@d8910 You should be ashamed for thinking such. The reason the gaming industry has existed this long is because of companies like Nintendo who try to innovate the way we think about and play games.
And who are you to say its better for Nintendo? Are you their financial advisor now? Nintendo has got on just fine on its own doing its own thing for 25+ years. And I will tell you one thing, if you think graphics or online are all that Nintendo fans care about you are sorely mistaken. Why do you think people have played Mario so long?
Its not because of its graphics or online, its because Mario has offered some of the best gameplay experiences in gaming. The same can be said for Zelda. And I am sure just about any Nintendo fan would argue that high polygon counts are no substitute for sheer artistic vision and mastery. Anyone who has played Windwaker or Skyward Sword, Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime would tell you as much.
@Land-0-Funk Have you actually played Nintendo land? If not you have no room to criticize it. It is actually a fun game that demonstrates many of the gamepad's features. As a pack in, its a excellent little game.
@Leeric420 @hatieshorrer @Thanatos2k You do realize that Nintendo are the ones funding the development of Bayonetta 2 right? They also are funding Wonderful 101. Not to mention Monolith soft the creators of Xenoblade are owned by Nintendo and are making the new Xeno title.
Also a recent listing on gamestop reveals Watchdogs available for pre-order for WiiU. Ubisoft have been adamant about supporting WiiU. They already gave WiiU owners Zombi U so its not too hard to believe.
@osxgp I doubt that Wii Sports was the sole reason people bought a Wii. Wii Sports was a pack in that appealed to the non gamers. It was games like Smash Bros, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, that a majority of the 'core' audience bought the system for. Here are some facts and figures for you... Naturally Wii sports would be listed at the top because it was packed in with the system. With over 99 million Wii systems of course Wii Sports would have a huge attach rate. But look at the next title... none other than Mario Kart.
Wii
Hardware: 95.85m Software: 818.46m Best-selling titles: Wii Sports — 79.60m Mario Kart Wii — 32.44m Wii Sports Resort — 30.14m Wii Play — 28.02m New Super Mario Bros. Wii — 26.26m
I myself have 22 Wii titles. Of those I have Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Galaxy, Red Steel 2, Goldeneye, MadWorld, Okami, Xenoblade, The Last Story, Metroid Prime Trilogy (3 games in one package) Cod WaW, CoD BOps, Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider Underworld and when it comes out I will be picking up Pandora's Tower.
@Leeric420 And according to wall street investors Sony is focusing on social integration as opposed to hardware power.
And Microsoft is working on integrating Windows 8 with the next Xbox. Which by the way Windows 8 has pissed off guys like Gabe Newell due to the fact that Windows 8 seems to not support Steam very well.
The idea that Sony and Microsoft's next consoles are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of what we have now is absurd. We have reached a plateau in terms of graphics fidelity, we may see a slight boost but nothing like the jump from PS2 to PS3 or Xbox to 360. Game development costs will continue to rise and developers will not develop a game beyond 1080p native resolution because its simply too costly. Even with Sony touting 4K as the next big thing just think how expensive it would be to develop a game for 4k. At the most you can hope for a chip that up-scales games to that resolution.
Just look at the number of studios that closed their doors over the past two years. And then try to justify the argument that more powerful hardware is what this gen will be all about. Every time hardware is increased so too do development costs.
The WiiU actually had decent software support. 24 titles at launch and most of which AAA third party titles. Granted a lot of them were ports of games already on other systems but for people who never owned a 360 or PS3; the WiiU versions of these games were still relevant to early WiiU adopters.
And if rumors are to be believed Sony and Microsoft's next systems won't be the hardware powerhouses that the PS3 or 360 were compared to their predecessors. Graphic fidelity has reached a plateau and I think the differences between consoles this gen will be fairly small with slight variances here or there.
Sony is focusing on social integration with PS4 as opposed to pure hardware power, and Microsoft seems to be pursuing integration of Xbox with Windows 8 etc. which has pissed off countless developers including Gabe Newell who cites that Windows 8 does not run steam very well if at all.
If you want to talk about developers for WiiU, WiiU is getting games like Bayonetta 2, Monster Hunter, and Nintendo signed a partnership with Unity which means over 1 million indie developers will have access to the WiiU.
3DS had a less than stellar launch too. But after a price cut and 2 mario games in the form of Super Mario 3D land and Mario Kart 7 the 3DS quickly doubled the original DS's sales in the same span of time on the market.
All these people talking doom and gloom for Nintendo and the WiiU seem to completely overlook the competition. The WiiU has been out for what almost 3 months now and has sold 3 million units world wide. What is Vita's excuse? Vita has been out for a little over a year and a half now and only recently just hit 4 million. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it? WiiU will do fine once the games come out for it.
Monster Hunter, Bayonetta 2, Windwaker HD etc. And Nintendo said more 3rd party games would be announced during E3. Nintendo has faced scorn and "Nintendo will end up like Sega Dreamcast" mutterings before and has weathered the storm of cynicism to go on and be quite successful. I need only to point again to the 3DS and how everyone seemed to think it would fail. The Wii was an unprecedented success selling over 99 million systems worldwide. When the games come so to will the sales.
@GSJones1994 Just because he doesn't like those mechanics doesn't make them a flaw simply because they don't suit his tastes.
Many other games use some of these elements as well. Final Fantasy uses save points, Metroid has always used save points... does that make those games flawed? Hardly.
I would hardly call item storage a flaw either. It allows you to keep items in your inventory that are relevant and makes for cleaner navigation and saves you from having to sift through dozens of items. Skyrim has item storage allowing you to deposit items in chests etc.
And since when do stamina and shield gauges make or break a game? Many other games have durability gauges. In WoW your gear suffers durability damage, in GW2 you have a stamina gauge and durability.
And who is to say what should or shouldn't be? And last I checked you didn't backtrack to the dungeons you returned to previous areas not so much the dungeons at least in Skyward Sword. So you have to back track to earlier areas?
Seems to me Metroid always has you backtracking to find item upgrades etc. And hell Zelda has always featured backtracking to get heart pieces to max out your heart containers or to find gold skultullas that you previously couldn't get before. Or completing the sequence of the trading game to get Big Goron's sword. Backtracking on a game like Zelda is far easier to swallow than playing countless hours on the same maps on Call of Duty's multiplayer. Why do you think they have to come along and release map packs as paid DLC? to keep people playing otherwise they would grow sick of playing on the same maps.
And I find it highly hypocritical of Tom Mc Shea to say that the "old Zelda formula should be left alone"; when Tom Mc Shea in the above article criticizes Nintendo for clinging to their franchises. I quote Tom's article with the following. "Why should we trust Aonuma's claim that he's going to reinvent Zelda when he has failed to do so in every attempt thus far?"
If Tom believes Zelda should remain unchanged then why criticize Nintendo of never changing or deviating from its large franchises? And while Tom Mc Shea likes to make it known that he thinks Nintendo never changes things up...the very things you listed shows that Nintendo is not afraid to try new things. So they added save points they added a durability gauge and stamina gauge, they added item storage. They tried something different. Whether you like it or not is entirely up to you. You may not like them others might while some may not give two shits and play the game because its the next Zelda game and they will play it anyway.
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