Nintendo's money pile grows twice as fast as last year

[Praxis]

Yeah, I much preferred WW to TP. TP was ugly as shit and actually bored me, and it barely used the Wii-ness. I found it really disappointing.

I liked Melee too, but ... I dunno. I'm still waiting and seeing, because a lot of waited-for Wii games haev turned out to be pretty average. At least the extra time will hopefully remove the 'GC port' aspect.

I had some questions about SSBB, but I'll put them in the proper thread.

As far as I can tell, Iwata has been putting a "we must make it accessible to the casuals!" influence on everyone at Nintendo, which makes me sad when it comes to the big franchises (look at how Metroid Prime 3 was simplified...while the game was still good, I preferred Prime 1).

The recent interviews with Sakurai and Iwata have given me the impression that Sakurai is saying, "Yeah, I know you've been making a big push for simplification, but this is my project and not yours and I want to make this one for the fans."

Sakurai
Well, first of all, when I heard about the Revolution, or Wii concept at the E3 in 2005, I had this feeling that games with features that anyone can master, like Wii Sports, would become the new main attraction. Of course I thought there would be more conventional games too, but I thought that easily enjoyable games would become the next big thing.

Iwata
Making games that broke with convention was the key concept for the Revolution.

Sakurai
Right. I thought this direction was pretty spectacular and heartily applauded the flexible approach you were proposing. At the same time, however, I didn’t think that Smash Bros. had to fully adhere to this approach. Rather, I thought that I should remain cognizant of this new concept Nintendo had developed, but then think about what development path was right for the new Smash Bros.

Iwata
I see.

Sakurai
Of course, I think there was a possibility of taking Smash Bros. in a more casual-gaming direction. For example, we could make the art style simpler or make it possible to use Miis. However, with the various titles that the Wii was to offer, I felt that people were looking for something different. That’s the reason I decided in very early stages of development that the Wii pointer and motion movements would not be a primary feature of the game.

...

Iwata
I think you can see the roots of my ideology flourishing at Nintendo today and I’ll be very happy if this way of thinking continues to expand the range of products that Nintendo offers.

Sakurai
It’s best to have both approaches, right?

I love Sakurai.

And while I haven't played the Kingdom Hearts games,

Kingdom Hearts managed to come up with a very good story to explain all the different worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy coming together, and Smash Bros Brawl's storyline (from what we can tell) seems to closely parallel that.

Having the same director as a good game doesn't necessarily mean that the new game will also be good.

Having a director with a near perfect track record (Kirby and Smash Bros), combined with some of the best-known musicians and scriptwriters in the industry and a proven dev team, while not guaranteeing success, greatly increases the chances that the game will be good.

[Schuyler Colfax]

Whenever I play TP now I get the thought that this game isn't as good as it was made out to be. Don't get me wrong its fun but my main complaint is the graphics. They're shiny but not detailed on a lot of levels.

[Xisiqomelir]

And while I haven't played the Kingdom Hearts games, I wouldn't consider having the same writer as Final Fantasy VII to be a plus.

You mean art director, right? Kitase has never made a bad game, whereas Nomura has never made a good design.

[Bounty]

Whenever I play TP now I get the thought that this game isn't as good as it was made out to be. Don't get me wrong its fun but my main complaint is the graphics. They're shiny but not detailed on a lot of levels.

Maybe because it's a direct Gamecube port? Compared to the other titles on that console, it looks stellar.

Not to mention that you don't even need great graphics when the art style is there.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

What I didn't like about Twilight Princess is that it didn't seem to have the size and scope of Wind Waker or Ocarina of Time. In OoT, you went to Death Mountain and Zora's Domain several times during the course of the game. in TP, you went there for one dungeon and never had to go there again. It made the game feel smaller and more straightforward than the other entries.

[Drooling Iguana]

And while I haven't played the Kingdom Hearts games, I wouldn't consider having the same writer as Final Fantasy VII to be a plus.

You mean art director, right? Kitase has never made a bad game, whereas Nomura has never made a good design.

If Kitase made Final Fantasy VII then yes, he has made at least one bad game.

[Redleader34]

Please, Drooling Iguana, not the LOLERS FF7 is SHIT, thing again, but on topic, this proves that the future of gaming, like it or not, is with the casual audiences. They will be the kingmakers of this generation.

[Dooey Jo]

Please, Drooling Iguana, not the LOLERS FF7 is SHIT, thing again, but on topic, this proves that the future of gaming, like it or not, is with the casual audiences. They will be the kingmakers of this generation.

Everyone in the industry has known this for years, and it was The Sims that proved appealing to a larger audience could be done. And frankly, only making games for the male "hard-core gamer" audience is retarded, when you look at how small that demographic really is. I remember that this particular group used to call the Wii a "niche thing", back in the day. Seems like they are about to become the actual niche

[CloudStrife433]

First of all Stark, why are you judging an entire console based on launch titles?
And in all actuality graphics are not that important. Crysis: A standard FPS with nice graphics. I just ask you, would you rather have a game that looked like Crysis but played like... E.T or a game that looks like the bastard child of Zelda CD-I and E.T. but plays like... Red Faction?
I'm gonna go with the terrible graphics and good gameplay, rather than the reverse. And lastly, Final Fantasy 7 is shit, as you so colorfully put it.

GameFan called it "quite possibly the greatest game ever made"
users of the video game website GameFAQs voted Final Fantasy VII as the "Best Game Ever

IGN regarded the option to use only three characters at a time as "the game's only shortcoming"

Within three days of its January 1997 release in Japan, the game had sold 2.3 million copies. This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for the title. In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies, and had reached sales of 500,000 units in less than three weeks. The momentum built in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced that the game had sold one million copies on the continent by early December, prompting one business analyst to comment that "Sony redefined the role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII".

The basis of several spin offs including a highly successful and awesome movie, Final Fantasy 7 is simply one of the best games of all time.
Face the fact.

[Stark]

Does anyone have any idea what he's even saying? Who cares about Crysis? And graphics aren't the be-all of a game, but making a system which immediately runs into the laughable 4MB texture memory limit is BAD. Elebits was a fine game... shame a Wii can't run it without massive slowdowns on outdoor levels.

[Zablorg]

Does anyone have any idea what he's even saying? Who cares about Crysis? And graphics aren't the be-all of a game, but making a system which immediately runs into the laughable 4MB texture memory limit is BAD. Elebits was a fine game... shame a Wii can't run it without massive slowdowns on outdoor levels.

I... think he's doing an appeal to whatsit fallacy, but I'm not sure.

[CloudStrife433]

Please, don't mention Elebits.
Travesty. Tried it. Broken gameplay.
Akin to God of War in terms of fail.

[DaveJB]

And lastly, Final Fantasy 7 is shit, as you so colorfully put it.

GameFan called it "quite possibly the greatest game ever made"
users of the video game website GameFAQs voted Final Fantasy VII as the "Best Game Ever

IGN regarded the option to use only three characters at a time as "the game's only shortcoming"

Within three days of its January 1997 release in Japan, the game had sold 2.3 million copies. This popularity inspired thousands of retailers in North America to break street dates in September to meet public demand for the title. In the game's debut weekend in North America, it sold 330,000 copies, and had reached sales of 500,000 units in less than three weeks. The momentum built in the game's opening weeks continued for several months; Sony announced that the game had sold one million copies on the continent by early December, prompting one business analyst to comment that "Sony redefined the role-playing game (RPG) category and expanded the conventional audience with the launch of Final Fantasy VII".

The basis of several spin offs including a highly successful and awesome movie, Final Fantasy 7 is simply one of the best games of all time.
Face the fact.

You're wasting your time. Whether anyone says FF7 is good, average or shit, that's not a fact, it's their opinion. Sure, the prevailing opinion is that it's good, but that still doesn't make it a "fact" that FF7 is good or bad, nothing can do that. You might as well try and prove that I'm somehow in the wrong for not liking coffee, when half of the world's population drinks it on a daily basis.

[DPDarkPrimus]

FF7 did indeed bring the RPG into the mainstream for the modern gaming generation.

But that simply means it was extremely influential.

[[R_H]]

snip Stark
I... think he's doing an appeal to whatsit fallacy, but I'm not sure.

Appeal to authority?

PS CloudStrife433, the FF movie was not awesome for those of us who didn't play the FF games and didn't know what the fuck was going on. IMO, the FF-Spirits Within was better.

[Davis 51]

PS CloudStrife433, the FF movie was not awesome for those of us who didn't play the FF games and didn't know what the fuck was going on. IMO, the FF-Spirits Within was better.

I hadn't played FF7, and...I...I thought FF7:AC was awesome.



Seriously, the movie actually intrigued me enough to go and play FF7. I borrowed a friends PC copy only to find out that there is a bug when you play it on Windows XP that causes it to crash at a Chocobo Race EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME!

[Ghost Rider]

snip Stark
I... think he's doing an appeal to whatsit fallacy, but I'm not sure.

Appeal to authority?

PS CloudStrife433, the FF movie was not awesome for those of us who didn't play the FF games and didn't know what the fuck was going on. IMO, the FF-Spirits Within was better.

Now, now...it's an appeal to popularity as well .

He's following standard retard fanboy and hitting all the marks.

[Starglider]

I own exactly one Wii game: Rampage. Which I got on sale for 20 pounds, and was a lot of fun. I do not own a Wii, but I've spent a lot of time recently staying with various friends who do. I did get 100% completion on Twilight Princess, right down to doing the Cave of Ordeals twice, and 95% completion on Mario Galaxies before it got too damn irriating.

I may well be buying a Wii when Mario Kart comes out. More noteable is the fact that I am also considering buying Wiis for my parents, sister's family and grandparents. Yes you read that right. They think it's awesome.

I would consider buying a PS3 if it had Ace Combat 6 (and any future AC games), because I would quite like a Blu-ray player. But it doesn't and despite desperate fanboy speculation doesn't seem likely to. I imagine I'll get a 360 (as soon as the 1080p projector turns up) and a Blu-ray drive in my next laptop that I can use for home theatre purposes. That's a likely 1 360 purchase, 2 to 4 Wii purchases and 0 PS3 purchases, from me personally.

Incidentally I dropped by the Newcastle Zavvi recently (the sad fate of the UK Virgin Megastore franchise) and was thoroughly amused to hear some teenage louts angrily exclaiming 'ain't you got no pee-ess-tee games?'. Indeed they did not - only Wii and 360 games were in evidence.