Nintendo Okie

I’ve complained in the past how too many games are sequels and how there is less originality because of it.  I point the finger at Nintendo a lot.  Other than Miis, they haven’t really created a lead character since Pikmin.  I won’t go any further down that road since Gaz just talked about it yesterday.  Instead I am starting to wonder how much of this problem is my doing.

I mentioned on the podcast a few weeks back how I bought Kirby Mass Attack without a full understanding of what the game was.  I knew it was Kirby and I knew there was a lot of him.  That sums up what I knew about the game. It turns out the game is all touch controls.  Kirby: Canvas Curse is all touch controls as well and I had to force myself to finish it.  Canvas Curse is a pretty good game but I hated the lack of direct control over Kirby.  So much so that I threw the game across the room in frustration; I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.  Anyway, if I would have realized Mass Attack was all touch based I probably would have held off on buying.  The main reason I bought it was because Kirby’s name is on the box.  Does that make me a bad person?  I was thought about this while I played the game.  I then wondered if I would have played if the game stared another character.

I am on a really tight budget at the moment.  That means no new games.  The only reason I bought Mass Attack was because my parents told me to not pay bills with the money they gave me for Christmas.  Before I bought anything I narrowed my wish list down to four games; Kirby Mass Attack, Saints Row: The Third, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.  Look at that list.  They are all sequels in some way.  Minus Saints Row they are all franchises I have a history with.  What does it say about me that my four most wanted games were almost all known quantities?  Maybe it doesn’t say anything but it sure seems odd to me.  I wonder if I don’t play enough new games.  Well, actually that is a goofy statement because I know I don’t play enough new games.  Sadly, this isn’t a choice I make but it is a limit due to my finances.  Being unemployed three times in two years has that affect on you.

Off the top of my head I can recall two times when I really stepped out of my comfort zone and played something new to me; Mirror’s Edge and Persona 4.  Mirror’s Edge was new for everybody but it totally grabbed my attention.  The super-clean, futuristic art style combined with the first-person perspective really stood out.  Granted it was new but something about it made me ask why nobody attempted it before.  I ended up loving the game by the way.  As for Persona 4, I had been looking for an excuse to jump into a JRPG for a long time.  Long story short, Persona clicked with me and I am a huge fan now.

Those are two instances where I tried something new and was please with what I played.  So why don’t I do it more often?  I realize the games industry is driven by sequels but does that have a negative result to what I play?  At the moment, all of my most anticipated games are in some way related to franchises I play often.  I have wanted to play Halo Wars for quite some time so maybe I should pick that up when I get a chance.  Wait, will that help or hurt my confliction?  I don’t play a lot of RTS games but I have played all the other Halo games.  Can I get an official ruling on that?

Am I alone on this?  I don’t feel like I am in a rut since most of the sequels I play introduce new concepts and mechanics but still I seem to have a comfort zone built of a few select franchises.  Perhaps I am just going crazy or maybe it’s just a result of the industry.  If only I had more money then I wouldn’t have this problem.  I could just buy everything and everyone would be happy; and by everyone I mean me.  This mortgage though, the bank expects me to pay it every month.  They are pretty serious about it too.  Go figure.