dsheinem wrote:
That said, I am struggling off the top of my head to think of Nintendo-developed handheld titles that are already seen as influential in the past ~15 years (and past ~10 especially)...
Off the top of my head...
Animal Crossing - the prototype for today's free-to-play games
Brain Age - its focus on daily exercises is apparent in many modern, portable educational titles (of which there are very, very many)
Yup - good call on both!
Mario Kart DS...introduced "cable-free" multiplayer handheld gaming, leaderboards, etc.
Was it really first to do this? I didn't realize.
I think that each of these games was incredibly influential on modern handheld game design, and I also think that the Nintendo DS's influence on iOS gaming cannot be understated.
Yup: the DS itself was influential from a hardware perspective as was the Wii. I don't know how much Nintendo software from the period can be considered influential, though. You've made some case for a few of their handheld titles, though I'd like to see more examples
prfsnl_gmr wrote:The only Nintendo-developed and Nintendo-published console games I can think of with those levels of influence are LoZ: Ocarina of Time and Mario Party.
Slight nit-pick here, but the Mario Party series was developed by Hudson Soft up until Mario Party 9, and even still, that style of board game in video games was nothing new. Nintendo has actually outsourced its game production in the last twenty years to more second and third party developers than most people realize.
Ack wrote:
Admittedly though, so does Gran Turismo, Half Life, DDR, Resident Evil, MGS, FF7, and Burnout on your list, with Halo, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 4, and Ico not too long after. And I would argue that Battlefield 2 was the catalyst for CoD:MW, which is the Madden of FPS: yearly releases, minor innovation if any.
So does what?
So do those games come from what would be the N64 era. While many of those are influential series, many are originally from the mid- to late-1990s.
In my opinion, Nintendo still makes games that help evolve the medium and show a level of intellectual curiosity. Engaging multiplayer players in a traditional platformer, utilizing new and unique methods of manipulating our games to provide a level of interactivity never before seen, providing in some cases entire galaxies to wander and explore, enabling new methods for us to interact and cooperate even in the likes of racing games...no, I think Nintendo is still innovative and interesting as far as gaming is concerned, far more than Microsoft and Sony have been. At least Nintendo focuses on their consoles as machines for games as opposed to lesser-quality PCs or home multimedia centers.
There's a difference between innovation and influence, though, right? 4-player platforming existed before NSMBW, I've not heard of a touchscreen innovation on the Wii U's limited non-capacitive screen let alone one that is influential, and while I concede motion controls as such are influential, I can't think of their implementation in a particular Nintendo game that has proved to be influential in a still-popular/successful genre or series.
I can't think of any other examples of 4-player platforming, having a touchscreen at all on a console is innovative(because while I know of handhelds that do it, it is a relatively new idea for consoles to attempt this), and the Wii series is an example of a still running and successful franchise, including both Wii Sports and Wii Fit(both of which have recently had a new release in the last three months). Now whether you want to consider Wii Fit a game as opposed to interactive software is a potential subject for debate, though I would argue Wii Sports is definitely one, just as much as games like DDR or Police 911.
I get that people like Nintendo and see their hardware as innovative, but I don't see how anyone can think Nintendo continues to make influentialgames.
Are you saying you don't like Nintendo? Is it your Sega love that makes you so critical?
dsheinem wrote:
Yup: the DS itself was influential from a hardware perspective as was the Wii. I don't know how much Nintendo software from the period can be considered influential, though. You've made some case for a few of their handheld titles, though I'd like to see more examples
Zelda Phantom Hourglass showed how a touch screen could be used to play an action adventure game. Kirby Paint Brush took the "draw a line genre" and made a proper game out of it. Super Mario Galaxy brought fast paced platforming to the 3D realm.....but yeah, those are the best ones I can think of. I understand where you are coming from and I will agree. Nintendo used to be the company everybody copied, now they are just the most high quality publisher (those 2 things are not the same). I think Nintendo fans should take pride in the quality games Nintendo makes, but just accept that they don't make as many breakthroughs anymore.
At the same time.....who does? I keep hearing about unique games coming from the indie scene, but all I see are obscure games, not unique. I think we just were really lucky to see the birth and technological growth of the medium. Once we got to the PS2 generation of consoles we pretty much peaked on the "how much can technology make a difference in gameplay", and well....complete novel ideas will be hard to come up from now on unfortunately. But that happens in every medium.
BoneSnapDeez wrote:The success of a console is determined by how much I enjoy it.
Mario Kart DS...introduced "cable-free" multiplayer handheld gaming, leaderboards, etc.
Was it really first to do this? I didn't realize.
I may be wrong on this point...The PSP launched in March 2005, and Mario Kart DS was not released until November 2005. Accordingly, there may some PSP games that did it first.
None of them would have been as popular as Mario Kart DS, however; so at the very least, I think we can still say that Mario Kart DS popularized online handheld gaming.
Last edited by prfsnl_gmr on Tue Jan 21, 2014 5:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mario Kart DS...introduced "cable-free" multiplayer handheld gaming, leaderboards, etc.
Was it really first to do this? I didn't realize.
I may be wrong on this point...The PSP launched in March 2005, and Mario Kart DS was not released until November 2005. Accordingly, there may some PSP games that did it first.
None of them would have been as popular as Mario Kart DS, however; so at the very least, I think we can still say that Mario Kart DS popularized online handheld gaming
I think that would have become popular without Mario Kart anyway
BoneSnapDeez wrote:The success of a console is determined by how much I enjoy it.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:
None of them would have been as popular as Mario Kart DS, however; so at the very least, I think we can still say that Mario Kart DS popularized online handheld gaming
Technically, Monster Hunter Freedom came out a week or so earlier in Japan - though Mario Kart came out a few weeks after the US release there.
It'd probably be a significant early title, but I'd probably lean towards Monster Hunter being a bigger deal in Japan at least. In general it was likely more "we have handhelds with WiFi that can do this now" than anything else.
