Friday, December 17, 2010

The Wii 2010



This year Nintendo decided to flex its history muscle. In seeming response to the so called "hardcore" crowd hating on the Wii in all of its waggling glory, Nintendo hauled out the big guns and released a new main-series title for pretty much every single one of its franchises. Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns and an announcement of a new Zelda game for 2011.

There is a thin line between being desperate and giving the fans what they want, and I'm not sure which side of that line Nintendo landed on this year. On one hand, they don't need money. The problem here is that the company knows that anytime they slap one of these big names on the front of a box that it will sell like hot cakes. The big N relies on these franchises like a BLT relies on bacon. There isn't a lot of room for interesting new franchises on the Wii since its constantly hit with wave after wave of shovelware and half-assed ports. The Wii's popularity is part of its problem when it comes to accruing favor in the eyes of critics and gamers. Thus, the Marios, the Metroids and the Zeldas. If Nintendo can pump out quality titles in these franchises fast enough, critics will turn a blind eye to the absolute lack of anything interesting happening on the console that was once named the Revolution.

Nintendo might have released very good quality games such as Mario Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2010, but I feel that they've given up on part of their mission statement with the Wii. They have stopped trying to revolutionize the gaming world. They haven't even made a serious effort to make the Wii Motion Plus work particularly well yet, although that's presumably what the new Zelda game is going to be doing. As for 2010, Nintendo has mostly reached back into their past to find their acknowledgment from fans. It's not a bad thing. I enjoy the few first party Nintendo games that are released. I just don't think that they've done anything terribly important for the gaming industry this year.

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