Posts Tagged ‘Nintendo’

Yeah I wrote this a month ago. Sorry, work Gamescom got in the way (check Playdevil for my coverage), I’ll try and be better about organising my life in the future… try.

It was recently announced last week that the Nintendo 3DS was to undergo quite a sizable price cut (and indeed has since I wrote this originally). Here in the UK the reduction equates to nearly an eighty pound for anyone wanting to pick up the system, with prices plummeting from £220 to £140 RRP.

Prices are down everywhere, even the homeland.

It is neither an unprecedented move, nor one that should be particularly surprising with sales of the handheld dramatically failing to reach the heights Nintendo had projected. Many systems have undergone rapid unpredicted price cuts (if not as fast); it just seems like a particularly telling indicator of Nintendo’s mood in the case of the 3DS.

It begs the question of just what the company hoped for the 3D system with such high sales projections. Was the hope that Nintendogs and Cats could replicate the original’s past glories, could Nintendo really have been basing their financial forecasts on a fickle casual consumer? Or did they simply feel that the DS brand name would drive sales even with a considerably more expensive system, continuing the upgrade path established the ‘DS Lite’, ‘DSi’ and ‘DSiXL’ models?

It is almost charming to consider that this giant of gaming could be so totally blind to markets outside of the bubble they have been enjoying to see how things have changed. I myself have often thought Nintendo were out of touch with gaming trends outside of their homeland. Yet as I look at it now it would be naïve to believe that they really felt themselves so untouchable that they based the entire business model for 3DS on this premise.

Poor guy, I am sure he will survive.

I suspect Nintendo were happy to experiment with price at a time no new competition loomed. 3DS is not a cheap piece of kit, or at least it wasn’t before it went in to mass production. While the markets have their separations, utility devices such as smart phones’ slow advance into the game market could not have been overlooked (despite Iwata’s recent protestations that these markets do not overlap, an insistence made more for investors than for gamers). With this and the threat of the Playstation Vita around the corner, I suspect Nintendo wanted to test the water. They could see the flow of the tide and see just how secure their position was, while cynically getting what they could while they could.

This recent price cut indicates that maybe their worse fear was realised and ‘Operation grab what you can’ has been implemented. With the huge reduction of 3DS price even prompting Iwata to write a sincere letter of apology to loyal fans and take a 50% pay cut (don’t feel bad I am sure he has enough to survive), it does look like a desperate move by Nintendo. Maybe though it was a cut that was always on the card, just one that had to be made faster and deeper than was had hoped.

One game certain to be good, more 3DS sales mean more chance of games from developers other than Nintendo.

Personally I do not mind the cut. I picked up the 3DS at launch for just £190, and these deals and better persisted up until the official cut. Even if I were upset about the price drop the ‘Nintendo Ambassador’ program is more than enough compensation. After all these early adopting of the system inevitably like Nintendo, and while the games being offered on the program are no doubt familiar to fans, they are among the best titles the company has created that either won’t be available (or would cost significantly more) if purchased through the 3DS store.

Maybe it is my skewed view of the value of old Nintendo titles coming from Japan where such titles are still available and have retained their value. Perhaps I am simply and unwitting fan boy willing to forgive Nintendo anything. Whatever the reason the result is the same, and that is that Nintendo is just trying to make profit and I don’t feel the way they are going about it is a disservice to fans, nor unfair business. The tech in the 3DS may not be the most advanced, but the companies desire to make a profit on every unit makes absolute sense. If this cut means that they will lose money on each unit then I just hope the gamble works and sales pick up, because that will be the only way to ensure the system gets the software support I was banking on when I bought it.

Unlike my usual failure to live up to my promises of DoFuss content this time I have a legitimate reason for recent inability to produce, that is that I have a job. As of last week I have been pounding the streets to raise money for charity, not out of some sense of altruism but from a need for cash. The downside to this arrangement (for me) is that it is 100% commission based with means for the fifty-two hours I worked last week I earned a total of £17.60. With a friend visiting on top of this I had little time to study for my design course, or edit my articles.

Zelda, a game I know I can be confident in my opinion of.

That said I have still been writing (even if most of my work was done on the train) and my course has had to take a quick hiatus anyway, while they renegotiate the licence for the course software (currently I am half way through a game with no way to make things explode). So I took Sunday out to edit some articles and, hopefully, have a good chuck of content ready to go up over the next week. Fingers crossed.

Proving even more of a challenge in this equation is keeping up with my writing for other sites, but I do at least have a backlog to keep me going until I get to grips with my new employed status. The timeliest posting of one of these reserve reviews has been that of the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

When rating a game I have to check my opinion carefully and match it to the site it will appear on's scale.

Following on from my opinion piece here on DoFuss, the review’s posting could not have been planned better. It obviously echoes the piece here, and adds review scores that I feel truly confident about. My usual lack of confidence in my scores does not come from uncertainty in myself, instead they stem from the scale I find myself rating on.

It is a truth that I have become depressingly aware of on a number of sites I have written for, sometime the PR gods have to be sated. This is not the case on every site, but on some fan driven sites that thrive on hand outs, it can be an issue. It creates a false economy, games have to exist on a scale between 6-10 and remarkably few manage to muster anything above 9. There is nothing wrong with this in some respects, it’s a scale after all… and one I guess most gamers are aware half exists, but it relies on our audience knowing the specific metric of the site, and one which is wasteful of the accuracy that could be present in the scale.

To be fair it is rare that an editor has changed a score on my behalf. Knowing the scale most publications work to I adopted a similar scale (not my own crazy idea that 5 is an ‘average’ title). When ratings have been changed however it throws my scale in to question. Were the games I only gave a 7.5 really worth an 8 if the 5 I gave became a 6? There is no answer to this in truth, but I do know that I have no doubt in my score for Ocarina of Time because once I get over 9, things get a lot more certain.

I admit I had my worries going revisiting such an iconic moment of my past. While it doesn’t sit as my favourite Zelda title The Ocarina of Time was none the less hugely significant to me. It opened up new opportunities of what the new third dimension of gaming could do and, perhaps more importantly, it was a magical adventure. Now, as a jaded adult, I feared that a rehash of the classic title would lose what made it so special.

How could a fifteen year old game remain relevant today?

Truthfully part of me hoped that playing The Ocarina of Time would inspire bile in me, that it would draw from me some hateful vitriol of how Nintendo lazily rehash their old titles, and how this one didn’t even have the decency to pretend to be a new game. I wanted my years of tolerance at re-buying the Kyoto based giant’s classic titles to finally reach breaking point, to snap with an amusing display of anger that this was a shameless cash in on the nostalgia of the weak willed. And I could, I could find all the reasons here to justify the rant, to completely tear this remake asunder but I don’t want to, because it is still wonderful.

It is just the right mix of old and new. Updates to the game’s visuals are clear for anyone to see, and to be clear the system’s 3D capability is the least of these improvements. Graphically the game manages to look almost exactly as I remember it, which is to say it manages the truly remarkable trick of looking like something that never existed. Years have coloured my memories, making the game seem far more than it ever was. I project my emotions on to the characters, stretch and morph their blank faces in my mind in to something that was never there, breathing more life in to them than the N64 ever could. But on the 3DS it exists, the expression and emotions that were in my head (along with details to the environment) bloom in to life, erasing the possible disappointment of reality clashing with memory.

Every second felt as fresh as the first time I experienced it.

Improvements to the controls and the navigation are also present, adding just enough convenience to the old system of constantly switching inventory items to prevent menu navigation feeling clunky. Originally the Zelda The Ocarina of Time achieved a lot with its control, camera and lock-on systems. It is testament to the quality of the games original design that still the camera controls still hold up well and that many titles continue to crib from the games lock-on. If there were to have been any Achilles heel it would be the menu navigation, due to the many advances that have been made in the last fifteen years by so many other titles. Ocarina of Time manages to dodge this issue though by making use of 3DS’s second screen. By adding bindable ‘soft buttons’ to the lower screen short cuts can be created allowing fast access to more items, alleviating limitations that may have existed and allowing the game a contemporary (if not cutting edge) feel.

It was the music that really touched me and caused the memories and emotions to come rushing back.

But it is not really what has improved that plucked at my heartstrings (or I more accurate blew through my heart’s holes) it was the music. My lack of musical aptitude is well noted within the contents of DoFuss, I couldn’t even tell you if changes have been made to Ocarina’s audio, what I do know is that it is how I remember it. Heart warming, evocative and beautiful, just hearing the Bolero of Fire sent me back to the first time I heard it and to the feeling of excitement and joy it inspired. Sound is primitive, instinctive, and in this case perfect.

It is hard for me not to lavish praise and love on Zelda The Ocarina of Time 3DS. It isn’t because of its history or it’s importance to gaming, but because every second I play this game, even now at thirty-one years old, feels as incredible as when I played it at sixteen years old.

Welcome to number three in my on going review of 2010. It is not coverage of the best games, or the worst, but instead a look at those titles that became emotional touchstone for me over what was a difficult year. This time it is New Super Mario Bros, and it focuses a little more on the memories around the game than the game itself.

New Super Mario Bros holds a particularly conflicted place for me in my memories of 2010. After the usual blanket TV ad campaign (that Nintendo subjects Japanese audiences to) interest was high. While it released in 2009 limited funds in my UK account meant I was forced to wait some time before I was able to get my hands on a compatible copy.

During this wait I was constantly being asked by my girlfriend of the time when I was getting it. This was a woman who barely tolerated my gaming (maybe with good reason as I poured hours into it and writing) but here was a game she wanted to play, and we could play together.

Instantly recognizable, there is no barrier to entry for New Super Mario Bros.

On its arrival at my door she was suddenly keen to share my hobby. Everyday after this her first question upon arriving home from work was if we could play. Sometimes I even found myself reticent about playing due to commitments to cover other titles, but I always tried to make time.

We would laugh and enjoy hours with it each evening. At first I would play sloppily, ensuring she did not feel out classed. She quickly improved however and within a few days it was no longer necessary for me to handicap myself as she was happily bouncing her way through levels. Frequently it was her completing a stage as I died in my frequently unthinking haste, and while I would pick her up and throw her Luigi around in jest to show off my superiority she was in truth probably my equal at the game. Even if she never believed me when I told her.

It is the beauty of Mario that at this point though, especially in 2D, everyone of a certain age is almost certain to have had exposure to it or one of its derivatives.  With just a few additional, well-demonstrated controls the eight directions of the control pad and two buttons are enough to make it through each of the games archetypal levels.

I had only played the game with her, at her request. I never indulged in solo player sessions, preferring instead to keep it for us.

It became a game for the two of us, playing it alone just didn't feel right.

But my memories of it are bittersweet. While I look back on it fondly it marked perhaps the best of my final days with her, and indeed overlapped painfully with our break up. Key among my negative recollections is a day we had a visitor. A mutual friend from a local karaoke bar, and while I cooked my girlfriend entertained.

Most people may not appreciate the inherent difficulties of an intercultural relationship. Touchstones are sometimes hard to find. It isn’t that there aren’t any connections, but when meeting new people of their or your own culture there often seems to be an ease that can’t help but make the other partner feel jealous.

So it was this day. As I cooked the two of them sat playing Mario and laughing. I was already worried about them, knowing there was some attraction between them, but their enjoyment of each other’s company really started to grate on me as I worked. Their ease in conversation was made all the worse by the time they had been spending together at the bar he worked at, and the struggles we were both silently starting to feel to make our relationship work. And as I worked in the kitchen the jaunty Mario tunes provided a theme tune for my anger.

I could elaborate at length ongoing problems of my relationship; suffice to say that my feelings that day were symptomatic of a larger issue that plagued my ex and me. It crystallised the fact that it would not work, that we were not happy for reasons neither of us could combat, however much we wanted to.

Now, without her to play with, Mario looks lonely by himself on screen. And I suppose I feel the same way.

That day sealed the fate of my relationship, it still hurts and is inseparably intertwined with New Super Mario Bros. Now playing it I feel only melancholy where there should be joy. Each jump deadens me a little inside, and it is impossible to continue, save file will forever sit at world six. In short, what was supposed to be a game designed to bring people together did so until I found my person gone, replaced by a horrible loneliness.

Logically I should sell it, remove it from my life, but I cannot. Even with all of the loneliness and pain it reminds me of, it still has memories of the good times. Somewhere in all the hurt having it on my shelf is a comfort, and while playing it remains beyond me, I do still it and the times we spent jumping and laughing together.