Can Nintendo Save the Adventure Game Genre?

Gamasutra is running an editorial wondering whether the Wii can save the adventure game genre. With the intuitive nature of first-person control and interaction the Wiimote/nunchuck combination provides, it's been an open question since the console's concept was announced whether or not the Nintendo could revive a much-beloved but sadly absent game genre. Scott Nixon writes of the future for point-and-click titles, talking about their hearty success on the DS (with Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright) and the requirements of design such games would make of the Wii. With word that a Wii developer for the Sam and Max series is being sought, the question isn't if but when adventure titles begin appearing on the system. Here's hoping they get a warm reception, from an audience ready for their reintroduction. Update: 02/07 01:03 GMT by Z : Fixed the link. Sorry.

Comments

Re:Haven't they already appeared?

[Goaway]

The dictionary is not a good place to look up definitions of gaming genres. Try looking up "action" and see where that gets you.

Nothing has "evolved". Action adventures have existed for a long, long time alongside pure adventure games. Zelda started out on the NES, remember? The former genre is still alive and well, the latter isn't.

Re:Definition

[Mr2001]

There are these things called analog sticks, they work pretty well. An analog stick is slightly better than a D-pad for controlling a cursor, but not much. Nowhere near as easy as moving a mouse or just pointing at the screen.

Also some consoles have USB ports, making porting a PC point and click game easier since you don't have to change the controls/UI at all. They didn't have USB ports until the PS2 came out, and in the meantime, adventure games sort of died. (The SNES had a nonstandard mouse, and it's hard to sell a game that needs a special peripheral.)

The current generation of consoles all have USB ports, but they also have wireless controllers (except for the sucker version of the Xbox 360), which encourages players to put the console somewhere it'd be hard for a mouse to reach. And who wants to use a mouse in the living room anyway? I've tried it with Halo 2 and a SmartJoy FRAG, and it's just not comfortable, because couches and coffee tables aren't set up like computer desks.

Re:Why is it "Nintendo's" Job?

[VGPowerlord]

Why did Sierra (Leisure Suit Larry, Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest) and Lucasarts (The Dig) ever give up on the Adventure game in the first place, and why can't they save it?

Well, this is how it worked:

LucasArts noticed that it made a lot more money on mediocre Star Wars titles than they did from their best selling adventure games... although the move away from point-n-click with Grim Fandango and Escape From Monkey Island probably didn't help their sales.

The creative minds behind Sierra, Ken and Robert Williams, sold the company in 1996; leaving the company altogether in 1997. Since then, Sierra has made four "adventure" games:
1998: King's Quest: Mask of Eternity - a King's Quest game that was really more of an FPS than an adventure game
1998: Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire - a Quest for Glory game that was more of an RPG than an adventure game
1999: Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned - The only good one of the bunch... not surprising, as it is the only one whose series creator was still with Sierra
2004: Leisure Suit Larry: Magnum Cum Laud - a third rate Leisure Suit Larry game derided by series creator Al Lowe, who was not involved with the game's creation

Vivendi bought Sierra's parent company in 1999 and, over the years, shut down all of its studios, including Sierra's main branch in 2004.

Sierra is dead, even though Vivendi continues to use the name. Rumor has it that you will never see the name Vivendi on any products in North America; they will all be published under the Sierra name instead.