On Stemming Nintendo's Exclusive Game Drought

Thanks to Nintendojo for its editorial discussing ways to help Nintendo increase the amount of GameCube-only titles it releases. The writer notes that "...it is all too apparent that Nintendo's exclusive games lineup is very thin at the moment", and suggests one of many possible solutions: "Nintendo must figure out a way to increase the [development] capacity of Retro Studios and/or Silicon Knights. These companies must have as much depth [in amount of releases] as Rare had at the latter part of its life." How would you like to see Nintendo partnering to release more high-quality GameCube-only games?

Comments

Nintendo seems to be ok for this year

[Naffer]

I bought a Gamecube last December, and now own quite of few of the "must have" games. The problem that I see for 2004 is that the big first party games that everyone was anticipating are out now, and their sequals are too far off in the distance to see. For most of thise year, Nintendo is going to have to count on 3rd party developers to maintain the slow influx of quality games.

Now I'm going to go against my bettter judgement and link to an article on IGN titled "Most anticipated games of 2004." I don't care much for IGN, but the list does include some potentially good games.

How very odd

[Snowspinner]

The article mentions Namco... but Namco is doing an exclusive for Nintendo already - Donkey Konga. And they put out Pac-Man Vs. as well - a small thing, but a very, very good game all the same.

They also mention how Squaresoft's exclusives are all on the PS2 now... which is odd, what with Crystal Chronicles out in only a few weeks.

I really wish commentators on Nintendo would bother to at least pretend to have done any research on their articles.

Nintendo's Plan

[pwbeninate]

Nintendo seems to have a strategy to target "entry-level" gamers. With N64 and GameCube they made consoles that are strictly game machines (as opposed to CD/DVD/Media Centers). It's kinda like plug-and-play. I like how they keep it simple, because it keeps the price down. It seems like developers think Nintendo is targeting too small of an audience, which may be true. Nintendo themselves mostly make games for kids, and market toward that audience (Mario, Pokemon, etc.) But now with the addition on Retro Studios they may have a chance to change that reputation. I don't know if any of you have played Metroid Prime, but it is awesome! It's just as good/challenging as the SNES version. That's the kind of game I'm looking for. I'm expecting great things from RS. One thing that Nintendo seriously lacks is good RPGs. They really need to get Square doing more for them. Crystal Chronicals is a start, but it was be nice if they do a GCN version of all of the future games. That would greatly increase their audience.

Lack of exclusives?

[GaimeGuy]

List of some exclusives for the Cube (some released already, some aren't released, yet.) 1080 Avalanche
Animal Crossing
Baten Kaitos
Beach Spikers
Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg
Cubivore
Custom Robo
Donkey Konga
Doshin the Giant
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
F-Zero GX
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Geist
Giftpia
Gotcha Force
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Ikaruga (Not on the other two competing consoles)
Kaijuu no Shima: Amazing Island, a Sega Monster training game that is in the works, is a GC exclusive
Killer 7
Kirby Air Ride
The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Plus
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Lost Kingdoms
Lost Kingdoms II
Luigi's Mansion
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Party 4
Mario Party 5
Mario Tennis is coming up.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Metroid Prime
Nintendo Puzzle Collection
P.N. 03
Pac Man Vs.
PSO Episode III
Pikmin
Pikmin II
Pokemon Colosseum
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 4
You can throw in RE 2, 3, and Code Veronica, if you want, too.
Skies of Arcadia Legends (not on Ps2 or X-box, the other two competing consoles)
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (not on Ps2 or X-box)
Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut (Again, not on Ps2 or X-box)
Sonic Mega Collection
Star Fox (from Namco)
Star Fox Adventures
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Monkey Ball
Super Monkey Ball 2
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Tales of Symphonia
Viewtiful Joe
Wario Ware for GC
Wario World
Wave Race: Blue Storm
These are just the more well-known exclusives. There's more than the ones I listed.
Yeah, I'd say that the GameCube has very few exclusive games. *rolls eyes*

Let me think...

[scot4875]

Let me think back over this last fall/summer...

Mario Golf
P.N. 03 (better than people gave it credit for)
F-Zero
Viewtiful Joe
Rogue Squadron 3
Kirby's Air Ride
Mario Party 5
Mario Kart

And that's just off the top of my head. Every one of these games (except maybe PN03, depending on your taste) is worth owning. That's 8 exclusives, 5 of which I'd classify as AAA titles.

On top of those are all the multi-platform games (damn, Prince of Persia was good. So was Beyond Good & Evil).

Honestly, I haven't followed the release schedules of the PS2 or XBox very closely, since I have more than enough games to keep me very well occupied on my 'Cube and PC, so what am I supposedly missing? Grabbed by the Ghoulies? Final Fantasy: Teen-pop Edition?

--Jeremy