Short Speech on Nintendo's "kiddy look"

Zidart said:

is just a matter of taste i guess, or idk why is it so hard for someone to actually like (or belive) that there can be found both quantity and quality on the wii

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Exactly. It is a matter of taste. To same gamers, like you, the Wii is fine. But to some gamers, like myself and Strubes, the Wii is not satisfying. So, in order to keep all kinds of gamers, Nintendo needs to broaden their horizons.

Nintendo is doing a great job at appealing to some people. Students who want something cheap, parents who want something family friendly, for example. What they are not doing very well is appealing to gamers who want Nintendo quality in games that are more mature. It doesn't even have to be rated M to be mature. I mean thematically. Fire Emblem is mature. Metroid Prime is mature. IMO. I want to see Nintendo do more games with darker themes. They don't have to have blood and gore. Although that would be cool, too.

I would especially like to see more rpgs besides just Fire Emblem. They should give Camelot a budget and go "Here, make Golden Sun Wii."

Strubes said:

Yeah, but Sony has more good games because of the exclusive titles..you know? I'm not saying they need to port more games over. Nintendo needs to take it upon themselves to make more good games...Mature or not. I think we can all agree on this?

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Yes, but I can't say it will be easy or even feasible given the type of market Nintendo has chosen to target. Casual gamers are obviously inexperienced in gaming and likely a poor judge of quality. Given that they are the majority of Wii owners, it kind of takes away incentive on the developer's part. Why should third party developers even try to make a good game if it will sell just as well as a crappy one?

Homicidal Cherry53 said:

Yes, but I can't say it will be easy or even feasible given the type of market Nintendo has chosen to target. Casual gamers are obviously inexperienced in gaming and likely a poor judge of quality. Given that they are the majority of Wii owners, it kind of takes away incentive on the developer's part. Why should third party developers even try to make a good game if it will sell just as well as a crappy one?

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well not ALL of the developers are like that.... just the noobs

Zidart said:

well not ALL of the developers are like that.... just the noobs

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No, even older, more established developers do this. It's a way to make a quick buck since there are so many consoles in homes. Unfortunately, the Wii has fallen into a trap that was brought upon by the GameCube. The Wii has all this shovelware because they can't afford to deny developers from making games for it. If they did, there is a possibility that the Wii would suffer the same fate as the Cube. The Wii, in my opinion, is a way to get back to solid foundation for the next Nintendo console. It's going to get shovelware for a while but there will be a few great games that will appear over time. So they need to appease all the third party developers they can, so that when the next console comes around, developers will be ready to produce even better games. At least that's how I look at it. The Wii, by far, is not my favorite system and I don't think it ever will be. But it's going to bring potential for the next generation.

Homicidal Cherry53 said:

Yes, but I can't say it will be easy or even feasible given the type of market Nintendo has chosen to target. Casual gamers are obviously inexperienced in gaming and likely a poor judge of quality. Given that they are the majority of Wii owners, it kind of takes away incentive on the developer's part. Why should third party developers even try to make a good game if it will sell just as well as a crappy one?

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Well I think that's what I disagree with. I don't think Nintendo should stick to just targeting that one audience. Not if they want to keep gamers playing the Wii once the initial novelty wears off. Isn't it also true that the Wii has a horrible attach ratio? Because the audience they are targeting is happy with Wii Sports, so they aren't really even buying anything else.

@ Creepin, that's a good point.

Mai Valentine said:

Well I think that's what I disagree with. I don't think Nintendo should stick to just targeting that one audience. Not if they want to keep gamers playing the Wii once the initial novelty wears off. Isn't it also true that the Wii has a horrible attach ratio? Because the audience they are targeting is happy with Wii Sports, so they aren't really even buying anything else.

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I think Nintendo realizes this which is why they try to make good games that can be enjoyed by the casual gamer. It is the third party developers who are looking only to make a quick buck who haven't realized this which is a major reason for the Wii's software shortage.

Homicidal Cherry53 said:

I think Nintendo realizes this which is why they try to make good games that can be enjoyed by the casual gamer. It is the third party developers who are looking only to make a quick buck who haven't realized this which is a major reason for the Wii's software shortage.

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Which is what I said.

Well, we touched upon this topic briefly in the podcast, and stealth asked a question which I didn't answer then, but now that I've had time to think about, I would like to answer here.

The question had to do with what I think Nintendo's role actually is, if I don't think it's exactly what the article says.

Nintendo's first party games are generally of such quality that other companies still borrow elements from them, or make games to compete with them (or both). Back in the day, for example, Sega created Sonic as a way to compete with Mario. And most platformers since then have been built off of Mario. Without many of the things Nintendo brought to the table with Mario, where would other platformers be?