Often heralded as the most innovative console and game developer in the gaming industry, Nintendo has come a very long way from the card-manufacturing company it was back in 1985.
Each of their major franchises has its own set of rabid fans, and to this day, Nintendo fans are among the most loyal the gaming community has ever seen. With the exception of maybe the GameCube, each of their consoles has sold remarkably well and has never failed to please their target audience. Their handhelds alone would guarantee them the #1 rank out of all three console developers. They are the pioneers of innovation and lead the charge when it comes to changing and molding the way we play games.
But say we ignore handheld gaming for the duration of this post. How does Nintendo hold up against Sony and Microsoft? How creative is Nintendo really?
Proceed with caution, Nintendo fans; I fear you might not quite like what you read after the jump. I have set aside my undying love for all things Nintendo in an attempt to provide a brutally honest and unbiased look at the company, their past, their present and -- with any luck -- their future.
Certain facts about Nintendo could very easily give one the impression that they are among the more conservative of game developers. Although Nintendo has always governed the way we play games and made radical changes to the same, one must admit they will not change themselves unless they are absolutely forced to.
Let’s cast a look at the franchises that supported them during the tenure of the SNES. There was Mario. There was Zelda. Metroid. StarFox. Then came the Gameboys. Mario. Zelda. Metroid. Pokémon. Then came the N64. Mario. Zelda. Pokémon. StarFox. Then came the GameCube. Once again, Mario. Zelda. Pokémon. Metroid. StarFox.
See what I mean?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have spent countless hours of my life on each of those franchises, and I love them all dearly. Yes, none of the Zeldas are related, and in that vein, one might be able to compare them to Final Fantasy … were it not for the fact that every game is about the heroic elf rescuing the princess.
Nintendo will not change unless they absolutely need to. They make more than enough money adhering to their ways, and this seems to suit them just fine. Or did. I feel the GameCube was a wake-up call of sorts for their entire team. It took a radical device like the DS to pull Nintendo out of their slump during the last console war. With the introduction of Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aimé into the picture, it seems Nintendo’s image has pulled a 360 (no pun intended).
The Wii is the perfect example reinforcing this fact. Let’s go back in time to about a year ago. The DS was all the rage, but no one wanted the GameCube. Nintendo hadn’t allowed much mature content on the console. They were very adamant about this. The system lacked online play, and they had somehow managed to alienate several major developers. The PS2 was kicking ass, and even Microsoft’s newly released Xbox managed to sell more units than the GameCube. Before this, the N64 had failed to match up to the PSOne due to Nintendo’s obsession with the cartridge format and their refusal to embrace change.
Fast-forward to the present. The Wii is selling like hot cakes. Everyone loves it. Nintendo is on the look out for mature content for their new brainchild. The witty, charismatic “Regginator” is NOA’s president and Nintendo’s new face in the Americas. New franchises are in the works. And yes, there is even a service for online play in the form of WiiConnect24.
Wait, did I just say “service for online play”? I must have been referring to that broken, botched-up, infuriating, miserable excuse for an online service Nintendo threw at us straight out of the box with the Wii. That putrescent piece of filth that -- ahem. Excuse me. What I mean is, the DS used Friend codes. People hated Friend codes. There was -- what was the line?
"There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth."
And what did Nintendo do? They went ahead and used them again.
Really now, is this what it’s come down to? The Wii is an ingenious device. The sheer concept of the console itself demands applause. Why then, did the Big N choose to muck it up at the last minute with WiiConnect24? Why did they refuse to change? The entire purpose of online gaming is to meet and play with new people. People are doing everything they possibly can to work around Friend codes and Nintendo's non-existent match-making system ... could this be the reason? Are we not bitching nearly as much as we should be? Someone once told me Xbox Live is what it is today because people bitched and bitched and bitched about it nonstop. One wonders why Nintendo didn't simply look to Microsoft for inspiration. Or -- heaven forbid -- Sony.
People complain Sony copies Nintendo. Yes, they do that. There’s no denying the fact that Nintendo does majority of the hard work (inventing) and Sony comes along and makes profits by doing the rest (imitating or improving). They did it with the analog, they did it with rumble, and they’ve done it again with the SIXAXIS. But is it really a bad thing?
If Sony were to stop copying them, Nintendo would be far less compelled to keep coming up with the new, innovative and crazy ideas that make them stand out from the rest of the crowd. They’d probably take the easy way out and throw together a console that was big on graphics and low on innovation. They would refuse to change.
Boom. No more Nintendo. Not the way we know them, anyway.
Refusal to accept change was a large part of the reason Nintendo couldn’t catch up to Sony all these years. They deserve to be numero uno, but they aren’t. However, all is not lost. As we all know, Nintendo’s fans are far more loyal than either Sony’s or Microsoft’s. These fans remain loyal and continue to support the company through, both, good and bad times. The Wii is here. The Regginator is here. Mature content is here. Nintendo finally seems to be embracing change and deviating from the business strategy it has conformed to all these years.
Hell, I even see hope for WiiConnect24. In case you haven’t heard, Maple Story is headed to the DS, and seeing as how the game is an MMORPG, there is no way Nintendo will force us to put up with WiiConnect24 in its current state for much longer.
And with that, I’m going to end this post on a good note. Nintendo is changing. Change is good.
Contest:
3:28 PM on 12.28.2006
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I was in the wailing crowd.
Good write up. I sure hope they don't make online play a bitch to use.
lmao @ BlindSide
PS: Not all DS games require friend codes, only if you want to play with SELECT people.
Examples:
StarFox Assault: Play in either 2, 3, or 4 player matches or 4-person Battle Royal, all can be done with random people.
Metroid Prime: Hunters: Random battles of people you don't know.
Castlevania: Portait of Ruin: Can do Co-Op Boss Rush mode with random stranger and open shop to sell items to people(you can go and buy stuff too).
Granted you can't get contact info or communicate with them outside of Metroid's voice chat, but still, you can play with new people in those games.
Sure, there is Mario on the NES, Mario on the SNES, Mario on the N64, and Mario (soon to be) on the Wii. To just look at it like that, yeah it looks repetitive and not all that creative, but that's because it's a simplified look at things.
Are we really saying that there isn't a big leap (or at least enough improvements from iteration to iteration) between all these Mario titles? Super Mario Bros. 3 is certainly a step up from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World definitely added new game mechanics over Mario 3, Mario 64 was a huge leap forward from Mario World, and it's looking like Galaxy is leaps and bounds different from Mario 64.
If all Nintendo did was release straight up sequels that felt like nothing more than an expansion pack of the previous title then I could see why people thought Nintendo was being repetitive with it's franchises, but almost all of their sequels add something new and dare I say innovative.
Just because their games seem to star the same characters doesn't mean the games aren't different, creative, or innovative.
Oh, also great article overall Ishaan!
I really hope the Wii online service gets an update in the next 4 - 6 months. I think they semi-rushed it out the door in order to hit the holiday window.
It wouldnt be that hard for Nintendo to patch it and change how the servers it connects to work.
While I dont like the DS friend code system either, I dont think I could see myself messaging people like on Live, random assignment for Mario Kart works just fine with me :)
Acceptable, Nintendo. We'll take even that. Doesn't even have to be exceptional, just acceptable. But VERY acceptable.
Yeah I forgot random races in Mario Kart DS.
But online won't happen until Spring 2007 at the earliest. They got some time to iron it out, and perhaps in the future they could really change it up. The possibilites are near limitless.
I liked the article, Ishaan. Not too much sugar, but not too much acid either. Good balance.
Come on, man. Do we really need to go through the vast number of differences between Msoft's old, piece of crap motion sensing controller and the Wii's again?
Touch screen - sure, it's not an original INVENTION, but for being used with games it was a gutsy move on Nintendo's part. Especially since no game company had incorporated it into a product before.
This'll get lost in the sea of comments, I'm sure, but it is worth a mention that the Wii is a bit more than just an old Gamecube gutted out and crammed into a new shell. The technology in the Wii was made to make a fast, power-saving system with short load times, low energy consumption, and the ability to remain on at all times. Not only did they succeed there, but they did it well.
With that said, they could've benefited from raising their graphical power even a little bit, but doing that alone isn't innovation, nor is it necessarily the cause of it.
I don't like friend codes either but there been reports in the media that the DS could be using for luring children with pictochat?!?. I fully understand Nintendo wants to avoid that kind of publicity and possible lawsuits.
I've heard this 'Nintendo falls back on it's franchises' again and again yadda yadda. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but EVERYBODY falls back on their franchises. Square, Capcom, EA.. Nintendo is hardly alone in this. Blaming them for their lack of innovation (which as someone has pointed out is hardly fair; they popularized any number of types of games, including the 2-D platformer and the 3-D platformer) is pretty stupid.
I can't really comment on their online play since I've never used it, but I'm not sure what sort of innovation you're looking for in the world of 'connecting to another device.' I'm not saying your comments are wrong, but if your argument is 'friend codes are not innovative' I guess you win a no-prize or something. What would be required to make 'connecting to another device' innovative? I think the fact the little handheld can connect wirelessly to the internet at all is pretty cool myself.
I REALLY don't know what you're trying to say in your third argument. Something about 'If Sony wasn't copying Nintendo, and thus would not exist, Nintendo wouldn't feel the need to innovate.'
Ignoring the fact that companies often try and out-innovate themselves regardless of their market position, you're argument just seems like nonsense. If no one tried to compete with Nintendo, yes, you're right, I expect they wouldn't be as innovative.
- Eddie
DS Online = 1995
sony thrived for 2 generations, bad press early on in the 3rd. lets see if they handle things gracefully and can reimagine thier games division.
on that note, i will be the first person to declare the xbox720 complete and utter trash.
I am a fanboy myself, or at least i was. But Nintendo has broken my heart too many times. The Wii is cool, its fun, buts its not the greatest thing since sliced bread (and i hate that phrase).
There's no argument against Nintendo being innovative. It's something they've only completely embraced as their overall business strategy in recent years, but they've been pioneering new technologies in gaming since their birth, and they continue to reinvent beloved franchises so as to not be too repetitive when it comes down to gameplay. They remain one the world's most innovative companies, and they're few screw ups don't change that.
Nintendo. Phail.
scratch that. im done making stupid for fun comments, hehehe.
maybe im just confused and lost, or maybe you are a retard.
BURN!
Nobel peace prizes aren't for writing either. Also, condos wouldn't have an apostrophe.
the wheel was nothing new at the time, and engine-powered-machines were nothing new either.
innovator, more like jackass.
they'll continue promising the world but they just won't fulfill. there will b 3 games a year that go from being no name games to actually well known like Elite Beat Agents, but it will be right xmas and as soon as the next year comes each year we'll know there's a huge gap of games ahead. i reall hope im wrong but the GameCube left me bitter.
Anyway, for the sequels I feels it fair to mention that you tend to see a generation gap between each iteration, its hardly Call of Duty or EA Sports level of release a new version each year. Your list also emphasises that they do try and introduce one or two new franchises for each generation along with the favorites. Star Fox, Pikmin, Metroid (3D) etc. I feel that as they have expanded their franchises they've reached a point where its hard to keep everyone happy with a new version, I suspect Sunshine was a weaker title for this exact reason.
The rest I agree with. A more robust online system would be good, whatever the good intentions its not very usable as is. This is classic old school stubborn Nintendo and will hopfully follow the rest of the company in opening up a little.
Im not adding apastrophies for assholes. Its a new thing Im doing.
And if they had spell check on D'toid you guys wouldn't have shit to say, so STFU.
This piece of amazing writing just puts me over the edge, this is on par with Hamlet. Please, sex me Ishaan.
Sex me now.