As much as I love Sakurai as a developer, I think he made an unfortunate mistake in Brawl. I'm not saying he really wanted to upset the community. He probably didn't even know it was that big of a deal, but things are getting interesting because of the internet. The Melee commmunity is insanely huge and it increases every year, its people are so dedicated.
I understand Sakurai's reasoning for the casual players, they (he and NIntendo) always had the same intention. The game being on a console, for example, those are meaningful thoughts. What doesn't proceed is their explanations. Like, "people on the internet are mean". So what? They will be mean anyway, even online matches in Smash 4 have this: people write their names as "you suck" or "lag bro" if they want to make you feel bad.
If Brawl and Smash 4 had the exact same proposition as Melee, with mechanics slightly changed for better, the games would be selling more, the community would be greater, would have more support and Nintendo could officially afford it. The Melee community wouldn't have anything to go to criticize the other games, and you know why? Because they would be playing the new iterations. Yeah, maybe this kind of happens with every franchise, but I don't believe most have so many differences in gameplay competitively as Smash.
Just to make it clear: I don't think Sakurai or anyone at Nintendo should get any blame. Things happened, and that's it. It's just that we could have had more if some points worked differently. And then now we have all the Project M thing. Haha!
For those thinking "games are meant to be played, not watched", maybe late in the early 1900's people thought "well, sports are meant to be played, not watched", and the rest is history.
Given Nintendo's poor business choices we've seen the last years, I'm always afraid that we won't see a brilliant concept like this studio working with them. I'll just be positive here then, would love to see some new IP's by Playtonic and maybe even a collaboration to develop an old-fresh Nintendo one.
Obviously, there isn't a perfect gender equality in any media, but I don't think that's so wrong and the future doesn't seem dark in that regard.
At least in manga and anime, medias which I follow closely, all stereotypes work in a manner that [can] pleases all people - especially in manga, where you can find niches aimed at transgender people and all. Of course, with a Japanese view of it, in general. There are manga aimed at homosexual people and written by homosexual people, for example.
I can't say about video games because I don't play eastern games that don't get localized here (in US), but guess the main problem here is just a cultural difference, isn't it? For Japanese standards, this is not an offensive game. And it would probably be less criticized - or at least feminists would have no reason to do so the way they often do - in the west if they brought more Japanese stuff that sexualize men as well (I don't like the word "objectifying" in cases like this one, but that's another story).
Here in Brazil people often went to trips to the US or asked friends to buy game-related merchandises and technology products in general. There are stores which already imported from 'non-official' distributors, so it's not going to change for gamers at all. Only the masses will be affected - which is obviously a bad thing, so big Nintendo games may be hard to find at an acceptable price.
Nintendo was always conservative in a preventive way, I can only respect that. They are not going to get involved with a protectionist government - besides their marketing is not good nowadays; besides Brazil didn't live the great Nintendo era (80's and 90's) the way US and other crounties did, so the Playstation brand and even Sega consoles before it were bigger here than Nintendo ones, as far as I know. They're not going anywhere, though. Just wait a few seconds.
Basically, Nintendo couldn't handle the extortion Brazil puts in the consumer and the retailer. Brazilian Nintendo fans will be fine. Not great, but better than with Gaming Brazil (Nintendo's - former - official distributor here).
This seems to me the kind of thing Nintendo wouldn't like much. I dig it though. Don't really get the salt since Melee has some of the most hardcore fanbases of any Nintendo franchise and this looks harmless, stylish and fun. A kind-hearted memento to Smash as a whole with cute characters fighting each other. Sure, I love Lucina, Shulk and Palutena on Sm4sh, but this is nice too.
Oh, and, for what I watched, it's not Melee at all, just more than the others.
I appreciate how Nintendo is one big developer which still cares about 2D platformers. Sincerely, I'd rather have more 3D Marios (though the NSMB series sales proves it's probably not going anywhere) and enjoy Yoshi and DKC games for that genre. Need to play more Kirby games as I never really cared about them.
That said, the games I'm genuinely looking forward to are Zelda (too obvious), Star Fox (who really knows how it will turn out to be, but the excitement and hype are there), Xenoblade (GOTY possibly) and Splatoon (liked it the first time my eyes met footage of it. May get boring over time, but I've become tired of MK8 quickly, so maybe I'm the problem here. Only Sm4sh I will play forever anyway).
There's no such thing as an "overrated" movie, game or whatever. If people liked it so much that they felt they should spit it out to the world, then it's accurate to the point. "Over-hyped" maybe makes sense. If you were affected by it and, thus, didn't like the movie because of the expectations, it's time to learn how to avoid some instances of the internet - I, for one, never liked some anime because of the over-hype, but, the more I watch some of them, the more I see how good they can be.
Besides, not only little girls like Frozen. I'm a woman and love it. Most people I know that love it are men - it became almost as successful in Japan as in the US because it goes along with the taste of male otaku. The trailers for Frozen were just showing what the movie is not about to draw attention. And, yes, I've watched every one of the 54 'classic' Disney movies (but Big Hero 6, actually), if that's an argument. Wanted to point out that things are not bad for being aimed at children - Frozen is for the family, which is different.
I hadn't and most likely won't play the game. This, specifically, is the result of kids loving Disney, but there's no point on attacking the movie. Of course, if you genuinely think the film is bad, or are just annoyed by the fanbase, it can't be helped - if I've not watched the movie before I knew all the hype, I'd probably be like that too. Plus, it's really kinda shameful that some random Disney-based game makes success on the DS when the Wii U and 3DS struggles to make it with really well-done titles. But, again, attacking the movie alone for that reason doesn't seem righteous.
If proven true and eventually successful, I'll be always waiting for the spin-off of Rosalina's Storybook.
As for the Mario-Pixar thing: Disney is already in development for Wreck-it Ralph 2, which will better reference franchises such as Super Mario. Not Pixar, but Disney Animation is top tier too.
I'm really excited to play this game, but keep wondering about some people saying it's too easy, some saying it has challenging levels towards the end... I'll pick it anytime soon, just never liked the Invincibility Mushroom thing. Come on, aside from Champion Road, SM3DW is very easy even without the Invincibility Leaf.
If you want to play Nintendo games, buy a Nintendo CONSOLE.
That's Nintendo motto, should be it for now. We don't know what gaming will be in the next few years. Innovating is more difficult nowadays than 30, 20 years ago for several reasons (at least assuming the risks a video game company would take). The phone idea is very romantic, but there are lots of flaws already pointed by people in the commentaries. Like many tend to think, Nintendo is probably the only of the big three gaming manufactures that will stick to the traditional console gaming for at least a couple more 'generations' (I don't necessarily think that's the case, but stuff will change). Maybe there won't be a next Wii U or 3DS, but rather a Wii DS or something, but it's as far as Nintendo will probably go. The phone market is insanely huge (and growing) AND different from the game industry.
I'd possibly buy a Nintendo phone. The thing is that all the innovations this company made were with the notion of improving gaming experience in mind. This idea would only try to hit the masses, which I think is not the same as Nintendo's approach to casual gamers. If it happens, it must have something unique, something only Nintendo could do. Can anyone think what this something would be?
Once you know how to deal with Little Mac, he's very weak in many ways, only good in certain match-ups. I probably haven't played against good Little Macs lately, but he's just easier to 'master' than other characters, there are some better like Lucario, Bowser, Yoshi... He's not an specific issue for the patch to fix. Anyway, it's good to see that they are still "balancing" some things, I wonder until when they will keep doing it.
The Wii U should already have this game. The plot just make it more unique, since I've only played on my friend's Steam account I'd like to purchase Bind of Isaac for the 3DS - hopefully alongside the New 3DS, c'mon NoA.
Maybe one of the problems about people not liking Wii U games that much is because they put too much expectations exactly for the reason of it having a small library. Some fans and sites say like "now you HAVE to buy a WiiU cause Bayonetta is the BEST action game of the ENTIRE generation." On other systems you don't have this, you know what most of the games will be like, their fanbases always comes with the same arguments and prepositions.
What I find interesting about developers like Platinum - and a lot of games that come to Wii U, including Nintendo ones - is the unpredictability of what you're going to play. I've never played Bayonetta, but I fell in love with the really short demo for Bayo 2 and pre-ordered the game right after that. I was more excited for it than Hyrule Warriors actually, though they are very different games.
I can't say that the majority of games on other platforms don't have this surprise effect (TLOU is great for a non-gameplay reason, I think) because I play almost nothing on them. I just know is hard to find things like Splatoon outside of the Wii U.
Probably nobody knows how things will or should be on the gaming industry. The one thing we know is that people who take this hobby more seriously - I guess almost everyone who frequents Nintendo Life for instance - could easily get upset over games like that for a simple reason: they lack depth, something different. They're interesting in their own way, but it's like enjoying movies like hell and having to deal with a saturated superhero market and nothing besides it. Things like that that eventually lead 'traditional' gaming to a crash - though I'd rather have a crash to make developers wake up than keep getting the same game mechanics over and over. This game may not be the reason behind a crash, it is the discussion about it that represents it all.
Again, don't know what is right or not. It is what he said: don't like it? Then don't buy it. It's not like Nintendo would stop to give the consumer what they deserve. Wii had Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Party and Wii Play, but also Metroid Prime Trilogy, Xenoblade Chronicles, Skyward Sword and Star Successor.
I feel like every Metroid fan knows well about that story. I talk about sexualization a lot with friends - feminists or not -, but, nowadays, discussions like that need to take into account the culture differences.
What is sexualization? If using make up is considered that, then a man having a great beard is as well? I mean, they're just characteristics that emphasize one's gender, the cartoon and game's design needs it here and there. We all know that the past was fully of social patterns and stuff, but today the world is not a grim place on that regard, we don't need to treat it this way. Women, men and genderless people like to sexualize and, more importantly, to be sexualised. Is not a problem, at all. It's natural.
Samus' history of "sexualization" is interesting to debate, yeah, but that costume's inclusion on Smash4 was something just awesome (and I kinda agree with @Kaze_Memaryu). Even her heels is something that certainly was praised by almost everyone in Japan, and I don't think that this make Nippon a bad place. Just different points of view. Or do you guys think that Sakurai and his staff wanted to make people mad?
Sexualization as a bad thing exists, especially in games, but not with Samus.
Comments 22
Re: Feature: The Poor Career Choice of Super Smash Bros. Professionals
As much as I love Sakurai as a developer, I think he made an unfortunate mistake in Brawl. I'm not saying he really wanted to upset the community. He probably didn't even know it was that big of a deal, but things are getting interesting because of the internet. The Melee commmunity is insanely huge and it increases every year, its people are so dedicated.
I understand Sakurai's reasoning for the casual players, they (he and NIntendo) always had the same intention. The game being on a console, for example, those are meaningful thoughts. What doesn't proceed is their explanations. Like, "people on the internet are mean". So what? They will be mean anyway, even online matches in Smash 4 have this: people write their names as "you suck" or "lag bro" if they want to make you feel bad.
If Brawl and Smash 4 had the exact same proposition as Melee, with mechanics slightly changed for better, the games would be selling more, the community would be greater, would have more support and Nintendo could officially afford it. The Melee community wouldn't have anything to go to criticize the other games, and you know why? Because they would be playing the new iterations. Yeah, maybe this kind of happens with every franchise, but I don't believe most have so many differences in gameplay competitively as Smash.
Just to make it clear: I don't think Sakurai or anyone at Nintendo should get any blame. Things happened, and that's it. It's just that we could have had more if some points worked differently. And then now we have all the Project M thing. Haha!
Re: Feature: The Poor Career Choice of Super Smash Bros. Professionals
For those thinking "games are meant to be played, not watched", maybe late in the early 1900's people thought "well, sports are meant to be played, not watched", and the rest is history.
Re: Intriguing Indie Developer Simogo Teases Wii U Projects
Neat.
Re: Meet Playtonic, A Studio Of Ex-Rare Staff That Wants To Work With Nintendo
Given Nintendo's poor business choices we've seen the last years, I'm always afraid that we won't see a brilliant concept like this studio working with them. I'll just be positive here then, would love to see some new IP's by Playtonic and maybe even a collaboration to develop an old-fresh Nintendo one.
Re: Dead Or Alive Producer Feels That A Cultural Divide Exists Between Japan And The West
Obviously, there isn't a perfect gender equality in any media, but I don't think that's so wrong and the future doesn't seem dark in that regard.
At least in manga and anime, medias which I follow closely, all stereotypes work in a manner that [can] pleases all people - especially in manga, where you can find niches aimed at transgender people and all. Of course, with a Japanese view of it, in general. There are manga aimed at homosexual people and written by homosexual people, for example.
I can't say about video games because I don't play eastern games that don't get localized here (in US), but guess the main problem here is just a cultural difference, isn't it? For Japanese standards, this is not an offensive game. And it would probably be less criticized - or at least feminists would have no reason to do so the way they often do - in the west if they brought more Japanese stuff that sexualize men as well (I don't like the word "objectifying" in cases like this one, but that's another story).
Re: Nintendo Steps Away From The Brazilian Market
Here in Brazil people often went to trips to the US or asked friends to buy game-related merchandises and technology products in general. There are stores which already imported from 'non-official' distributors, so it's not going to change for gamers at all. Only the masses will be affected - which is obviously a bad thing, so big Nintendo games may be hard to find at an acceptable price.
Nintendo was always conservative in a preventive way, I can only respect that. They are not going to get involved with a protectionist government - besides their marketing is not good nowadays; besides Brazil didn't live the great Nintendo era (80's and 90's) the way US and other crounties did, so the Playstation brand and even Sega consoles before it were bigger here than Nintendo ones, as far as I know. They're not going anywhere, though. Just wait a few seconds.
Basically, Nintendo couldn't handle the extortion Brazil puts in the consumer and the retailer. Brazilian Nintendo fans will be fine. Not great, but better than with Gaming Brazil (Nintendo's - former - official distributor here).
Re: Weirdness: Jimmy Fallon Missed Out On Dating Nicole Kidman Because Of Super Mario Bros.
lol
Re: From Soy Sauce Hopes to Bring Touhou Super Smash Battles to Wii U
This seems to me the kind of thing Nintendo wouldn't like much. I dig it though. Don't really get the salt since Melee has some of the most hardcore fanbases of any Nintendo franchise and this looks harmless, stylish and fun. A kind-hearted memento to Smash as a whole with cute characters fighting each other. Sure, I love Lucina, Shulk and Palutena on Sm4sh, but this is nice too.
Oh, and, for what I watched, it's not Melee at all, just more than the others.
Re: 2D Puzzle Platformer Midnight Arrives On North American Wii U eShop Later This Month
Got a first glimpse and thought it was a sequel to NightSky.
Re: Feature: The Biggest Wii U Games of 2015
I appreciate how Nintendo is one big developer which still cares about 2D platformers. Sincerely, I'd rather have more 3D Marios (though the NSMB series sales proves it's probably not going anywhere) and enjoy Yoshi and DKC games for that genre. Need to play more Kirby games as I never really cared about them.
That said, the games I'm genuinely looking forward to are Zelda (too obvious), Star Fox (who really knows how it will turn out to be, but the excitement and hype are there), Xenoblade (GOTY possibly) and Splatoon (liked it the first time my eyes met footage of it. May get boring over time, but I've become tired of MK8 quickly, so maybe I'm the problem here. Only Sm4sh I will play forever anyway).
Re: One Of The Most Successful Nintendo Games Of 2014 Isn't What You'd Expect
There's no such thing as an "overrated" movie, game or whatever. If people liked it so much that they felt they should spit it out to the world, then it's accurate to the point. "Over-hyped" maybe makes sense. If you were affected by it and, thus, didn't like the movie because of the expectations, it's time to learn how to avoid some instances of the internet - I, for one, never liked some anime because of the over-hype, but, the more I watch some of them, the more I see how good they can be.
Besides, not only little girls like Frozen. I'm a woman and love it. Most people I know that love it are men - it became almost as successful in Japan as in the US because it goes along with the taste of male otaku. The trailers for Frozen were just showing what the movie is not about to draw attention. And, yes, I've watched every one of the 54 'classic' Disney movies (but Big Hero 6, actually), if that's an argument. Wanted to point out that things are not bad for being aimed at children - Frozen is for the family, which is different.
I hadn't and most likely won't play the game. This, specifically, is the result of kids loving Disney, but there's no point on attacking the movie. Of course, if you genuinely think the film is bad, or are just annoyed by the fanbase, it can't be helped - if I've not watched the movie before I knew all the hype, I'd probably be like that too. Plus, it's really kinda shameful that some random Disney-based game makes success on the DS when the Wii U and 3DS struggles to make it with really well-done titles. But, again, attacking the movie alone for that reason doesn't seem righteous.
Re: Sony Pictures Is In Negotiations With Nintendo To Make A Super Mario Movie
If proven true and eventually successful, I'll be always waiting for the spin-off of Rosalina's Storybook.
As for the Mario-Pixar thing: Disney is already in development for Wreck-it Ralph 2, which will better reference franchises such as Super Mario. Not Pixar, but Disney Animation is top tier too.
Re: Review: Xeodrifter (3DS eShop)
I'm waiting for Metroid since forever, I'll play everything slightest related to it until it gets announced.
Re: Interview: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker's Developers Talk Over Origins and the Contents of Toad's Backpack
I'm really excited to play this game, but keep wondering about some people saying it's too easy, some saying it has challenging levels towards the end... I'll pick it anytime soon, just never liked the Invincibility Mushroom thing. Come on, aside from Champion Road, SM3DW is very easy even without the Invincibility Leaf.
Re: Talking Point: The Time Is Right For A Nintendo Phone
If you want to play Nintendo games, buy a Nintendo CONSOLE.
That's Nintendo motto, should be it for now. We don't know what gaming will be in the next few years. Innovating is more difficult nowadays than 30, 20 years ago for several reasons (at least assuming the risks a video game company would take). The phone idea is very romantic, but there are lots of flaws already pointed by people in the commentaries. Like many tend to think, Nintendo is probably the only of the big three gaming manufactures that will stick to the traditional console gaming for at least a couple more 'generations' (I don't necessarily think that's the case, but stuff will change). Maybe there won't be a next Wii U or 3DS, but rather a Wii DS or something, but it's as far as Nintendo will probably go. The phone market is insanely huge (and growing) AND different from the game industry.
I'd possibly buy a Nintendo phone. The thing is that all the innovations this company made were with the notion of improving gaming experience in mind. This idea would only try to hit the masses, which I think is not the same as Nintendo's approach to casual gamers. If it happens, it must have something unique, something only Nintendo could do. Can anyone think what this something would be?
Re: Life of Pixel Is A 2D Trip Through Gaming History, And It's Coming To The Wii U eShop
Seems incredibly fun and well-designed to the point of nostalgia being triggered every once in a while on many ways.
Re: Upcoming Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS Patch To Address Balance Issues
Once you know how to deal with Little Mac, he's very weak in many ways, only good in certain match-ups. I probably haven't played against good Little Macs lately, but he's just easier to 'master' than other characters, there are some better like Lucario, Bowser, Yoshi... He's not an specific issue for the patch to fix. Anyway, it's good to see that they are still "balancing" some things, I wonder until when they will keep doing it.
Re: Teaser Tweet Suggests Binding of Isaac on the 3DS
The Wii U should already have this game. The plot just make it more unique, since I've only played on my friend's Steam account I'd like to purchase Bind of Isaac for the 3DS - hopefully alongside the New 3DS, c'mon NoA.
Re: Retro Adventure Title Elliot Quest Coming to Wii U in 2015
Exciting. Looking forward to the "unique bosses".
Re: Talking Point: Platinum Games Has Secured a Golden Wii U Legacy
You probably meant a "platinum legacy".
Maybe one of the problems about people not liking Wii U games that much is because they put too much expectations exactly for the reason of it having a small library. Some fans and sites say like "now you HAVE to buy a WiiU cause Bayonetta is the BEST action game of the ENTIRE generation." On other systems you don't have this, you know what most of the games will be like, their fanbases always comes with the same arguments and prepositions.
What I find interesting about developers like Platinum - and a lot of games that come to Wii U, including Nintendo ones - is the unpredictability of what you're going to play. I've never played Bayonetta, but I fell in love with the really short demo for Bayo 2 and pre-ordered the game right after that. I was more excited for it than Hyrule Warriors actually, though they are very different games.
I can't say that the majority of games on other platforms don't have this surprise effect (TLOU is great for a non-gameplay reason, I think) because I play almost nothing on them. I just know is hard to find things like Splatoon outside of the Wii U.
Long live Platinum Games.
Re: From the Forum: To Buy or Not to Buy? SPIKEY WALLS Fires Debate as Developer Defends Project
A strange news article it is, but have its value.
Probably nobody knows how things will or should be on the gaming industry. The one thing we know is that people who take this hobby more seriously - I guess almost everyone who frequents Nintendo Life for instance - could easily get upset over games like that for a simple reason: they lack depth, something different. They're interesting in their own way, but it's like enjoying movies like hell and having to deal with a saturated superhero market and nothing besides it. Things like that that eventually lead 'traditional' gaming to a crash - though I'd rather have a crash to make developers wake up than keep getting the same game mechanics over and over. This game may not be the reason behind a crash, it is the discussion about it that represents it all.
Again, don't know what is right or not. It is what he said: don't like it? Then don't buy it. It's not like Nintendo would stop to give the consumer what they deserve. Wii had Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Party and Wii Play, but also Metroid Prime Trilogy, Xenoblade Chronicles, Skyward Sword and Star Successor.
Re: Talking Point: A History of the Sexualisation of Samus
I feel like every Metroid fan knows well about that story. I talk about sexualization a lot with friends - feminists or not -, but, nowadays, discussions like that need to take into account the culture differences.
What is sexualization? If using make up is considered that, then a man having a great beard is as well? I mean, they're just characteristics that emphasize one's gender, the cartoon and game's design needs it here and there. We all know that the past was fully of social patterns and stuff, but today the world is not a grim place on that regard, we don't need to treat it this way. Women, men and genderless people like to sexualize and, more importantly, to be sexualised. Is not a problem, at all. It's natural.
Samus' history of "sexualization" is interesting to debate, yeah, but that costume's inclusion on Smash4 was something just awesome (and I kinda agree with @Kaze_Memaryu). Even her heels is something that certainly was praised by almost everyone in Japan, and I don't think that this make Nippon a bad place. Just different points of view. Or do you guys think that Sakurai and his staff wanted to make people mad?
Sexualization as a bad thing exists, especially in games, but not with Samus.