Nintendo has been making the same games since the 80s

Yeah OP lost me here.

I'm not saying Fallout 4 has a crazy good narrative, but there's just something really immersive about the game. I love the character dialogue, the talking, the exploring, searching for new loot & weapons. It really feels like you're inhabiting the world & a playing a part in all the different stories. Picking up new quests & not knowing where they'll lead you is awesome. It just keeps me absolutely glued.
 
Nintendo just keeps making the same shit over and over. Why can't they do something new and different?

They should stop making games like these sequels to THEIR franchises, and start making games like those sequels to someone ELSE'S franchises!
 
In a way, i kinda agree. I dont necessarily think that Nintendo games themselves are their problem. But rather, their unwillingness to bend or change with the industry.

I did a piece on this a few days ago, actually: https://youtu.be/o0rArX1H8yc

I basically highlighted what I think their biggest issue was, at least in the last few consoles, like problems with limited hardware, courting 3rd parties, or hell, even getting noticed by 3rd parties. (With exception of the Wii, which is a problem in itself, I feel)

I think if they just change how they evolve, it'd do them some good.
 
Nintendo doesn't make games for us, they make them for kids. People new to their franchises. What might've grown stale to you is fresh to someone playing it for the first time.
 
That's not really their forte, but Xenoblade Chronicles has a compelling narrative with deep gameplay, so there's that, but I'm sure you will voice your opinions on why it doesn't count.
 
That's not really their forte, but Xenoblade Chronicles has a compelling narrative with deep gameplay, so there's that, but I'm sure you will voice your opinions on why it doesn't count.

If you looked through the thread you will find that I'm a Monolith Soft fan & love Xenoblade Chronicles.
 
Nintendo doesn't make games for us, they make them for kids. People new to their franchises. What might've grown stale to you is fresh to someone playing it for the first time.

What's all this 1990 Nintendo makes games only for kids nonsense? Nintendo develops games for families, geriatrics, females, enthusiasts and casual players.

They obviously don't specifically cater to the archetypical 18-35 year old dude bro. But their demographic is much more broad.
 
What's all this 1990 Nintendo makes games only for kids nonsense? Nintendo develops games for families, geriatrics, females, enthusiasts and casual players.

They obviously don't specifically cater to the archetypical 18-35 year old dude bro. But their demographic is much more broad.

It isn't just dudebro's that play games like The Witcher 3 & Fallout 4.
 
Don't get me wrong, I am a Nintendo fan, though I don't love all of their franchises, but if you think about it Nintendo has been making the same games since the 80s. By that I mean games that are steeped in traditional, arcade design. I'd like to see Nintendo challenge themselves & deliver a few new IPs that have compelling narratives & deep gameplay like in The Witcher 3 or Fallout 4. I think it could really help in bringing variety to their current franchises.

More & more I find myself unable to be grabbed by Nintendo games because most of them lack strong narratives. With Nintendo games, it's pretty much what you see is what you get. Colourful mascot characters collecting bananas & jumping on Goombas just isn't doing it for me anymore. As I'm getting older this stuff gradually appeals to me less & less. I need something that does that little bit more & goes that little bit deeper.

So, what do you think? I think making more games that focus on having strong narratives & a darker or more grounded visual style could really help diversify their offerings. After all, it's said that they make games for everyone, right?

Post all the way disregarded.
 
We will soon get to the point where all games ever made will be considered the same because pixels are displayed on the screen and you control something.
 
I was never aware there was a problem with the player being unable to explore a giant open world on their own terms, just because an icon/waypoint was marked on a map?

Wait a sec...there is no problem! You've got your main quest, a bunch of side quests piling up, and the ability to go off and explore/discover.

You're also REALLY overselling the act of raising a sword to point you in the direction you need to go, as well as warp points. "Compelling exploration system". "Intrinsically engaging". It's just a more time consuming method to perform the same simple task of looking at a compass.

Yet how many of those games instead follow a waypoint system that the developers give you instead of one that the players set themselves? Giving the players the ability to set waypoints themselves is the solution to the follow the arrow structure in open world titles and strikes the balance between freedom and immersion.

I found the design relatively pointless in skyward sword because the level layouts were guiding in their own respects, however the use of a beacon instead of a UI marker is an elegant solution to the open world exploration problem.

In Witcher 3, I had to turn off lots of stuff to get an interesting pathfinding experience, I find it a shame that the developers did not trust their audience from the get go to engage with the lovingly crafted world they had especially since that pathfinding was in fact the best part of the gameplay in the witcher 3.
 
gritty nintendo games...


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no thank you, those goombas will give me nightmares lol
 
If anything, Nintendo's major problem (and it is a recent one) is that they bank much more on nostalgia than on making something new and refreshing.

Every main series Mario game after Galaxy has been more like a recollection of past games than actual, unique, ambitious projects.
Disregarding Skyward Sword, every recent Zelda has been a remake, a direct sequel to an early game, or a spin-off focusing on bringing back a bunch of different characters.
Even Metroid: Other M focused more on following Super Metroid's story than on standing out on its own.
 
Nintendo doesn't have to fundamentally change their design philosophy, but new IPs would be nice. Splatoon was a nice departure, but outside of that, they don't have much else that stirs excitement.

Nothing would get more excited if Nintendo came out and showcased an entirely new IP on the scale of new entry of Zelda.
 
The only part where Nintendo is stuck in the 80s is the part where they believe people will buy their console hardware just to play their games.

It's not happening anymore. Their games are fine. The method of playing them isn't. Gamers, even their most diehard fans, have moved on.
 
What Nintendo is doing with Zelda is none other than giving in to market trends, i.e. westernizing the franchise. I'm refering to the sheer scope of the world, not the fact that it might be non-linear. It's not logistically possible to fill the entire game world with substantial content, meaning there will be downplay as you travel from point A to B, similar to Wind Waker but made worse due to longer stretches of empty space. That's why they added the 2x wind sail item in WW HD, to mitigate downtime, but it's only a patch solution and doesn't solve the root of the problem.

As far as Xenoblade, Nintendo specifically brought in Monolith because they needed an open world game in their library, sadly this is what sells systems these days. JRPGs have never really had level design and puzzles in the same vein as a Nintendo game, only Golden Sun lives up to Nintendo quality standards of gameplay outside of combat. I love Xenoblade Chronicles, but outside of combat (which is fantastic) we are talking about pretty landscapes with no gameplay interaction of any kind. Those games are played for their immersive worlds, stories and characters, so it makes more sense for that type of game.

This isn't new though. Like, all these years discussing Zelda here and all the posters who are skeptical towards Zelda U, do you just dismiss them for fanboy drivel or something? It's weird that I even have to explain this when we've been through this 1000 times.

You're reaching with your last paragraph. Really reaching. But as it stands, when I say Nintendo, I don't necessarily mean EAD. Nintendo don't need to have EAD make games like that, but they should certainly be employing studios, even setting up studios, that can fill in those software gaps in their library.

Even disregarding The Division, Destiny, why can't we have games like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, The last of us, with Nintendo's genius puzzle and gameplay design and a more western appealing coat of paint? It's not as if it's beyond their capabilities, but they just don't seem interested in trying.

Now I'm perfectly happy with Nintendo's Japan/Nintend fan centric output, but Nintendo needs more than people like me, you and the Nintendo enthusiasts on the internet to survive as a hardware manufacturer. And if 'bowing' to the pressure of market trends is how to do it, then so be it. It won't stop them from making Mario, Zelda et al.

No, but it is just adults, which the rest of the AAA industry targets almost exclusively. There is a niche for making games that everyone can play.

As evidenced by the Wii U, that niche isn't enough to sustain healthy hardware sales. When will people begin to understand this? OP's post is the embodiment of the predicament Nintendo is in right now, and they don't seem to have any desire to address it.
 
Mario 64 is by itself the most radical change to a formula there can be. This is just an example of their biggest licence being totally rethought.
 
im praying Nintendo stays Nintendo. in 30 years when i am buying games for my glassless-3D VR holodeck with my social security money, i hope there is a Mario game on the market. i want to step in and live inside of those crazy abstract psychedelic wonderlands they make.

we can count on there being dark fantasy games from now until the end of time but the twisted whimsy of Nintendo is something truly special and unique and i hope it lasts.
 
Everyone can play Fallout 4, too. And it's not just adults that play Fallout 4.
Fallout 4 doesn't fall into a very family friendly zone though. While lots of kids do play FO4, The Witcher 3 and GTAV among other M rated games there is a market for T and E rated experiences.
 
Nintendo doesn't have enough games with strong connecting lore/storylines.

It's why it's so easy to just drop Nintendo at any point because with their sequels you don't ever really have something calling you back.
Speak for yourself. I return to Mario platformers time after time because I'm waiting to for the revelation that Peach is the mother of Bowser's kids.
 
Nintendo does tend to reuse the same ideas and just rely on the same series. There's no denying it.

They don't take enough risks, their consoles don't get enough support and they just aren't as interesting as the other two.
 
im praying Nintendo stays Nintendo. in 30 years when i am buying games for my glassless-3D VR holodeck with my social security money, i hope there is a Mario game on the market. i want to step in and live inside of those crazy abstract psychedelic wonderlands they make.

we can count on there being dark fantasy games from now until the end of time but the twisted whimsy of Nintendo is something truly special and unique and i hope it lasts.

I like the twisted whimsy of Mario, too. I'm not saying Nintendo should stop making Mario. All I suggested is Nintendo to diversify their offerings by creating a few more IPs that are atypical Nintendo games. Something with deeper narratives & more grounded visual style.
 
It's going to be a long couple of months on GAF if these stupid Nintendo threads keep getting made. I'm betting we'll get a "Miyamoto/Reggie should be fired" thread very soon.
 
Do you honestly, seriously think that narrative is what makes people buy video game sequels?

I didn't say this, I said that it's easier to drop Nintendo sequels because there is no lore/threaded narrative to call you back. Some people will buy/watch a movie, show, or game just to see what happens with the story... So it's definitely an aspect of what entices someone to purchase a sequel.

If you think that narrative isn't important then I wonder how far you venture from games featuring the character you named yourself after, who ironically enough has no lore attached to him.
 
I sometimes feel Nintendo is like the only major developer who ever gets called out for doing what they're best at doing.

I think the actual problem is that Nintendo is still seen as competing for userbase and mindshare with general purpose game consoles aimed at enthusiast players. Since they lost most third party support thanks to the N64, the onus has been on them to supply nearly all major titles for their own console, leading to extremely lopsided comparisons between Nintendo's first party output and the entire rest of the game industry combined, on other consoles. Nintendo cannot be Ubisoft, Bethesda, Activision, EA, WB, Rockstar, and more at the same time and satisfy people who want games of the sort all those companies make in one place.

Could not agree more!
 
The premise in the OP between the lines isn't bad (e.g. I agree it wouldn't kill Nintendo to be more diverse in some areas - opening more western studios would be a start to make up for Retro tending to take their time on projects and mostly working with premade IPs), but this is seriously one of the worst thread titles I've seen in a long time.
 
Nintendo doesn't have to fundamentally change their design philosophy, but new IPs would be nice. Splatoon was a nice departure, but outside of that, they don't have much else that stirs excitement.

Nothing would get more excited if Nintendo came out and showcased an entirely new IP on the scale of new entry of Zelda.

Didn't they already do this with Xenoblade? They're massive games, even by the normal open world standards on both sides of the Pacific.
 
I agree with the OP. This probably even has less to do with incorporating more narrative elements in games and rather just overall being less predictable. The Wii U really put the spotlight on this as Nintendo was left to fill the hole that 3rd Parties created.

I'm not excited about the NX if we're going to get the same merry-go-round franchises of Mario, Zelda, Smash, Kart and DK. Even if the games themselves don't go to the levels of The Witcher or other games narrative wise, it's imperative that Nintendo keep their game library broad/diverse so that many of us don't feel like we're playing the same games from 3 decades ago.
 
Same names yeah, same games hell no. Plus Splatoon is the best new IP this generation IMO.
 
No thanks, I don't want Nintendo to adapt or change, keep Nintendo pure.





Actually I'd be cool with Nintendo trying to appeal to a wider audience again. So that might include games that don't appeal to dudes with anime body pillows.
 
What you're doing is called reductio ad absurdum ("reduction to absurdity") and by that rule absolutely everything can be made to look like the same stuff over and over again if you completely ignore its unique properties. For example:

Capcom has been making the same Street Fighter since the '80s: guys and girls punching each other and throwing fireballs. I'm a fighting game fan, don't get me wrong, but I just can't see myself interested when depleting my opponent's lifebar isn't cutting it for me anymore.
This is the second time I've seen reductio ad absurdum painted in such a negative light here recently. It's not meant to be a hack job (of course, sometimes it is :p) but rather a revelation of the strange results some propositions held together produce, and therefore a reason to rethink adherence to some of the propositions or to bite the bullet.

...

As to the OP, I'd say Nintendo has "deep" gameplay, at least at times. I don't think being more narratively adult goes hand in hand with that by necessity. I also think Nintendo is not, generally, that arcade-y. They are rather very Nintendo-y and very much wedded to their own school of console game design. Sega, Capcom, Namco...these are the companies that brought the arcade to your home.

Idk. Personally I very much enjoy what Nintendo is today, but yes they are not in step with a view of gaming where narrative focus is the cutting edge.
 
I'm all for more narrative driven games, but I also don't think that all games need to be narrative driven, especially if they never were in the past. It always feels forced and you run the risk of going so far out of line with how people imagined a character, Other M being the best example of this.

Honestly, if you look at Nintendo's output on the Wii U, the lack of focus on larger, narrative driven games is most likely due to the lack of resources and knowledge of how to design for HD and this level of graphical fidelity. Their games are "smaller" because otherwise they would take forever to make, which is funny because their games are already taking longer to make.
 
I sometimes feel Nintendo is like the only major developer who ever gets called out for doing what they're best at doing.

I think the actual problem is that Nintendo is still seen as competing for userbase and mindshare with general purpose game consoles aimed at enthusiast players. Since they lost most third party support thanks to the N64, the onus has been on them to supply nearly all major titles for their own console, leading to extremely lopsided comparisons between Nintendo's first party output and the entire rest of the game industry combined, on other consoles. Nintendo cannot be Ubisoft, Bethesda, Activision, EA, WB, Rockstar, and more at the same time and satisfy people who want games of the sort all those companies make in one place.

Yet because they lost that third party support and expect to sell a console to the general user base, those criticisms as impossible as they are in a realistic sense, are justified by that reason alone.

It isn't unreasonable to expect more new IP output from Nintendo going forward with the recent success of Splatoon and the rumor of the new Retro Studio IP.
 
I didn't say this, I said that it's easier to drop Nintendo sequels because there is no lore/threaded narrative to call you back. Some people will buy/watch a movie, show, or game just to see what happens with the story... So it's definitely an aspect of what entices someone to purchase a sequel.

If you think that narrative isn't important then I wonder how far you venture from games featuring the character you named yourself after, who ironically enough has no lore attached to him.

The only genre I can think of in which people would buy a sequel to know the story is RPGs, and even then several of the most successful RPG franchises have little to no connection between each entry.
People buy the next entry in the franchise because the first one was fun, first of all. Video game writing is far from fabulous so story isn't a big deal for most people as far as shooters, action-adventure games, etc. go.

Narrative, outside of RPGs, only has one point, and that is to give a goal to the player as well as more immersion, all for the sake of fun. Video games are not movies.
 
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