Opinion: The Casual Game Has Gone Too Far
Does anyone still play Nintendogs?
The game with the cute puppies you can touch and play Frisbee with brought the Nintendo DS into countless hands when it was released in 2005, moving millions of units. Suddenly, handhelds were flying off the shelves, and videogame fanatics finally had the means to spread our gaming gospel to those who would have none of it for years.
I picked up my own copy with the first DS I bought, to get a taste of the phenomenon. And I legitimately enjoyed it, much as I enjoyed the Tamagotchi I once owned. That is to say, I enjoyed it for about a week before shelving it. I passed it along when I bought someone a DS Lite as a present to introduce them to my passion, shovelware to complement New Super Mario Bros and Meteos.
Don't get me wrong, I get it: Casual games are the bait, the proverbial foot-wetting that leads the uninitiated to the deep end of the pool. Enjoying Brain Age? Why not try Professor Layton. Wii Sports got you and your friends all riled up? Good news, here's Mario Strikers. And now, this?
Every year during E3 season, when the latest me-too hi-res shooter, debuting on whatever next-gen console, attempts to do what my self-built gaming rigs have been doing for years, I take comfort in the fact that Nintendo and any third-party developers toeing the line will provide something new, and fun, and different.
Metroid Prime, Mario Galaxy, No More Heroes... a quick smattering of titles that took the idea of a distinct control scheme and ran with it. Come for the casual, stay for the gaming. And now, our E3 headliners? Instead of leveraging its market share for equally innovative and expressive gaming experiences, we get air guitar with less plastic, and Wii Sports, again. Is that really the best use of the new MotionPlus controller? Nintendo could've cranked out a Twilight Princess director's cut, "now with awesome swordplay," and won E3, easy.
I hate to join the mile-long list of Nintendo detractors, but having been raised in the warm bosom of joypad-manipulated electronic entertainment, I think the company owes me and my fellow gamers some kind of explanation.
The Wii is one of the most interesting and innovative consoles ever released: It has wormed it's way into millions of homes, bringing our peculiar hobby to the unwashed masses. It's a real chance for the Grand Theft Auto and Doom hatemongers to take a look at gaming as we remember it: A focus on gameplay over graphics, back when our 8- and 16-bit machines on standard-def TVs just couldn't do much more, visually, and game developers settled for a stylistic experience (see Yoshi's Island). A focus on the novelty of the experience, on fun and engaging excitement beyond corridor after corridor of giblets in dimly lit shooters.
I won't bother taking sides in the core vs. casual trenches -- though I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, I've owned or at least dabbled in every console since the Atari 2600 (minus the ill-fated Virtual Boy). A Super Scope rests proudly on my desk. I've spent a significant chunk of my youth commanding Zergling rushes, and I always shoot the medic first. That being said, my ideal game is a Harvest Moon MMO, where PVP is relegated to market-based strategery. I, and many others like me, fit no particular mold. We're hard-core on weekends, casual during the work week and rabid fans of anything that pushes our hobby closer to the ever-lucrative goal of mainstream acceptance.
Wii Sports Resort is not mainstream acceptance. Animal Crossing: City Folk is not pushing boundaries. These games are the easy sell, getting the little console that potentially could into a slew of living rooms, where people will giggle once or twice at the novelty of tossing yet another Frisbee at yet another dog. Of shaking fruit trees and leaving notes for friends. And then they'll dismiss it all, once again, as child's play.
These "games" are the reason the Microsoft and Sony camps can dismiss the Wii as a fad: Instead of highlighting titles like Wario Land Shake, unleashing the full capabilities of 1:1 motion or even hinting at what the Zelda and Mario teams are up to, we get Wiimote tech demos to look forward to. I yearn for the days when that Nintendo Seal of Quality was a badge of honor.
And yes, I am slightly bitter that there's been no mention of what Fox McCloud and Kirby are up to.
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