Nintendo Double Standard?

[The Ghost of RubangB]

There are many types of films that have minimal plot to keep it moving along.

Horror's goal is to shock, scare, startle, and occasionally disgust.
Porn's goal is to make you orgasm.
Comedy's goal is to make you laugh.
Melodrama's goal is to make you cry.

These genres are known for having really bad stories, and sometimes they have no stories at all, and sometimes they try to have a really good story, but nobody cares because they're too busy getting scared, having orgasms, laughing, and crying.





Same thing with games. If you're bothered by the bad story or the lack of a story, there could be something wrong with the gameplay. You should be busy having fun.

Puzzle games don't need stories. (Does anybody even watch the cutscenes in Bomberman games anymore?)

Shooters don't need stories (CounterStrike, Team Fortress, any deathmatch, etc. are infinitely more fun than playing through a single player story mode of any shooter). When people compare shooters, they compare every detail regarding the gameplay far more often than they have arguments about which game had a better retarded story about bald space marines fighting off alternate history alien Nazis or whatever.

Sports games, racing games, party games, board games, card games, and simulators don't need stories.

Shmups, tournament fighters, beat 'em ups, and platformers don't need stories.

The only genre that absolutely relies on a story is RPGs, because they need to give you a reason to justify the countless hours of mindless leveling up you're going to do. If they can't motivate you with a good story, you won't finish the game.



This used to be enough of a story to get you into a kickass game:



OR THIS:





These would get me pumped up and ready to beat some bad guy ass.


Once games had cutscenes, everybody started to expect them, and video games became "cinematic," and now you take turns playing the game and watching the movies. Why don't we just take all these cinematic games, and clump them together into one genre, and call them "cinematic games," and say that "story is very important to RPGs and other cinematic games," and leave the rest of the industry out of it?


Now in 2008, Yakuza 2 for the PS2 makes you wait 35 minutes before you can cut anybody up! Famitsu gave it a 38/40! It hits North America September 9th and Europe September 28th!