Nintendo producer Katsuya Eguchi says titles within minigame compilation made to encourage real-world interaction with those in the same room.
Nintendo has explained why Wii U launch title Nintendo Land does not include online support. Speaking in the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (via Polygon), Nintendo producer Katsuya Eguchi said it was the company's hope to encourage real-world interaction with gamers sitting in the same room.
"Nintendo Land's multiplayer attractions work because of the communication shared between the people playing them," Eguchi said. "So they were set up from the start to be something people in the same room could enjoy."
Elsewhere in the feature, Nintendo offered insight as to why Star Fox was skipped over for inclusion in Nintendo Land. Director Yoshikazu Yamashita revealed that Nintendo had prototyped a title surrounding Star Fox, but ultimately found it to not be a good match.
"Generally it was easy to match the gameplay from the prototypes with one series or another," Yamashita said. "For example, a game with air and ground battles works well with Metroid. There was a time when Metroid Blast was going to be a Star Fox title, but the prototype featured this vehicle that hovered around like a helicopter and we figured that'd never be a good match for an Arwing."
For more on Nintendo Land, check out GameSpot's review.
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
all i can say is, i do wish metroid blast was atleast online :o i have so much fun playn that, and since its competitive, you know pretty much everyone in the world wants to compete in that. plus...i need help wit ridley ;-; and it would b super funny if they would allow like. 8 player gunship battles or sumthn xD idk, all i want would b metroid blast online :O and some crazy overthe top mode xD
1 Like I don't understand why people think that online play means playing with strangers... adults saying this must have had a very different introduction into adult life than me. I have lots of real friends from school and such, but there's a minimum of 120 miles between me and each of them at this point. I play games almost exclusively online, but also almost exclusively with people I know very well.
Are some people forgetting that Nintendo started out as a toy company selling playing cards? I think Nintendo stays true to their history and I really don't expect them to be using online modes in any of their software.
1 Like Nintendo doesn't understand that online is more important that ever these days. Gamers graduated from college. They no longer live with their friends and having people in the same room is impossible.
Kiddy console for sure.
Additionally, Nintendo has had Star Fox as an afterthought for years now so why stop now? Go to hell, Yamashita.
I don't claim to understand why Nintendo has been so slow to embrace online gaming, but I suspect that this game is more fun and more reliable when played locally anyway.
2 Like This game doesnt fit for online anyway...its a party game...who would be playing this online with strangers?
Why is this question only asked to Nintendo though...Ive seen many games on xbox and ps3 that would of been awesome if they had online multiplayer(Double Dragon Neon, Scott Pilgrim vs the World are 2 that comes to mind). The title of the article should be why games obviously made to have online multiplayer dont have it...
@IanNottinghamX didnt you get the memo? this site is heavily biased against nintendo xD im not sure why :O its more of a site for ps3 and xbox ppl. its not a hirrible site, but some of the crap on here makes me lmao. like seriously, anyone who has played play station all stars KNOWS how simple minded that game is. now, go to the review for that game on this site and look and the "bad" section. it seriously says STEEP LEARNING CURVE. TOO COMPLEX. and then i go online and watch a kratos win by pressing only triangle until he gets his super...some learning curve xD
1 Like This article can be summed up in a few words: Don't by the Wii U if you don't have friends.
1 Like And here again is the reason I can't stand Nintendo--rather than giving people the choice to play online or with people in the same room, it forces its choice on everyone else. Because somehow they think they know better than the people playing the game. And it always bites them on the ass, because they don't know what people want.
With Nintendo it's always their way or no way, from online gaming to just about everything else. They still haven't learned the right lessons from past failures.
@ernelson1976 ikr?! and i hate how microsoft wont let me play ps3 games on my xbox! why is always their way? D:
2 Like I'm sitting here now wondering, "how in the hell would they make this game a MP experience??". The only thing I can see is that it would make MP horn dogs happy, and that's just stupid. I'm more upset that some of the games need Wii-motion plus, and that they didn't include at least one adapter for those of us that didn't feel th3 need to upgrade. I would have taken that over "Nintendo Land" in the deluxe set any day. Now I have to waste a perfectly good X-mas gift on that!
3 Like Nintendo, stop living in the 20th century already and join the rest of us in the 21st.
5 Like @soulless4now People like you are killing single player and local multiplayer experiences, there's plenty of online games for you to play so go do that instead of asking them to ruin a local multiplayer game so it can work online.
@GreenReuben @soulless4now Online multiplayer in addition to local multiplayer has nothing to do with single player experiences.
How do you make that leap of dubious logic?
would be nice if it had online multiplayer though as a feature..
for those people without friends or family around to play it with
@GH05T-666 yeah but the game as it is wouldn't really work online, they would have to change the gameplay which would ruin the local multiplayer experience.
@GreenReuben @GH05T-666 There's no reason to think that changing the game to work online would significantly effect the gameplay locally.
What possible logic did they use to arrive at the conclusion that online and offline multiplayer are mutually exclusive? Just because it has online doesn't mean people won't still enjoy playing it offline together. It's yet another cop out by them to cut development costs. I grew up with Nintendo, so they will always have that special place in my heart, but they seem to have no clue what current gamers are interested in.
2 Like @IvanKavinski No because the game is built around local multiplayer, if it had online multiplayer it would have to be altered to accommodate for the fact that there aren't other people with you.
The fact that they saw local multiplayer as the priority is fantastic because games like this always function better with local multiplayer (SSB and MarioKart being other examples)
@GreenReuben @IvanKavinski Okay, then, since you seem to know all these ways that the games would have to be changed to accommodate online play, why not actually list them? MarioKart (despite the friends code mess) functioned fantastic as an online multiplayer game.
actuallly, it kinda goes without saying that almost any game is more fun offline in a group. since everyone is always screaming like maniacs :O (super smash bros) you kno you have all had that big OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wen u play that game xD
@GreenReuben @IvanKavinski The problem is that this is an easy accommodation that wouldn't effect the game at all for anyone who didn't choose it--so it's not like removing gore from a game. We're not asking for Nintendo to remove anything. Gamers like you wouldn't even notice a difference. It's not being protective of a demographic that made Nintendo make this choice. It's part of their overall attitude toward gamers--that we're stupid, don't know what we want, and that they (Nintendo) knows better. Clearly they don't or they would have sold us copies of the game as well. But they don't want to sell games to us. Which is strange and stubborn for a game company.
@ernelson1976 @IvanKavinski It's not a perspective that needs to be shared by everyone else, it's shared by me and millions of gamers and that's enough to justify that choice. Should we remove gore from games so little kids can enjoy them? No! Games don't have to be enjoyed by everyone, they each have their demographics and they'll stick to them. I'm not trying to convince people like you to like Nintendos approach I just want you guys to stfu and ignore it because you're clearly not the target audience for Nintendoland.
@GreenReuben @IvanKavinski Just show all four screens on the online multiplayer version. Easy. Problem solved. See? Not so difficult.
As for MarroKart being more fun when playing locally...baloney. It's just as much fun online. You're doing what Nintendo does--assuming that your own perspective is shared by everyone else. It's not. You're assuming that what you think is fun will be what everyone thinks is fun. That's not the case. According to you and Nintendo, the only way to have fun is to play the way you (or Nintendo) wants you to play. That might have worked back in the 90s, but gaming has moved beyond that now.
I agree with you on the Mario Chase example, though it seems like they could show all players in a split-screen, even if playing online. As for the MarioKart, it was functional online, but certainly not fantastic. No ladders, friends, or even a recently played against list. Smash Bros pretty much never worked for me online and was always too laggy to play vs local.
Here is the main reason why I don't buy your argument about having online preventing offline from being good. Ready? Halo, Portal 2, Fighting games (Street Fighter, Etc.), Gears of War, LittleBigPlanet, Resident Evil 5, and many many more games have great offline multiplayer experiences, yet these games all have online versions of the same thing, which is still incredibly fun. I love Nintendo! I've actually bought the Wii twice! And while Nintendo might have the best offline multiplayer, it doesn't mean that they aren't ridiculously behind on the online multiplayer front vs any of the other major systems.
@ernelson1976 @IvanKavinski Mario Kart is an example of a game being more fun when playing locally (COD and Halo work better online), it's not hindered online but it will always be better with other people. With a game like Mario Chase for example (one of the 12 games in Nintendoland) the screen is split into four sections. For the Toads to catch Mario they need to work together, voice chat wouldn't suffice as communication would be limited, instead of "Come to me" followed by "where the fu*k are you?!" it would be "I can see him on my screen". The game wants proper communication, it wants people to be interacting because consumers will have more fun that way
1 Like most hardcore gamers don't have anyone in their room with them
thus
their hate for nintendo
@TheZeroPercent. That's because most hardcore games are basement dwellers. Which is quite sad if you think about.
Yeah I have had enough of Nintendo, I just returned my Wii U ( Thank God Walmart seems to take back everything...) can't fund their crap any more.
1 Like @SurlyPotato Why in the hell did you buy it in the first place then? It couldn't be because they didn't have the games you wanted; we knew about the launch schedule ahead of time. You're either lying, or have never bought a Nintendo system since before the Gamecube. Most people buy a launch system from Nintendo for the games that will be released, not for what's immediately available.
2 Like Yes, Nintendo, as we've seen over and over again in the gaming industry, forcibly removing online components encourages local multiplayer. Afterall, the only reason why people aren't gathering on the couch to play with one another is because they're too busy dicking around with strangers on the internet!!
/facepalm
You would think that after a while, companies would learn these little lessons that have been taught over and over again.
1 Like @Greyfeld Local multiplayer functions in a completely different way to online multiplayer. Certain games work and others don't, these mini games work better as local multiplayer games.
2 Like @GreenReuben @Greyfeld List the reasons how it is different. On every other console, it's not particularly different at all. Since you're so convinced of this, you should be able to list all the differences. Just because they might even work better as local multiplayer (I doubt this), doesn't mean they wouldn't also work as online multiplayer.
And here I was thinking it was only online...
So it's basically just a Mario Party game with more Nintendo characters in it?
Encourage social interaction by condemning those without readily available partners nearby...BRILLIANT!
3 Like Makes sense to me. This is really the type of game where you have to enjoy your friends reactions as you kick their ass on the couch xD
Good party game. It's fun, the friends enjoy it, and it's pretty fun solo as well. Currently my favorite Wii U game.
@IndremaLover hell yeah it was it blew the competition out of the water. It had 10x graphics than PC!!!!
1 Like I had a chance to play Nintendo Land and it was pretty fun. From my experience it makes sense that the game isn't online although I hope Nintendo don't use this as a cop out for every game they make.
5 Like I don't mind people defending Nintendo but lately Nintendo has just been messing up. Reggie complaining about complainers, the whole 18+ thing with Europe, bad ports, only one or two games that actually uses online, 3rd party support seems to be already sucking, I could keep naming problems with this system but I won't. Clearly this thing isn't worth the $350 at the moment.
4 Like @songoku0206 not to mention its 350 dollars for a 3gb console not an 8gb as the packaging claims.
@godismini @songoku0206 i don't know where you got your info but its 350 for around 25gb with nintendo land bundled
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