I'm skeptical on all fronts. I believe the lesson of the last two console generations was that the cheapest console sells the best. People want to have fun, and they want it cheap. Granted, corporate big-wigs are notorious for misreading the market, but I think that lesson has come across loud and clear by now. If all three companies know what they're doing, they'll keep the price in the $300 to $400 range or possibly less. If you're right about prices, Kitsune, I foresee Nintendo walloping the competition but the overall video game market contracting.
As an aside, I believe we are currently living in a new golden age of video games, but most people are too blind to see it. There truly are games out there for just about everyone, from cheap casual games to graphically violent FPSs to some of the best platformers we've ever seen to fighters to puzzles to RPGs to TBSs to sports games-- you name a genre and with very rare exception, it's almost certainly present and accounted for and awesome to boot (I only mourn the death of the space sim and point-and-click adventure genres). It sure as hell beats the cookie-cutter FPSs that were dominating the market we had to endure for about ten years.
In that light, it makes me kind of sad to see people complaining about shovelware or bickering over which console is best. I firmly believe we're going to look back on these past few years as "the good ol' days", just as we're nostalgic for the SNES era. Yeah, there are plenty of crappy games, but everyone knows that consoles and console eras are defined by their best games, not their worst. Live it up while you can.
You're right about that. Hell, The NES used to be the golden age, then came the Gameboy, GBC, GBA. I barely remember ever playing a bad game, probably because I get rid of them as soon as I can.
As far as the golden age of video games goes, I certainly feel like I'm living in the golden age of indie games at least. Almost all of the truly memorable games I've played during the last few years were either classics I hadn't touched yet (Ultima VIII, Deus Ex, Castlevania series on GBA) or indie games (Touhou series, Spelunky, Rom Check Fail, Karoshi, Syobon Action, maybe Braid, Bunny Must Die, Super Meat Boy, Minecraft and Joe ;)). Console gaming has been pretty boring recently. (PC had SC2 and Portal 2 at least ^^)
I am somewhat interested in SF4, but I'm too lazy to buy 2 arcade pads and talking some friends into seriously playing it, besides the fact that I'd rather waste my time with something else.
Anyhow, I'm not much looking forward to any new console and have pretty low expectations atm is the point I'm trying to make, I guess.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Why are people THE INTERNETS making such a fuss over WiiU's graphical prowess? It should be more powerful that the current generation consoles which were released over half a decade ago (even without raising the price point too high).
I am sceptical though as Wii's game library is seriously sucky. Also I seriously hope they redesign their UI completely along with the internet-enabled functionality (friend codes, lol?). They have a lot to do if they want to catch up to current iterations of Live and PSN (and to lesser extent, Steam).
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home."
( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
I don't think Nintendo's going to open their console to general internet free-for-alls like MS and Sony have. They seem to be very paranoid about networked multiplayer.
As for the Wii library, it seems to me that the leader in any given console generation will get loads of shovelware. We've just forgotten all the unmemorably crap games that were produced for the PSX/PS2 and only remember the good ones. After all, just because a bad game is produced for a console doesn't mean you have to play it.
(There's still no excusing Metroid Other M though...)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Bolded for truth! I demand everyone give Derakon's comment a second read-through.
I think it's funny that people are saying the Wii leads in shovelware while turning a blind eye to the PS2, which to me reigns as the all-time shovelware champion. That doesn't mean it was a bad console by any means, but man, there was a lot of utter crap produced for it.
If you count digital releases, then yes, Wii must be the absolute champion indeed. I wonder why is this even brought up? I thought the point was that Wii had too few good games, not too many bad games.
Metroid: Other M was an okay game for the Wii, but it wasn't really good. I beat it once, and recently pawned it at the local Gamestop for $4. Shoulda done it after I first played the game, probably woulda got at least $20.
I'm not counting the bad titles the Wii had. I mean, I have a lot of the good ones, like Metal Slug Anthology and Super Mario Galaxy.
Every console has bad games. The 360 and PS3 have had their fair share. The NES has a shit ton of bad games, so did the Gameboy, SNES and N64.
Point is, a Console shouldn't be judged based on it;s controller, but by the games the console plays. If the games work really well, then people aren't going to give a damn what the controller looks like.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I think the ratio (good games:bad games) is the more telling thing about a consoles overall game success. The PS2 had a very large amount of bad games, but it also had a very large amount of good games, and a decent amount of great/instant classic games. For as long as the Wii has been out, it should have a lot more good games to offset all the bad ones. Instead, the good games number around 2 dozen, all while more and more Barbie Teaches Cooking etc. titles get pumped out.
I do agree with you there. There were too few must have games, and too many games to pass on with the Wii. I have high hopes that the Wii U will do better in the game department.
At least it'll have more Third Party games than the Wii had. How many more is speculative at this point, but like I said above, high hopes.
I think the ratio (good games:bad games) is the more telling thing about a consoles overall game success.
See, this is way too dependent on the manufacturers' policies and content delivery systems. For instance, WiiWare and Xbox Indie Games are the kind of thing that attracts shovelware that would never get a retail release otherwise, and PS2 had no digital downloads of the sort. But, on the other hand, XBLA/XBIG is way more lenient towards [certain aspects of] its games quality compared to Sony's "your game should look worthy of the mighty PS3" attitude, and WiiWare is, IIRC, even more so. Which doesn't say much about the gameplay of the games in question, but rather the initial selection strictness. Consider also the development kit costs that, the higher they are, the more effectively they prevent some of the shovelware titles from appearing online just because the devs can't afford it.
So these ratios are a tricky business, it's quite easier and more effective to just count the good games. If only because, you know, it's those that we play and purchase the system for anyway.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I was thinking only of games purchasable on physical media, I forget that all the new consoles have downloadable games that aren't ports of older systems.
I don't bother with the downloadable games on Wii Shop or anything.
I buy the consoles for the games I buy in the stores. Must be how I avoided so many of the bad games, aside from Super Paper Mario and Metroid: Other M. >.>
Super Paper Mario is a bad game. Yes, I said it. And I will always say it. It SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!
I can't stomach playing that game again. Only reason I keep it is so I can say I own the entire series.
Super Paper Mario is a bad game. Yes, I said it. And I will always say it. It SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!
I can't stomach playing that game again. Only reason I keep it is so I can say I own the entire series.
Kitsune, you too frequently go out of your way to bash Super Paper Mario. I say this for your benefit: cool it. You sound like a troll.
Now, with that out of the way, I 100% agree with you. It was by far the worst Mario game I've ever played and threw away everything that I loved about the first two games (particularly TTYD). The amount of backtracking was inexcusable. I've never seen a game that padded itself out so much with backtracking through bland environments. And whenever anyone criticizes the game, the response is invariably, "But the dialogue is so good!" Huh? I thought it was okay at some points, but nothing stuck out to me. If all I wanted were good dialogue, I'd have read a book. I wish I had.
But this isn't the right forum for this discussion. I just hope it pleases you to know you're not alone in hating SPM. Let's hope the Wii U brings the Paper Mario series back to its glory days.
Super Paper Mario is a bad game. Yes, I said it. And I will always say it. It SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS!
I can't stomach playing that game again. Only reason I keep it is so I can say I own the entire series.
Kitsune, you too frequently go out of your way to bash Super Paper Mario. I say this for your benefit: cool it. You sound like a troll.
Now, with that out of the way, I 100% agree with you. It was by far the worst Mario game I've ever played and threw away everything that I loved about the first two games (particularly TTYD). The amount of backtracking was inexcusable. I've never seen a game that padded itself out so much with backtracking through bland environments. And whenever anyone criticizes the game, the response is invariably, "But the dialogue is so good!" Huh? I thought it was okay at some points, but nothing stuck out to me. If all I wanted were good dialogue, I'd have read a book. I wish I had.
But this isn't the right forum for this discussion. I just hope it pleases you to know you're not alone in hating SPM. Let's hope the Wii U brings the Paper Mario series back to its glory days.
Actually, the 3DS is bringing Paper Mario back to it's roots. I don't think the game is coming out this year, but maybe early next year. I'm excited for it since I've heard it's going back to old RPG Style. ^^
And it does make me feel better to know I'm not the only one who hates SPM. :3
There's one advantage with the new iPad controller: It will allow Nintendo to publish an updated Mario Paint.
Now, if they only made an updated color-a-dinosaur...
There's one advantage with the new iPad controller: It will allow Nintendo to publish an updated Mario Paint.
Now, if they only made an updated color-a-dinosaur...
Heh. Yea. Someone could do a new Angry Video Game Nerd music thing. xD