| Aielyn said: Just as Wii Sports didn't "invent" motion control, yet was the first to truly make it successful, so too was Mario 64 not the first 3D platformer. Early 3D platformers include Congo Bongo (1983, released by Sega for Atari, Commodore, and others), 3-D WorldRunner (1987, made by Square for Famicom/NES), Alpha Waves (1990, released by Infogrames for Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS - widely considered the first true 3D platform game), Jumping Flash (1995, released by Sony for the Playstation), and Crash Bandicoot (beat the N64 to market in America). What both games did was take something that had until then been unsuccessful, and turn it into a massively successful thing. Of course, innovation (which is different from invention, by the way) requires success, otherwise it's just a gimmick. Mario 64 changed how games were made, and most modern 3D games can attribute at least some of their design to Mario 64. Wii Sports is massively affecting game development, to such an extent that both Sony and MS are making efforts to have their own motion controls be supported as much as possible. Whether the Wii U will prove to be innovative is yet to be seen. NintendoLand may end up being the game to prove it. Or it may end up being just another game. At this point, it's all speculation. |
I think people overstate the importance of Wii Sports. It was basically a tech demo which was successful because it was bundled with the Wii and it showed off the Wii's controls, not for any other reason. It isn't objectively a very good or deep game. In that way, Nintendoland seems more likely Wii Sports than Mario 64. It's more "Look what our technology can do!" than "Look what we've managed to do with our technology!"
It also isn't entirely fair to say that Wii Sports pushed Sony to go into motion control. They had the EyeToy in 2001, and at the same time they were demoing this:
But as you say, we haven't seen a lot about Nintendoland. It could end up being the next Mario 64.
(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective 
