06-30-2013, 12:16 PM
I don't think Nintendo has lost much in terms of their touch, it's just that the times have changed and Nintendo is struggling to keep up to the point where they have to make a Mario game or two and reusing assets or engines or even remaking games. They probably love to go back to the SNES/N64/Gamecube eras for creativity but are worried that it is not safe financially to do it.
Take Miyamoto for example, he is a wonderful game designer and many views that he made throughout the years are highly agreeable (e.g. delaying games can turn out good, games are like rock and roll as in that there are people who love it and people who hate it so much that they want it banned, games should be enjoyed) however I feel that he is burnt out in terms of making games. After all his last few games have been flops e.g. Wii Music and his advice has harmed Paper Mario: Sticker Star since when he designed games back in the 80s, they were even lucky to even have an ending but now a lot of games put story first or story and graphics first so to many it felt like a step backwards. Also I feel that Miyamoto does get jealous like he hated Donkey Kong Country for years just because it sold better than Yoshi's Island and probably it is me talking I think he is jealous of Sega handling F-Zero GX making excuses on why there are no more F-Zero games [all Nintendo have to do is look at other racing games to get a couple of ideas or even expand on their existing ideas e.g. the Track Editor could become a Track Creator to share tracks on Miiverse]. Well that and the series apparently isn't a high seller plus the fact apart from Nintendo themselves and Polyphony, there aren't any Japanese developers left making racing games so that's another reason.
The main problem is that Nintendo interfere too much whether it is 1987 or 2013, even though their games are usually very high quality. Would Paper Mario: Sticker Star is better if it wasn't interfered? Probably. However would Metroid Prime be better if it was just Retro Studios without any help from Nintendo? No it wouldn't. Plus the fact Nintendo has annoyed other publishers/developers in the past to the point of ignoring them due to various policies and they are stubborn. Capcom, Konami, Namco [even way back in the late 80s], more recently EA all who supported Nintendo heavily and later pulled out or mostly pulled out with a bit of lip service. With Square-Enix, it is mostly the handheld side that are still in, they only made a few console titles after Final Fantasy VI. SNK left for the Neo Geo but came back for the Wii (under SNK Playmore) just for compliations/re-releases, Taito and Tecmo didn't really support them much after the 16 bit era. Nintendo's other help have all gone e.g. Acclaim, Midway (now Warner Bros. who do support Nintendo a bit), THQ and the various other studios. How long will it be until Nintendo annoy Sega, Platinum Games and Ubisoft?
Even then Nintendo is not the only Japanese company to struggle with the current times, Square Enix (the Japanese side, not the Eidos side) is another and Polyphony did struggle with Gran Turismo 5. We are currently in a more Western dominated industry where they use PCs to make games and using built engines like Unreal or Unity [it is why the PS4 is more PC based compared to the processor designed consoles of the past] while traditional Japanese developers used their own engines and tools even if they do use the Havok physics engine. In the past Europeans also made their own tools and engines but this practice has declined over the years [I can only think of Sumo Digital and Criterion using custom engines even though the latter made RenderWare that was used in a lot of games during the PS2 era]. So while Western developers can make games quickly to focus on other areas, the Japanese developers take longer since they are programming them from scratch. This difference in feel is why American/European games are usually 30fps while Japanese games are usually 60fps. It is also why Capcom, Konami and to a degree Namco all using Western developers even if the quality has gone downhill a bit.
Thinking though, the reason why Nintendo brought out many Wii games was because it used the GameCube hardware to make them easier to develop. In fact a few Wii games started off as Gamecube games that were either dual release [Twilight Princess], dual release in the US but Wii only in Europe/Japan or moved to the Wii [Super Paper Mario, Donkey Kong Jet Race]. Now the Wii U for them is new hardware even though it isn't as powerful as the PS4 and the Xbone so they had to start it all over again plus the fact it isn't PC based means that they are struggling since it is the odd one out of the 3 even though they chose the design. I think the 3DS isn't as much of a change to the DS which is why Nintendo is coping better on the handheld than their home console.
Take Miyamoto for example, he is a wonderful game designer and many views that he made throughout the years are highly agreeable (e.g. delaying games can turn out good, games are like rock and roll as in that there are people who love it and people who hate it so much that they want it banned, games should be enjoyed) however I feel that he is burnt out in terms of making games. After all his last few games have been flops e.g. Wii Music and his advice has harmed Paper Mario: Sticker Star since when he designed games back in the 80s, they were even lucky to even have an ending but now a lot of games put story first or story and graphics first so to many it felt like a step backwards. Also I feel that Miyamoto does get jealous like he hated Donkey Kong Country for years just because it sold better than Yoshi's Island and probably it is me talking I think he is jealous of Sega handling F-Zero GX making excuses on why there are no more F-Zero games [all Nintendo have to do is look at other racing games to get a couple of ideas or even expand on their existing ideas e.g. the Track Editor could become a Track Creator to share tracks on Miiverse]. Well that and the series apparently isn't a high seller plus the fact apart from Nintendo themselves and Polyphony, there aren't any Japanese developers left making racing games so that's another reason.
The main problem is that Nintendo interfere too much whether it is 1987 or 2013, even though their games are usually very high quality. Would Paper Mario: Sticker Star is better if it wasn't interfered? Probably. However would Metroid Prime be better if it was just Retro Studios without any help from Nintendo? No it wouldn't. Plus the fact Nintendo has annoyed other publishers/developers in the past to the point of ignoring them due to various policies and they are stubborn. Capcom, Konami, Namco [even way back in the late 80s], more recently EA all who supported Nintendo heavily and later pulled out or mostly pulled out with a bit of lip service. With Square-Enix, it is mostly the handheld side that are still in, they only made a few console titles after Final Fantasy VI. SNK left for the Neo Geo but came back for the Wii (under SNK Playmore) just for compliations/re-releases, Taito and Tecmo didn't really support them much after the 16 bit era. Nintendo's other help have all gone e.g. Acclaim, Midway (now Warner Bros. who do support Nintendo a bit), THQ and the various other studios. How long will it be until Nintendo annoy Sega, Platinum Games and Ubisoft?
Even then Nintendo is not the only Japanese company to struggle with the current times, Square Enix (the Japanese side, not the Eidos side) is another and Polyphony did struggle with Gran Turismo 5. We are currently in a more Western dominated industry where they use PCs to make games and using built engines like Unreal or Unity [it is why the PS4 is more PC based compared to the processor designed consoles of the past] while traditional Japanese developers used their own engines and tools even if they do use the Havok physics engine. In the past Europeans also made their own tools and engines but this practice has declined over the years [I can only think of Sumo Digital and Criterion using custom engines even though the latter made RenderWare that was used in a lot of games during the PS2 era]. So while Western developers can make games quickly to focus on other areas, the Japanese developers take longer since they are programming them from scratch. This difference in feel is why American/European games are usually 30fps while Japanese games are usually 60fps. It is also why Capcom, Konami and to a degree Namco all using Western developers even if the quality has gone downhill a bit.
Thinking though, the reason why Nintendo brought out many Wii games was because it used the GameCube hardware to make them easier to develop. In fact a few Wii games started off as Gamecube games that were either dual release [Twilight Princess], dual release in the US but Wii only in Europe/Japan or moved to the Wii [Super Paper Mario, Donkey Kong Jet Race]. Now the Wii U for them is new hardware even though it isn't as powerful as the PS4 and the Xbone so they had to start it all over again plus the fact it isn't PC based means that they are struggling since it is the odd one out of the 3 even though they chose the design. I think the 3DS isn't as much of a change to the DS which is why Nintendo is coping better on the handheld than their home console.