Welcome back to Press Start, where I take a look at different aspects of gaming every week and share my thoughts with you guys. This week, I want to take on Nintendo. Yes, this will be a little bit of a slate post but not in terms of Nintendo being bad at making games or anything; just more in terms of their target audience.
The reason I have named this post ‘Nintendo & Baby Gaming’ is because, in my opinion, that’s all they seem to produce year in and year out. Now don’t get me wrong, as there are a few titles that aren’t, but I am talking about overall. The picture above shows most of Nintendo’s huge array of characters and games. The first thing to notice is that there are very few real-looking characters. What I mean by this is the fact that everyone is all cutesy and cartooned. This is the first thing that annoys me about Nintendo (remember these are the guys that distributed Final Fantasy). The next thing that annoys me is that all the games look the exact same. There has been no difference in play style over the last ten years in any of these games. The only exception to this seems to be the new Mario games, and pretty much everyone agrees they are just getting ridiculous with those ideas. Now I am not saying the games are bad, of course they are not. They did bring us Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid and many others. But it just seems like Nintendo are happy to sit back, relax and send out the same stuff over and over again.
Lately I have also noticed that the game play is getting dumbed down, which is very irritating, especially in cases like some of the new Mario games as well as Harvest Moon. The latter game is so stupid it is unbelievable. The thing that gets me most is that anyone I know that plays this stuff is in their 20s-30s. This is ridiculous. I like to be challenged in a game, I like to use my brain and lastly I like it to be somewhat realistic. I’m not saying I want high end graphics and all the best specs, because that doesn’t mean anything in terms of game play and emotion. I am pretty sure it’s just me as I don’t know anyone who dislikes Nintendo. But it still seems like they are using the 80s and 90s games and just updating them game after game but not actually changing the whole idea and exploring new areas.
For example, the Wii had some of the worst games imaginable that required no thought process whatsoever, like Mario Kart, Monopoly, Just Dance, Wii Play, Carnival Games and Circus Games. All of these games were either just a plain copy of the game before it or else just a collection of mini games. There have obviously been great AAA titles on the Wii, and I’m not disputing that, but it just seems that Nintendo’s roster is full of dud games. It almost looks like 80% of the games are just sale bin games that you snag for a fiver at your local game haunt.
The only decent game that I actually like from Nintendo is Pokémon and, even now, it is nowhere near as good as the original. In the new generation games, the Pokémon themselves and their names are ridiculous.
This bring me on to my final point: how is this company still running and why are so many people still obsessed over them? I mean, most of my friends are devout Nintendo fans and simply can’t get enough. I tell anybody who asks me if I like Nintendo that it is for ‘Baby Gaming’. I just don’t put it on the same standards as other console gaming or PC gaming and, to be honest, it is nowhere near the same standard at all. It is a long way off before it gets to that standard.
Nintendo, please come up with something that will restore my faith in you. Please give me an awesome non-cutesy game that I can really sink my teeth in. It’s been years and I really do miss the old you.
What do you guys think? Are you still avid fans of Nintendo? Do you think Nintendo should step it up a notch? As always, let me know if you agree in the comments. See you next week!
