I’ve had a revelation recently. Nintendo makes good games. I know, that doesn’t seem like much of a revelation, but what I found was that while the games are good titles, they are never excellent titles.
Nintendo has been around the video game industry now for well over 20 years. Those of us in our late 20’s and early 30’s fondly remember the NES System. Packaged with the all-time best selling game Super Mario Brothers, it became and instant and life long addiction for us all. The game featured the Mario and Luigi on the quest to save Princess Peach from the evil Bowser. But the game was never about the story, it was always about the gameplay. Four Nintendo systems later, we have Super Mario Galaxy, which as it stands now is currently the #1 reviewed game of all time. I’ve played the game, I’m playing the game, and I agree it’s a great title. But after a few initial marathon sessions, and several stars later, I find myself with little incentive to go back.
I’ve been trying to answer this question. How can the #1 game of all time not hold my interest long enough to want to complete it? Recently I’ve been playing a lot of really solid titles. I’ve completed Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Mass Effect. All exceptional titles. All different titles. All titles with a unique and fresh story. And I think that’s the answer to my question.
You see, Mario has had the same story now for countless iterations. The princess is captured, and it’s your job to save her. And that’s fine and all. But as an almost 30 year old male this doesn’t drive me. The story doesn’t captivate me. So after getting over the initial wow factor, and after discovering all of the game play mechanics in the game, there was no real incentive for me to continue playing.
This kind of thing carries over to other games on the system, though maybe not to the degree that is Mario Galaxy. Wii-sports is another example. After you get over the initial wow factor of the controls, things begin to get stale. That’s not to say it isn’t fun to pick up and play every few months, but overall the game just loses it’s spunk. Even great titles like Metroid Prime 3 and Zelda: Twighlight Princess seemed to fall flat. And while they were both reviewed really well in the media, I don’t exactly agree. I really enjoyed the titles for the first few hours, but after that I lost interest. What’s unique here is that while these games have different stories than their predecessors, the same basic theme is present.
I know a lot of people get all uptight when someone says Nintendo makes kids games, but you know what? It’s true. When you get right down to it the stories in their first party titles are extremely shallow and repetitive. My guess is that if any of the above mentioned games use any other characters that weren’t Nintendo characters they’d be 5-10 points less on average.
I guess my point in all of this is I guess I’m a little sad. The games and characters that I used to hold so dear to my heart no longer can do the same. It’s a bit like watching your favorite movie again that you used to love when you were 10. You won’t believe how bad that movie is, yet when you were 10 you could have sworn it was the best thing ever. I still enjoy the games Nintendo makes, I guess I just enjoy them for different reasons.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How dare you make those claims about Mario64 2!? LOL
Nintendo hasn’t smashed any new boundaries. The games, while not re-hashed entirely, as they all include very new dimensions of gameplay, have been cut from the same cloth too many times. Mario64, Metroid Prime, and LOZ:OOT, were all games that re-defined how we experienced their legendary stories, but now the stories haven’t changed, and the games play only slightly different. One thing I’ve learned in life is that things are meant to change. This game templates they’ve used over almost 2 decades, don’t work well anymore, and need to be updated. They sqeaked by this time, but their next approach must be significantly radical and new, if not, I almost feel sorry for them.