| Scoobes said: @RolStoppable Just thought I'd point out that Mario Kart and Nintendogs weren't the first of there genre/sub-genre. There had been many fun racers on lesser systems and I remember playing the original Catz and Dogz when I first got a PC in the mid-late 90s (not to mention tamagotchis). Also, Mario Kart has Mario in the name which is always going to help Nintendo (who doesn't love Mario?). Also on the evidence of this generation, the only software trend Nintendo have set is the introduction of party games. Take Zelda for instance, I loved it on Wii but it's still as formulaic as most Zelda games. Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart Wii were just more of the same. They sell well because of the mascots and characters Nintendo have developed over the last 20 yrs. Sony on the other hand, and unlike in previous generations have introduced a load of new IPs and small but relatively significant innovations. Unfortunately for them, these haven't really been noticed by anyone beyond the core and are also not really trend setting. |
Super Mario Kart was 1992. Find a racer that tried to be non-realistic before 1992.
Nintendogs wasn't an innovation; its marketing was. The concepts weren't new but put together by Nintendo their appeal was magnified.
Yes, 2006 on has been the least innovative period for Nintendo in their history. But I think this is because games from then were developed as sequels to GC games. The motion controls were an afterthought in all of those, no matter how well done. The generation of games that were designed from day one for the Wii Remote will be very innovative and in the next-gen MS and Sony consoles with motion controls they will borrow heavily from the things Nintendo innovate in their games from now to then.
Name one new thing Sony has done this gen (or indeed any gen). They take the successes of third-party games (Resistance and Killzone ripped off every PC and console FPS from Halo onwards; GT5 doesn't represent anything new over previous realistic racers like Need for Speed and Burnout; Uncharted takes the gameplay of Tomb Raider and mixes it with the wider adventure genre stereotypes.) and reorganise them under different names with better graphics. The only truly innovative thing I have seen from Sony is LBP, but even within that is there anything different between it and the basic gameplay of SMB in 1986?
