What is the 3DS?
05-10-10
6:43 PM
Monthly Archive
|
What is the 3DS? No, I mean REALLY. We've read all the crap that has been made up about it by asshat journalists, analysts, and apple fanboys. This is not what impresses me. Just look at some of the "fan art" about the 3ds. Crazy stuff ahead:
I can't help but laugh when I see stuff like this. Fans always create the wackiest "mock-ups". Look at the second picture, doesn't that screen look like it could break off in a moment's notice. The first picture has a giant screen that is suppose to be upheld by an itsy, bitsy control panel. The third picture looks like a Game Gear, weird stuff I say.
Everybody lets their imaginations run away with them. That's really why hype in this industry is such a damaging thing. People develop a picture in their head of what a product is going to be. This leaves many people disappointed when their "vision" is not what the final product turned out to be. Sometimes I wonder why Nintendo decided to "announce" the 3DS like they did. Didn't they know it would fuel unneeded speculation? Iwata commented on this in the investor Q&A:
"Iwata mentions that when Nintendo decided that they wanted to show the 3DS at E3, they also wanted to have third party games to show off. In order to make this happen, they had to expand the knowledge of the system to people outside of Nintendo. Unfortunately, this leads to leaks and other bits of information getting around. Nintendo bit the bullet and let the info out to third parties, because having those games to show was important to them."
http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=123174
Nintendo wanted to announce the 3DS at E3, but they wanted to have 3rd party games to go along with it. In order to do this, they had to risk the product leaking as 3rd parties are worth shit in keeping secrets. So they announced the 3DS to effectively pre-empt that. Personally, if I was Nintendo, I would have just kept the system from 3rd parties until e3. Third parties have screwed over Nintendo repeatedly. They are not worth the time and effort. If you have to, make them sign a horrifying NDA that allows Nintendo to sue the pants out of any company that provided a leak of information.
Hype is really killing the industry. Gamers are no longer interested in playing games anymore. They are more interested in the hype that surrounds them. Products are coming out and falling flat because the interest is all hype and not tangible. Nintendo is the only company to have avoided this, as their games sell for not just months, but years. This is because they avoid HYPE.
So, speaking of hype, what can we expect of the 3DS? Are the fans and analysts correct with their "fan art"? Will this simply be a higher-powered DS with 3d visuals? Will it have more iPod or iPad capabilities? Will it have 3G or even 4G support? I think the answers to these questions will be dwarfed come e3 by what the 3DS is REALLY meant to be.
All of those capabilities are expectations of the high-end consumer and not really components that can make a product sell. Come June, we will find out what the 3DS really can do, and it will effectively blow all of our minds. I don't even want to guess what the giant secret is, but it's out there. I've pondered that it might be some kind of 3d manipulation with the stylus, but who am I to guess that?
Whatever it is, I'm expecting something huge with the same punch-in-the-face the Wii had when it was first announced with motion control. Until then, I guess we'll let the hype brew.
|
New Super Mario World
05-10-10
4:55 PM
Monthly Archive
|
In relation to my last post, I want to detail what I believe would be the correct choice for Nintendo in creating future Mario franchise titles. I think the best approach would be to create a "NEW Super Mario World". What I mean by this is that there needs to be a Mario game with NEW content.
The recent 2d games released on Wii and DS are, in essence, compilations of previous Mario games. All the things that made the previous games great are brought back for our enjoyment, but there is nothing really new. The universe hasn't been expanded. We have the same worlds: A desert world, a water world, a fire world, and of course the mushroom world.
New Super Mario Bros was all about nostalgia. It was about reliving the best moments of the past games. Now it is time to create the NEXT Mario Bros game that expands on the universe while keeping the fundamental gameplay intact. It has been nearly 20 years since this happened. What I want to see are COMPLETELY new worlds.
What I have always found enticing was the combination of the Mushroom Kingdom and Real Life Cities. Take these images for instance.
These two images, even though they are fan art, are very cool. They show that there many exciting elements Nintendo can experiment with in the Mario universe. A game that explores the mushroom kingdom escaping into reality and Mario has to save the day? Awesome. How about a 2d Mario game that takes Mario into the future? Awesome. They could even take the whole going-into-space theme from Galaxy and put it in a 2d setting. Awesome again. There are a lot of possibilities, especially when you've only released three games that have really expanded on the 2d universe in the first place.
Anyways, I want to see as much effort put into this new 2d Mario game as has been put into Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. I want lots of new power-ups and suits, not just two. I want new enemies. I want new environments. I want the NEXT 2d Mario experience. I'm done with nostalgia. This isn't about sappy memories of when I was a kid, this is a desire for perfection in gameplay. 2d Mario is a perfect gameplay experience. It now needs to expand to new heights. Nintendo needs to give Miyamoto a kick in the butt and tell him to get back to work on the series that made him the famous game designer he is today.
And if that doesn't persuade Nintendo into making these things, perhaps they can think about the boatloads of cash they will receive from such a thing. When the NOSTALGIA game sells 15m in six months, just how much better is the NEXT game going to be? I'm waiting patiently Nintendo. Please don't make it another 20 years.
|
Super Mario Galaxy 2 vs. New Super Mario Bros Wii
05-10-10!
12:56 PM
Monthly Archive
|
Take a look at the grand splendor that is Super Mario Galaxy 2:
Even the boxart looks amazing and spectacular. Take a look:
Every Nintendo fanboy in the world right now is frothing at the mouth to get their hands on this game. With less than 2 weeks left on the calendar till it's release date, it's easy and perhaps required to let the massive hype take over the senses. Fanboys are ignoring work, school, and daily tasks such as showering and eating. They are so hypnotically glued by every screenshot, every youtube video, every new bit of information no matter how small, that they have missed why this game is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The reason is this:
You're probably saying "But wait, isn't that just a DS port?" In many people's opinion, including mine, yes it is. And yet this port has come to sell nearly 15m copies within it's first six months on the market, and it's not slowing down. It is still selling nearly 150 thousand a week. If it maintains that pace till Christmas, it will break 20 million.
The last Mario game we saw that broke 20 million was this game's predecessor, New Super Mario Bros for the DS. Before that, the last mario game we saw break 20 million was Super Mario World. So what does this mean?
It means that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the last hope for a dying brand. Let's talk about 3d Mario shall we? The highest selling 3d Mario game was Super Mario 64, with 11 million copies sold. After that, it went downhill. Super Mario Sunshine was the first real punch-in-the-face for Nintendo that maybe this whole 3d Mario thing wasn't such a good idea. It only sold 6 million copies. Super Mario Galaxy was supposed to be the "fix-it" for 3d Mario, created to be easier and more accessible. It only sold 8 million copies.
Keep in mind these are nearly half the sales of most 2d Mario games. With Super Mario Galaxy 2, Nintendo is hoping to finally release the ultimate fix-it-up patch for 3d Mario that will finally get it to sell like a 2d Mario. They are doing things like this:
* Adding a world map system.
* More 2d levels!
* Bonus DVD that teaches you how to play.
* Cosmic Witch, a version of the Super Guide from New Super Mario Bros Wii.
It's like they suddenly decided while making the game, specifically when New Super Mario Bros Wii was selling like gangbusters through the holidays, that they had to fit as much 2d Mario into this game as possible to make it sell more. And they did. They squished 2d Mario into this game like their life depended on it. So have they finally done it? Will Super Mario Galaxy 2 finally sell like 2d Mario?
I guess we will see. Perhaps it will take off? Maybe it will sell more than Super Mario 64 at least, right? Still, in my mind it is more likely that it sells about the same as the original Super Mario Galaxy.
|
|
