I was reading this article from Yahtzee, host of Zero Punctuation, called "What Has Nintendo Done Right Lately?" http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/11018-What-Has-Nintendo-Done-Right-Lately
The first part discusses what he thinks Nintendo should do, but the main topic is the second half of it, where he argues that Nintendo is banking too much on nostalgia, and more often than not, he sees it as bad nostalgia. To quote,
"Last week we were talking about nostalgia, and we learned that nostalgia is like a ten-inch stiffy. In the right circumstances it is very welcome and very handy to have around, but there are other circumstances when it just breeds negativity. Like if you flop it out while meeting the in-laws and let it drip on the rug. Nintendo used to wield that ten-inch stiffy like a cross between a world-class porn director and a master swordsman, but it's been sending more and more of my rugs to the dry cleaners lately. We remember that good nostalgia consists of evoking and learning from the past, whereas bad nostalgia is a refusal to move on from it."
He later writes that an example of good nostalgia was Super Mario Galaxy, where he saw Nintendo as moving the Mario franchise forward while keeping the core principles intact. With current games from Nintendo, he sees them as SNES games, taking a step back instead of a step forward.
He goes on to criticize A Link Between Worlds for what he thinks as lazy game design, pertaining to the renting system. He writes,
"Oh, but there is something new. Instead of a properly crafted, paced experience with a natural difficulty curve in which the game world gradually unlocks as you collect tools allowing access to more areas and powerups, Link Between Worlds just dumps them all on you at the start. You rent them out from a shop for 50 of the local quid, and if you die, they go back and you have to rent them again for another 50. Alternatively you can buy them outright for a much larger price.
Innovative, sure, but two things: firstly, this doesn't in itself turn the bad nostalgia into good nostalgia, it's just bad nostalgia with one new idea in it. And secondly, I wonder if it's entirely coincidental that as well as being innovative, this gameplay model is also a hell of a lot easier to implement than something like the aforesaid properly paced experience."
div>To analogize with the current state of Nintendo, he concludes,
"What this has done, reader, is make the game less about adventure and exploration and saving the princess, and more about money. Making lots of money to hoard and spend on things. Oh, Nintendo. Are you wearing your heart on your sleeve again?"
I think he does have a point. This is the video he's mentioning: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8789-The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-Between-Worlds
Now, he's not bashing Nintendo just because. In the video above, he mentions how he's supporting Nintendo the most right now, because they made a games console, not an inferior PC. But he also balances that with the current problems he sees. He also says,
"You can make yourself as fertile as you like but you can't make a baby without a few good hard dickings" in reference to the sparsity of games on the Wii U. He also thinks Nintendo as thinking that the Wii was going to ride off into the sunset, but once the amount of quality games started dropping like flies, they went to the stables to beat out a Zelda and Mario game, which is what Nintendo is doing with the Wii U. He also refers to games like 3D World as "nostalgia bait". He recognizes games like Bayonetta 2 being a much needed title for the Wii U library, but otherwise, he thinks Nintendo isn't doing much else themselves besides trying to do the exact same strategy they did with the Wii with "nostalgia bait".
What do y'all think?
The first part discusses what he thinks Nintendo should do, but the main topic is the second half of it, where he argues that Nintendo is banking too much on nostalgia, and more often than not, he sees it as bad nostalgia. To quote,
"Last week we were talking about nostalgia, and we learned that nostalgia is like a ten-inch stiffy. In the right circumstances it is very welcome and very handy to have around, but there are other circumstances when it just breeds negativity. Like if you flop it out while meeting the in-laws and let it drip on the rug. Nintendo used to wield that ten-inch stiffy like a cross between a world-class porn director and a master swordsman, but it's been sending more and more of my rugs to the dry cleaners lately. We remember that good nostalgia consists of evoking and learning from the past, whereas bad nostalgia is a refusal to move on from it."
He later writes that an example of good nostalgia was Super Mario Galaxy, where he saw Nintendo as moving the Mario franchise forward while keeping the core principles intact. With current games from Nintendo, he sees them as SNES games, taking a step back instead of a step forward.
He goes on to criticize A Link Between Worlds for what he thinks as lazy game design, pertaining to the renting system. He writes,
"Oh, but there is something new. Instead of a properly crafted, paced experience with a natural difficulty curve in which the game world gradually unlocks as you collect tools allowing access to more areas and powerups, Link Between Worlds just dumps them all on you at the start. You rent them out from a shop for 50 of the local quid, and if you die, they go back and you have to rent them again for another 50. Alternatively you can buy them outright for a much larger price.
Innovative, sure, but two things: firstly, this doesn't in itself turn the bad nostalgia into good nostalgia, it's just bad nostalgia with one new idea in it. And secondly, I wonder if it's entirely coincidental that as well as being innovative, this gameplay model is also a hell of a lot easier to implement than something like the aforesaid properly paced experience."
div>To analogize with the current state of Nintendo, he concludes,
"What this has done, reader, is make the game less about adventure and exploration and saving the princess, and more about money. Making lots of money to hoard and spend on things. Oh, Nintendo. Are you wearing your heart on your sleeve again?"
I think he does have a point. This is the video he's mentioning: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8789-The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-Between-Worlds
Now, he's not bashing Nintendo just because. In the video above, he mentions how he's supporting Nintendo the most right now, because they made a games console, not an inferior PC. But he also balances that with the current problems he sees. He also says,
"You can make yourself as fertile as you like but you can't make a baby without a few good hard dickings" in reference to the sparsity of games on the Wii U. He also thinks Nintendo as thinking that the Wii was going to ride off into the sunset, but once the amount of quality games started dropping like flies, they went to the stables to beat out a Zelda and Mario game, which is what Nintendo is doing with the Wii U. He also refers to games like 3D World as "nostalgia bait". He recognizes games like Bayonetta 2 being a much needed title for the Wii U library, but otherwise, he thinks Nintendo isn't doing much else themselves besides trying to do the exact same strategy they did with the Wii with "nostalgia bait".
What do y'all think?
(I'll address the rebuttals in that thread in the morning)
