I know this may seem a little bit overzealous, and maybe the title is a little misleading, but am I the only one who is tired of watching Nintendo's Wii and DS whore out games that are crap at best? Am I the only one tired of having some of the best franchises being dummy downed to the masses? Maybe it's not their fault, as it is, they are just providing the tools for developers to create content. When you create a gaming console that is fun, easy to play and directed at everyone and not just the gaming crowd, they have to share some of the blame don't they?
Remember when being a gamer meant something? It might be cool that your girlfriend plays as much as you do, and she is doing it in tight shorts or naked, but really? If your grandma and your 2 year old niece are playing games too, doesn't the appeal of being called a gamer wear off? Maybe gamers are just evolving, and not all of them have to look like this guy.
Today's Hardcore Gamer
Don't get me wrong, the Wii has some gems, but any real "gamer" has more then just a Wii, if they even have a Wii. I have to mention that I did own a Wii at one time (purchased at launch) and enjoyed it for about two weeks. Zelda was a great game, and there a couple of others on the system (see Mario Galaxy), but how much fun can you actually have with those. People seem to forget that Twilight Princess was a Game Cube game with motion controls thrown into it. Another beef I have is that they LOVE re-releasing games that were out for previous systems with no real sort of enhancements to the game itself. Doesn't it make sense for the Wii to be a great system for first person shooters? Find me one great FPS game that console has. I don't understand why people don't see that it is a gimmick. Is it a coincidence that the top rated games of this generation don't use full motion control? The biggest kick in the groin, in my opinion, is when they release a game that doesn't even take advantage of the controls. One of the Wii's top selling and highest rated games, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, doesn't even include motion controls. So why buy this when you can get the last iteration for Nintendo Game Cube for cheaper? And why should gaming be hard work? If someone has been gone all day at work or school, do you really want to come home and prance around like an idiot just to play a video game?
People are currently complaining about the difficulty of the controls in THQ's UFC 2009 Undisputed. Do people not have patience anymore? Not all games need to have the "hit the A and B buttons do to EVERYTHING" mentality. When was the last time you actually played a game that required a lot of hard work that felt fulfilling? Not all titles need to be necessary difficult either. Games can still be easy to pick up, but what I am looking for is some depth (look at Capcom's amazing Street Fighter 4 title). If you put in the time, the game is really rewarding, but if you don't feel like it, you can still pick it up and play it for a quick session. This game is also doing very well on the sales chart as well, because as time passes, fighting games are going to be looked at as a "niche" category. Virtua Fighter 5 and Soul Calibur IV sales were both mediocre compared to it's last titles and are both very good games.
Capcom's Street Fighter 4, one of the best of the year thus far
What about other popular titles? Activision's Guitar Hero is the new aged Dance Dance Revolution, and somehow it's destroying the sales charts. All you are doing is listening to music and hitting a button in sync with a screen (or whatever instrument you happen to be using). I thought good games had stories, complex elements, art, dialog and a point. You know, not an over glorified cell phone game. They should be something you have to work at with a sense of accomplishment once you finally get the hang of things. Activision is worst then EA when it comes to abuse of its licenses. Their are currently (I am sure by the time you are done reading this article, Def Leopard, Rolling Stones and Ozzy Osborne have all come out with their own versions) six different Guitar Hero games in the span of about three years, and they are for every single thing with a screen you can imagine. The biggest question I have to ask is what is the difference between them?
The worst part about this motion sensory nonsense is that Sony and Microsoft are following suit. Sony did a quick 180 and put motion control in the six-axis controllers, and Microsoft is now rumoured to comes out with a motion controller. Can you blame them? Nintendo has more money coming in then anyone could ever imagine. SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller even said "We're moving on now... to look at softer brands that maybe we had with PS2 franchises. There's certainly a line-up of very strong family-friendly titles that we're looking at for PS3 in our continuing effort to appeal to that casual consumer." Sony, what happened? You guys used to be THE system for the gamer crowd, keep working at it, don't sellout now. Former Xbox boss Peter Moore even said that they are moving in the same direction: "I think they're doing that [introducing motion control] and I think Sony are probably the same."
Could this be Microsoft new motion control system?
I am tired of living in a world where the simplest games are absolutely murdering sales charts. Wii Sports shouldn't be the best selling of all time, that's just not right. I want a real Donkey Kong game, not one where you bang on drums. Us gamers can only keep looking for so long.
I would like to add that I have nothing against female gamers. I have gotten wrecked in Mario Kartby my ex once upon a time.
(mostly)
Pixel Art can be fun.
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