I don't really have a very high opinion of Nintendo, at the moment. Unlike a lot of people, the NES wasn't my first gaming system, and, while I quite enjoyed NES and SNES games, the N64 left me feeling a bit cold. To this day, I would hands down play Super Mario Bros 1, 2, 3, The Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, and A Link to the Past over any 3D Nintendo game. There was something compelling about their 2D games. They required reflex, memorization, some creativity, and a little extra touch. Now, with their 3D games, they tend to deliver a drawn-out product with crummy sound effects, missing voice acting, and a habitually bad camera. They're trying to give a more character-based, story-driven, adventure experience, but without actually delivering a good script, voice acting, modern technology for visual immersion, or novel and compelling characters.
Motion control is another great example of this sort of recent half-assedness. Here's a hypothetically cool system. Interacting directly with a game is probably something most gamers dream about. But this just isn't it. It's like some twisted mutant offspring that should be left to the wolves at birth. Instead of crisp, direct controls, you have a slobbish compilation of "close enough" movements that, only when performed slowly enough to be recognized, create an action on screen that might possibly resemble what you do in a very slight manner. You're not dodging, blocking, and rolling with the prowess of a suburban ninja, you're just waving your hand at something. I suspect there are a couple reasons for this. The first is that they've hamstrung their hardware from the get-go. It just isn't powerful or sensitive enough to take input so quickly and translate it into game-input. Second, they have, if their commercials are to be belived, created a system targeted at everyone from 5-95. Now, with all fairness to the occasional spry 80-something out there, 5 and 85 year olds probably lack the motor skills to perform certain precise, speedy actions. And, as Nintendo has repeatedly said, they want everyone to be able to play together, with newcomers not being totally boned against vets.
Well that sucks, really, because if I sink time into a game, I expect to get better. And, I expect to be significantly better than Grandpa Pyrrian, so that when he picks up a Wiimote and tries to change the TV channel, he doesn't promptly knock my ass out in Wii Boxing. You see, as far as I'm concerned, Nintendo's refusal to split their demographics means that they largely put out a game for everyone under the sun. Unfortunately, I don't typically play with everyone under the sun because my years of hiding my gaming habit in a dark hole to escape inevitable social murder means that my few, trusted, game-playing friends do it often, with a long history, sense of context, and desire for skillful competition, technical capability, and lack of pedantic drivel.
So, no, I don't hate Nintendo. I think what they're doing is a lot like asking your friends over only to tell them, upon arrival, to screw-off because some hot girls came over to and hang out while you do all their homework. In the end, you probably win. Your audience is bigger, you practice a lot of homework, and you might get a novelty date or some money out of it, but you're still acting like a jack-ass to the people supported you for years. In short, I'm disappointed because I think they're letting slip a lot of potential, simply because it's cheap, easy, and they can get away with it. Successful, maybe, but success isn't always achieved through admirable tactics.
