Innovation: Are We Moving Forward?May 9th, 2008 by Brittany
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What does it take to be truly innovative? These days, especially with the advent of the Nintendo Wii, emphasis is placed so much on going forward and making waves in the gaming industry that perfectly fun games are criticized for not being innovative enough.
On the other hand, games that are touted as such sort of, well, disappoint. There is no doubt that the Wii is innovative, in that it promotes its remote for titles that use gun play, swords, or even sports mechanics. Truly, Wii Sports is great fun for people of all ages, and recently we added Mario Kart Wii to its library which integrated an actual steering wheel into gameplay, but are they really great games? Games of the year, games of the decade–games we look back and remember in our old age?
Not really. The Wii receives so much praise for being a true pioneer in the industry, but I have to be honest with you: most of its games are not that great. Sure, they have their gimmicks, but as for the actual gameplay, they fall short. Titles such as Red Steel, Elebits, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games are great examples of more time being spent on the Wii remote gimmick than working to make the actual game better.
Granted, there are a few gems for the Wii at present, but to me the system feels more like one of those Plug and Play TV systems that you might purchase for a little sister or brother to entertain for a few hours. So much time and energy is put into making groundbreaking titles that a solid story, control scheme, and other equally important elements get thrown to the wayside. Meanwhile, when a good, albeit “non-innovative” game is released, it is quickly criticized for being another cookie-cutter attempt from whichever developer was responsible.
This isn’t a knock on the Wii, as I do happen to enjoy its many moments of greatness such as Super Mario Galaxy (which I thoroughly enjoyed). However, I fail to see anything innovative yet from the system other than its control system and few outstanding titles. On the journey to achieve innovation, the core aspect of gaming is being lost. The line dividing innovative and awkward is still very blurry to many developers.
Sadly, the DS is beginning to follow suit in the neverending quest to create “unique” games. Every other release on the DS lately is either a casual game, “Imagine: Babyz”-type game, or tie-in with a movie that ALL have to use the touch screen for absurd reasons. Even games that I would expect to enjoy such as Metroid Prime: Hunters, were ruined because of the awkward control. For me the stylus and usage of the DS shoulder buttons were clunky and frankly, uncomfortable. For all the work that went into creating the DS’s very first Metroid title, I was extremely disappointed. Okay - the stylus now controls the majority of Samus’s movements. Fun. Exciting!
…Now, what’s going on in the game again? What is Samus up to now, and why? Why do I care?
We have all these fantastic games being called “different”, and “unique experiences”, when in MOST cases, like that of Guitar Hero, it’s been done before. No, it had not been released to the American market with a tracklist of lackluster rock songs and a few good ones, but it’s a music/rhythm game, which has been done. To death, I might add. It’s one of my favorite genres, but admittedly, they’re all pretty much a rehash of each other besides the occasional Rez or Mad Maestro.
I am not a picky gamer. Chances are, if I am able to play it and cash permits, I will play any game that I can get my hands on save for the Maddens, Barbie, High School Musical, or Hannah Montana titles. With that said, I have played my fair share of excellent games and the not-so-excellent ones. If I write a review of a game, I am mainly concerned with my enjoyment factor because technical flaws or such trivial things as graphics do not deter me from enjoying the game for what it is. Just because whatever you’re playing is not the next Super Mario Bros., or it doesn’t re-invent the genre, that doesn’t make it a terrible game. In fact, the games that I enjoyed the most were examples of perfecting the genre - taking the basics of say, an FPS and fine-tuning it to perfection across the board.
Halo didn’t re-invent the FPS, but it was a fun game. Platformers like Klonoa, Alter Echo, and Kirby are nothing new but the games are entertaining to me and I enjoy them. It isn’t necessary to focus so much on making something “never been seen before” for it to be a great diversion. After all, we’re gamers because we like to do what? That’s right - play games. That isn’t to say there’s no room in the industry for something new. We’d all like to see that, but condemning perfectly fun games because they don’t fit such criteria? It’s madness, and probably Sparta as well. Here’s my message to you, creators of games, reviewers, bloggers, and average gamers: there are great games out there that do what they set out to do well. Let’s give them a chance and stop expecting all the sparkly bells and whistles. They’re coming, and you’ll know when you see them - that is, if the in-game camera permits.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
What I wish is that a good, solid game would come out for the Wii that actually makes me want to play it. I have Super Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario, and I think that both of those were fantastic games that truly allowed the players to feel immersed in the game while at the same time feeling challenged without feeling pressured to be dazzled by the gimmickry. We have a fair amount of Wii games (9 to be exact, as I look over to check) and I have played perhaps 2 or 3 for more than a few minutes. Super Smash Bros Brawl? maybe 2 hours of play. Mario Kart Wii? So far, about 2 hours. Mario Party 8? yeah, almost none.
What I want is a good adventure game with a solid, innovative story that will actually make me want to play it. I just have to wait until they come out.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I know what you mean, especially with the Wii games. I really wonder what the next big game for it will be. As for the DS, The World Ends With You is a step forward in my opinion. The gameplay, albeit a bit frustrating at first, is really fun and unique. Well, to me it is.
I guess we’ll all just have to wait until better games come out though, huh?
May 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
To be honest although I thoroughly enjoy the Wii with its many perks such as Twilight Princess and… well that may be it for now. But as an innovative machine in terms of gameplay I don’t think it cuts it. Sure it’s got some awesome technology inside of it but this does not add to the enjoyment factor. On top of which I also think the Wii and other such platforms could be hindering the development of good games.
If you think about how hard it is to get into the industry there are little to none, as far as I know, indie game makers (akin to maybe freeware software designers or something). I think Sony were making a step in the right direction (gasp) when they included Yubasic with PS2s. Sure to most people (including me) it was confusing but it offers everyone an insight into game development - a segment of gaming that a very small percentage actually see. Which brings me to my next point.
Often it is the underdogs that bring the most immersive gameplay and the best ideas. As you mention, Rez was something of a pioneer in that field and the developers even said they might be releasing a second title on Wii. So why do we not get into making games ourselves? People that love sites make site. People that love music make music etc, so by bringing consoles like the Wii and DS to the table it makes developing titles that much harder because you then have to work out the control system rather than X, O, Square and Triangle =p and so makes it harder to program. Just a thought.
May 11th, 2008 at 2:23 am
The problem with Nintendo is that the company is a giant contradiction filled with shrewd and terrible business choices. On one hand you have the Nintendo that will treat their 2nd party companies like Rare, Silicon Knights and Left Field like shit to the point where they want nothing to do with Nintendo. During the Gamecube era I remember reading that Nintendo claims somewhere near 40% for licensing publishing rights when Microsoft and Sony were claiming in the teens. Nintendo absolutely killed it’s 3rd party support with this and a hard to develop for system. Let’s put it this way. Nintendo bought a share of Left Field back in 1998. 4 years later Left Field wanted out so badly that they, an independent game maker that was not rolling in money decided to re-buy their stake from Nintendo so they could become 3rd party. Nintendo has alienated companies since the N64 days by being cartridge based and extremely expensive to produce for with minimal revenue.
Nintendo will not throw enough money and treat companies with respect because they operate on the old-world Japan business model still but they will turn around and hire people to develop Virtual Boy. Instead of trying to develop a strong base of companies that can make good games for their system they would rather spend money hiring people to create the ‘amazing’ e-card reader. And that is why you see a plethora of titles for the Wii that are nothing more than a gimmick. When the GC-GBA link came out Nintendo was willing to give companies that produced games for the Gamecube that utilized this feature “extra benefits”. Nintendo has so little faith in any title that comes out for their systems that isn’t 1st party that they feel companies should utilize extra hardware to make their products interesting.
The Wii could be a great system if the games being released for it were produced with the mentality that innovative hardware could add to the experience of an innovative and solid game. Not that the game elements should add to the experience of the hardware. To hear Nintendo say that they don’t fully support Internet for gaming on a console because the console should be about sitting down and just playing games is laughable at this point.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Well I have owned about 15 Wii games at this point. No, I don’t buy the gimmicky mini-game games like Wii Play or Cooking Mama shit.. All the games I have played have been thoroughly enjoyable.
The games that sucked were Excite Truck, Spiderman 3, and Red Steel. Now, being a hardcore Nintendo Fangirl it is very hard for me to talk down on Nintendo. We all know that they have weak 3rd party support. That (if anything) will be their ultimate downfall. I’m hoping all the time that they figure that out someday.
It’s like, Nintendo has never really let me down so I find myself trusting their decisions. But with this, it’s very verryyyy hard to trust whatever they are doing.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:46 am
I still hate Phoenix Wright’s stylus use. Cause I mean, you don’t *need* it.
I am such an anti-stylus whore.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Lol well I do love the stylus AT TIMES.. but the majority of the time they just throw that feature in to add a different style of playing. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass used it well in my opinion.. games like that.. and Ninja Gaiden for DS.. ORGASM-WORTHY. Also, when it’s used in mini-games such as the ones in Super Mario 64 DS and Brain Age games.. it’s really fun.
But having an added stylus way of navigating like on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness is kind of a waste. But HEY!! It has two screens so it makes up for it XP