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rajendra82 on 26 November 2008
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senortaco said:
rajendra82 said:
kazadoom said:

This market direction is why I will pick up my first animal crossing game on Wii because it has been toned down to peak the interest of gamers like me.

 

While I agree with your overall post, my problem with Nintendo is a complete and utter stubbornness on their part to make any real substantive changes.  Animal Crossing City Folk has not been toned down at all.  Because toning a game down requires actual work.  What Nintendo has done this time is to just repackage the DS game and include a microphone just so that they can keep touting their "innovation".  I hate that my son made me buy the same old game again.

Imaging what Animal Crossing would have been like, if Nintendo had made the CIty like a real city, where other gamers from other towns gather and interact in real time.  And if you could go into an arcade there, and spend bells there to play classic NES games.  A toned down version of PlayStation Home if you will.

Imagine what Wii music would be like, if we could actually write our own compositions and then play them for the world.  A musical Little Big Planet if you will.

I would like to see some real innovation on their part for a change.  Unfortunately they are facing no real competition at this time, so the only real work for them left to do is count the money each day.

 

You're complaining more about the fact alot of these things are friends (friend codes) only. I think what you are harping on has alot to do with Nintendo's conservative nature. Their biggest concern with an online community, like you envision, is kids and safety. Thats one thing nintendo will never compromise on is providing a "fun" and "safe" experience. Like Reggie mention, they do have a vision for online community and it will be different from their competitor.

 

sidenote: Why is it that Animal Crossing gets beat on for only having marginal improvements, but games like Call Of Duty, or Madden doesn't seen to raise the same ruckus lately? ...I call bullshit.

I know that safety is important.  As a father of small children, I know I would never want a videogame to put them in harm’s way.  However there are a lot of ways Nintendo could have allowed a lot more social interaction without compromising safety.  They could easily have only allowed preprogrammed "safe" text response options and sound clips when interacting with non-friends online, but once you know and enter their friend code, you could have full voice chat and keyboard support.  The whole point of City Folks was that it was meant to be a social game and going to the City should be a big part of that, and that is where the game is severely lacking.  The whole point of Wii Music is meant to be creation, and why did Nintendo neuter the creative aspects of it, the supposed rhythm games allow you create original music and share it via DLC, but this one that is meant to be truly creative does not.

The reason Animal Crossing gets beat on for having marginal improvements is because there is so much room left to improve considering the times.  Call of Duty 4 was already on the cutting edge when it came out, and marginal improvements made to it in the next iteration are only meant for it to be kept there.  Madden is a sports game which already pushes the hardware, all you can really do us make it a bit more realistic each year, tweak the controls, and update rosters.  Since there aren’t that many improvements left to be made there, there isn’t as much criticism for the lack thereof.

I have liked Nintendo games, and still do when they really put some effort into them.  Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii are examples of good updates to existing franchises, and Wii Fit and Wii Sports are good new IPs.  City Folk and Wii Music are unfortunately not.