Wii-U thoughts so far

[Reprise]

Also, it may differ from country to country, but I also remember the N64 being popular with high school kids and college students here in the UK. Loads of people at my high school had a N64 and lots of my friends' older brothers did too who were in university.

But meh, I'm not really debating that Nintendo have had a childish image and people have had that perception. Just that it seems strange to me, because I never personally had that perception, at least until I used internet gaming aites far more.

Yeah I wanted to ask you about it (and well...where you are from) because I get a feeling this "Nintendo is kiddy" thing is mostly a NA thing that started with the Mega Drive/Genesis marketing over there.

In mainland Europe Nintendo's biggest problem is that it doesn't have a lot of the main games people buy consoles for (namely FIFA ). I've never actually heard anyone say "I'm not buying a Nintendo cause it's childish"

Perhaps that's it then. Maybe perception is slightly different in North America. That said, I have noticed more of a "Nintendo is childish" perception here over the last few years, since the success of the Wii. But as someone else said, perhaps Nintendo embraced their "childish/family friendly" more with the Wii. I also think the original Xbox (along with the Genesis/Mega Drive and Playstation before it) helped push gaming in a "new", more mature direction, that maybe made Nintendo look childish in comparison.

[Tanooki]

Evidence matters little when it came to what was on the shelf compared to the preseption of things brought on both by Nintendo's own advertising but also Sony smearing it as the kiddie box. I really enjoyed the N64 when it had the games coming out for it, even in the bad years when I'd get a game every 4-6mo since I wasn't a fan of Rare collect-a-thon stuff it was enjoyable to use but it did end up driving me to get a Turbo Duo to fill the time so I thank Nintendo for that too as I do for making me more of a handheld gamer with the GBC!

The issue was all perception and Nintendo only putting up 1st party ads did a lot of it, and then not supporting third parties in demoing their stuff like Sony did and they usually would never run anything but some print or early online ad banners were no help. It just came to be seen as the overly durable cartridge based kid friendly system. There were a lot of excellent games T and M style that were ported to it, some being the superior copy compared to the PS1 too, but they were just stuck with the name just as they're stuck now too. You learn to adapt or you die, and they've adapted somewhat well enough since then and with a bit of luck on Wii too. Nintendo isn't bad, they're good, they're just really bad advertisers. I put a lot of time on the games I did have for N64, currently have around 20 but I did over time own a good 1/3 of the library, but it did lack some key variety as RPGs were the big thing then in games and they had almost none.

[Sarge]

Well, I do think Nintendo prizes their more wholesome image to some extent, so that they would not do things to endanger that doesn't surprise me, either.

I'm not surprised at all that perceptions would be different here in the States. Someone brought up the Sega ad campaigns, and that was very likely the genesis (har har) of the kiddie arguments. The Mortal Kombat flap just confirmed it, and even though MK2 had no censorship, the damage (as it were) was done.

Honestly, I don't want Nintendo themselves to change image. They're good at very specific brands of gaming, and the last thing we need is them going Shooty McShooterkins on us. Third parties have to pick up the slack... but historically we've seen that they're loath to do so, with arguments like Wii being a fad, or finding it difficult to compete with the first-party offerings, or recognizing that to some degree, the audience for Nintendo's systems does skew differently than the others and sometimes isn't the best fit.

It's a conundrum, and I don't know how it changes. Nintendo's tried to throw resources at the problem at times, and it has generally failed. Part of that is by choice, part is perception, and both combine to make a reputation that's difficult to overcome.

[BogusMeatFactory]

They're good at very specific brands of gaming, and the last thing we need is them going Shooty McShooterkins on us.

It has already started!

[Hazerd]

They're good at very specific brands of gaming, and the last thing we need is them going Shooty McShooterkins on us.

It has already started!

But this game actually looks good, lets just hope it doesnt involve x2 exp from MTN DEW cans.

[FerretGamer]

Splatoon is gonna be awesome, I was just randomly thinking about the game today.

On the topic of Mountain Dew, Target loves to give it away with games as a promotion. XTREME!

[BogusMeatFactory]

Anyone notice the little sign on the right side of the game with the date of E3 on it? Ads?

[FerretGamer]

Anyone notice the little sign on the right side of the game with the date of E3 on it? Ads?

Targeted advertising, subliminal messages, mind control, world domination.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Anyone notice the little sign on the right side of the game with the date of E3 on it? Ads?

Targeted advertising, subliminal messages, mind control, world domination.

I was gonna say, if they looked like the ones in the picture... sure... I'm down.

[ZeroAX]

Third parties have to pick up the slack... but historically we've seen that they're loath to do so, with arguments like Wii being a fad, or finding it difficult to compete with the first-party offerings, or recognizing that to some degree, the audience for Nintendo's systems does skew differently than the others and sometimes isn't the best fit.

Though the main problem seems to be western developers/publishers. Seriously the DS sold as much as the PS2 and yet there wasn't a single huge western developed hit. Japanese 3rd paty developers were hitting it out of the park. I just think that just how Japanese developers don't "get" how to do shooters, western developers don't "get" how to do...um...games other than the ones they're making?