sorry double post

You should have an option to do both.

Online gaming is a feature that every console and handheld supports and it's ridicoulous and entirely lazy for a developer to not include online mutliplayer for a multiplayer based game. Your post really shows how bad it is.

You'd hope as gaming grows that they'd be able to include very basic features found in their compeitition.

How many more copies do you honestly believe Wii Sports Resort would sell if they had included online multiplayer?

Step back from the "gaming as an evolving art" viewpoint and look at the business side of it.

Yeah, yeah. I'm sure that it will just as well, but I don't really care about the business of games too much anymore.

You're right though. Why put in the extra effort to make an complete product when you don't have to?

I remember seeing a line once in an IGN review that pretty much said they'd never give a casual game a higher score than 8.0, just because. Does anyone else remember seeing something like that?

From a business standpoint it may not make sense to include extras.  Why not just include the bear minimum right?  But the casual gamer Nintendo is marketing too may not support them forever.  I have already seen this with my casual friends who have Wiis.  They bought a few games for the first 6 months to a year of having it but once they novelty wore off they don't buy anything for it anymore and don't play it as much either.  Good luck getting these people to buy your next console unless you have some super compelling gimmick to draw them back in.

The gamers who are life long gamers and buy a ton of software every year most likely have one of the other systems if they have the money.  These are people you want to continue to support even if you are trying to expand the market place.  Unfortunately, Nintendo's online plan is not appealing to these gamers because they are more aware of what the competition is bringing to the table.  You can say that I am generalizing but I'm generalizing based upon hundreds of comments I have seen from gamers many of whom own an HD console + Wii.

One thing I will mention is that if Nintendo is greedy and won't let me transfer VC/Wiiware purchases to their next console (Super Wii), then I will seriously consider not buying it.  I already don't understand why you can't play VC/Wiiware games on DS like you can PSN games on the PSP and I will be really annoyed if they want me to spend hundreds of dollars every gen on the same exact games just because it is a new console...

HappySquirrel said exactly what I'm trying to say. For me is also important getting more gaming for my dollar, but a game doesn't need thousands of features to accomplish that.

I don't know what standards you are talking about, and who created those standards? Should an adventure game be 20 hrs or more because that's the standard of the industry? I don't think so. If I had 18 years probably wouldn't care, but now not having enough time to play I think twice before buying long games.

Nintendo says the core market is shrinking so they're creating a new market. Why is the core market shrinking? Maybe because people that grew playing Nes are now adults, work, have families, so their gaming time is limited. It's possible this long games, that supposedely are for core gamers, are alieneting them more than casual games. I have many friends in that situation, and even myself sometimes prefer to play a game like Bonsai Barber after work than Madworld for example.

I was talking about a poll IGN had the other day, about online on the Wii. IGN, a site for the core/hardcore, and the final results showed most Wii owners don't really care. I know this poll could be flawed, a joke, innacurate or whatever, but I was shocked to see those results (and I'm sure it was shocking for IGN too, reason why that poll was just for one or two days).

What I got from this post:

"hey the game was going to sell awesomely anyway, why on earth would they want it to be GOOD?"

Rephrase this please.

On topic.

If I reviewed this game solely on gaming mechanics, innovation, gameplay and longevity I'd give it a 10. If the arcades were still alive this is the game everybody would flock to. Nintendo could have cheaped out and just put 5 of the best games in this reduced price title and I'd bet it would still get the same review scores. Years from now, when people are playing the future blockbusters they are going to see that the fundamental game mechanics that they love so much were born in this game, probably moreso than in Wii Sports. This game has shown me exactly what we can expect in the future and I can't wait. So many IPs will be able to benefit from Resort's controls. Going from Wii Sports to Wii Sports Resort reminds me of going from my NES to my SNES.

So..how is Wii Sports Resorts innovative?

I haven't played the game so I can't say whether it deserves a 10 or not(it very well might, I'm picking it up on the 26th ), but judging a game that WORKS from gaming mechanics, innovation as you describe it, gameplay and longevity you could give every single Madden game ever made a 10. Any sports game for that matter, and most fighting games.