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Nintendo: What's Old is New Again

By DrRandle July 30, 2008 1 Comments

Nintendo Touts Non-Existant Innovation

At the recent E3 conference, The Regginator stated that Nintendo had to improve on ideas and innovate to pave a money-filled future. After all, the Wii's undeniable success right now has to be, in some part, due to it's innovative interface, right? Well here's the problem: if they want to innovate, why didn't they show anything innovative?

First we had Shaun White's Snow Boarding, which I understand works exactly like you would expect it to. Kind of how we all expected it (or at least some form of snowboarding game) to be made. Well, alright, an interesting twist on a game that's being made on all there platforms, it certainly gives Wii version an advantage, but is it really innovating?

Animal Crossing: City Folk, hm? Admittedly, I'll end up picking this title up because Tom Nook has my soul is n his furry little clutches, but I can't help but feel an overwhelming dissapointment at how much this just looks like the last two Animal Crossings, especially the DS one. Both v isually and control-wise, we've already seen what this town has to offer. They tried touting the online functionality as being this breathtaking phenomenon, and it was, in Wild World 3 years ago. They added voice chat, now, so it's good to see they have at least caught up to video game technology from two years ago. Granted, in concept I prefer the idea of the one mic Wii Speak has, but let's see how it works in execution. They're biggest new feature, as the name implies, is the ability to go visit the City to do some shopping or get your hair cut. All this does is refine activities that already exist in the series. How is that progress? How is that innovation? Also, what are we going to do on random days of the week now that Gracie, Shrunk, and many others already have their own staple offices?

Wii Sports: Resort and the Wii Motion Plus: giving us a game nobody asked for and finally delivering on a promise for Wii-mote functionality we were supposed to have in the beginning. Granted the little sword fighting game looks like fun, but what about the rest?. Motor-ski? Why can't we just get a new Wave Race? Frisby Toss? Nintendogs 2, please. (Say what you will, it would be both profitable and adorable.)

Finally we have Wii Music, which turns your Wii into a quarter-assed music-spamming device. I enjoyed a concept of free-playing music, perhaps recording it to make a song, but what I've seen of Wii Music isn't even that advanced of a concept. It's a joke.

So what do you think, does Nintendo have the capability to innovate? Are they perhaps just resting on the laurals of Wii Fit? Or am I insane? Are they infact innovating in ways I'm just not seeing the picture? What do you think of the competition, though? Are they really doing anything grand and new, or just trying to play catch up with each others' features to really try and find the next big mold-breaking concept? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear back from you.

Woo-hoo-hoo
It's all been done
Woo-hoo-hoo
It's all been done before
Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done

1 Comments

Introductions Are In Order

By DrRandle July 28, 2008 1 Comments

Welcome To The International Blog of Pancakes

Greetings my fellow Bombermen and Bomberwomen. A pleasure to introduce myself, I am Dr. Randle, but please, you can call me Doc. Allow me to tell you a little about the methods to my madness.

I am a pretty simple guy to get along with. I love having debates on video games, both ridiculous and serious. However, I do not like guff. Maturity is essential if we are to increase our respectability, and I will not have any of these flame wars. I do not like to consider myself a fanboy of any console in particular, though I admittedly have a long history with Nintendo. Rest assured, I am usually the first to cry foul. I love video games, plain and simple. I may not love everything you do, and honestly, I probably don't. I will take a game of Animal Crossing over GTA, I prefer Half Life to Halo... I'm just a bit eccentric, I guess. I do not concern myself with labels like "hardcore," because I find that trying to divide ourselves and further seclude ourselves from other people is counterintuitive to the growth of us as people and of video games as a medium. Plus, the definitions are so ridiculous and so many games break the rules, I just don't see the point. A game is a game.

So here is how it works, I will try my damnedest to get blog posts up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and hopefully fill a review in on Tuesday or Thursday. I am a busy guy with school, work, and the attempts at social activities, so it will not always happen. I appoligze in advance. My blogs will mostly be musings on the way things are, or perhaps me doing some arbitrary top ten list because I am out of good ideas. I will also try and bring you little gems that I feel few major outlets will tell you about. Also, expect to read a lot about video game music, a personal passion of mine.

I always appreciate input. If there is something you would like me to discuss, feel free to let me know.

As far as my Reviews go, it's simple: I will tell you what I think you should do in regards to the game. I don't concern myself with stars, or points, or produce of any sort. Trying to mathematically or spiritually define a singular video game heirarchy is a process that has always been rather absurd to me. Plus, I would rather people focus on my words not on numbers attached to them. If you don't want to read the body and just want a number, I would appologize, but I think you are in the wrong and to be frank there are plenty of other places to go for that kind of stuff.

You won't see me on the message boards too often, unfortunately. There are two reasons for this: I have been burned by boards before, and I would rather be playing games or writing about them than trolling the fan boards. That being said, I hear the boards in this place are especially awesome, so I wholeheartedly advise you to go there and talk about things like hamburgers. Hopefully I will find more time to sink my teeth into these, myself.

I hope I'm not coming off to strong here, I really am a laid back guy. I wholeheartedly look forward to speaking my mind and hearing what you all have to say. Let us grow as individuals, but also as a community.

Look forward to my first review sometime later this week. Here's a teaser: Space Invaders Extreme.

Fellas, I'm about to get up and do my thing.
James Brown - Like A Sex Machine (Fantastic Plastic Machine Edit)