Talking 'Bout A Revolution

Now that the weekend has passed, folks from all over have had their chance to speak up about the revolution behind the Revolution. Hugh Williams writes "The blokes at Next Generation decided to ask a bunch of game designers, media and analysts what they thought about Nintendo's new Revolution Controller. Some were a little skeptical. Others were downright in love." Additionally, Heartless Gamer writes "Heartless Gamer blog has initial comments up regarding the Revolution controller, but more importantly comments on the various reactions around the internet regarding the controller." Finally, LATRINE! writes "Whether you like it or not, the Nintendo Revolution is on the way. Brittlefish has an article discussing some of the challenges Nintendo will face in gaining acceptance in the market."

Comments

Lost Garden

[Apreche]

The genius over at Lost Garden keeps falling under the radar. He consistently has the best articles on the net. His piece on the revolution, and Nintendo in general, is no different. If you read one thing about the revolution, make it this.

Re:Lost Garden

[rAiNsT0rm]

Look I'm not trying to start an argument, but the person you linked to has no real grasp of what he speaks about. Sure, it all sounds logical and thoughtful, but most is simply not true. I've worked in the industry and have a very initmate knowledge of the media/marketing/numbers side of the game.

His attempt to claim that all of the onus is on the game players is very far off-base. Also, his talk about Nintendo and how they "create genres" in the early stages because it is the most profitable is so wildly untrue it stopped me dead. Nintendo may use a fairly (on the surface) basic look, but that is a sylistic artistic direction and is NOT "cheaper" than creating a game with ultra-realistic graphics. In fact, if you take the time to look, Nintendo tends to utilize EVERY hardware feature in every game as far as graphics are concerned. Also it is just plain false that to create the first in a genre is cheaper because it is simpler and has less content. Totally false. Innovation carries a much higher cost than simply following suit and making a few improvements.

I'm sorry but this guys work gets passed over because it is not backed by any credibility or factual insight. It is just my opinion, but a genius he is not.

Odd people quoted in Links

[smbarbour]

In the second link, what they thought about Nintendo's new Revolution Controller , scroll down the page and find the comment from Chris Melissinos, who apparently is the Chief Gaming Officer for Sun Microsystems.

Since when did Sun have a games division?

The Best Reason for this Controller

[Prien715]

Is that it'll differentiate the console enough from the competitiion. Let's say I develop a game for the revolution which uses the new controller. Not only will it give me new freedom to design the game from an interface standpoint, but it'll also make it virtually impossible to port to any other console without a redesign of the game itself.

So while I'll be able to buy GTA4 for either X-Box 360 or PS3, Metroid Prime 3 will not only be a Nintendo exclusive, but other games by 3rd party developers will become de-facto exclusives since porting the control scheme will be so difficult.

Basically, Nintendo is making itself a unique product so that it's not so much competing as becoming a new good in the market.

Amen - My wife likes to play too.

[xplenumx]

I couldn't agree more - I truly wish that more companies out there would focus on the casual gamer. I absolutely love my Xbox, however my wife finds all the games to be too complicated, becomes frustrated within a few minutes of playing them, and never touches them again. It's a shame too since she adored the original NES and loves watching the Xbox games.

Just over a month ago we picked up a copy of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (SMBD) and have fallen in love with the mini-racing game (think Mario Kart, but you're a monkey in a ball). The game is wonderful! My wife and I can play together (or more accurately, against each other), the controls are very simple to learn, and we can play in short bursts. We've played SMBD every night since we got it, and we're still having a blast.

So here's the problem, we can't find any other games like it - racing games are too focused on photo-realism and don't support the under-dog (it sucks if you're in second place and have to wait for the person in first to make a mistake - missiles and bombs make the game much more interesting for everyone involved), FPSs tend to have a high learning curve and shooting people tends to turn off potential gamers, and fighting games tend to go overboard on the gore and have an extremely high learning curve. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm seriously considering putting my Xbox in the closet and replacing it with a Game Cube (and Revolution when it comes out). I want to play games with my wife. My wife wants to play games with me. I want to have people over and be able to play games with them, even if they've never touched a console before. Seems to me, Nintendo is the only company that gets this.