Topic: Need to vent some steam.

So. Anyone else thinks that the innovations of Nintendo lately slow down and that they are stumbling over their own legs quite a bit lately? Don't flame me I don't want to start a fight, I just wonder what's going on. Yes games are coming, took long enough though but Im wondering if there is really so much new to be enjoyed.

Let me explain.

I got myself a PS3 slim (never had any sony product) just because I could get it cheap and my xbox 360 is collecting dust and I wanted to see whats the Fuzz about the exclusives of Sony. Since I don't want to discriminate any platform but rather go where I find games to play this was a reasonable thing to do for me.
After playing Last of Us, Uncharted and ModNation Racers it put my view on Nintendo into a slightly different perspective.

Namely Modnation Racers. I never heard of that game but since I like funracers and I am big Mario Kart fan I gave it a try. What the hell? User generated content, editable karts and mods (the racers themselves), track editor, sharing station, online tournaments, ranking and rating system for racers and their creations, 2 player splitscreen with the option to go online together, host games, join games, 4 player splitscreen locally all with your custom number of AI racers or human opponents. What the hell? I was blown away and I am enjoying that 15 Euro steal together with my friends. I never had that much fun in front of any console since Mario Kart 64. So it left me wondering, there is this little gem that is BRIMMING with content and creativity, heck people are recreating Mario characters, Karts and tracks in that game, so what exactly is Nintendo doing new?

I mean there is not too much info on the new Mario Kart yet, but so far it looks like the only big thing is that antigravity thing, driving upside down. Wow. Time will tell if there is more to it and if they can create a healthy online community (Mario Kart 7 on 3DS was a good start though) and add features that are long overdue for the franchise (in my opinion) like a track editor or the ability to paint and further customize your karts.

So... will we ever see a good use for the gamepad except a few minigames in Nintendoland? Where is that asymmetric gameplay? Sure you can place blocks in New Super Mario Bros U and do a few other "convenience" things in other games but it left me wondering if Nintendo wouldn't have been better off building a more traditional console with more power, less gimick (i.e. no gamepad) and focus on innovating within their games.

I mean I love my Zelda like the next guy, really do and I can't wait for that Link between Worlds game on my 3DS. But really. turning into a drawing on the wall thats the new innovative thing? What about an online-enabled trading post where you can trade items with other players? Or some sort of COOP (maybe something gets announced, doubt it though).

All in all I guess I want to say that with the PC platform being home to the most Indies and becoming more and more user-friendly thanks to Steam and the XBox One (meh, hate it though) and the PS4 upping their game and trying new things left and right (mainly in multiplayer/community features) I wonder if Nintendo can keep pace or even put something new to the table, because I want them to succeed, I want those games and I want Nintendo to be successful but all I get lately is Iwata apologizing. Lets hope for the best and tell me how you feel about this!

Thanks.

Overall, I agree with you.. Nintendo still makes great games, but they just don't seem as innovative anymore..

GENERALLY with all console manufacturers Im thinking like: WHY trying to push something down our throat? Move? Kinect? That gamepad? Heck the PC is the most open platform for all kinds of accesoires and gimicks and still people stick with their mice, keyboards, joysticks and gamepads (depending on what kind of game they are playing). I truly think all a good console needs is peripheral support similar to PS3, where all those logitech joysticks and racing wheels work with your console, now give us the option to play our shooters with mouse and keyboard OR with joypad together with a filter for multiplayer (so only keyboard/mouse vs keyboard/mouse and joypad vs joypad) and then work your booty off to get new game modes, brand new ideas and great adventures onto our consoles.

You can only go so far before ideas start running dry I'm just sick of people complaining......

Bold statements will have bold statements to counter it. Unless your statement is infallible.

What do you mean by push something down your throat? Of course they're doing that, they want to sell you their product. Not to mention, you're not entitled, nor is it your duty to buy each Nintendo product (or otherwise) that comes out. If you want to stick to pc, stick to pc. If you like the gamepad, and think the Wii U's integrated use of it is a good buy then buy the Wii U. If you hate the gamepad but there's great exclusives on the Wii U, then buy the Wii U. No one's forcing you to buy anything.

Are Nintendo's games less innovative nowadays?

Yes.

Completely not innovative?

No.

What's the reason for this?

There was no definitive genre before Nintendo popped in. Before they came, most games on the Atari had no definitive complex objective.

Can and do they still make innovative titles?

They still do make innovative titles like Game & Wario and such. Mario Kart's gameplay was and still is technically innovative and only continues to add innovative concepts to it. But when the games gets released, the innovation not as groundbreaking as before. I digress, many of the examples such as the one for Link between worlds was pretty weak. Adding content that's already inside other games isn't by definition innovative. Back to the answer, of course they can still make innovative proucts, they have the ability.

(I may get some regrets from this...)
Personally, I think putting in more power in expense of Gamepad would be a bad idea. I think that because the WiiU slowly getting out the gate, that third-parties want the sales to be up to payoff levels. Triple A devs hasn't been freeform as they were back-then. bigger projects=bigger money, bigger money=bigger payoff. WiiU's not at that payoff level just yet.... Besides, this thing's already supporting Unreal engine 4 and (maybe if E.A gets their acts together because if 360 and PS3 can support this engine, why not WiiU,) Frostbite 3. Check out that first project CARS trailer.
Nintendo's WiiU hasn't been out for a full year yet. Nintendo said themselves that they're still experimenting on that thing. Heh, heh that why we have the gamepad. Remember it's not just Nintendo going on this gamepad thing on the Wiiu.
I'm not say to rejoin the WiiU or something, if you're happy with your system of choice, them I'm happy (as long as people don't go overfanboyish-troll mode and say this system sucks, anyone who sticks with this system is an idiot kind of thing). I'm saying that there can be too much to take expecting everything to come out. It all takes baby steps. There's bigger risks, returns, and time to go with now in this generation of gaming. But who knows? Nintendo may just surprise us.....
(oh, and thanks.)

There's both "Need to vent some steam" and "Need to get something off my chest" in the featured in the topics. I think they're pretty much the same

I'd just like to give you a little bit of advice Scollurio:

If you really don't wan't to start a fight, don't say "I don't want to start a fight". I can't speak for anyone else, but personally as someone who has some thing's that he strongly believes in and is willing to fight for; when I hear the words "I don't want to start a fight" I perceive it as " I don't really believe very strongly about what I'm going to mention, and know my views are very flawed, but I'm still going to bring them up without any intention of yielding to others' thoughts/suggestions despite my lack of true dedication to what I'm stating, since I'm too lazy to make an attempt at comprehending another person's viewpoint" Making that statement (to someone like me anyway), is pretty much putting a "kick me" sign on yourself and meaning it, since seeing a lack of willingness to defends one's thoughts irks me quite a bit, as it makes me believe there aren't many passionate people in this world. The idea that people aren't passionate about things can make me want to lash out of them if they seem unenthusiastic about something I find important, as a lack of concern for important things is one of the reasons many serious problems, like currently-incurable diseases, are still around. If you really don't want to start a fight you probably should simply not bring up anything the people you're addressing aren't going to agree with, as any single thing, no matter how trivial some people may find it, is pretty much guaranteed to be significant enough in at least one person's life to be considered worth fighting about .

I feel the same way.

Wow its amazing how hard it is these days to have a conversation about everyone's different viewpoint on a given situation without getting attacked, judged or completely ridiculed. It's impossible to voice anything than "yay I'm excited for XY" without stepping on everyone's toes.

You know what, I play on basically every system I can find worthwhile games on, no fanboyism, no trolling. Period. I just want Nintendo to be successful ecause right now they are performing sub par. Still they are the most sympathic of those companies out there.

Sorry but what? They are still experimenting with their own hardware? Well that's nice but complete crap. One would think if you bring out a product featuring a special game pad you already have a clue what to do with it. I don't have the impression anyone at Nintendo ever said "wow can you imagine how awesome this new Mario kart of ours would be if we had a touch pad to do XY with?". No it appears to me that Nintendo have serious trouble justifying their own idea and tats bothering me.

The most obvious things are not here! Strategy games? All those iOS casual games? Good virtual console? Etc...
We get told to wait and accept apologies, fine but what if Mario kart, Mario land and pikmin 3 have landed, delivered fun hours in the double digits and otherwise basically have been the same yet pretty and refined games we already played? Okay so what about mid through next year? Another drought of games?

All I wanted to have is a discussion about your ideas what Nintendo could so better or what YOU would make differently but obviously some people just make like Nintendo and while having good intentions get into their own way. If you're so upset about my thread why even bother replying.

Good god...

Dude it's a video game forum full of kids. But thanks for taking your time to analyze my choice of words.

Full of Kids?

Sure, what's wrong with that?
I'd guess at least half people here are of the younger seasons no?

Oh we need to go grab some drinks and talk. I would post a long response, but I'm sort of drained at the moment. lol

In short you'll have to sift through some posts to gather constructive criticism. You're going to run into this problem due to the nature of this site, but with a bit of perseverance you can have topics like these. This topic might be shot because now everyone will talk about this instead, but some of us are successfully able to talk about how Nintendo may be able to improve without too much trouble.

I'm practically the founder of Internet backlash yet I manage to have these discussions. It does take a bit of effort to minimize the outrage and make people open to new ideas though.

Thanks, what a satisfying post!
I know what you mean by drained just had a 14 hour work day...

I find it a little insulting that you assume that due to it being a Video Game Forum that is must be "full of kids"

I secretly believe that Nintendo is trying to play it super safe and at the same time they are trying to rush out games as soon as possible. The reason I say this is because lately some (not all) of the games they've been making while still good seem to lack some of that usual Nintendo magic that I always see or feel or get when I play their games. Some examples would be Super Mario 3D Land it felt rushed and it didn't seem to be that innovative at all (didn't Miyamoto say himself he didn't like it). Mario Tennis on the 3DS was lacking too and come on no RPG mode? New Super Mario Bros 2 was VERY similar to the last 2 entries but OMG they added tons of coins that's so innovative (sarcasm). While Mario Kart 7's online was awesome, all they did was add underwater and wings which play pretty much exactly the same as when u drive I feel like normally Nintendo would have done something amazing and unique with these 2 new forms of racing. With this year's E3 showing I'm severely convinced of this idea. Luckily though you can tell they put some of that Nintendo magic in some of their games like AC, Pikmin 3, FE, Luigi's Mansion which if you noticed were all delayed and didn't come out as fast as some of those other previous games I mentioned.

What the?!
Is it really me talking in such a misunderstandable way?
Yes it's about video games.
Yes there are many kids in here (no idea how you took anything negative from it).
I made that comment because the analysis of my post and wording had nothing to do with the topic or video games and that the kids in here probably won't enjoy reading about someone being lectured.

Can we please stay on topic or just have no conversation?

Kids on a videogame centric website is nothing bad you know?