Topic: Complete honestly...is Nintendo washed up?

Sure they've helped pave gaming over the years, but are they really contributing anything new and innovative nowadays? It seems like all they care about is continuing existent series instead of making new ones. Seriously they're making a new series in Splatoon and...what else? Heck even that started as a Mario game. Is Nintendo running out of ideas, in all honesty, do you think their still moving forward or relying on past success with some tweaks? Not saying an existent series can't be something fresh, look at Mario 64 and Ocerina of Time, but as the saying goes "what have you done for me lately?"

im tired of these threads and you need to do more research.

10/10 would read again

On-topic: What ? Have you seen the ENTIRE industry ? its not only Nintendo (and im sure they are the ones with the least problems when it comes to innovation), but the industry as a whole, Destiny was called a "revolution" and everyone believe it, it end up being a typical (albeit good) shooter.

"Sure they've helped pave gaming over the years, but are they really contributing anything new and innovative nowadays?"

By this logic, everyone is "washed up"

I'm not saying it's just Nintendo, innovation is low in today's industry, but is Nintendo really any better?

This thread will end so well...

Just give it time, not just Nintendo, this whole generation. Give it time and you'll change your tune. I just remain observant.

There are as bad as anybody when it comes to only doing sequels that are almost always exactly the same as the last entry. Once Sega was gone they stopped bothering.

Occulus Rift is interesting and fun. (But owned by Facebook).

Why do you post all these threads? And why do you post them to the Wii U forum, when almost nothing is specific to the Wii U?

Not really. They've been too focused on nostalgia the past few years, definitely, but they can still make some of the most compelling and fun gaming experiences out there and 3DS is straight up an anomaly on what the pathetic business-minded parts of the industry thinks the gaming industry is like now (read: mobile or AAA or you will fail), even though it simultanously on average has the least creative Nintendo sequels on any Nintendo platform ever (unless you include the remake focused GBA).

But when they do try something creative and don't just make lolWiiPlay, they're still pretty great. Splatoon is a multiplayer shooter that looks super new and creative and charming, which is a huge accomplishment onto itself. And if it was a Mario game, hey, it would actually be an entirely new Mario game at least! And when they actually want to, they are one of the only people thinking of new game ideas using that Wii U gamepad, and Ubisoft has actively said it has influenced their design of other games. So the console that's usually not doing super well influenced Ubisoft, that has to mean something.

And last year they released 2 of the most deserving to exist sequels in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Pikmin 3. Two games that largely use the same gameplay mechanics as the past but feel like genuinely new experiences because they were designed differently.

Also, their new IPs like Wonderful 101 and Xenoblade Chronicles are very fresh takes on established genres. A dumb person will point out that they were made by different devs, but so are most Nintendo games, or most games with a publisher for that matter, so that's a pointless argument.

Or we could just compare their output to most other large gaming companies, which makes 3D World look like Portal in terms of innovation.

Pretty much.

Save yourself the effort next time and save this as a word document for the next thread exactly like this.

done

Folks I just want us to have a nice civil discussion on whether or not Nintendo is truly still innovation, or if there's still a lot of room for improvement in this regard. And also jariw it's because there's no general Nintendo section so I post it to their current home console's forum?

But since MGSV and DBX is a thing it honestly doesn't bother me right now how "washed up" the generation or Nintendo is.

Haha! Good joke xD

Then don't make thread titles that blatantly no one here is going to agree with that doesn't make any sense for anyone who plays games other than post-Galaxy Marios. Unless you want to work for Kotaku.

Now, Nintendo could do better. Nintendo could ALWAYS do better, but I understand that NSMBWii and Mario Kart Wii combined sold more than every Metroid and Pikmin and Mother game combined. But thankfully logic prevailed and they sabotaged their own high quality 3D World because of their focus on that success, while needing to give me a free HD Wind Waker to convince me to buy the partially excellent Mario Kart 8 after 7 was so bland and boring, and Nintendo learning from these mistakes and simultaneously getting more good indie stuff lead to it consistently beating the console that last year was A-OK with ****ing with consumers. Can't see how much of that is because of all this stuff, and how much of it is lucky coincidence, but Nintendo being better = doing better works for me regardless.

But I do agree they could always do better. I've already detailed how Nintendo should work with 3rd parties for one but also, stop having month long gaps guys! It just makes Nintendo look bad, and I get that waiting until even more people to own the console means more people might buy 3rd party games, but they needed something more both before and after Mario Kart. It's just silly they let that happen, even if it's arguably partially unfair to them.

tbh, a large part of why Nintendo still feels creative even when they don't focus on new IPs, is because half of their IPs are games that don't play like many other games. Zelda-likes aren't that common, Metroidvanias usually don't straight up play like Metroid (and nothing plays like the 3D Metroids), Wipeout is F-Zero's only competition, no major company is making a 3D shoot em up like Star Fox, Pikmin is its own thing and there aren't many games that play similarly, Xenoblade is its own thing, Warioware is its own thing. So the problem might be them not focusing on their games that are rare enough that they don't need to make super innovative sequels perhaps. A new Metroid Prime that was super similar to another Metroid Prime would feel more fresh than even a semi-creative FPS, because FPS is everywhere and Metroid Prime is entirely its own thing.

Does the average gamer want innovation? If so COD, AC, FIFA, Madden, Mario Kart, and Lego games won't sell another copy. Nintendo game us the biggest innovation in gaming for 20 years with the Wiimote, and then tried to innovate with the Gamepad even if it's not been well received. To pick up on a point in another reply, The Occulus Rift may have praise gushed at it by techheads and 'core gamers', but it's generally unknown by the general public, and it's yet to be proven it can sell at £300-£600 to the masses. Does it give you a headache? Is it heavy? Can anyone use it for long periods without fatigue? Are you going to look a Wally with your family taking the mickey out of you? The Rift doesn't seem in a position to entice all core gamers, let alone cross over into the mainstream. You could even argue beyond the core game fan, will the Xb1 or PS4 sell to the casual gamer? Are they going to sell 100m like last gen with just M rated games? Early numbers would suggest console gamers are buying but will they reach beyond that?

Recently I played Skyward Sword through, and the boss battles, mechanics, and even key moments in the story/layout of the game truly surprised me (the bit near the end when something happened and I couldn't believe I hadn't spotted how perfectly it fitted). It was a truly inspiring experience in gaming. It's unlikely were going to get 'a new genre' of game that often (let alone from Nintendo), but there are little touches that still excite me in what can be done, and Nintendo are king of this. The truth is Nintendo is the fresh strawberry to Sony's Dairy Milk and Microsoft's Galaxy- it provides a different flavour, and perhaps an antidote. Why were people raving about Nintendo's E3 conference- because it offered an alternative to the shooter/sandbox/sports machine.

Can Nintendo sell as many consoles as the PS4? In all likelihood no. Can it continue to make unique experiences and wow it's fans, and carve out a niche? Of course.

If you want a good discussion, why not try posting to the "General Discussion" area and get the input from players outside the Wii U? There are lots of similar threads there.
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/general_discussion

I don't think there's much less to innovate, or at least hardware wise. Once we cross into VR, what else is there? There's very little left that couldn't be done (probably mind control a la Emotiv Insight and that's it), at that point the only thing left to innovate is new IPs and services.