During a recent Investors Q&A session, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has discussed his feelings on the negative reaction to the Wii Vitality Sensor, outlining that it’s a good sign, contrary to popular belief.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking.”
He goes on to say that “if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.”
Nintendo gets a lot of hate for doing just this, and I can’t help but feel it’s entirely undeserved. In the second statement especially, Iwata brings up a fantastic point: Nintendo is doing something groundbreaking that reaches many more people than video game have ever done in the past. They’re thinking outside the box and delivering in areas that other game developers haven’t even begun to think about yet, and they’re doing all of this while still delivering their core franchises to the gamers that have been with them for so long. I can’t think of any other company that has done that, nor of any other company that could.
– You can customize the layout of the Safari Zone and send it to your friends to use, such as changing where certain Pokemon appear among other things.
– The bug catching contest will only happen on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, just like the original games.
– Apricorns can be mixed into drinks that increase your Pokemon’s Pokethlon stats. This is probably the replacement for Poffins and Pokeblocks.
– To make this “Apricorn Juice”, mix the various apricorns into an “Apricorn Shaker” and walk around. Eventually the juice will be made and usable.
– The scans mention a new “Frontier Front”, though it doesn’t go into to detail about it.
– Wi-Fi event in which you can unlock the “Yellow Forest” route on the Pokewalker to capture Pikachu is discussed.
– It is unknown if Pikachu will have any special abilities via this Wi-fi event, but artwork may suggest it will be a flying Pikachu.
– Three new Pokethlon events are revealed: Break Block, Change Relay, and Push Circle. Break Block seems to involve karate chopping brick blocks, Change Relay is another race but with only one of your Pokemon, and Push Circle seems to be another ring match in which you knock Pokemon out of a ring.
– The scan reaffirms that Kyogre can only be caught in HeartGold, while Groudon can only be caught in SoulSilver.
I must say, as time goes on I’m just more and more impressed with this game. At first I wasn’t convinced at all, but more and more information keeps arising and now I’m closer to purchasing it then ever. Just give me the ability to battle random people online and I’ll be set…
Drill Sergeant Mindstrong (WiiWare) Hmmm…
Eduardo the Samurai Toaster (WiiWare) – Hmmm…
Family Mini Golf (WiiWare) – Hmmm…
Fish ‘Em All (WiiWare) – Grumble Grumble
Let’s Catch (WiiWare) – Hmmm…
NEVES Plus (WiiWare) – Recommended
Rainbow Island: Towering Adventure! (WiiWare) – Hmmm…
Reel Fishing Challenge (WiiWare) – Grumble Grumble
Swords & Soldiers (WiiWare) – Recommended
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (VC) – Hmmm…
Water Warfare (WiiWare) – Recommended
Silver Star Reversi (WiiWare) – Recommended
Space Harrier (VC) – Recommended
Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf (VC) – Hmmm…
SimEarth: The Living Planet (VC) – Hmmm…
Art Style: Boxlife (DSiWare) – Recommended
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSiWare) – Recommended
Sudoku Master (DSiWare) – Recommended
Okay, the Wii Vitality Sensor could be cool I’ll admit, but Nintendo’s newest patent seems even more… obscure. Take a look:
It seems to be some sort of horseback riding peripheral (or any other animal you could think of to ride) and it works by inserting the wiimote into the device and using the nunchuck to control on screen characters. At the moment I’m not sure what to think, so I’ll ask you guys. Does the device have potential?
Videos:
Wii:
–Madden NFL 10 – Superbowl Sizzle Video
–Guitar Hero 5 – Reveal Video
–The Beatles: Rock Band Video 2
–Daisy Fuentes Pilates Launch Video
–Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll – Teaser
–Cursed Mountain – BTS – The Himalyayas
–Muramasa: The Demon Blade – Swordplay
–Dead Space Extraction – Story Video
–Tony Hawk: RIDE – 1st Ride Video
DS:
–Imagine Soccer Captain Info Video
WiiWare:
–Rock N’ Roll Climber Info Video
–NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits Info Video
Virtual Console:
–Super Star Wars Game Play Video
Other:
–Digest Video
DS Demos: (Expire 08/16)
–Mega Man Star Force 3
–Ant Nation
–MySims Racing
–Classic Word Games
–Personal Trainer: Cooking Mac & Cheese Demo
Cursed Mountain – Singleplayer: 82 (Controls: 78 | Graphics: 84 | Sound: 86)
+ absolutely no load-times during a chapter
+ high quality (german) localization
+ tight atmosphere
– “slow” pacing, sluggish controls
Rygar – The Battle of Argus Singleplayer: 58 (Controls: 68 | Graphics: 64 | Sound: 71)
+ nice weapon concept
– ancient tech
– little variety
– new packaging, old content
Dragon Quest IX – Multiplayer: 90 | Singleplayer: 90 (Controls: 88 | Graphics: 90 | Sound: 89)
+ beautiful anime-graphics
+ no random battles
+ interesting story
– user-created characters too interchangable
MOON – Singleplayer: 78 (Controls: 79 | Graphics: 89 | Sound: 82)
bottom line: sci-fi advanture with future-proof visuals, oldschool gameplay and just the right atmosphere
Wii Sports Resort – Multiplayer: 86 | Singleplayer: 68 (Controls: 68 | Graphics: 63 | Sound: 70)
+ easy to pick up, yet still some depth in gameplay
+ stamps are motivating
+ technically simplistic but fitting style
– only one game supports 4 players simultaneously
A recent post on a popular gaming forum has caused a bit of controversy regarding Nintendo newest Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The post claims that a collector’s edition of the game will be released and that it will contain exclusive characters.
“Stopped by GameStop this morning and was told that they are offering a free upgrade to the collector’s edition of New Super Mario Bros Wii when you pre-order the game. I asked what was in the collector’s edition and all they knew was that there was supposed to be some additional characters. Hope someone finds this useful.”
I’m not quite sure what to believe right now. This may simply be a misinterpretation of the employee’s words (perhaps by “characters” he meant figurines?) or maybe there truly are additional playable characters in the game. More updates as they come in.
“General marketing wisdom says that customers need to be segmented. For product planning, the target audience needs to be identified and narrowed down… The fact of the matter is, [Shigeru] Miyamoto is the head of one R&D division, which can only launch a few titles each year. To maximise the result, we have decided to counter the common marketing wisdom and go anti-segmentation if everyone else is segmenting everything. This is easier said than done. It is a huge challenge to make a game that will please and be fun for both veteran gamers with the expected depth and novice gamers who say ‘I don’t get it’ but provide them with particular depth that can lead them to deeper points just as they become eager to play longer. Nintendo would like to tackle this enormous challenge.” – Satoru Iwata
This is one thing that I think Nintendo is doing extraordinarily well. If you look at Mario Galaxy, it was clearly a core title, yet it was accessible and easy to play. You can even date back to the days of the original Mario Bros. and see that (even though they seem to flaunt it more-so now) Nintendo has always been making titles that are both accessible and hardcore, which is something very few developers have achieved in the past.
