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Nintendo To Be the Hero of the Adventure Genre?
DreamWinkle writes "If you've spent the last few years playing old King's Quest VGA updates and longing for Space Quest and Day of the Tentacle, you'll be interested to know that the Adventure genre might be facing a resurgence — at Nintendo's hand. The adventure game was killed off by the console (poor controls and too much competition), and so it's ironic that Nintendo might be able to pull it from the grave. An article at About.com looks at how Nintendo could use its virtual console to make adventure games profitable again." From the article: "The reason that adventure games are disappearing is because they don't compete well with other genres. Trying to create an adventure game that meets the graphical standards of an audience taught to expect Elder Scrolls IV makes the whole endeavor far less appealing. However, building a product to compete with Geometry Wars might be more doable. Adventure games are not disappearing because no one is buying them; they're disappearing because people are buying other types of games far more often. "
They've ruined so many internet searches for me. Their "articles" rarely provide any in-depth knowledge and just take up space. The major search engines should combine their forces to wipe about.com from the face of the net.
Why, oh why, is slashdot taking them as a primary source of information?
From TFA:However, the Wii's unique control allows for more complex interactions on the console, acting as a pointer.
I think that this is the main reason the Wii could work for adventure games. IMO, adventure games need some sort of pointing device. I'm talking old school adventure games, where you would point and click on things on the screen. Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Police Quest, etc... I know it can be done differently, but that's how I remember (and like) my adventure games.
As we know, using a controller to try to control a cursor on a screen is pretty much impossible. But with the pointer aspect of the Wii controller, it can act as a mouse, which would be perfect for adventure games. Hold down the "Use" button, point at the screen and click... or Hold down the "Talk" button, point at a character and talk to them... etc. Just like using a mouse to select things on the screen.
The "Pointer" aspect is one of the main (many) reasons I'm excited about the Wii... adventure games, RTS games (Warcraft, Command and Conquer, etc), etc... Lots of new ground can be explored with the system... I can't wait.
I would like to point out Dungeon Man 3. If you are a fan of old-school adventure games, this will provide some good laughs.
As I recall, this is how (off the top of my head) Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 4, and Longest Journey worked. I never played Siberia, so I wouldn't know how they did it. Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon was full 3D, and it wasn't so bad, although I thought it was a PITA to use the "absolute" controls. (In Grim Fandango the controls were relative to the character, so pushing the "up" arrow key made the guy walk forward, not "up".) Basically, every "modern" adventure game does this (with varying degrees of success); I really don't think that graphics are what's holding the genre back. I don't know what is, but I think it has more to do with the success of RPGs as a genre than anything else.
Also, since when did anyone play adventure games on a console anyway? I thought this was pretty much a PC-only genre.