The Same Ol’ Song But With a Different Beat
The original name was “Revolution.” Perhaps it seemed a bit too bold, maybe a little too hyperbolic for their taste. But for the system that eventually became known as the Wii, the idea seems to have been pervasive from the very beginning: Do something new and different. Do something that is innovative; create a new framework for games.
It didn’t start with the Revolution, of course. Nintendo has been thinking about this for some time now. They’ve been talking this kind of new and unique experience thing since before the DS was little more than a gleam in their collective eye. Certainly from a completely functional and feature set perspective, this is exactly what they’ve done: Two screens on a handheld, one of them stylus-driven touch sensitive; included microphone on a handheld; a console with wireless, TV remote-style controllers using motion sensitivity and a separate attachment for a basic analog stick; a controller with a speaker in it. The list goes on. From a hardware design perspective, no one can argue that Nintendo is thinking outside the box.
Clearly Nintendo desires that these products be thought of as wildly creative, paradigm-shifting advancements in the world of video games. The conceptual push behind them is a desire to tap new corners of the market and appeal to people who don’t think of themselves as gamers, to broaden their user base to folks who would never consider playing—much less purchasing—a PSP or an XBox 360. In the meantime their words to the devoted hard core gamer amounts to “Plus, we’re offering you experiences you can’t get anywhere else.” Obviously Nintendo thinks they’re being as inclusive as possible and—oh, while they’re at it—revolutionizing video games.
Oh really?
It isn’t clear at this point whether the fault lies in the hands of the developers or if Nintendo has merely packaged a gimmick into a traditional package and sold the idea of revolution as sheer marketing fluff. But whatever the case, the result is the same: For all the hype and pomp about how different the DS and the Wii were to make the entire experience of playing games, so far the wave of the future feels a lot like the days of yore.
Consider the more mature of the two platforms, the Nintendo DS. On its surface, the ideas behind it are shockingly original. So much so that there were hints that it would take people a while to even understand what they were dealing with when it came to gaming on the system. Two screens? Why, that could open the door to all kinds of interesting gameplay possibilities! A touch screen? Operated by a stylus? It was kooky, it was a little crazy sounding but it could be fantastic! Think of all the clever things developers could do with such interesting functionality!
So three years later, what do we have? Have we been treated to a wave of startling new adjustments to the way we think about and interact with games?
Um. Not so much.
Granted, nearly every DS game offers the use of the stylus as a supplement or an alternative to using the tried-and-true D-pad and face buttons. A few include special stylus-based game elements that require you to draw patterns or control certain abilities using the touch screen features alone. Some seem like they may have even featured touch screen considerations as the primary control mechanic. But few have done anything that couldn’t be replicated with an analog stick.
There is also the second screen on the top of the clamshell: Surely there are wonders to behold with all the extra real estate? Alas, most developers use it to predictably increase the size of the playing field or to add nothing more than persistence to screens that would otherwise have required a push of the start or select buttons. Often these functions are useful, certainly, but hardly clever. So far it seems the most exciting use of the DS’ features has been the way several games have players turning the system on its side to use the screens in a more vertical configuration like a book. Note the use of the word “exciting” here is relative.
Even on the lauded Wii, for all its cries of adjusting perspectives on how games are played has essentially mapped some curious controls onto rote game types. Even the most unique among the games does nothing the Sony EyeToy hadn’t already done to some degree several years earlier on the PS2. Sure you may be swinging the controller, but you’re still playing a tennis video game; you’re still pointing a gun or navigating a virtual maze. By most accounts, excepting the odd title here and there, you’re not even doing those things exceptionally well.
It is early in the Wii’s life to be too harshly critical. Some slack needs to be given to developers who have, in some cases, been operating on the same basic principles of game design for twenty-five years. A revolution could take some time. But even assuming some team comes up with a whole new idea about how to control a video game using the tools Nintendo has given them, be in Wii or DS, how can you escape the basic fact that fundamentally you’re still just controlling a video game?
Is using a remote control to interact with a game really that revolutionary? More so than pervasive access to an online service like Live? More so than top-of-the-line HD content like Blu-Ray? And let’s not forget, these control mechanisms aren’t exactly one-of-a-kind. In fact, when you get right down to it both the Wii and the DS offer mechanisms that have previously been used for specific applications of mimicking the lowly mouse. Maybe it’s tough to hear, but really when you peel back the layers what Nintendo is selling you is the concept of using a mouse to play video games.
Maybe you need a few minutes to catch your breath.
There is no denying that whatever the underlying reality, Nintendo’s marketing strategy has worked wonders. The Wii has outsold its next gen competitors by a large margin since launch and the DS’ sales dwarf practically all other platforms month in and month out. Many of the people buying these systems are, in fact, the non-gamers Nintendo has been trying to reach out to. The moms, the uncles, the sisters of the traditional hard core gamer guys are the ones getting excited about Nintendo’s new “revolutionary” platforms. But it’s hard to take Nintendo too seriously about the revolution being due to their cunning interactivity advancements when most of these new recruits into the world of console gaming are pretty much just stuck on Wii Sports and Brain Age. Like the casual game space, casual gamers it seems have a longer attention span for individual games than your stereotypical gamer. Maybe they’re playing Big Brain Academy now, but it’s only because after fifteen years they’ve just now put down FreeCell or their freeware Tetris clone or Zuma. It’s starting to feel like the revolution is one of marketing focus rather than something the avergae gamer really cares about.
It is entirely possible that Nintendo will find that all these casual gamers they’re working so hard to attract don’t work the way their die hard audience does. Maybe these grandmothers and dads that got hooked on the DS or the Wii like their new systems but aren’t interested in buying that many new games. Maybe they can live with one or two for a whole year. If you look at the anticipated software titles on the horizon, that starts to sound pretty reasonable: Despite all this shifting of paradigms, we’re still pretty much waiting for the usuals: New Zelda on DS; new Metroid, Mario and Super Smash Bros. on Wii. Wait, what year is it again? The revolution starts when?
There’s no reason to begrudge Nintendo for trying something new. Again, it has worked very well for them and they’re seeing stronger market position than they’ve enjoyed for a couple of generations. The nice side effect of all these new casual gamers is that even if they don’t buy a lot of games, simply by them having purchased the console and put it in their homes it gives Nintendo some useful leverage with third party developers. It makes people sit up and notice them. It carries a certain cachet.
So is this a revolution or just a series of gimmicks with a pretty package and a great marketing hook? It certainly goes beyond what they’ve done in the past. One can’t ignore the Wii and DS price points compared to their competition as motivating factors for purchase, but consider the able GameCube which rode a similar thrifty-by-comparison wave and still never failed to make the kind of traction their new systems have. From Nintendo’s perspective, then, this really is a revolutionary phase.
It’s only too bad then that they’re selling their new era in business success as a new era in gaming. Here’s hoping for their sake that either someone does come up with something extraordinary or, at the very least, we don’t hold it against them when someone doesn’t.