While Imperfect, Nintendo's Latest Direct Reminds us of the Company's Importance - Article
by Ben Burnham , posted on 16 November 2015 / 8,352 Views
It was as I sat watching Thursday’s Nintendo Direct - a presentation I hadn’t expected to catch live but one that I’d just happened to be home for - that I realized how important Nintendo is to the console industry. What brought about this realization wasn’t so much the announcements themselves, which for the most part were expected (until of course The Big One at the end). Rather it was because it hit me incredibly hard how different Nintendo’s games are from those that typically appear on rival platforms, and how this difference is so important.
Giving my reaction some thought afterwards, I have to say that I was somewhat surprised by it. I’d grown up as a Sega fan - one who had always found Nintendo and its systems to be distant second to the likes of the Genesis and the Dreamcast. After the Dreamcast’s death, however, and Sega’s exit from the hardware business, I could sense myself gravitating towards Nintendo; a company which, despite Microsoft’s entry into console gaming and Sony’s increasingly Western line-up, stuck to what it did best and continued to pump out unapologetically... well, Nintendo games.
I liked much of what I saw, even as I watched the Direct with fairly mixed overall feelings. I thought Nintendo had put on a good show with the potential to appeal to many of its fans, albeit a bit more on the 3DS side than on the Wii U one.
Granted, their showing for the Wii U wasn't horrible, though they had the unfortunate tendency to cut short the presentations of the likes of Twilight Princess HD and Xenoblade Chronicles X, giving them only the briefest of showings before (in Zelda’s case, along with a number of others) then cutting to a discussion about action figures.
But even as I watched footage of Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, a board game spin-off, with little interest in the game itself, I somehow instantly felt a sense of nostalgia and warmth as I stared at its wonderfully unique Nintendo art style and visuals.
I was surprised by how much I missed them.
Beginning with the Gamecube, I’d made it a point to always buy the latest Nintendo system on launch day. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the Wii, both as a strong point for Nintendo’s first party line-up and also for the smaller, indie, primarily Japanese games like No More Heroes and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The Wii U, despite a decent start, has become what I can only call a wasteland - a system that will be replaced fairly quickly with one that hopefully fixes many of its issues.
As a Wii U owner in the midst of a seemingly never-ending game drought, it became easy to forget why I love Nintendo systems, and why I love many of Nintendo's games so much. There’s just something so unique about them, both in terms of new IP, which the company will hopefully be pursuing more aggressively as a result of Splatoon’s success, and also in the ways that Nintendo manages to keep many of its traditional IP fresh without ignoring their roots.
Even if not all of its efforts work out, Nintendo's existence in the console market is something that I think the industry requires. There needs to be that different, that more colorful, that more platformer-based, that more charming Nintendo presence in the console race. And if nothing else, watching what I think was for the most part a successful Nintendo Direct, I was able to remember what it was like to see a thriving Nintendo platform.
That platform is, of course, the 3DS. It’s something that I hope will be repeated on the Nintendo NX when it launches (sooner rather than later, I'm sure). Nintendo’s definitely not perfect, but it's a giant figure with a different voice; one that stands out from the pack but is at the same time an essential part of 'The Big 3'.
It's my hope that, with the NX, Nintendo finally detaches itself from some of its more recent philosophies which have (in my view) held it back, including an over-reliance on weaker hardware, and finds a way to continue delivering the unique games that Nintendo fans love, but on hardware that we all want to own.
The Nintendo Direct ended with the surprising announcement that Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy VII fame would soon be a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. My hope is that this is an indication that Nintendo's next platform will finally break the current trend of their consoles missing out on the industry's biggest games, and that the NX will be one of the homes for the upcoming Final Fantasy VII remake. It would mean so much more for Nintendo's future in this industry and show how serious they are about it if this were to be the case.
As cool as the news was for Super Smash Bros. fans, I'm hopeful that it is perhaps a weathervane that will prove of much greater importance to their future than even Nintendo realizes.
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The best part of the last Nintendo Direct is the new Reggie meme ( bill, Bill, BILL, BIIIILL!! )
Nintendo needs to help themselves before we can help them.
nintendo is fine
Keep telling yourself that.
I still can't believe the Cloud announcement didn't get leaked. How on earth did they keep that quiet?
Probably because, if someone actually had tried to leak it, everyone would have consider it a fake.
Quiet didn't speak
He doesn't even have a release date. They made the announcement really early specifically to avoid a leak. Think back to Ryu and Roy, who were intended to be revealed the day of their release. They were leaked by Nintendo themselves patching the characters into the game a couple of days early by mistake. That can't happen if the patch isn't ready yet.
FFVII coming to the NX would be so symbolic and honestly poetic. That game symbolizes an industry wide 3rd party mass exudes from Nintendo platform. The remake returning to Nintendo generations later would be a fitting symbol for that return.
This was an excellent article, Ben.
I'm just waiting for Nintendo and Square to announce a full line of Final Fantasy amiibos. Every party character from every installment. My wallet is (NOT) ready.
Just gonna say, if Dragon Quest 11 and Final Fantasy 7 come out on the NX, I will be getting both of them on the NX instead of the PS4.
It is as simple as that. The NX doesn't even need to be more powerful than the PS4.
It only needs to be AS powerful, and people will get games on it because it will be their new and shiny console.
The WiiU may not have ALOT OF games.
But it's gother plenty to satisfy my lifestyle.
I work full time and am a father.
There's only so much time for games.
I mix in the occasional PS3 game, not due to boredom but because I like playing games like Fallout 3 and God of War.
But, there IS NO replacing the fun to be had with a Nintendo game.
The WiiU is great fun, hopefully a few million more people take the chance and experience it.
That Smash/Splatoon bundle will certainly help.
I felt the same way actually. Nintendo is the Disney of the gaming industry. For most of us it's our childhood. Their games transcend time in a way that few others do and we need them.
But what have you done for me lately? Not much - and that's coming from a die hard Nintendo fan. I also own a WiiU.
This direct was awesome. Ignoring everything on 3DS? I could not disagree with this guy more
SorafromKingdomheartsforSuperSmashBrothers
WTF??? Cloud in Super Smash Bros??? Seriously???
I still want Namco to make a full on Tekken style fioghting game based on Final Fantasy. It needs to be done lol.
I saw nothing of interest. I don't care about final fantasy, I don't care about Amiibos, and Xenoblade looks like a boring JRPG.
Give me a reason to bring my WiiU out of storage N!
We must be around the same age...I grew up the same way preferring SEGA over Nintendo until the Dreamcast died then decided to go with the GC and bought a Wii day one and WiiU. I will always own a Nintendo system now with the others fighting for my attn...which is currently with M$.
This direct was awesome. Ignoring everything on 3DS? I could not disagree with this guy more
I can't reply to your reply. So I'll do it here. I tried the game, it's really average, and that is the consensus for all previews I read. I don't think it will be a bad game, but everybody expected more from a new starfox. Also, I'm getting really tired of average Nintendo games on WiiU, with a few exceptions, all of them are lacking.
I was hoping that this direct would have made 2016 less pathetic on WiiU. Let's just that it failed hard.
Starfox still looks really average graphic and gameplay wise. Zelda is still really really far away, and the only new announcement is a lazy port that I wouldn't pay more than 20 bucks (but will cost 60)
So yeah, it sucked.
Wii U is awesome in 2016. Star Fox has been previewed fantastically. You are talking out of your ass.
Wii U is awesome in 2016. Star Fox has been previewed fantastically. You are talking out of your ass.
Please get back to reality. This direct showed that 3rd parties have withdrawn for Nintendo systems : even the Japanese direct had next to no new game, 2016 schedule is looking to be a huge Playstation list. You may like the Nintendo touch, but the economic environment only proves that it's increasingly less important to gamers.
Sure, this is true for Wii U and 3DS to some extent(excluding Square).What we are theorizing is if that support will be back to the NX, something that cant be announced until E3 when the NX officially is revealed.And we dont know if Nintendo will focus more on its games at E3, so it will take some time to determine if Nintendo will truly manage to get at least some support back.Exciting times indeed
That's what I though too, on 3DS in 2016 we are getting a lot of games that are already out in japan, but what is japan getting exactly?
It's quite normal that the WiiU is deserted when it comes to support, but the 3DS?
I mean there wasn't much first party support too.
How long are they going to keep things this way? I hope not too long, we need the NX in 2016
