johnlucas said:
No, you are not. Yoshi's Story was a great game. People were comparing it to Yoshi's Island so hard that they missed the point. It was set up like Starfox 64 in that it's not so much about getting to the end but setting your path of play. You MAKE your game harder by playing a certain way or going a certain route. They made the gameplay easier to appeal to a newer set of youngsters. Some gamers forget that gaming is not always just about them. It's always about the kids. John Lucas |
@John Lucas: Owning the game back in the day, I understand your points that's Yoshi's Story is a good game on its merits and tends to get bashed by being compared to a great game Yoshi's Island (or choose your degree of corresponding adjectives), Nonetheless, I have a couple questions concerning your that last two lines of your post. (Which should not be taken to have much bearing on how good Yoshi's Story if for the above reason.)
Ignoring the huge discrepancy in critical acclaim for the titles (I guess you're saying reviewers are biased in favor of more mature audiences, which makes quite a bit of sense), if Nintendo's decision to make the gameplay easier contributed to the alienation of YI's fans which helped contribute to a drop of sales from 4.12 million to 2.85 (though the attach rates are much closer) can one not fault Nintendo's implementation of this decision?
Also I don't quite understand your last statement, does it mean something along the lines of:
Business-strategy-wise, kids will always dominate the Video Game market so any alienation of older players is ok so long has the benefits for kids outweigh the loses.
Design-wise, what appeals best to kids will also appeal best to a largest audience, so alienating older players is ok so long as the benefits for kids and those who also enjoy games which kids enjoy outweight the loses.
Some sort of ideal: Video games are a kid's medium, and should be designed for kids, irrespective of market forces.
Or something else entirely?
I think what bothers me about your statement is that I was assuming that its never always about any one group, even kids. If someone can make Halo for violence loving young adult men, why not? Of course, it would be even better if that creator could make games that appeals to everyone, but if they cannot always do so in every case without losing some other audience, can't one justifiably make games that do appeal to those audiences?
P.S. Anecdotally, although I enjoyed the game myself at the time, I also felt dissapointed with it due to the large reduction in number of levels, and the changes in egg throwing, especially as they resulted in the removal of the ability to rebound eggs off walls.
