Killiana1a said:
Well thank you, I like your post too.
I guess where I differ with most, including Malstrom, is the tie-in of the software with the hardware.
Reading Malstrom, you would be lead to believe Nintendo with the Wii has gotten back to their NES and SNES type gaming library. Malstrom is quick to applaud Nintendo's 2D offering such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Donkey Kong Country Returns, which I agree are both excellent games as I have played them myself with family. Where Malstrom vehemently disagrees with Nintendo is when they take a core franchise like Metroid and allow the developers to redefine the series to an extent where it is utterly different than the earlier versions, which were phenomenons.
Where I disagree is this dismissal of the Wii controls not playing a large part in drawing consumers to the Wii. Until Move and Kinect came out, no other company had a platform similar to the Wii so well tied-in with the software. The sales of Wii Fit and Wii Play speak volumes of this incredible tie-in.
I have called the Wii controls a gimmick in the past and taken flack for it. By gimmick, I mean doing something in a novel way that has not been done as well prior. It is not perjorative in any major sense because I hold Move and Kinect to a larger extent of being more gimmicky than the Wii because they are blatant, johnny-come-lately attempts to cash in on a market Sony and Microsoft perjoratively dismissed as "casual" until they had their Wii-like platforms (Kinect and Move) out.
Where we agree is the software for the Move and Kinect just like it is for the Wii will make or break them as platforms. The Wii has been proven with it's software library with the sales and is now on the downslope as Nintendo has rarely supported a console full steam past 5 years. However, both Move and Kinect need to prove, with the software, that this is not a half-hearted attempt to pander to a crowd they dismissed before as "casual."
Whether Move and Kinect just pander or are serious platforms will be known within a year. Every platform has some amazing launch titles, only after 6 months to a year when the launch hype has died down is whether we will know if Microsoft and Sony are serious about the Blue Ocean or whether it was a pathetic "me too!" attempt they never planned on fully supporting past the multi-million dollar launch advertising campaigns.
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Ok just for the record, I will never, EVER attest to thee idea that Nintendo is anywhere near the quality output they had back during thee SNES era of gaming. Not even close. I am trying to say that the games they put out do exploit the console controls that they bet so hard on. They used the correct software to express their medium. But in no way are their games of the same class produced during the SNES age.
And I am not saying the controls were not a gimick. They definitely were used exactly as a gimick should be used. However, the success of this gimick was far from assured. And that is where I think people take Nintendo for granted. What they decided to do was risky, and the risk could have failed harder than the Gamecube.
I have no problems using the word gimick in the proper context. People do get touchy about the word being used because it represents a negative attitude towards a product, in most cases. And in the case of Wii, it definitely has connection with a negative connotation. So people get defensive and sometimes it is unnecessary.
I do agree with you here. I think a lot about the people that wrote Wii off and are just now really coming to terms with the new control medium. Those people are falling in love with basically five year old software. Not that it bothers me or anything, but I need more than that to be satiated these days. And that is what Nintendo is calling for.
And your last paragraph is exactly how I feel. If either one can make a move into the more dedicated territories that Wii has thus far been unsuccessful at gaining a foot hold on, then I will have a serious reason to make the purchase. That will take some time because games are not developed overnight. In around half a year from now, I will not only know what is out, but have a good look at what is coming. And that will be the time to make a judgement call.
