Wii owns the Platforme genre

[Doobie_wop]

jarrod said:

Doobie_wop said:

jarrod said:

Doobie_wop said:

Most of the HD plat-forming base are on their online networks. Limbo, Joe Danger, S'plosionman, P.B. Winterbottom, Blade Kitten, Trine, Braid, Raskulls, Shadow Complex, Super Meat Boy (probably the best of it's genre), Quest for Booty and heaps more are available to download between the two platforms. They may not get the same sales compared to the  mega games like the five or so Mario games that makes up the Wii's number, but the plat-forming genre is alive and well online and the releases have been pretty consistent and frequent. 

Also, as someone else mentioned earlier, comparing the best selling genre from one platform to another can only end badly when people start coming in with FPS console comparisons, RPG console comparisons, Hack 'n' Slash console comparisons and so on.

Wii also has FAR more platformers on Virtual Console / WiiWare than they do retail.  Super Mario Bros. on VC has likely outsold every XBLA or PSN platformer by itself.

I'm guessing that Super Mario Bros. has probably been emulated  on Android phones more often than the total PSN/XBLA platforming sales combined, it doesn't take away from my point that the HD on line services have been very consistent with quality and frequent platfromers. The OP said that the genre was dead on the HD consoles, I argued that it's alive and well, but it's limited to the online services. Hell, a few of the Game of the Year attendees from 2010 were Joe Danger, P.B. Winterbottom and Limbo (sources mainly include Weekend Confirmed, Giant Bomb and Joystiq). 

Just because one thing does better than another, it doesn't make the other thing a failure.

Alive? I'd definitely agree.  Well?  I'm more conflicted on that one.

I'd say the entire genre being restricted to almost only downloadables on the HD twins isn't the picture of genre health I'd like.  I love XBLA/indies, but it really is a second class market (and more like third world for poor Indies)... it's basically saying the genre isn't worth "full" value/release on HD, it's budgetware.

People have made the comparison to Wii RPGs or FPS in this thread, but at least Wii can still support those genres with full priced, full scale retail releases.  I haven't really seen that on the HD twins from a 3rd party since Sonic Unleashed two years ago...

I guess, but I don't think many people who frequent PSN or XBLA actually think about online releases as second class any more, especially when you consider the releases last year. Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light, Joe Danger and Limbo got far more attention and coverage than many of the 'supposed' larger retail titles last year. Calling it second class is a bit harsh and budgetware isn't exactly the right term to use when we have full retail titles that are offer less content and effort than a $15 PSN game.

The genre has just found a new and profitable market and it's gone from the retail shovel ware platformers that plagued the PS2 to online releases. The Wii does it's own thing and has made great strides to making the platformer market grow, but it's still segmented to Nintendo or already large franchises. Lost in the Shadow, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, A Boy and his Blob, Ivy the Kiwi and the recently released Lost in Shadows are all fantastic games that could have done so much better on a competent online service and it's because not every game can have the same marketing budget as a Sonic, Mario, Mickey or Donkey Kong.

I've gone way off topic.