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

Haven't they already appeared?

[caitsith01]

the question isn't if but when adventure titles begin appearing on the system Ummm... Zelda?

I am starting to wonder if the whole 'adventure gaming is dead' notion comes from a failure to recognise that games like Zelda, Oblivion, Deus Ex and so on are, in effect, adventure games. You freely explore a large environment solving problems, frequently involving puzzles, the need to talk to characters in the world, or the need to acquire specific objects, all within the framework of a larger story. Just because it doesn't involve 2D sprites and some hand-painted backgrounds doesn't mean that what is often called an 'RPG' isn't a traditional adventure game.

However, it is a reasonable assertion that the Wiimote does offer the possibility that mouse-driven adventure games could finally work well on a console.

Re:Haven't they already appeared?

[frederec]

When people say "adventure gaming is dead," what they're probably talking about is "point-and-click" adventure gaming is dead. The adventure games you're talking about are classified more as "action adventure" games.

I'm not terribly fond of pigeonholing everything into miniscule subgenres, but here I think it's relevant.

Action adventure games do involve a fair amount of item collecting and puzzle solving. But they also involve a lot of fighting, frequently repetitive fighting. The point-and-click style of adventure gaming (unless you want to go real old school and talk about text adventures, but it's a similar thing) is more cerebral. There is little to no direct violence. Virtually everything must be done by puzzle solving, and there is a much lower emphasis on things like reaction time. It's part of the reasons people have been referring to the new Phoenix Wright game as being almost a visual novel.

So the difference is not 3D vs. 2D (many adventure games went for at least pseudo-3D), nor is it sprites vs. rendered graphics. It's all about action with some puzzles vs. all puzzles, all the time. It drastically changes the tone and feel of the game. Zelda, Okami, and the like, while good games, do not have the "feel" of pure adventure games. Hence "action adventure."

Re:Haven't they already appeared?

[Nasarius]

No, you're not the only person. Morrowind and Oblivion are garbage if you think of all the potential that Daggerfall hinted at. What's the point of an open-ended RPG if you can't do anything to affect the world?

oh Nintendo

[Itchyeyes]

I saw this article, and frankly I'm not convinced. There's so much hype surrounding the Wii right now and all the amazing innovative things people expect out of it. If adventure games succeed on the Wii, it won't be because there was some kind of pent up demand for adventure games that wasn't being served. There have been some excellent titles over the last couple of years like Dreamfall and Indigo Prophecy the people just flat out ignored. Rather, if Adventure titles succeed on the Wii, I think it will be because of the excitement that surrounds that machine. Nintendo has done such an amazing job marketing this thing that people are practically falling over themselves to just to play games like Mario Party 8. Pretty much any game that comes out for the system is viewed through rose colored glasses at the moment. I suppose in that sense, it certainly could bring back the genre.

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

[Itchyeyes]

I hear this sentiment echoed all over the place these days. I seem to be the only one left who does not share it. The truth of the matter is that it's the customers who have taken the industry down this so called "headlong dive". Go look in any bargain bin and you'll find countless gems like Psychonauts or Oddworld or Darwinia that did not hold to the status quo of GTA rip-offs, medieval RPGs, or Sci-Fi/WW2 shooters. The problem is that nobody buys them. You can hardly fault a publisher for not making games that nobody will buy.

The truth is that there have been many companies in the industry to take a stand only to get run over by the rush to pick up "Japanese RPG #25". The only reason that Nintendo gets any credit is because they have a rabidly loyal fanbase that even Steve Jobs would envy. For some reason they can put out a console supported pretty much by mini games and a 20 year old franchise and their fans hail it as a rebirth of the industry. They can produce a single adventure game for their hand-held platform and they "saving the genre".

Hotel Dusk is a fantastic game, as are a myriad of other games for both the DS and the Wii. Why can't they just stand as that? Why do they always have to be saving something or taking a stand for something?

Re:Myst...

[Shados]

In this day and age, Myst-like games have a lot of trouble getting through to the mass... The mass simply doesn't like hard games. They want to be spoon fed, and they don't want to have to think. The only real challenge you'll ever see involves button mashing in the right order, and aiming well, and while they require a lot of skill (more than I have!) in their own right, it is a different skillset entirely.

Puzzle games that make you think don't have a place anymore, in a world where if there's no walkthrough or FAQ about a game, it is considered "frustrating and impossible".

Adventure Games Killed Themselves

[hardburn]

No discussion of adventure games is complete without Old Man Murray.

I miss Old Man Murray.

Re:Maniac Mansion.

[prockcore]

Problem is that less and less people are intrested in thinking.

<irony>"fewer and fewer people are interested"</irony>

Re:Definition

[Mr2001]

As others have pointed out, the subject here is "point-and-click adventures" in the style of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Space Quest, etc. Those games don't rely on action scenes or leveling up, and in the LucasArts games, you can't die even if you try(*). They're all about solving puzzles, combining objects and working your way through conversations to achieve a goal. They share with RPGs an emphasis on story and some of the more superficial puzzle solving aspects, but they're really a different genre.

And yes, I think one of the problems with those games on consoles has been the controls. When the game is all about moving a pointer around on the screen to select verbs and items, a D-pad just doesn't work very well.. but the Wiimote certainly does.

(* OK, there are a couple places where you can die, but you have to try really hard. Dying is an easter egg.)