Although I do find the argument of whether Nintendo has lost sight of its "hardcore" audience to be intriguing, I would like to take it one step further. I believe that Nintendo has lost its creativity when it comes to publishing and developing NEW games. Now I'm not talking about SMG or SMG 2 being "uninspiring". Nintendo has been successful at re-imagining their old franchises. With that said, they are still Mario games. They are sequels to a game that came out 25 years ago.
To me, a successful system doesn't make the most profit, but invites gamers to be inspired by new franchises so that they could call themselves a TRUE fan of the series. In turn, these gamers will want whatever game comes from them, then you get the profit. For example, the first Super Mario Bros. came out, and people loved it. Then Super Mario Bros. 2 comes out, then 3, then Kart, then 4, then Party, etc, etc, etc... Point is, gamers that were fond of the FIRST game will be fond of most of the other stuff with the same character on the front, because they associate good memories to that character. This is also why when a game with a character gamers recognize suck, the whole franchise takes a hit in credibility (i.e. 3-D Castlevania games).
For older gamers, I'm sure Escapist members have fond memories of finding out about the warp zones in the first Mario, finding the master sword in the first Zelda, or getting first place in the first Excitebike. The list of "first" memories could go on forever. For my generation (N64 and Gameboy), there's Pokemon. Yes it was developed by Game Freak, but the first time defeating Brock was a blast, and going around Kanto in black and white can still be wistfully remembered by some members of the Escapist community (including myself). Even the next generation after that has Pikmin, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Animal Crossing to remember fondly of.
So, what does the Wii generation have to remember Nintendo by? Well, I've checked the list of games Nintendo has developed and released for the Wii, meaning that they were involved in the whole process of this game. I've taken out all of the games that are sequels or were not released around the world UNDER Nintendo's name (for example, Zack and Wiki was released under Nintendo's name in Australia, but under Capcom's name everywhere else). The results I have found are shocking.
Original Wii Games
Wii Sports (2006) - I consider the rest of the Wii series (Play, Fit, Music, etc) to be sequels.
Endless Ocean (2008) - Sequel released in 2010
Disaster: Day of Crisis (2008) - Never released in USA. Not positive it's original, but found nothing to contradict it.
Captain Rainbow (2008) - Japan only
Xenoblade (TBA) - Used to be called Monado: Beginning of the World, so I'll let it slide...for now.
The Last Story (Jan. 27, 2011) - Looks good, but developers are OWNED by Nintendo...
...as a matter of fact, other than Wii Sports, all of the developers are OWNED by Nintendo (Arika, Monolith Soft, Mistwalker, ARTOON, skip LTD), but aren't actually Nintendo, so due to this technicality the only ORIGINAL game that has been DEVELOPED AND RELEASED by Nintendo during the SIX YEARS the Wii has been released is a game that came with the Wii in the first place. Everything else is a sequel or developed by someone else.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Nintendo#Wii
This is probably the source of everyone's frustrations. Yes, it is good to play Donkey Kong again, it's cute to see Kirby in yarn form, but for Nintendo to succeed it needs to give the current generation of young gamers something they could latch onto so that they could have their "first" memories of Nintendo. They've been more successful on the DS, but on the Wii they've done nothing but ride on "fan" money, supplying fans with games the they associate good things from, but never coming out with something new. There is nothing wrong with supplying fans, but there needs to be more than Miis available for the young consumer for them to stick with Nintendo. Otherwise, very dark days are ahead of this company.
To me, a successful system doesn't make the most profit, but invites gamers to be inspired by new franchises so that they could call themselves a TRUE fan of the series. In turn, these gamers will want whatever game comes from them, then you get the profit. For example, the first Super Mario Bros. came out, and people loved it. Then Super Mario Bros. 2 comes out, then 3, then Kart, then 4, then Party, etc, etc, etc... Point is, gamers that were fond of the FIRST game will be fond of most of the other stuff with the same character on the front, because they associate good memories to that character. This is also why when a game with a character gamers recognize suck, the whole franchise takes a hit in credibility (i.e. 3-D Castlevania games).
For older gamers, I'm sure Escapist members have fond memories of finding out about the warp zones in the first Mario, finding the master sword in the first Zelda, or getting first place in the first Excitebike. The list of "first" memories could go on forever. For my generation (N64 and Gameboy), there's Pokemon. Yes it was developed by Game Freak, but the first time defeating Brock was a blast, and going around Kanto in black and white can still be wistfully remembered by some members of the Escapist community (including myself). Even the next generation after that has Pikmin, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and Animal Crossing to remember fondly of.
So, what does the Wii generation have to remember Nintendo by? Well, I've checked the list of games Nintendo has developed and released for the Wii, meaning that they were involved in the whole process of this game. I've taken out all of the games that are sequels or were not released around the world UNDER Nintendo's name (for example, Zack and Wiki was released under Nintendo's name in Australia, but under Capcom's name everywhere else). The results I have found are shocking.
Original Wii Games
Wii Sports (2006) - I consider the rest of the Wii series (Play, Fit, Music, etc) to be sequels.
Endless Ocean (2008) - Sequel released in 2010
Disaster: Day of Crisis (2008) - Never released in USA. Not positive it's original, but found nothing to contradict it.
Captain Rainbow (2008) - Japan only
Xenoblade (TBA) - Used to be called Monado: Beginning of the World, so I'll let it slide...for now.
The Last Story (Jan. 27, 2011) - Looks good, but developers are OWNED by Nintendo...
...as a matter of fact, other than Wii Sports, all of the developers are OWNED by Nintendo (Arika, Monolith Soft, Mistwalker, ARTOON, skip LTD), but aren't actually Nintendo, so due to this technicality the only ORIGINAL game that has been DEVELOPED AND RELEASED by Nintendo during the SIX YEARS the Wii has been released is a game that came with the Wii in the first place. Everything else is a sequel or developed by someone else.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_published_by_Nintendo#Wii
This is probably the source of everyone's frustrations. Yes, it is good to play Donkey Kong again, it's cute to see Kirby in yarn form, but for Nintendo to succeed it needs to give the current generation of young gamers something they could latch onto so that they could have their "first" memories of Nintendo. They've been more successful on the DS, but on the Wii they've done nothing but ride on "fan" money, supplying fans with games the they associate good things from, but never coming out with something new. There is nothing wrong with supplying fans, but there needs to be more than Miis available for the young consumer for them to stick with Nintendo. Otherwise, very dark days are ahead of this company.
