Nintendo Okie

I wanted to talk today about something grand, maybe the most important video game soundtracks of all time, or how narrative in story isn’t always that important.  The problem is I didn’t have any of those ideas formed fully yet so instead I think, today, I’ll talk about my outlook for the Wii for the rest of 2010.

People have been talking about how Nintendo has abandoned the core market.  There was an interesting statement from Reggie yesterday on just this topic that I found very interesting.  He was talking about third party and core sales, but had this to say near the end of the quote:

“The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers, we know we’ve got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to play as well. And we also recognize that we don’t create that type of content ourselves. We’re not good at it and it’s not a key focus area. So we want that content on our platform, so we have to court third-party developers and encourage them to make [those games], but it also has to be financially viable for them as well.”

I would contend that Nintendo’s core franchises of Mario, Metroid and Zelda are targeted directly at the core game player.  Those people are my age, or younger that are looking for good gameplay experiences.  They’re not the people out there that only play the latest in greatest that involve the 3 B’s of hardcore gaming.  The core game player just wants to have some fun with games.  They play games late in the evening after a long hard day at work.  If they don’t have kids yet they spend many hours immersed in various worlds.  The Mario style core game will also have impact with the younger audience that likes the cartoonish aspect of Mario’s world.  Metroid will be eaten up by fans of science fiction, and fantasy fans everywhere flock to the Legend of Zelda.

That’s part of the beauty of Nintendo.  They create these great experiences that reach a broad range of people.  That’s more than many companies can say.  They have franchises that are all very similar and appeal to the same type of people and that creates the problem they find with sales.  Nintendo has been able to spread their wealth around a bit and because of it they’ve been hugely successful over the years.  2010, I think more than ever, is going to be the year that Wii finally shows just how interesting it can be to people looking for core experiences.  Let’s take a look at the software that’s been available so far this year and will be available before the year is out.

January saw the release of two very core focused games.  The first, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.  This is an action game focused solely on delivering an experience to people looking for graphic violence and sexuality.  While it may be over the top and completely unrealistic it’s exactly the type of game that appeals to that crowd.  On the same day that game was released Tatsunoko vs. Capcom also came out over here in the states.  That was a game that hit a number of different areas.  First it appealed to fighting game fans who like the tag team action that the Vs. Series provides.  It also gave anime fans a game that really shouldn’t have even come out over here.  Those aren’t characters that are very well known in the United States outside of a small group of people and yet it did.  It was a solid fighting experience that was some of the best I’ve ever experienced and could rival Street Fighter in terms of depth.  February was a bit bare, but the releases of Endless Ocean 2 and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing were good titles that are deserving of looks if you’re interested in arcade style racing and a more relaxing experience.

RPG fans have Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon to look forward to at the end of March and arguably one of the biggest franchises in Japan is coming to America in April when Monster Hunter Tri releases.  That is one title that not only appeals to hardcore adventure fans, but even more casual players through Japan pick that title up.

The summer looks to be filled with titles that appeal to the core audience.  Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is a platformer built specifically for the Wii coming out in May.  The experience will be completely different from the other platforms meaning if you really like solid platforming you’ll have to pick up two copies of the game for different systems.  Alongside that you’ve got the sequel to many gamers Game of the Year for 2007.  That was a game that was awarded that honor by the biggest game press outlets and agreed on by millions of people around the world.  Super Mario Galaxy 2 claims to be harder than the original and filled with even more stuff than before.  Follow that up with Metroid: Other M, a game developed by Team Ninja, and Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, both in June, and you’ve got a great summer of games ahead of you.  There should be even more out that we haven’t heard of yet.  That’s all the stuff we know about now.  Those games are all directed straight at the core market and they don’t all come from Nintendo.  They’re scattered between first and third parties.  All of them have the right ingredients to make for strong sales and quality gaming experiences.  There are still games that are rumored to be coming out, like a new Legend of Zelda that if prove true will be a very strong cap to the end of the year.

Reggie says they may not be very good at making games like BioShock 2 and that may be the case.  I’m here to tell you they don’t need to.  They create enough different experiences for the core player that if they started making games like that, I think, they’re franchises would suffer.  It’s up to the third parties to produce that type of experience, and some of them are.  Nintendo has delivered a solid, wide ranging, install base among gamers and shown them exactly what the system can do.  There have been huge strides in the quality of Wii games since the system launched and looking at the 2010 lineup for Wii it’s looking to be a very good year.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Red Steel 2 is slated for release later this March as well.  That’s yet another game that can be added to this already impressive list of releases.