross to the masses. Their first party stuff is also churned out, but mass appealing.
So they have a large platform of people after new gaming types, which we've seen hit both the MS and Sony platforms for years where only first party (and dance titles) sell anything on Nintendo. It's a stifling ecosystem and if Nintendo produced a wider range of games and types (and innovated), then you'd perhaps see greater console sales and a better platform.
However:
- When Nintendo do innovate and produce a superb game (like Kirby's Epic Yarn), it doesn't sell.
- They don't know how to present a platform (see problems supporting developers with a closed system and poor download with limited internal storage).
- They have new titles on the table, but all the focus is on their old IP.
So they're dammed no matter what to be honest. In the meantime, all the innovation is happening away from them, forcing them into a tighter and tighter corner of their own limited game ranges.
The Wii was a fantastic disaster for Nintendo. It gave them the hope that they could continue to to keep on doing what they liked and everyone would buy buy buy - not understanding that the casual market is fickle and want "the next thing", not a repeat of "the old thing". Sony learned this the hard way with Singstar and Eyetoy (arguably the two items that helped develop the casual market the Wii rode on the backs of). Sony sold over 20 million units of both those (I can't find figures now, but I seem to remember it was huge numbers) in their initial runs, and absolutely bugger all on next releases and next gen.
It made them popular and made them a fortune - it also made them think the market was for "Nintendo Games and consoles" and missed that it was in fact for "The Wii". They also missed the fact that the market for the PS3 and 360 was larger than that of the Wii and that overall attachment rates for all titles was much higher on those other two systems. Wii attachment rate was very high for very few products.
So yeah, somewhere Nintendo are missing a trick. They have very few god games on the Wii U now, or coming up that aren't based on old titles. It'll be a handful across the life of the machine - the same as the Gamecube. A few great games and lots of middling dross. The PS4 already has more decent titles that should really be sitting on a Nintendo console (Octodad, Stick it to the Man, Child of Light, Doki-Doki Universe, Mercenary Kings and lots of others already out or due any time).
Oddly, the reverse is true on the handhelds. The 3DS/2DS sells fantastically. Yet here it's the same old same old and dross that sells really well too. Yet the Vita which is more powerful and has some absolutely stunning games sells badly and is regarded as a poor system to own. They both essentially have the same approach to market as their gibber TV based brethren, yet the sales and attitude is completely reversed :lol:
Nemesis Inferno said:
Pierre said:
^ But why offer the option if the console you sell doesn't support it to a great extent due to it's inferior storage space?
It's typical Nintendo tbh, try to get onto the latest bandwagon of modern digital games but do it badly... 32GB would probs be alright for someone like me who prefers physical discs, but to a lot more people now desiring no CDs a small amount of space is curious...
The thing is, retail games are **** expensive for the Wii U. They take ages to come down in price (and then suddenly they're on flash sales).
However, to add to the mixed messages. I got my Wii U with Pikmin 3 bundled as a download, Nintendoland as a disk and Pokemon Rumble download with it.
I also got "Nintendo Premium" which gives me back about 10% on the value of any game I download off their online service. So Pikmin and Pokemon gave me over a fiver back. I then used that to buy more games to download (on a flash online sale which was lower than retail prices actually), which in turn gave me more money back for more games.
Considering the after the patch, Nintendoland, Pokemon and Pikmin I'd used over half the memory in the system, it's not surprising I've rapidly run out of room. Mario U free with Mario Kart, then more money back for that "purchase" and... Out of space. They're really pushing virtual sales, but don't offer a good solution.
Nemesis Inferno said:
There are ways of doing the external hard drive though, here's a handy list of externals approved by Nintendo (because Nintendo :lol
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Support/Wii- ... 76063.html
My problem (apart from the cost) is that I don't have any sockets available now for another device. I don't want a huge HDD the size of the bloody Wii U and another power point used up. I have 10 things plugged in as it is, and there are very few that power down when not in use (and often they don't power up as quick as the Wii U (or with it), so you don't see them anyway as the Wii U needs up and running fully on boot).
It's just a PITA you don't need. I could get a Y adapter and a portable drive (which is what I'll have to do), but as Nintendo don't officially support that solution, it's spending money and just hoping it will work.
They need to produce an official solution to a problem they have created...
*To be fair, I love Road Runner cartoons and there are never enough ways to splat old Wile E.
