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.

It's sad because it's true.

[Black Mage Balthazar]

I have been a long time Nintendo fan, owning every major console, and now a GBA. I have always stuck by Nintendo because of the high quality of their games, and because I couldn't really afford to have more than one system.

Now don't get me wrong, I've played other systems. I've finished FFVII and FFX on the PS and PS2, as well as playing a great deal of Tekken and the Gran Turismo series, but I could never justify buying a PS for just these games.

But now I realize, that I have done the same thing for a Gamecube. I have less than ten games (due partially to budget constraints), a GBA, and 1 GBA game (FF Tactics Advance). The problem I have is variety. It turns out, I have a game in almost every genre, and it's hard to play multiple games in a genre. If I want to fight, I have SCII, racing is Mario Kart:DD or F-Zero GX. Team sports is NHL 2004, while extreme sports is Tony Hawk 4. RPG is Zelda, etc. The problem is Nintendo fills a genre niche, and then moves on! Which means that if I want to play a different fighting game, well, I can't. So I get bored with the games, despite their excellent quality.

Nintendo needs to tighten their release dates, and find developers to compete against themselves. Who can make the best action/fighting/RPG game? Nintendo wins in the end because no matter which game of two or three wins the sales wars, it's still money into Nintendo's pockets.

I just don't want my favourite company to die.

Do you remember Rare's output?

[dancingmad]

I read this article on Nintendojo yesterday and while I respect the dojo, they seem to forget Rare's output at the later half its life. They had very few good games after the Nintendo 64's cult hit Goldeneye. None of their games could equal Donkey Kong Country or Goldeneye in terms of brilliance or success. I'd rather have Retro working on making Metroid Prime 2 as good as Prime 1, instead of Prime 2 plus Samus Party 3, Metroid Kart, and Ridley's Hide and Seek or Kraid's Bad Scales Day.

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.

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*