Is NSMB Wii worthy of the title Game Of The Year?

[pearljammer]

Final-Fan said:

I think that your point about musicals versus games with cutscenes is way off base.  Some games, like Mario, do just fine with hardly any cutscenes at all.  But others use them heavily to enhance the game experience.  And that's what it's about in my opinion:  enhancing the game experience.  It's okay for Mario to be given a simple goal like "princess kidnapped, go save her (by running a giant gauntlet of nearly nonsensical obstacles)."  But Nathan Drake's goals need a little bit more structure and narrative.  

That's what cutscenes are supposed to do, I think -- deliver that narrative and structure when it can't be delivered during pure gameplay.  Lots of cutscenes have things going on that would be hard to show the gamer in gameplay, or have an action sequence that would be too hard or boring to fit into the game and make people play through, etc.  It enhances the game experience by bridging the gap between playable areas and giving the player a sensible narrative connecting them and keeping him interested in the character's exploits.  

If you want to come back with, "Well, they shouldn't try to tell a story that they can't deliver in pure gameplay", you have a right to that opinion.  But I think that that's unfairly restrictive.  

And this also, I think, accounts for a lot of the 'lower standards' you see in game storytelling -- it's not the focus in many cases, just a support.  

Couldn't have said it better myself. Somehow, I missed that post last night.

But I do agree on the ""Well, they shouldn't try to tell a story that they can't deliver in pure gameplay" argument to a certain extent. Some of my best gaming experiences, like playing Shadow of the Colossus, done almost entirely like how he mentioned.

However, as both you and I have already said, that's being far too restrictive. There are many games that tell a great story through other means.