Nintendo's games being always the same

[Trippy Turtle]

Because even with these "Major alterations" it still feels like I am playing the same game every time.
I can't speak for metroid though because I haven't played it.

 

[Frybird]

The problem for me personally is not whether or not Nintendo does enough with it's existing franchises in order to mix it up.

For me, it's more the problem that Nintendo rarely does something new altogether. When it comes to titles that are developed and published first party, it's rare to see some entirely new franchise, like Rhythm Heaven.

It's especially disappointing to see how "surprise announcements" for new Games by Nintendo mostly come down to "sequels for franchises with less than 5 Games".
"Luigis Mansion 2" just doesn't seem THAT MUCH fresher as "Mario Party 8" to me.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

Why is it Nintendo gets the "ALL U GAMES R T3H SAME!1!!1one" treatment?

I'd like to introduce you to a series of games under the title: Call of Duty...

 

[Tiswas]

Found a list of new IPs since 2000

1. WarioWare series
2. Eternal Darkness
3. Mario & Luigi RPG (They?re the same characters but it?s a different series than Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG)
4. Golden Sun
5. Advance Wars (It was also on the NES and SNES, but it had a ?rebirth? on the GBA)
6. Luigi?s Mansion
7. Pikmin
8. Xenoblade Chronicles
9. Baten Kaitos
10. Pandora?s Tower
11. The Last Story
12. Wii Sports
13. Wii Fit
14. Wii Play
15. Mario vs DK
16. Soma Bringer
17. Nintendogs
18. Elite Beat Agents
19. Rhythm Heaven
20. Fluidity
21. Endless Ocean
22. Magical Vacation/ Magical Starsign
23. Excitebots/Excite Truck
24. Legend of Starfy
25. Chibi Robo
26. Steel diver
27. Fossil Fighter
28. Art Academy
29. Glory of Heracles
30. ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat
31. Electroplankton
32. Drill Dozer
33. Art Style
34. Line Attack Heroes
35. Wii Music
36. Wii Party
37. Flingsmash
38. Disaster Day of Crisis
39. Captain Rainbow
40. Battalian Wars
41. Geist
42. Odama
43. Hamtaro
44. Meteos
45. Giftpia
46. bitGeneration
47. Art Style
48. Zangeki no Reginleiv
49. Freshly-Picked Tingle?s Rosy Rupeeland
50. Zekkyo Senshi Sakeburein
51. Jet Impulse
52. Chosoju Mecha MG
53. project hacker

Ok. So if we remove the ones that include Mario/Zelda chars and the entire Wii - Whatever line. Oops. That's still more than 40.

It's not as if a lot of other companies are flogging their IPs too. Assassin's Creed, Halo, Uncharted, God of War are all fairly new IPs that have quite a decent amount of games too. And then you have the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield plopping up too.

 

[Random Argument Man]

It's not that Nintendo does the same game, but it does the same formula. They add some new variants to mix things up. I would love to see newer formulas. Wouldn't it be fun if they decided to make a new franchise or revive one that's been dead for years. (Like they're going to do with Kid Icarus).

Snip...

Or that list too. (With the exception of Wii Music.)

 

[LilithSlave]

-snip-

That's a glorious post right there that I'd always been meaning to make but am too lazy. I tip my hat to you.

Oh gosh, Drill Dozer is an amazing game by the way. Everyone must check it out right now.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I think the issue is not the games being the same. I think the issue is people are getting just a wee bit bored of Zelda, Mario etc. Why not make a great new game which doesn't have these done to death characters in them? One that is completely unrelated in setting, story and characters. The core gameplay is, for the most part, great. It'd just be nice to have something new.

 

[lord.jeff]

I agree I'd even argue that Nintendo is one of the more creative studios out there, how many other developers have a game in almost every genre?

There are some gameplay mechanics that get reused to the point of questioning the big N. For example, while it's true that the art direction of the Zelda games is an ever-changing creature, it seems like from Link to the Past on the basic gist of the game is Link Wakes Up -> gets sword/shield -> Zelda in Danger -> gather 3 maguffins -> sword upgrade -> gather 6-8 more maguffins -> final temple -> final boss (Ganon mostly) -> all is well again in this particular world.

You could bowl half of the game world down to Introduce character(Link wakes up)>Get weapon/tool(get sword)>Introduce conflict(Zelda in danger)>padding(gather maguffins)>try to justify padding within story(sword upgrade)>defeat antagonist(final boss)>day is saved and outside of story the game change quite a lot, in fact if it wasn't for the name Zelda and a few iconic gadgets in Wind Waker, Majora's Mask, and possibly Skyward Sword I don't think most people would even place those games as Zelda games.

 

[ubersyanyde]

The problem is that people seem to be confusing slight lack of innovation with the game being terrible.
Even though the games lack total originality they are all brilliant when being taken as a stand alone game rather than a small part of a huge franchise.

Another part of the problem is that people want a reason to dislike the Wii/DS. These accusations of re-releasing the same game all the time wouldn't have been made about Nintendo games in the early 2000s, when Nintendo actually had credibility as a hardcore game company rather than a casual game company.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

I think what people tire of in Nintendo sequels and games in general is their conservative use of storytelling. When you buy a Zelda game, you know exactly what's to be expected. There's no revelations or mayor plot twists that will change the way you look at that particular franchise. You will never hold your breath over Princess Zelda's capture because you know that you're gonna save her at the end of the day. Link won't ever die. It's predictable. What made Majora's Mask such an interesting sequel to many was a change in story, a change of tone. Who were these strange characters? What's happening to the world? What will happen in three days?

There's nothing wrong with Nintendo sequels. They're incredibly polished games and some of the best in their genre. I just think that a lot of tire of predictability and an overall sameyness.