http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/grassroots-gaming/
Here are a few key quotes:
"I think the idea that Nintendo has ‘abandoned’ Core Gamers with the Wii is ridiculous. What is more likely to be true is that Nintendo ‘abandoned’ Core Gamers with the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. After the Super Nintendo, Nintendo’s home console market just went into steep decline.
And the reason for the fault can be placed entirely on one man: Shigeru Miyamoto."
"Super Mario Sunshine did not bring in the Core Gamers as Super Mario World or even Mario 64 did. Zelda Windwaker did not bring in the Core Zelda fans as Ocarina of Time did for N64."
"So how can I blame the lovable Shigeru Miyamoto for destroying Nintendo’s Core Market with the Mario and Zelda franchises? [...] Miyamoto looks at gaming in an industrial arts way. In Zelda: Twilight Princess, he couldn’t just have a wolf link. He had to make it ‘interesting’ by throwing in a rider on top of Link (which ended up being Midna) as well as adding a chain around his foot (which poor Wolf Link never can take off). Ever since ‘Donkey Kong’, Miyamoto focuses on creating an ‘interesting character’. From Miyamoto’s perspective, the Mario and Zelda franchises revolve around the icons."
"In Miyamoto’s world, people play Mario games because they like Mario. So we now see Mario more animated, he now ‘talks’ with the annoying voice. But Miyamoto is clearly wrong on this. People never played Mario games because of Mario per se. If a 2d platformer was just as compelling, it was embraced with equal fever."
"Perhaps Nintendo will learn from New Super Mario Brothers (which, to my knowledge, has outsold all Mario games): it is that the Core Market wants the GAMEPLAY, not the CHARACTERS. Keeping the same characters and putting them in different gameplay is just pissing off the Core Market."
Malstrom has often commented on Nintendo's success, and been right. Now he is commenting on Nintendo's failures... and he is equally right. We need to go back to what made Mario and Zelda great - not rehashing "great" games but innovating by keeping what makes the game fun and discarding the rest.
