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How many other devs make "Nintendo-style" games? [roundtable]
 
It reoccurred to me recently that Nintendo really doesn't make games in the same way as most other current developers. I mean, if you look at it historically, we started with arcade games, which usually made the most of a single mechanic. A limited amount of content, but high replay value. Then the shift to home consoles sort of broadened the scope of a video game. Now we could have adventures (even on the 2600!). Which first meant bigger worlds in which to ply that limited set of mechanics. But soon that definition evolved to include games in which the mechanics expanded and changed over time, resulting in a more varied (but perhaps less pure) experience. In it's early history, Nintendo was a key component of this evolution from arcade games (Donkey Kong, Balloon Fight) to expanded arcade-styled games (Super Mario Bros.) to more realized worlds with more varied mechanics (The Legend of Zelda, Metroid). Over time, Nintendo has further refined its ideal of video game design. Basically, a gameplay-driven experience, in which creative level design and/or new abilities keep the experience fresh over the course of the game. We love that shit, right?

But most established developers don't make that type of game anymore. The current vogue seems to favor one set of gameplay mechanics throughout an entire game (or even series), modulated largely by change in setting or narrative. Rather than bring new actors on the stage, they change the set design. I think this explains why Nintendo fans' tastes are often so different than those of the mainstream. Why some of us feel alienated in gaming discussions. To an extent, we're playing apples, and they're playing oranges.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Independent devs mostly prioritize gameplay, albeit with a more limited scope. So, two questions:

1) Do you agree or disagree with the analysis above?
2) If you agree, which other developers still make "Nintendo-style" games?

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06/29/15, 23:12    Edited: 06/29/15, 23:35
 
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I miss that series. It would actually work really well on the GamePad too.
07/03/15, 18:57   
@Zero

I didn't care much for the first one. I liked it at first but it got a bit too in to the supernatural for me as I recall. I just kind of stopped playing it.
07/03/15, 18:59   
Wow, this thread went places!

@pho6os welcome, and I too was disappointed that the Wii remote pointer couldn't do actual aiming a la light guns. Case in point, when they put Duck Hunt on the Wii U Virtual Console, they added a little cursor for your Wii remote, and then what's the point? I've never actually played the Guncon stuff, but it always sounded cool to me.

That said, the Wii remote pointer was awesome in its own ways, and I'm very disappointed that it's largely been ignored on Wii U. One thing I never got was, for shooters, why didn't any developer put turning controls on the nunchuk accelerometer? That way you could use the control stick to move in all directions, and tilt your hand left/right to turn. That would keep the Wiimote pointer totally free to aim at all times instead of the awkward sometimes-turning-sometimes-aiming bounding box thing we got. I still think that could have been a revolutionary new hardcore FPS control scheme.


@TriforceBun
Yessss, more love for the Trauma series. Trauma Team in particular was such a cool surprise, making the operations a bit less cheap and even adding surprisingly fun logic/narrative sequences in Forensics and Diagnostics. And all that for a budget price of $30 at launch! Disappointed that we haven't seen anything from that series since. I hadn't even thought of how the Gamepad is perfectly suited for it, but I also thought the touch-screen controls in Under the Knife were a step down from the Wii pointer.
07/03/15, 19:19   
@nate38

The only issue I see with that is that you still need to account for y-axis look somewhere. It could work if the game was designed around not having y-axis be very important then you might have something.
07/03/15, 19:23   
@Stephen Yeah, I mean you could tilt the accelerometer back/forward for up/down, but at some point you're probably asking too much coordination of one hand. It seems like not that many shooters really make good use of verticality anyway though.
07/03/15, 19:28   
There were enough tweaking options that I didn't have any issues with the way pointer controls worked in shooters.

@TriforceBun Those games were cool, but they sure were difficult. Not so much because the actions themselves were tough, more because they were so nerve-wracking!
07/03/15, 20:57   
@nate38

I always wanted a Nunchuk Plus that was wireless and had better motion sensors. Nunchuk motion never seemed to work right for me.
07/04/15, 01:01   
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