Daemon Hatfield strikes again, to further discredit IGN
He rants and raves against NSMBWii, a game whose values he cannot see
January 15, 2010 - By now 2009 has been put on the shelf and attentions have turned to 2010. But there is a lingering injustice I am having trouble letting go of. When it comes to the question of what was last year's best platformer, gamers seem to have settled on New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a title I find to be derivative and dull. It's the perfect example of how lazy Nintendo has become: just take a four-year old DS game and create new levels for the Wii, add the multiplayer technology of 1990, and call it a day. Despite the lack of effort on Nintendo's part, the game received great reviews, sold millions of copies, and won Platformer Game of the Year awards.
While the platforming genre isn't gaming's feature presentation as it was back in the day, there were still a number of quality platformers released this year to contend with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, LittleBigPlanet PSP, and Trine were all a good time. But I submit that the best platformer of 2009 was one that received less attention than all of these titles (except maybe Trine): Twisted Pixel's 'Splosion Man. While New Super Mario Bros. Wii brought relatively nothing new to the table, 'Splosion Man was brilliant and original.
In a side-by-side comparison, I don't see how the two even compare. 'Splosion Man is more imaginative, technically more impressive, and a much better value than Nintendo's tired game. Consider the evidence:
Exhibit A: 'Splosion Man is more original
Twisted Pixel delivered a hilarious new videogame hero brimming with personality and the unique ability to self-detonate. "New" Super Mario Bros. Wii offers a couple original features like the ice flower or the propeller suit, but with the exception of the drop-in/drop-out four-player multiplayer, there are really no major new features. It should have been called More Super Mario Bros. 'Splosion Man also has a much more interesting premise: a horrible experiment has stripped you of your humanity, rendering you an insane, smoldering wreck that must continuously explode in order to escape your former colleagues – colleagues that hemorrhage deli meats when murdered, I might add. The premise of New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Rescue the princess again.
Exhibit B: 'Splosion Man does four-player online co-op
New Super Mario Bros. Wii's one selling point? Four-player co-op -- only the company couldn't be bothered to support online play, a very basic feature of modern gaming. Four-player local co-op? Big deal, the NES could do that with the Four Score peripheral released in 1990. Nintendo is a colossal, international corporation with thousands of employees, decades of experience making games, and, most importantly, the money to do whatever the hell it wants. So how is it that Nintendo can't figure out online co-op but a small indie developer – with fewer people, less experience, and muchless money -- can? 'Splosion Man goes even further and includes online leaderboards – another elemental community feature that Nintendo's game can't comprehend.
Exhibit C: 'Splosion Man offers more content for a fraction of the price
New Super Mario Bros. Wii includes 77 levels. 'Splosion Man has 100. So even though the downloadable title offers more gaming and more features, at $10 it only costs one fifth as much as the $50 Wii game. 'Splosion Man is easily the better value. And since it doesn't tap into even the Wii's modest capabilities in terms of graphics or technical ability, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is way overpriced.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/106/1061550p1.html
There's a second page, if you want to waste your time reading it. Watch and be amazed at his simple logic, and sheer internet rage.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
