March 18, 2011

Nintendo 3DS, Mario Sports Mix, And Casual Gaming

Nintendo 3DS


So I was hyped when I randomly visited Nintendo World and saw that they had 3DS's on display. The hype soon ran away when I saw the games that were being displayed.

Pilotwings: Never cared for Pilotwings, though I hear good things about the series.
Some Submarine game: First impressions last a lifetime, right? Well, I didn't like it's first impression.
Nintendogs 3D: No
Lego Star Wars: The game I spent the most time on, which was, maybe 3 minutes.

I didn't like the selection of games that Nintendo World had available. I was hoping to see Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition, Dead or Alive: Whatever the Subtitle is, MGS3: Snake Eater, or Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time 3D. Hell, I'm willing to bet that the Kid Icarus game would have been better than the shit available, as it's claimed to play like a Star Fox game, and I'm all for Star Fox.

The 3D effect was slightly disappointing, however. For whatever reason, I expected it to pop out, but instead in expands in, kinda like those optical illusion books you see nothing but a silly pattern but after you focus a bit you see a real image. That's essentially what the 3DS does, presents games via this optical illusion... while things move. And this is probably why people catch headaches, because I don't think the human eye is designed to handle that.

Super Mario Sports Mix


I also played this game on the Wii. Highly disappointing, definitely NOT worth the $50 to get it. I only played basketball and dodge ball, but that's all I needed to figure out that this game was trash. The games are devastatingly easy; even its hardest settings won't present much of a challenge. The games are also stiff as hell, so it's not like you're having that much fun against said easy computers. Basketball isn't as fluid as it could and should be, the passing controls are awkward, and the gimmicks only serve to frustrate you, since you know, game's easy anyway. Dodge ball is just as stiff, with similarly awkward passing controls.

Overall, this game is like Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics without the fun and without half its roster (Nintendo characters only). It also has fewer events, and those events aren't even deep, challenging, or fun. Pointless game is pointless. Don't bother with it.

Nintendo and Casual Gaming


Why has Nintendo forsaken gamers and sticks with making its trash ton of casual games?
That's the wrong question to ask. The question is...
Why did gamers forsaken Nintendo in exchange for "hardcore" games?

It was the real gamers that abandoned the Nintendo Game Cube, which was still putting out solid gamers for gamers of all kinds, but with XBox and PS2 being marketed as game systems for grown ups while Game Cube fell short as a "kids' system," gamers have no one to blame but themselves for the path Nintendo has decided to choose.

R.I.P. F-Zero. That franchise is too difficult for Nintendo's target demographic, and even if it returns, it probably won't be the same...

No comments:

Post a Comment