I was really surprised when I read the Letter from the Editor column in this month's Play Magazine. Before I post the text of that column I'll put the magazine into perspective for those who may not read or have not heard of the magazine before. It's basically a North American videogame magazine for casual and hardcore gamers alike (even it's editor bills himself as a casual gamer). It also does not court controversy and is very easy/nice to the people and companies it interviews or profiles and in my opinion it's too easy on the games it reviews.
Anyways here's what the editor had to say this month:
Nintendo has officially gone off the reservation
"Leading up to the new E3 "business summit," we've been attending various Gamer's Days to sample the goods we once braved a week in LA to ponder. Not only is this a more efficient way to see what each publisher has in store, but it's also more informative, given we get to spend quality time with each game, producer, and so on. Sony, Sega, Ubisoft, Namco Bandai, EA, Eidos, Activision...everything seemed to be going as planned until we landed at Nintendo. Eager to see Mario Galaxy, Battalion Wars 2, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., and Super Smash Bros. Brawl we were met with everything but. In fact, outside of confirming Galaxy and Brawl, no other games were even mentioned, and aside from Corruption, not a single new title was on display. What followed was like a trip to the Twilight Zone as Reggie took the stage to declare Nintendo's master plan.
Was he concerned that the machine has become the mecca for sub-par ports in its first year? No. Or that as third parties begin to develop dedicated PS3 and Xbox 360 games, even those ports will soon dry up? Uh...no. Did he announce any exciting new titles or at least explain where all the old ones were? Negative.
No, what Reggie explained is that it's your mom they want; that games like Nintendogs would pave the way for generations of Wii gamers to come. Nintendo's focus will now shift from the core gamer to the casual to very casual gamer. He concluded the diatribe on their new demographic by throwing us casual gamers a bone, albeit a tiny gnawed-on chicken wing, by proclaiming that Nintendo would never forget who got them here - that would be you and me - but that doesn't change the fact that in one calendar year Nintendo has not announced a single first-party game for the real-gamer demographic. They can't even be troubled to crank out a localization of Fire Emblem. Wow...thanks Redge: I can stop dreaming about Heavenly Sword and Fable 2 now.
While the Wii definately has some great games left on the schedule (the same ones) along with a trickle of third-party exclusives, the future of the Wii does not revolve around us gamers. That ship has sailed. While we dust ourselves off and head for higher HD ground, yeah, it hurts a bit, but I wonder if it will actually work? I don't blame Nintendo for stepping outside of the 360/PS3 arena and doing something different, but I don't understand why they have to ditch us to do it. It makes sense to cash in on the virtual pet/brain/twister/pedestrian sports craze (I guess), given their hardware and unique controller (not to mention they're also sitting on the world's hottest hardware in the DS). I just wonder if the casual gamer can support a console? I was really looking forward to Wii exclusives designed to the system's considerable strengths. Metroid Prime 3 Corruption really shows the potential of the machine, as do games like No More Heroes, NiGHTS, Red Steel 2, and Zake & Wiki.
In the meantime we'll of course relish every Mario, Metroid, and Zelda as few and far between as they may be, but for now let's take a moment of silence to remember the Nintendo of old...We never did get a Kid Icarus.
-Dave Halverson Editor In Chief"
