Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Lunch with Tom: Bioware and more Wii
The big news today: Bioware has officially started up a handheld development team and are hard at work on a new game for the Nintendo DS. How about that? You may remember my brief love affair with Bioware in the past. They were the developers of Knights of the Old Republic, a game that, as the Xbox is officially dead at this point, will always be known as one of the greatest pieces of software ever to grace that fine platform. Because of my ravenous love for KoTOR - one of the few RPGs I actually enjoyed last generation - I will always have a soft place in my heart for Bioware. Remember when I was hyping up Jade Empire as the second coming? It wasn't, but it was still damn fun. I can't wait to see what they have in store for NDS owners.
The only problem I see are the shoddy, restrictive graphics we've grown to tolerate. The NDS churns out graphics about on par with what was on the N64, except on a much smaller, eye-straining scale. I've seen these fancy videos of Mario Basketball and Final Fantasy III, two Square games that show 3D is possible on the greatest handheld system ever conceived, but they don't exactly impress me. FFIII actually has slow down as the characters walk around the map. Sorry, you can pump out all the polygons you want, but a choppy game is a crappy game.
The main reason KotOR is so amazing is the sheer immersion Bioware offered. Obviously, I love the system of choices and consequences. I can't imagine playing an RPG at this point that doesn't offer actual choices. But there was more than that. Every word in the game was spoken in either the common tongue (English) or that creepy alien language. Either way, it added to the feeling of travel and investigation. And to wrap it all up, the game looked sharp. It wasn't mind-blowing graphically, but it looked and felt like the Star Wars universe.
The NDS is not going to be able to replicate a universe like that. The best of the best on the system are great because of their gameplay. Trauma Center, for instance, looks quite awful graphically, but the gameplay is fast and frantic. For all its plusses, KotOR had merely average gameplay. Trying to put that game on the NDS, where the story has to carry the experience, would be a complete waste of their time and mine. Old school RPGs are for neurotic fanboys. Bioware will have to create an interesting, original way to interact with characters, such as the upcoming NDS RPG Contact, to even be considered relevant. I have hope they can come up with something more than ugly KotOR with touch screen controls.
But there is more in the video game industry than unannounced NDS RPGs. Nintendo is still trying their damnedest to steer hardcore gamers away from the Wii. Apparently, they are going to focus on women and the elderly. The elderly!? Are they mad? Sure, it would be fun beating the hell out of granny in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for a few rounds, but give me some real competition Nintendo. Old people can't play games!
And that's the problem. Nintendo is actually going to make games for old people. I have no idea how they will do this. Most old people can't even put on shoes, how are they going to manipulate a Wii-mote? And what kind of games would old people want anyway? One of those clocks that ticks down the seconds until they're supposed to die? Virtual placebos? A game where they have to match the face of a relative with the correct name? These are not games! Can you imagine a parent sitting grandma and Baby Billy in front of a Wii, using that system as a babysitter for both young and old, as parents go out and live it up?
So Nintendo is heavily targeting two segments of the market that have no interest in games. Sounds awful, right? Well, it kind of is, but I'm still hopeful. You have to consider how much disposal cash these groups have. If the stereotype is true, women spend all of their excess money on shoes and makeup. And old people, well, they don't even have excess money. And with Social Security quickly dwindling down to nothing, they may not even have bread money for long. So what do all these cruel stereotypes mean? Nintendo only needs to release two or three "crap games" a year to satiate this tiny market. Look at the NDS. That's huge with women and old people, right? Well, how many games are actually targeting them? I can think of two in America - Brain Age and Nintendogs. That's it. You'll get a few of those games on the Wii along with the requisite 3rd party clones, and the rest of Nintendo's time can be consumed with making real games.
Nintendo has to know that, even under the best-case scenario, converted non-gamers will only buy one or two games a year. Even casual gamers only buy Madden and GTA. So Nintendo's focus should still be on real gamers and fun games. They'll continue to make sequels to every franchise in their library, aside from Kid Icarus of course, with the occasional Wii Walker to rouse interest in the far-sighted. Seriously, all Nintendo needs is an article in USA Today to be considered truly mainstream. No use wasting actual time with those non-games.
The only problem I see are the shoddy, restrictive graphics we've grown to tolerate. The NDS churns out graphics about on par with what was on the N64, except on a much smaller, eye-straining scale. I've seen these fancy videos of Mario Basketball and Final Fantasy III, two Square games that show 3D is possible on the greatest handheld system ever conceived, but they don't exactly impress me. FFIII actually has slow down as the characters walk around the map. Sorry, you can pump out all the polygons you want, but a choppy game is a crappy game.
The main reason KotOR is so amazing is the sheer immersion Bioware offered. Obviously, I love the system of choices and consequences. I can't imagine playing an RPG at this point that doesn't offer actual choices. But there was more than that. Every word in the game was spoken in either the common tongue (English) or that creepy alien language. Either way, it added to the feeling of travel and investigation. And to wrap it all up, the game looked sharp. It wasn't mind-blowing graphically, but it looked and felt like the Star Wars universe.
The NDS is not going to be able to replicate a universe like that. The best of the best on the system are great because of their gameplay. Trauma Center, for instance, looks quite awful graphically, but the gameplay is fast and frantic. For all its plusses, KotOR had merely average gameplay. Trying to put that game on the NDS, where the story has to carry the experience, would be a complete waste of their time and mine. Old school RPGs are for neurotic fanboys. Bioware will have to create an interesting, original way to interact with characters, such as the upcoming NDS RPG Contact, to even be considered relevant. I have hope they can come up with something more than ugly KotOR with touch screen controls.
But there is more in the video game industry than unannounced NDS RPGs. Nintendo is still trying their damnedest to steer hardcore gamers away from the Wii. Apparently, they are going to focus on women and the elderly. The elderly!? Are they mad? Sure, it would be fun beating the hell out of granny in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for a few rounds, but give me some real competition Nintendo. Old people can't play games!
And that's the problem. Nintendo is actually going to make games for old people. I have no idea how they will do this. Most old people can't even put on shoes, how are they going to manipulate a Wii-mote? And what kind of games would old people want anyway? One of those clocks that ticks down the seconds until they're supposed to die? Virtual placebos? A game where they have to match the face of a relative with the correct name? These are not games! Can you imagine a parent sitting grandma and Baby Billy in front of a Wii, using that system as a babysitter for both young and old, as parents go out and live it up?
So Nintendo is heavily targeting two segments of the market that have no interest in games. Sounds awful, right? Well, it kind of is, but I'm still hopeful. You have to consider how much disposal cash these groups have. If the stereotype is true, women spend all of their excess money on shoes and makeup. And old people, well, they don't even have excess money. And with Social Security quickly dwindling down to nothing, they may not even have bread money for long. So what do all these cruel stereotypes mean? Nintendo only needs to release two or three "crap games" a year to satiate this tiny market. Look at the NDS. That's huge with women and old people, right? Well, how many games are actually targeting them? I can think of two in America - Brain Age and Nintendogs. That's it. You'll get a few of those games on the Wii along with the requisite 3rd party clones, and the rest of Nintendo's time can be consumed with making real games.
Nintendo has to know that, even under the best-case scenario, converted non-gamers will only buy one or two games a year. Even casual gamers only buy Madden and GTA. So Nintendo's focus should still be on real gamers and fun games. They'll continue to make sequels to every franchise in their library, aside from Kid Icarus of course, with the occasional Wii Walker to rouse interest in the far-sighted. Seriously, all Nintendo needs is an article in USA Today to be considered truly mainstream. No use wasting actual time with those non-games.
// posted by Tom @ 11:53 AM 
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