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Miyamoto vs. Everyone Else
Ian_Bailey writes "Wired writes Nintendo won't grow up, because of Shigeru Miyamoto. The creator of some of the most popular franchises, and the head of most of Nintendo's creative development, constantly aims his games at children. Many other devloppers admire his creativity, and believe that a mature-themed game would rock the entire industry. A very interesting read, and a bit of insight into the 'God of Games'."
When I buy a game for my kid's Gamecube, I don't have to worry to much about it. I don't need to worry about GTA-3 showing up in Nintendo land. I haven't yet (NOTE: I said YET) seen a game with obvious gore. (No, I don't have Perfect Dark, or games like that, so I don't know what the gore factor is there).
Just don't buy your kids Eternal Darkness, if you're worried about gore. There are plenty of zombies that can be hacked up, so it does get a bit gory.
However, the gore is second to the fact that this game is very successful at creating a scary, creepy environment. I had a few moments freaking out in the dark after playing it for a while - and I'm in my late 20's. I would play it in the dark, and have to stop every few hours, turn on the lights, and relax, to avoid getting too creeped out by it.
It would give younger kids nightmares, no doubt.
So much for everything being kid-friendly.
(BTW, it is an incredibly good game, and not just about shock value)
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Miyamoto did guide Metroid Prime quite a bit. He was the one who came up with the idea of the 'visor effects' that make the game so immersive, and some other influences on gameplay.
As far as I can tell, Miyamoto's "Donkey Kong" predates any other platform game, however, Adventure for the Atari2600 predates Legend of Zelda... so... Another interesting first is that BattleZone predates any other first person shooter. So id software didn't invent the FPS.
In fact, nearly all of the main video game genres were created before 1990. So it isn't hard to argue that most games released these days are derivative.
Hmmm... Let's see. He was only the *PRODUCER* of Metroid Prime.