Miyamoto Scrutinizes Mario, Zelda, Hails Portal 145
eldavojohn writes "Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that 'What I've been saying to our development teams recently is that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was not a bad game, by any means. But, still, it felt like there was something missing. And while, personally, I feel like Super Mario Galaxy was able to do some things that were very unique, at the same time, from another perspective, certain elements of it do feel somewhat conservative. This is something I've been talking to both of those teams about ... hopefully [the next Mario and Zelda] will feel newer and fresher than their most recent versions.' MTV Multiplayer also commented on Portal's mechanics and gameplay, to which Miyamoto responded, 'I think Portal was an amazing game, too.' GameSetWatch has a related article criticizing Nintendo for relying on the Wii's input devices to develop game franchises rather than improving actual gameplay."
Great Article (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a great appreciation of this guy for not being a talking head, and for keeping his critical perspective for his own work and the rest of the industry. He really seems to have a great perspective on games as a whole, and sees where they're at and where they're going (and where they should be right now, which is probably what feeds his criticism of his own work).
I really disliked Twilight Princess, and though Mario Galaxy was great fun for me, it was really just Mario 64 with a top-down camera most of the time.
Re:Un peu de poids. (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy practically invented video games as we know them.
I'm sure the people at Valve jumped in the air, simultaneously high five-ing each other after they read that.
Re:I love Miyamoto's insight (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, to illustrate it with videogames; Asteroids is shallow as hell, but playing it is a much purer state of videogame zen than gears of war will ever be.
Re:Weird, I disagree with him (sort of) (Score:4, Interesting)
You forget that Miyamoto is VERY into innovation. Pikmin, Nintendogs, Wii Fit (among others): those are all his, and all are/were pretty innovative ideas. Portal was innovative, too, and it's obvious why he really likes it.
I thought that Twilight Princess was an excellent game, as well, but while I played Mario Galaxy from start to finish -- and enjoyed it thoroughly -- its linearity kept it from being either challenging or exciting.
Remember Mario 64? How you pretty much had free reign over fifteen large worlds? In Mario Galaxy, there are some large worlds, sure, but depending on which objective you're on, you're really only allowed to visit certain parts of each world, and to progress from celestial body to celestial body, you just walk from point A to an obvious point B -- there's never any guesswork or exploration involved. For me, that's what made Mario Galaxy way too easy and predictable.
Re:Fair comments (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone (some awesome individual) then did a bit of stats and posted a very good summation of the situation (deserved to be modded up but too late, I guess). Read these stats and think about how many of the actually good games are franchises.. I will repost it here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1009873& cid=25545311
Ok, let's use Metacritic...
Wii First available: November 19, 2006
Scores 80 and above: 36 games
Scores 85 and above: 13 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/wii/scores/ [metacritic.com]
Xbox 360 First available: November 22, 2005
Scores 80 and above: 122 games
Scores 85 and above: 47 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox360/scores/ [metacritic.com]
PS3 First available: November 11, 2006
Scores 80 and above: 79 games
Scores 85 and above: 34 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps3/scores/ [metacritic.com]
PS2 First available: October-November, 2000
Scores 80 and above: 319 games
Scores 85 and above: 149 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps2/scores/ [metacritic.com]
Nintendo DS First available: November, 2004
Scores 80 and above: 64 games
Scores 85 and above: 25 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ds/scores/ [metacritic.com]
"Good" Game per Month (GGPM) Ratio Since most consoles were released in November, lets round up their ages by year. And assuming the score of 80 qualifies as a "good" game: - Wii: 36/24 = 1.5 GGPM
- 360: 122/36 = 3.39 GGPM
- PS3: 79/24 = 3.29 GGPM
- PS2: 319/96 = 3.32 GGPM (*)
- NDS: 64/48 = 1.33 GGPM
*) The PS2 probably doesn't have many new games anymore in the past few years.
It seems the NDS and Wii are filled with a lot more family and kids-friendly games, and these games tend to not favor the critics, and possibly most hardcore gamers.
I think, given the quality and innovation of SMG, there is enough room for further elaboration on the Wii.
:-)
And if you truly actually want decent titles on the Wii rather than noveltyware, right now, you're worried about the future of this console. Very little quality stuff is coming out. It's a complete contradiction to the perpetually sold out status of the console. I'm surprised more people are not complaining about how poor the catalogue is. As it stands, more often than not if I go browse the Wii shelves, I'm standing next to a family who are buying a game on cover alone (and promised novelty mechanics that rarely work). If that is the majority market, I can see why publishers don't give a shit, just turn out turds and watch the dollars roll in
I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a "gamer". I just make informed decisions on whether to buy something. Strangely, whenever I check whether I should, I'm confronted with a fairly resounding "nothing to see here" regarding new stuff coming for the Wii.
Re:Question- (Score:3, Interesting)
Ha, touche. Well, in The Wind Waker, Ganondorf kidnaps Zelda, but she kicks some arse on your behalf in the final fight. Such a shame that the final battle comes only after a ridiculous time-wasting search-and-find quest, because it's one of the best end battles in any game anywhere and I think a lot of people never got to it.
Besides, what's an action/adventure game without someone to rescue? Even in Beyond Good and Evil (yes, I love that game), you end up rescuing a friend. What creative twist are you going to put on the formula that's so unique, yet at the same time compelling?
Re:Un peu de poids. (Score:5, Interesting)
Amusingly, the actual team behind Portal were at DigiPen, a training institute that Nintendo of America is deeply intertwined with. I dare say part of the reason that Portal is that Nintendo is very Japan centric, and unable to fully embrace American innovators, even ones they grew. Valve happily snatched the group up and paired them with talent from everywhere. If you look at their one endeavor to actually capitalize on the eager people ready to work for Nintendo, NST, they're a damn near failure. Every game they make is a derivative or sequel, it's like a list of "all the games you fuckers should have played, damnit!" It's clearly not a matter of talent, so I'm willing to blame management.
Clearly many people involved with Portal are enamored with Miyamato's games. Seanbaby brings a culture of gaming steeped in the history of gaming, all the way back to the NES. And yet it seems like NoA would have made sure nobody with his edgy cult celebrity status would participate.
Re:Question- (Score:3, Interesting)
You get to play as Ganondorf, and your objectives are to learn to use your l33t magic powers (which of course requires finding ancient manuscripts from various dungeons and realizing their true meaning when almost dead in a previously hopeless fight against the boss monster), rise an army, conquer Hyrule, kidnap Princess Zelda and marry her in a lavish spectacle during which the final phase of your operation is carried out, and crush Link in an epic battle when he crashes said wedding party. Then you'll have an option to break and brainwash them both in your torture chamber to become your faithful servants; or you can go the softer route of using your l33t b3d sk1llz to enslave Zelda, then possess her body and do the same to Link, in scenes which fully utilize the motion sensors and shape of the Wii remote for maximum authenticity. As a secret, the latter could result in a child who has inherited aspects of all three triforces; potentially your most powerful general, or your deadliest foe if brought up wrongly (heroically). And of course you get to design your own fortresses and dungeons as you prepare to conquer the lands around Hyrule.
I'll call it "Grand Theft Triforce", or perhaps "Dark World Keeper". A K-18 Zelda for Wii with cutesy graphics and hardcore threesome sex scenes between Ganon, Link and Zelda - that different enough for you, Miyamoto ?-)
Re:Fair comments (Score:5, Interesting)
The other thing is that Nintendo's target market probably buys fewer games per console. How many games does the average Nintendo customer buy a month? I'm not talking about "hardcore" gamers, I'm talking about the average person with a Nintendo console. I would be hard-pressed to say its more than 1 a month.
For the other consoles, you've got more "hardcore" gamers that buy games more frequently, but that can't be expected to buy the same games as each other. As a rough example, 9.53 million Mario Kart Wii sales [wikipedia.org] per 30.55 million Wiis [wikipedia.org], vs. 3 million MGS4 sales [wikipedia.org] per 16.84 million [wikipedia.org] PS3 sales. Put another way, about 1 in 3 Wii owners bought Mario Kart, but less than 1 in 5 PS3 owners bought MGS4. (I realize there are some important differences, but this is just to give a rough idea.)
This would explain why Nintendo puts out fewer quality games. Their target audience only wants so many games per month, and they can be expected to buy the same quality games as each other. By comparison, the other consoles have to put out more diverse quality games because of the more diverse and frenzied appetites of their target market.
Re:Fair comments (Score:3, Interesting)
The other thing is that Nintendo's target market probably buys fewer games per console. How many games does the average Nintendo customer buy a month? I'm not talking about "hardcore" gamers, I'm talking about the average person with a Nintendo console. I would be hard-pressed to say its more than 1 a month.
I'd say its way less than that. I'm a somewhat casual gamer (I enjoy the AAA games, but have little play time so only buy a few and they last me forever) looking back over my last 4 or 5 consoles, I'd say I buy 10 to 15 games per console LIFETIME (3-4 years?). Anecdotal of course, but I think 1 game a month is quite a bit.
Re:Un peu de poids. (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think carts were about piracy, they were because previous attempts at CD-pased gaming (Sega CD, TurboGrafx CD, CDi) were horrible failures. Additionally CDs had horrible load times at the time and the need for them wasn't that big, the game content could still fit on a cart, only the FMVs that started getting used much in games (previously they were only used for crappy "interactive movie" games) and the CD music required CDs, Nintendo probably thought the negatives outweight the positives.
BTW, currently the Blu-Ray console is losing to the two consoles that use plain DVDs.
The PSP actually didn't get killed only by itself, the DS tapped into some massive market expansions with games like Nintendogs and Brain Age that the PSP was unable to contest.
I'd wager the Wii is getting bad support more because the GC sold so badly, because third parties all want the glory of High Definition titles since those are "real gamer games" and because third parties think noone can beat Nintendo on their opwn platform so they only put their worst teams on the job and provide excuses to shareholders. A part of the problem is also that they don't understand the "casual" market the Wii has reached into and just try to take their regular games, dumb them down by making them easy and shallow and calling that casual. The requirements are more time contraints than low difficulty, a "casual" player won't put in 3 hours in one session and if the game isn't fun when played in 15 minute increments or so (which for many modern games is less than the length of one cutscene!) it fails to appeal to that type of customer.