On the other hand, Square Enix puts out one Final Fantasy after another, and I continue to be fascinated by their games.
Something dawned on me the other day. I don't hate Nintendo's games, I am simply tired of their characters.
What if, instead of making a "new Mario game" every E3, if they just announced their new "platformer"?
And instead of announcing their new "Zelda game", they presented their new "Action Adventure game"?
Nintendo franchises have become synonymous with game genres.
Mario/Mario Galaxy - 3D Platformer
New Mario/Kirby - 2DPlatformer
Pokemon/Paper Mario? - RPG
Zelda - Action-Adventure
Metroid - Shooter
Fire Emblem - Tactical RPG
Star Fox - Flight Sim
It seems to me that they are doing this deliberately. Metroid wasn't always a shooter. They seem to be honing in on genres more specifically over time. They've even gone so far as to bring back sidescroller platforming with the line of New Mario games.
My problem, I realize, isn't so much that their games have gotten too hard, too easy, or poorly designed...my problem is that they are just lacking creativity. Every time I see an ad for Nintendo, it's the same dozen or so characters over and over and over.
People adore these characters. I can see why they keep it up. But on the other hand--Think of how much we've been missing the last ten years--if they had put in the effort to expand into new worlds, new characters, new stories, new visual designs...
-Anton
Zelda - Action-Adventure
Metroid - Shooter
Fire Emblem - Tactical RPG
Star Fox - Flight Sim
It seems to me that they are doing this deliberately. Metroid wasn't always a shooter. They seem to be honing in on genres more specifically over time. They've even gone so far as to bring back sidescroller platforming with the line of New Mario games.
My problem, I realize, isn't so much that their games have gotten too hard, too easy, or poorly designed...my problem is that they are just lacking creativity. Every time I see an ad for Nintendo, it's the same dozen or so characters over and over and over.
People adore these characters. I can see why they keep it up. But on the other hand--Think of how much we've been missing the last ten years--if they had put in the effort to expand into new worlds, new characters, new stories, new visual designs...
-Anton
1 comment:
Great article Anton. I think I agree with you although I haven't played any Final Fantasy's past 11 and the thing I love about Final Fantasy is that they always have a new world with new characters yet they maintain their old standby cameo characters like Moogles, Chocobos, Airships, etc.. I didn't really love the 11 online MMO game because it was s grindy and confusing by I loved the art and the music and the plot has been fantastic in most other final fantasy games. I can't say that about any Mario game though Twilight Princess almost had a decent plot... almost. And I haven't tried the latest Zelda prequel game for the Wii. I'm not excited for Pikmin since its just Pikmin again with a couple new varieties thrown in to keep it from molding too badly and Nintendo really needs to do what you're suggesting in general. Metroid is too formulaic, all their games are too formulaic. If you are a Nintendo longtime fan, you already know how to beat most situations and what is going to happen before it does. Very little surprise factor. Nintendo used to be a magnet for RPG's too but I hardly see a noteworthy one on their latest systems as well. Sony has that in the bag usually.
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