Climax made Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and I liked that game. But I also liked Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction, two games that Climax's Sam Barlow kind of dumps on. His dumping point? The rail shooting aspect.
Barlow on rail shooters: "Without badmouthing people, a lot of the games they've been complaining about are rail shooters and a rail shooter wouldn't have sold no matter what platform you put it on because it's a rail shooter and that's a niche genre that had its heyday back in the Dreamcast."
I don't think that's what really held them back, though. I think it has more to do with the Wii audience and what type of game they expect. Of course, Climax is feeling pretty good about the "mature game" audience on the Wii after releasing Shattered Memories. While I loved Shattered Memories, I'd argue that the other two were definitely more "mature" than it was.
Destructoid, are you so opposed to rail shooters that you'd write a game off as quickly as Barlow did? I replayed Panzer Dragoon last month, so don't ask me.
Silent Hill dev: On-rail shooters died with Dreamcast [CVG]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
39 comments | showing # 1 to 39
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
1:20 PM on 01.22.2010
| 
Dead Space/RE being more "Mature" then Shattered Memories? How so? You have a point if all you consider mature is blood and violence, but in terms of the game being more in tune with a mature audience and being thematically mature, then you're dead wrong, and I can't really see how you'd even come to that conclusion.
And no, he's right. Rail shooters are going to sell like crap no matter where they are released, because as much as certian people (myself included) like them, there are a million others who won't touch them. And the fact that companies like Sega and even gamers themselves are writing off Mature games on the Wii becuase of poor RAIL SHOOTER sales is pure insanity. When a game with the polish and love of Bayonetta comes out on the Wii and sells poorly, you'll have a point to make. When the only evidence you can point at is Mad World and Rail Shooters selling poorly, you need to rethink your damn position.
Plus two of them are franchises that are usually third person shooters and pretending that your bringing the same kind of experience as the original games across isn't going to work.
Then again, these are also likely people that expect a story driven experience, which is why we have stupid shit like Story Mode in Tekken 6. That's not a railshooter, but why the fuck does it need a story mode. I hit the other guy, he falls down - that's the story.
Shooters are the same way - its about shooting the fuck out of things. Its not like I knew the shambling corpse that wants my brains anyway. If I have a gun that can take down an alien mothership, all I need to know is the gun is that powerful, I'm not going to look for a backstory there, just getting the fastest time or highest score I can.
Anyway, if rail-shooters were cheaper I would get them, but I won't pay 50 dollars for a 6 hours long game in which I can't even move.
It would be nigh-impossible to get me to drop money for a rail-shooter these days unless it is phenomenal - but, that said, Rez and Panzer Dragoon Orta are all-time favorites of mine for sheer fun. And the vehicle levels in RE5 were rail-shootery and generally good times! (goddamn you, NDesu on professional mode. Damn you straight to rock troll hell.)
Also, the comment about RE: On Rails and Dead Space: On Rails being more mature than Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is *ludicrous, and I cannot begin to respond to it because the shrill laughter is making it hard to type. Yes, two games about obliterating zombies into masses of red goo are more mature than a game about personal struggles and violence combined. That's like saying Se7en is less mature than Saw because the latter has more blood. That Titanic is less mature than Jugs XVIII because the latter has more breasts. It's completely ridiculous.
Madworld lacked hard in the replay and gameplay department. Silent Hill Shattered Memories (which i loved) lacked in the promotion department, calling it re-imaging was a complete mistake, people saw it as a remake even though it wasn't mostly due to developers way to mask things on the Wii "it's not an on-rail shooter, its'a first person guided experience" ¬_¬ .
IMO developers have by this point poisoned the proverbial well, pretty stupidly if i may add, if you consider that development on the Wii is already a fraction of what it is for PS3 and X360 instead of investing part of the savings into good promotions they have been pretty damn stingy AND released subpar games ( spin-offs, motion control remakes and ports) to boot. They expected cash cows for low input and they failed and now we are all paying for it.
With that out of the way, I honestly have never seen the appeal in rail shooters. Sure, I've played them here and there at the arcade, but to actually bring one home isn't an investment I'd like to make. If I wanted to point and click wildly, there are plenty of flash games out there that offer that, and if I really wanted to, I could probably get tits as a reward, all for free. Not my bag, is all.
as for silent hill, i'm dying to play it. just waiting until i get through the half dozen games i got for christmas this year. i'll apologize in advance if i have to purchase tats v capcom first, however, as that game MUST join my collection.
Protip to EA and Sega: You can't sell an appetizer as a main course and expect to make money.
have you watched Se7en AND Saw. Se7en is more mature, no argument there, but it is also bloodier as Saw 1, by slot, as Saw 1 had very little on screen blood and gore. Try busting out a slasher like Bloody Valentine 3d with that comparison.
Not hatin' just sayin'