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Sal.Paradise on 09 April 2012
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RolStoppable said:
Sal.Paradise said:

I thought there were quite a few platformers/adventure games on the Wii? I'm surprised if that's not true, as you said it seems there's a market for that genre of game. Quite honestly platformers have been under-represented this gen on the HD consoles also, it's quite sad. I don't think it has any bearing on the shooter market for the Wii though, the numbers take care of that. 

You're right that for larger companies there has been a shift away from platformers/adventure games and more alternative genres, with a significant chunk of the money going to racing/fps/tps, but I would point out that the indie scene is booming right now, and some of the most interesting developments in alternative games, platformers and less traditional RPG experiences is coming from that sector; a sector largely represented by the PC, and on a smaller scale XBLA and PSN. 

Action-Adventure titles are completey underrepresented on the Wii. I am not just talking about games that are very much Zelda-like (Okami would be the only pick and that's a port), but everything else that you could put into the broad A-A genre. Quality games that serve the purpose of escapism are almost non-existent on the Wii. Tomb Raider Anniversary was a port where effort was put into, but Tomb Raider Underworld was a butchered game. If we stretch the definition of the genre, we can add Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Monster Hunter Tri (both i would call Action-RPGs though).

When it comes to platformers you have Epic Mickey (it's mediocre, but it's undeniable that a lot of money was pumped into it) and right after that mid- to low-budget productions follow. The two De Blob games, a Klonoa remake of the first PS1 game and... I really have a hard time to think of much else. Rayman Origins is another one. But still, that's only five games in five years.

Download-only games can be a nice diversion, but they should be an addition to the retail software. Quality titles in the boxed games market are sorely missing on the Wii. There's a reason why people say that the Wii isn't worth it, if you don't like Nintendo games. All third party games combined don't really add up to justify a purchase of the console. And it has only gotten worse over the years, not better.

So what were we talking about again? Right, the Wii got screwed over by third parties.

I'm sorry but I really think from the numbers that the market for shooters on platforms other than the Wii was just guaranteed movement to those systems, and as I said before you cannot say a third party screwed the Wii over in that area unless you blame them for trying to make money. I'd like to hear an argument against that rather long-winded post I made if you have one, but I can't see much that could be said. 

For genres other than racing/fps/tps I really cannot say, I just thought that whenever I hear about Wii games on gaming sites, apart from Nintendo games or JRPGs, they will be some sort of action adventure, platformer or 'other' genre game, off the top of my head Zack and Wiki, Epic Mickey, de Blob..well that's it.  

I will say the number of quality platformers on ALL systems has decreased this gen I believe (or at least their presence has) aside from indie games. Unfortunately, these indie games have not found their way to Wii for the most part (although World of Goo is on the Wii right?) probably due to download and internal storage limits on the Wii, something I would've liked to see Nintendo address this generation. 

"Download-only games can be a nice diversion, but they should be an addition to the retail software."

If you mean that in terms of grabbing sales and creating a market on the system, sure I agree, but if you're talking about quality, download-only games are right up there with boxed retail games by anyone's standards. There really isn't a distinction between the two anymore, other than in 90% of cases budget, and budget is no guarantee of quality. 

 

Actually I was just talking to someone about Silent Hill, and I'd like to mention that this is a franchise where a third party publisher (Konami) did bring their game to the Wii, and by all reports Shattered Memories was great (I'm super jealous you guys got it); the best since 2 and 3, I've heard most fans say. The game sold better on the PS2 (released in 2010) than it did on the Wii. Not saying this is indicative of a trend as it's just one game, but it is food for thought. In comparison, Konami found an almost 2.5 million seller on the WIi in 2008, in 'Deca Sports', whatever the fuck that is.