Wii Music will be one of the biggest Nintendo Games of all time.

Personally, I hope it fails. Then maybe real gaming will make a comeback some day and people will forget the pablum Nintendo has been spoon feeding the masses to generate sales for its technologically weak console.

There is nothing genius about this product. If there is anything genius about Nintendo it is that they do know what has the potential to appeal to many people and experience they've gained overtime primarily with their handhelds has given them this insight.

But really what have they done this console generation?

1. They looked at how scarcity drives demand for toys from Cabbage Patch Dolls to Tickle Me Elmo to the 360's holiday season of '05 and decided that if they could create a console that was in constantly short supply versus demand, then it would be able to generate a lot of word of mouth value which would increase its desirability to certain demographics of people including a lot of people that had no knowledge of gaming but only heard co-workers or the media saying this was something they must have, so they decided that they must have it. Though in retrospect things that would appeal to most people that really know anything about games such as strength of software library really hasn't factored much into the thinking that has led the Wii into being the best-selling console on the market.

2. They took a last gen game like Yourself!Fitness on the 360 and moved it into a more utilitarian / user friendly environment. Props from the likes of Ellen Degeneris also assisted with the popularity of this product. It has generated some nice Youtube videos.

3. They did put out some newer editions of some of their older classics that do appeal to longtime Nintendo faithful (But they didn't do such a good job of spacing their release dates with all of them coming out within the first year of the console's lifespan.  If they could have had just one of them saved for this Christmas holiday, then they wouldn't have generated nearly as much flak beginning at E3 2008 as they have.  If one could have said , "Oh the first Metroid of the Wii is coming out Christmas '08; on the other hand detractors could still say the game's graphics aren't going to be as good as Resistance or Gears 2, but it would seem more as if Nintendo was trying, then it woud be much harder to make negative assumptions about their software library as one can with only Animal Crossing or Wii Music scheduled for the Holiday Season '08) However only one of these new versions of the classic series was noticeably better than the last gen version -- Super Mario Galaxy. Super Smash Brothers Melee and the new Zelda were only at best slightly better than the last gen versions (although certain reviews would indicate that neither one was any better than the last gen iterations), and two of these games were noticeably inferior to the last gen versions -- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Mario Kart Wii.

4. Now they've seen the popularity of music games that require some skill like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and they are thinking that if they Nintendify, dumb down, and remove the part about Guitar Hero and Rock Band having to have any skill from their game, then they will have yet another mass market success. They don't care about the games critical reception they only want the moolah.

So in short, Nintendo is happy that they have managed to think of yet another game that will appeal to children, the unskilled, and those that are a little bit bored and have no intention of getting into real games.

Good for Nintendo's pockets, bad for gaming in general if it sells well, and another product that allows Nintendo to keep their sales lead this generation without having to invest in any actually games which would showcase the limitations of their machine. On the DS Nintendo is being preserved by the classics remakes that they're getting from Square-Enix and as games like FFXIII Agito come out on the PSP we will see that handheld continue to cut into the DS's lead, and on the Wii Nintendo's most recently made real games like Disaster: Day of Crisis show they just can't make games that are really that superior to anyone else's unless they are a Mario or Zelda.

The true genius of Nintendo is in being able to establish a place in the marketplace and hold on to it without there being any real justification (not all the time but quite a bit of the time) for them being able to do so (another example of this, the decade long success of the Gameboy Green and Black. The only real exceptions to this are the SNES, GBA, and DS all three with great thanks to Square and the Gamecube because it did have a game library that should have enjoyed more success than it did.  If only they hadn't designed it so that it was technologically so much better graphically at doing cell-shaded graphics than anything else in a climate that was ready to embrace more realistic graphics while the N64 other than Zelda, Mario and the Rare games really demonstrated many of the major problems with Nintendo's way of doing things).

I hope that real games like Heavy Rain,, Final Fantasy XIII, continued success of MGS4, Gran Turismo 5, God of War III, Litle Big Planet, and more will allow the PS3 to cut into this lazy success enjoyed by Nintendo and force them to either show what they are truly capable to continue their success of and if they aren't capable of it (Uncharted being such a much better game than Disaster would lead one to think that at the least they would have difficulties in the arena), then lose since they don't deserve to win based on lazy marketing gimmicks like Wii Fit, Wii Music, and Animal Crossing: The Totally Wiik Version.

Paul_Warren said: Personally, I hope it fails. Then maybe real gaming will make a comeback some day and people will forget the pablum Nintendo has been spoon feeding the masses to generate sales for its technologically weak console. There is nothing genius about this product. If there is anything genius about Nintendo it is that they do know what has the potential to appeal to many people and experience they've gained overtime primarily with their handhelds has given them this insight. But really what have they done this console generation? 1. They looked at how scarcity drives demand for toys from Cabbage Patch Dolls to Tickle Me Elmo to the 360's holiday season of '05 and decided that if they could create a console that was in constantly short supply versus demand, then it would be able to generate a lot of word of mouth value which would increase its desirability to certain demographics of people including a lot of people that had no knowledge of gaming but only heard co-workers or the media saying this was something they must have, so they decided that they must have it. Though in retrospect things that would appeal to most people that really know anything about games such as strength of software library really hasn't factored much into the thinking that has led the Wii into being the best-selling console on the market. 2. They took a last gen game like Yourself!Fitness on the 360 and moved it into a more utilitarian / user friendly environment. Props from the likes of Ellen Degeneris also assisted with the popularity of this product. It has generated some nice Youtube videos. 3. They did put out some newer editions of some of their older classics that do appeal to longtime Nintendo faithful. However only one of these games was noticeably better than the last gen version -- Super Mario Galaxy. Super Smash Brothers Melee and the new Zelda were only at best slightly better than the last gen versions (although certain reviews would indicate that neither one was any better than the last gen iterations), and two of these games were noticeably inferior to the last gen versions -- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Mario Kart Wii. 4. Now they've seen the popularity of music games that require some skill like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and they are thinking that if they Nintendify, dumb down, and remove the part about Guitar Hero and Rock Band having to have any skill from their game, then they will have yet another mass market success. They don't care about the games critical reception they only want the moolah. So in short, Nintendo is happy that they have managed to think of yet another game that will appeal to children, the unskilled, and those that are a little bit bored and have no intention of getting into real games. Good for Nintendo's pockets, bad for gaming in general if it sells well, and another product that allows Nintendo to keep their sales lead this generation without having to invest in any actually games which would showcase the limitations of their machine. On the DS Nintendo is being preserved by the classics remakes that they're getting from Square-Enix and as games like FFXIII Agito come out on the PSP we will see that handheld continue to cut into the DS's lead, and on the Wii Nintendo's most recently made real games like Disaster: Day of Crisis show they just can't make games that are really that superior to anyone else's unless they are a Mario or Zelda. The true genius of Nintendo is in being able to establish a place in the marketplace and hold on to it without there being any real justification (not all the time but quite a bit of the time) for them being able to do so (another example of this, the decade long success of the Gameboy Green and Black. The only real exceptions to this are the SNES, GBA, and DS all three with great thanks to Square and the Gamecube because it did have a game library that should have enjoyed more success than it did.  If only they hadn't designed it so that it was technologically so much better graphically at doing cell-shaded graphics than anything else in a climate that was ready to embrace more realistic graphics). I hope that real games like Heavy Rain,, Final Fantasy XIII, continued success of MGS4, Gran Turismo 5, God of War III, Litle Big Planet, and more will allow the PS3 to cut into this lazy success enjoyed by Nintendo and force them to either show what they are truly capable to continue their success of and if they aren't capable of it (Uncharted being such a much better game than Disaster would lead one to think that at the least they would have difficulties in the arena), then lose since they don't deserve to win based on lazy marketing gimmicks like Wii Fit, Wii Music, and Animal Crossing: The Totally Wiik Version.

You win. I love you Paul_Warren!

 

@Paul_Warren

1) Absurd. Your on a sales site. Look at the sales. Wiis are produced at an unprecidented rate, greater even than PS2s at their peak. If you are producing them at historical high amounts how is that purposely creating a shortage?

2) Yes and improved on it and genius it was you must admit.

3)Zelda WAS a Gamecube game. It was released on GC as well as Wii. I agree tech-wise SSMB wasn't a great step forward but WAY more content. SMG is better but so was MP3 you're the only one I've seen that thinks otherwise. MKWii is no improvement over MK:DD granted - except for the WiiWheel which is a huge seller feature since that makes the game accessible to all. Online doesn't hurt either.
On that same point what improvements have really been made to any sequels appearing on 360/PS3?? For the most part the play exactly the same as their PS2 counterparts.

4)Wii Music is about playing with music not keeping a rhythm. Not saying that it'll work out well but it's not a mere simplification of GH it's a total reimagining of what a music game should be.

RolStoppable said: rubido said: So if Malstrom isn't trustworthy because he is too biased towards Nintendo, who else should I read when I want to know what's happening and why in the videogames industry?

 

I don't have an answer for that. :(

Just keep reading videogame news and make up your own opinion. And read his stuff, just be more critical of it. Always keep in mind that he is really biased torwards nintendo.

@Paul Warren: Yeah. But what are you going to do about it? Whine at internet forums?

Khuutra said: Didn't read the article - Maelstrom takes a long time to say not a whole lot - but I will say, right here, that I expect this game to be a lot of fun. And I expect my musically inclined family to have more fun with this than Guitar Hero. And that it will be huge. And that it will be critically panned but loved by the community anyway.

 

Pretty much sums up my prediction of Wii Music.

@rubido: But the problem is, that the videogame news doesn't talk about business and their look at the market is limited to existing userbase and its opinions, not the business side of view and the potential of new audience. If the existing audience would be only one that counts, we'd had nothing but Pong clones, or to be specific, the whole videogames wouldn't even exist. What the videogame news is talking about, is a whole different language than what Malstrom is talking about.
Mahatma Gandhi once said one thing that fits the whole subject about the Wii: First they ignore us, then they will laugh at us, then we crush them.

"1) Absurd. Your on a sales site. Look at the sales. Wiis are produced at an unprecidented rate, greater even than PS2s at their peak. If you are producing them at historical high amounts how is that purposely creating a shortage?"

Listen if there was a shortage, then why couldn't people walk into a store and just buy one off the shelf during the Christmas holiday '06 season with the greatest of ease. Why couldn't they do this in the Christmas '07 season? Why have I only seen Wii's in my local Wal~Mart one time in the middle of the day since thy were released? If the Wii's sales numbers are right, then why can't they ever be found in a store? If Nintendo only puts enough Wii's in stores for only a certain amount of people to carry them out within a short period of time, there must be something about them they want to hide. It's that simple. Here's an example if the Wii is selling so many units hundreds of thousands each week, then you would think that Nintendo would want to sell as many of them as they possibly can...that they would think they could sell many more than they do.

I can walk into almost store at almost any time of day and see a DS sitting there? Why can't I do the same with the Wii? Here's proof of the fact that Nintendo has been trying to sell as many Wiis as possible without keeping most people from being able to see them: during the Christmas '07 season when they should have been overflowing in stores, IGN reported that Nintendo was making 1.8 million Wiis each month at the NA factory each month, but here at VGChartz at the same time, it was reported that Nintendo was selling well, the number one console on the market even, but they weren't selling 1.8 million Wii's a month, so what were those other million Wii's doing sitting in factories when there were many people that were having to settle for Wii Voucher's for Christmas?

2.) Don't know if its any more genius than Yourself!Fitness, but the Youtube vids are nice. I would like to see Olga K. or Spricket24 demonstrate it.



3.) "MP3 you're the only one I've seen that thinks otherwise."

Metroid Prime GR score = 96.264
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes GR score = 91.925
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption = 89.602


"On that same point what improvements have really been made to any sequels appearing on 360/PS3?? For the most part the play exactly the same as their PS2 counterparts."

GTA IV is the best GTA.


Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) GR score = 97.419
Grand Theft Auto IV (360) GR score = 96.684
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) GR score = 95.223
Grand Theft Auto III GR score = 94.907
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) GR score = 94.229


Metal Gear Solid holds its own among the MGS games. There is not a seven point drop from the first MGS to the latest one as their is with Metroid Prime.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2) GR score = 94.806
Metal Gear Solid (PS1) GR score = 93.469
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2) GR score =92.816
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS2) GR score = 92.634
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2) GR score = 91.435
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (PS2) GR score = 85.470



stats from http://www.gamerankings.com


"4)Wii Music is about playing with music not keeping a rhythm. Not saying that it'll work out well but it's not a mere simplification of GH it's a total reimagining of what a music game should be."

Wii Music has made no respectable gaming publication's list of the best game at E3, however, you Wii fans want it to sell in staggering amounts which in my opinion is very bad for gaming in general. The longer they can get buy selling weak titles just because they sell well, then the more weak titles they will be able and have encouragement to make just because they're selling products to an audience made up by many people that have no idea how to properly assess the games they are playing.

I just can't help but think that Malstrom is biased. Show me one article where he doesn't orally pleasure Nintendo at every turn and perhaps I'll think differently, but until then he just seems like a Nintendo fan who can string words together well.