fooflexible on 07 March 2007
jman8 said: Nintendo has set the precedent for the Wii (since they are the lead developer on the Wii) of making games appeal to a base sense of pleasure. Furthermore, they've managed to push this identity for the Wii through inferior graphical quality and general processing power that handcuff developers. Miis and Wii Sports also further this agenda. Sieanr, I'm sure Nintendo's execs would welcome artistic games as you say. However, Nintendo has fashioned their company and more importantly their console into a machine that represents, indentifies, and defines itself as something meant for just "fun." That's why Hecker mentioned wii.com's lack of references to art. It shows that Nintendo doesn't want their system to be viewed that way.
First off Sony and Microsoft don't call their system art either, sure they like pretty graphics, but calling a game art really doesn't sell it. nonetheless I think saying nintendo only cares about fun is a silly thing to assume too, I really think he's annoyed that Nintendo didn't push graphics harder. Because art direction in Twilight Princess was praised by every review I read. If you check out Super Paper Mario videos that have popped up from GDC the game is beautiful, it is a testment to just how much an artform the old platform titles were. So you can't really knock Nintendo on this notion. In fact Nintendo is the only company that actually attempt to turn their console into an art medium, ala Mario Paint. But of course he's not really talking about art, he's talking about graphics. But of course saying "art" just makes you sound more sophisticated.
