A Boy and His Wii: Part Two

What does the Wii need? According to sales figures, not much. It has been one of the fastest selling systems of all time (in the US, and in Britain). Tapping into the ignored demographics--families/non-gamers/etc.--looks like a golden strategy, one that ensures the century-old company will be in business quite a bit longer. But, if you'll allow a bit of hubris, they are losing me.

[if you missed it: PART 1]

Image via Wikipedia

I give you a statement made by Shigeru Miyamoto, in an interview with Edge Online:

Our basic principle is very clear: we’re always trying to be different from everybody else. Many other companies might try to do the same things as someone else who’s already been successful in a certain area: they think in terms of the competition, and they think in terms of how they can be better than their predecessor in any established arena. But Nintendo always tries to be unique instead. We always try to be different all the time. Even when we’re working on those so-called ‘serious’ titles, when we’re hard at work on a Zelda or Super Mario Bros., amongst ourselves in the same development team, the way we discuss the game is to ask: “What’s new? What’s fresh about this title?” That kind of focus on trying to be new, to be unique every time, of trying to create something different every time, will be carried on and on and on, so that even when we are working on several other titles, our spirit of trying to be different is always there in the background somewhere.  (12/14/2009)

To be unique, sounds like a wonderful goal. Certainly it has led to some wonderful products. But what happens when those products are no longer wonderful? When too much insistence on the "unique" makes them boring? When too much emphasis on trying "to be different all the time" leaves you without a single title that could be considered perfected? This is what I propose has happened at Nintendo: too much of a good thing.

In evidence I give you the top rated Wii games of all time, according to videogames.com:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, released Mar. 9, 2008, rated: 9.5
2. Super Mario Galaxy, released Nov. 12, 2007, rated 9.5
3. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, released Jun. 19, 2007, rated 9.1
4. WarioWare: Smooth Moves, released Jan. 15, 2007, rated 9.1
5. The Beatles Rock Band, released Sep. 9, 2009, rated 9.0
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, released Jun. 8, 2009, rated 9.0
7. World of Goo, released Oct. 13, 2008, rated 9.0
8. Okami, released Apr. 15, 2008, rated 9.0
9. No More Heroes, released Jan. 22, 2008, rated 9.0

The next three on that list (Super Mario Bros. 3, Paper Mario, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) are all re-releases for Virtual Console. The top four were all new installments of old franchises. Tiger Woods, Rock Band, Okami, and World of Goo are all cross-platform and, with the possible exception of Tiger Woods, better on other systems. On that list, only one can be considered truly unique (both as a Wii title and in its gameplay) and, IMHO, wonderful. No More Heroes is the kind of game that should be a console's foundation. But it is a fringe title at best among Wii owners in the US, having not yet sold more than a million copies. 

No More Heroes should have been a model for new projects, for bigger and better ideas, but all it seems to have spawned is a sequel. The promise it offered was new ways of thinking about the gaming experience: an integration of personality, story-telling, and control-scheme. But without stepping outside the bounds of the shoot-em-up/beat-em-up genre, that can't happen. No More Heroes was well-received by reviewers, but easily cast as little more than a high-concept action game. The story was quirky, sure, but memorable?

The shooter, in Nintendo's hands should finally find itself evolving into a more complete cinematic experience, owing as much of its creation to writers as designers. It shouldn't have to con players into jumping back into the game, or starting it over, with MacGuffin quests or side-missions. Those only work on completists anyways; most people don't have the patience to obsess over finding every tiny collectible item (or achievement... doh!). No, when they are done with the ten to twenty hours of gameplay that it takes to finish the story they put it back in the case and retire it. A videogame is perfectly able to tell a good story, one that we can enjoy over and over again like a favorite movie, so why do so many games treat the story as nothing more than an inconvenience? Nintendo's willingness to innovate should make it the ideal place for writers who want to make use of the videogame to add depth and interactivity to their stories. But it isn't.

Instead, developers who want to advance the videogame as a storytelling medium, like Peter Molyneux, are developing for the XBox or PS3: systems that don't turn their noses up at the idea of joining the DVR and Blue-Ray player on the shelf (or replacing them) as entertainment appliances. Nintendo envisions itself as a toymaker. They don't see the Wii as a descendant of the DVD player, but of the Rubik's cube. For all their visionary posturing, they demonstrate no willingness to leave the toybox.