dunno001 said:
Actually, I think this is the reason why. We've seen what "modern voicing" does to games- it gives other developers an excuse to increase cinematics and reduce gameplay immersion. As Nintendo fans, we've gotten used to the Nintendo charm; we let Nintendo's gameplay be what eats us up. Breaking up this gameplay with cinematics to show off the voices changes a key element of the Nintendo formula. There can be other individual minor reasons also, like how without a voice, it's easier to hear yourself (or a voice of your choosing) talking, text is faster to scroll through, or even a nostalgic view of days past, when we just didn't need voices. But I think enough Nintendo fans are against voices that I really think adding a lot of talking for both Pit and Samus is a bad idea. We shall see, though... |
I have to admit that I wasn't exactly sold on Pit's voice when I first heard it, but it does seem to fit the look of the Kid. I don't mind some things being voiceless-like Link for instance. It'll be nearly impossible to find a good voice for him aside from his grunts and huffs. But then, Link was a different character than Samus and Mario--oftentimes, Link was supposed to be us--the gamer. Not a character we control, but a character we are and in that sense, it makes sense to leave him quiet--as they did with other "we are them" characters such as in Fallout 3 or the Bioshock titles.
Samus, though, has identity and arguably the most flesh-out storyline of any other Nintendo character given that so many Mario and Zelda games are little more than the same rehashed plotline over and over again. I know Mario games are mostly for the joy of gaming (everyone knows that), but seriously, it wouldn't be that damn hard to give Bowser a little more to do than just kidnap the princess over and over. If only Mario and Donkey Kong hadn't essentially become buddies over the years. The could do something with Bowser teaming up with DK. I guess there's still Wario...
Anyway, I've always felt that the voice in Super Metroid was that of Samus. And it's probably kept unverified if that is her to still have some meaning to revealing Samus as a woman at the end of the game. Now we all know for sure, but even during the SNES era, there seemed to be this idea of not revealing that right off the bat.
Overall, though, I think that voice acting is worthwhile and an important part of video games these days. I loved it in Transformers: War for Cybertronl. Every other game has it these days, and if Nintendo continues to ignore it altogether, they're going to continue to look like, in some aspects, they are unwilling to move forward. Keep the characters quiet where it makes sense, but let them talk sometimes. No other Nintendo character has had as many narrations or inner monologues as Samus. Might as well be accepting of her talking, so long as it's integrated into the game smoothly and without turning into a movie where we push buttons for a few seconds between countless several-minute-long cinematics.
Nintendo has always been known for killer gameplay, and games with amazing graphical flair. Why must their sound always be such a secondary, or tertiary concern? It's like they were fine to keep playing midi music in their games until Super Mario Galaxy. Scratch that, aside from Slippy, the audio in the original StarFox64--music and all--was phenominal. Easily my favorite N64 soundtrack. And with all the voice work, the game seemed that much more "alive" and interactive.
