iPhone: The New NES

[darksakul]

I do like to point out that Angry Birds are also on the Android OS, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The iPhone is a far cry from the NES. The NES resurrected a nearly dead industry and brought on the Golden era of gaming. There is nothing special about the iPhone. What does the iPhone has? Apple branding, a higher MSRP, a crack prone screen and a good marketing team.

iPhone isn't even a original device, the Blackberry and phone enabled PalmOS PDAs existed before hand, and we have the Android with an open software platform and a wider market share.

I think it was laughable that the iPhone would take a serious market share away from the other competitors in the mobile gaming market. Nintendo been kings of this market for nearly 23 years.
Although the PSP failed to show up Nintendo, the Vita is has not got out the gate yet.

The only real issue I have with iOS is the closed source mentality of Apple.

That is the biggest reason I would refuse tthe iOS of being the next NES.

I reiterate: The simplicity common in the days of the NES was an inherent part of programming for a limited platform. The simplicity common in smartphone games comes because lazy programmers can make plenty of money aiming for the lowest common denominator.

I agree. Don't get me wrong sometimes simple to play but easy to master games will always out sell there complex Monstrosities some game series turned out being. Give me Pac-Man over Call of Duty any day of the week. But until Apple stop being the company that appeals to "stuck up douche bag who hang around Star Bucks all day" I think I stick to my DS and PSP.

 

[bjj hero]

I wonder how much of a gateway to gaming smart phones can be when you dont learn any of the "skills" from gaming?

No controller, mouse or keyboard. How many times have you seen some ones girlfriend/aunt/grandpa/stereotypical none gamer try to play fps an find themselves staring at the ceiling stuck? Or tried to play rts and they get the camera stuck in the top corner of the map looking at fog of war?

The best introduction is friends or parents. My 4 year old loves to play lego games on the 360 with his dad. He has all the cordination and lego logic down to play solo but loves the shared experience and wants to play co-op.

As a far as gateway goes, he then had a real thing for Super Streetfighter 4 but hes currently banned from that till a little older. He kicked the car (too much bonus stage I guess). Its a learning curve for both him and me.

(I'd also recommend The Maw [http://www.mawgame.com/] to anyone with a young child who likes gaming. It oozes charm and was a massive hit for us. Bigger studios could learn a lot from this game on how to make engaging charecters)

 

[Veylon]

A key difference is that the NES was exclusively a gaming platform, while the iPhone isn't. Anyone who picks up a yen for gaming on Apple's platform is going to have to jump ship to the PC or a console to get much more complicated games. And there's nothing wrong with that.

As for the limitations of a touchscreen, there's this:

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like much and costs $75. Apple should put their zeal for polish to work and embrace the gamers they have by making their own controller add-on.

 

[FalloutJack]

All games are intrinsically for fun. That is a fact, unchangeable.

However, not all devices capable of playing games are technically made FOR it. The iPhone is a dynamic multi-functional device which can fit gaming into its venue. It is not, however, made FOR it. It holds the convenience of it as a feature. It's a phone with computing, gaming, etc/ wrapped around it in the same fashion that a Sony PSP is a gaming device with internet, radio, and movie-playing around IT. It is what it is. You don't buy an iPhone strictly for playing games. You don't buy a PS3 for its web browser, although you CAN use it. If you want to get your kids into gaming, buy them a gaming device.

 

[joest01]

I dont do Apple but from an Android perspective, I can agree on the jrpg clones. Zenonia is mentioned above. But even more the actual turn based ones. Symphony of eternity, Alphadia ...

In terms of a more "mobile" experience, Battleheart is definitely a jrpg gateway drug.

But those games are few and far between and honestly? Angry birds and cut the rope are to gaming what a stepper in front of the basement television is to sports.

 

[Strazdas]

I disagee. I know a lot of people that started thier gaming career with Starcraft, HOMM 2 and Settlers 2, me being one that started with Starcraft.

 

[MikeWehner]

Whether you like Apple products or not is irrelevant. Those of us who first got into gaming with the Atari, NES, etc. didn't have such a bias, we just wanted something fun to play and that's what those systems provided. That's exactly what the iPhone is providing to millions and millions of people who have never touched a dedicated home console or portable system in their lives.

And yes, other smartphone platforms ? namely Android, and to a lesser extent, WP7 ? offer similar experiences, but Apple's marketplace and GameCenter are so perfectly melded with the devices that it has taken off above all others.

Being a touchscreen device has its drawbacks, for sure. And anyone who spends their nights playing an Xbox 360 or PS3 is going to immediately feel like there is a lack of proper control for many titles, but the same could be said about many NES or Atari games. People who start gaming on their smartphones and then move on to bigger and better things won't see the touchscreen as a burden, but rather will look back on it in a decade and see its flaws as part of its quirky charm, just as hardcore gamers look back on the two-button NES controller with rose-colored glasses.

 

[Dastardly]

iPhone: The New NES

The iPhone, like the NES before it, will be what gets a whole new generation into gaming.

Read Full Article

Love the article.

I think a lot of the "backlash" toward this type of gaming is the "grown-up gamers" forgetting that new gamers are on their way in every year. We grew up with gaming, and it grew up with us... but that doesn't mean we can shut the door behind us.

What if adults decided that, since none of them are babies anymore, no one should make baby food? Or that since all the adults know how to ride bikes, there is no reason for anyone to manufacture training wheels? After all, the baby food and training wheel factories could be put to better use making more things for us. (I don't mean to indicate that players of these games are "babies," or anything of the sort. This is about the attitude of the "haters.")

And above all, what I think we're really afraid of is that this new generation will be bigger than us. That means we'll lose our "majority share," and the bulk of the gaming market won't be centered around our wants and wishes anymore. Rather than recognizing it as evolution branching out, we see it as evolution closing in...