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"Nintendo's future? Bright."

The Nintendo Gamecube was launched in America over a month ago. Despite the crazed ranting from ===SONICRAV---> it went well. The main question on people's minds though asked where were the big name titles. Where was Mario, where was Link, where was a brand new rising Nintendo star.

Well Link was in make up getting a new look and Mario was trapped in a Mansion but despite what you may think there were big names at the Nintendo launch or soon after. One was Smash Brothers, the original Nintendo beat 'em up was a classic now we have a Platform mode, more items, more characters, hundreds of new fresh ideas in fact a good all round title (I've gone into more depth about this before).

Pikmin, there is the new rising Nintendo star. Pikmin was good, very good it was a bit limited but it was great, innovative it was a Real time Strategy working on a console and Nintendo are already planning a sequel. Luigi's mansion wasn't great but it was still a Nintendo game with nice ideas a great graphics and special effects. So whilst Joanna was polishing her gun and Conker was filling up the swear box Nintendo were pushing out top rate titles.

Now I’m going to leave the first and second Party games for a while and move on to Third parties. Now as for Launch the third parties helped Nintendo out a great deal. Sony received an awesome Christmas this year with titles such as SSX Tricky, Devil May Cry, Tony Hawks 3 and Smackdown. Nintendo got the games PS2 fans had been waiting a year for at the very beginning (I could throw in Simpson's Road Rage) of the Gamecube's life a very promising site.

As for next year well it just gets better, Eternal Darkness, Star Fox Adventures, Resident Evil, Mario Sunshine, Sonic and many other big name titles. But we are Europeans and it is the European market that Nintendo will suffer in. Yes SSX Tricky and Tony Hawks 3 came out on the PS2 and Gamecube near each other but in Europe this simply won't be the case. But how advanced will the Gamecube be by then? The designer of Resident Evil (I would say his name if I could spell it) is hoping for an American and European launch to occur shortly after the Japanese launch which is in March. This places an opportunity for Resident Evil as a European Launch title!

Now that would be something but Nintendo's future doesn't rely on a few weeks it relies on the entire system's life span. The Gamecube's future is bright much brighter than Sony's. The N64 was better than the Playstation I will say that honestly, disagree as you will but my response will simply be but the Playstation didn't have any Nintendo games. These games first and second party are very important, I wouldn't care if Nintendo got no third party support the classics the big N produce are enough for any die hard Nintendo fan such as my good self.

This time there is more of Nintendo; Silicon Knights are here from the start, as are Left Field, Retro Studio's and Camelot with HAL working on another title maybe Earthbound. Nintendo themselves have grown in development teams (intelligent systems) as have RARE. These new third parties open up new ranges of Nintendo games. Left Field make sports titles an example of there creativity comes in the form of Excitebike, they are here to work on the Gamecube and give the sports department of Nintendo a huge spring clean, Camelot also like to design a good sport title like Mario Golf and Tennis, Although this is Second Party I still feel I can mention the massive amount of SEGA sports titles appearing on the Gamecube. Camelot is also great at making RPG's (Golden Sun) something the N64 was lacking and they have an RPG in the works. And now I can mention Silicon Knights, a second party horror company for Nintendo???? Eternal Darkness and Too Human are promised from this Capcom rival.

Now Third Parties, Namco a company who aren't big fans of Nintendo, a company that brought a whole 2 title to the N64 have promised a large amount of titles for Nintendo including Soul Calibur 2, Klonoa 2 and Ridge Racer 5. Namco committing so early is a good sign, EA are also committing early and considering they never went near the Dreamcast this is a good sign. Capcom, well that’s a tale in itself but with rumors rife about more exclusive Gamecube titles other than Resident evil are particularly interesting. Nintendo and Capcom have been close for sometime with Capcom working on the Zelda Oracle twins and Nintendo's prestigious Mickey Mouse license. Nintendo are also supporting young new companies by offering free money to them.

It all means Nintendo have taken the best bits of the PS2 and stuck them with a bigger and better version of the N64 (or even the SNES...) and we have the greatest games machine around.

I'm not saying the Gamecube will trounce the PS2 and the X-box I’m simply saying that the N64 survived and with it's sequel promising to be many times better will mean the Gamecube will survive much easier. And considering the slip ups Sony made early on I feel able to predict a closer console war this time round.

Here's to the Future

Dringo.

I would put up an argument but I'd be just repeating what Meka said.

My opinion is that the "short and sweet" policy will annoy its hardcore fans and seeing as most of the casual gamers dismiss the Gamecube as a kiddies machine anyway, it's not exactly going to gain them any friends.

Still, even if Nintendo do go and screw everything up, I think that there's enough from Rare and other second/third party titles to survive on.

Edgy wrote:
> There are so many different types of games nowadays that it would be impossible
> for all types to be released in some form of game on a consoles release unless
> there's heavy support from third parties

Oh, edgy, I couldn't add u to msn-- had too many conatacts... please re-add me (if you are dark edgy that is?).

Anyway, the market situation is this:

PS2 covers every ganre that gamers want (pretty much)
Xbox is launching with great games in all the top genres
GC HAS to compete whether it's fair to ask it to or not!

Sonic

There are so many different types of games nowadays that it would be impossible for all types to be released in some form of game on a consoles release unless there's heavy support from third parties

Well, the figures I quote, such as the 25% market share that Ninty expect to get, are from Ninty themselves.

As for the 90% of gamers are casual, this was an estimate made by the industry mag, MCV (or is it MVC... can't remember).

Anyway, I make all my points perfectly clear in my topic. The GC doesn't have as big a range as games as Sony- nor should it, seeing as it's only been out for a couple of months...

BUT what is important is to have strong games in each of the main genres AT LAUNCH- A good racer, a beat em up, an action/adventure game. And this is something that Ninty simly cannot cater for with the GC.

I completely agree with Dringo's points that the GC will have a very bright future in terms of quality games (the reason I'm getting one) however, it simply won't be a huge comercial success... the N64 did badly enough against one Sony console, and now it has to compete with the PS2 and the Xbox!

So, answer me this. Why would a joe bloggs, off the street gamer pick a GC over a PS2 (which we will assume has the same price).

The GC SHOULDN'T have to comete with the PS2's huge library of games (which has been accumilated for over a year), BUT it has to in order to attract gamers.

Sonic

Sonicrav, I'm a bit confused.

You're mentioning a lot of figures about Nintendo, when Nintendo are so secretive when it comes to company information that they're hardly going to give so much information away about their own predictions.

"90% of all gamers are casual gamers" I read from one of your messages. Have you asked every gamer whether they think of themselves as a casual or hardcore gamer? I certainly haven't been asked by anyone! And what would you class as a casual gamer? Someone who sits in a nice comfy chair, playing easy games whilst wearing cotton jogging bottoms, slippers and a plain white T-shirt whilst sitting in a nice warm room whilst their mother reads a book and their father reads a newspaper? Or someone who just plays games for ten minutes, or plays CD's really loud/turns off ingame music so that they can listen to Slipknot or Metallica instead of getting the feeling of the game with it's own music? What ever your view of a casual gamer is, games wouldn't even get completed by 90% of the gaming population if everyone was a casual gamer.They wouldn't be able to play long enough to reach the next save point, or to be able to get past that last benemy on that level.

With the amount of money that is needed to be able to play games nowadays, you'd have to be a hardcore gamer to want them enough to spend over £35 for them!

And what's this rubbish about the PS2 being better than GameCube because it has a much wider variety of games to choose from? Well duh! Of course it has, it's been out longer than the GameCube...infact the GameCube hasn't even been released! Do you remember when the PS2 came out and multiformat magazines, although were in love with Sony's new DVD player, critisized the Playstation 2 for having a lack of wantable games. Infact, on the TV show Bits, the presenters put one in a suitcase and repeatedly kicked it because they were disgusted by the lack of decent games. The GameCube however is going to have a majority of brilliant games when it's released, including Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros Melee, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader and many many more, and Nintendo are being careful only to allow a few not so well known of lesser anticipated games to be released on the consoles release in the UK.

===SONICRAV---> wrote:
In my topic, you will notic it ends by saying
> that everything I say is debatable, and that the whole point is to create
> discussion... this topic does none of that... all it acheives is to allow a
> Nintendo fan (oh, and remember, I'm a huge fan of Ninty too), rant on about his
> optomistic view of the future, when this could be better done in a discussion
> such as in my topic.

You're contradicting yourself a bit there.... This topic has brought on discussion and debate, as you yourself have made many points against Dringo's.

Meka Dragon wrote:

"Lylat Wars had an easy path to victory, and those other paths that were much tougher for the more experienced gamers to enjoy."

Yup... and problem being, some lesser gamers will play it through once on the easy setting, and then think that they've completed the game... morons I tell you, morons... :0)

Another mention of Nintendo's fabled new strategy.

You know that it's a myth, right?

Luigi's Mansion is a relatively short game, but so many first party launch titles ARE limited like this. The developers are new to the machine, there trying to see what it's capable of. We all know that this title started life as a technical demo, and the game has just built on this, showing off the control of the CGN pad, lighting effects, and stuff like that.

Do you honestly believe that Mario Sunshine, a title that is the proper sequel to Super Mario 64 will be just as short?

No doubt you will be able to complete the game without seeing everything. I remember that you didn't need to collect all the stars in Mario64, you could miss loads of them. But the challenge was their if you wanted it.

Lylat Wars had an easy path to victory, and those other paths that were much tougher for the more experienced gamers to enjoy.

Perhaps Mario Sunshine will be a culmination of the two?

I really cannot see it being a short game. If Nintendo continued to make games that could be completed entirely in a weekend then people wouldn't buy their games. Simple as that. Nintendo need to sell games, it makes them hundreds of millions of pounds. Anyone but a fool would see that you can't still sell games if they're not going to please the consumers, and short games just won't do that in the long run.

Nintendo will struggle to get more than 35% market share.

The PS2 has already sold so many units, and the games are continuing to arrive to keep gamers happy. The Gamecube will sell to a lot of families. It's the ONLY machine suitable, and now looks to cater for all ages better than ever before. But everyone knows about the PS2, does everyone know about the Gamecube?

Nintendo of Europe WILL promote this console. Just look at the way the GBA was promoted. I saw more ads for Mario Kart than I have done for any recent Sony game. Only GT3 comes close. Nintendo have learnt the importance of marketing, and they do have funds to splash out a little.

Off topic ever so slightly, but Dringo, did you see the Nintendo poster thing Europe put up?

Look on Fog for Meka's topic about it, the list of games on the poster is in there.

===SONICRAV---> wrote:



Odd how that Website you refer me to says NOTHING! The
> article is 3 pages long, and is the biggest load of rubbish! It just says AGAIN
> AND AGAIN that ninty games will be "short and sweet"... and that's it!
> What a waste of my time!

I assumed the article was the same that was written in NGC if it was you would be aware that Nintendo have Driving Sims, shorter more accessable games and a lot more of them to attract casual gamers.



Oh, and Dringo... can you answer my points,
> rather than just nit pick on a few inferred comments...

Nope

You have not talked
> about how the PS2 STILL has a far better range of games for attracting the
> casual gamer, dispite everything about shorter ninty games.

Not for me in fact most of my casual gaming friends who played games until their fingers blead got a PS2 and have completley left gaming, the PS2 appeals to the teenage audience we assume the PS2 is awsome and all casual gamers want them as the console appeals to our age groups so we see all our friends get it, when i talk to my young brother and his friends the number one toy on the market is the Nintendo as they are great fun and better than that stupid PS2. Casual gamers is a stereotype i was a casual gamer before i became this die hard Ninty and i always chose Nintendo as those games appealed to me and my friends.

Nintendo quite successfully cater for teh casual gamer the huge ammount of multiplayer titles are an example of this as one thing i noticed casual gamers like and thats playing with their mates, Mario Party, Smash Brothers, Conker, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Turok Rage Wars, Mario Kart, Quake 2 etc.... are all examples of top rate multiplaying games. The GC looks to continue this and what i wrote up there had nothing to do with your other post other than the title.

Oh, and why have
> you bothered to set up this topic... clearly just as to make a point... you
> could have said all this in my Ninty topic, but instead you come here to state
> why Ninty has a great future.

Yep.

In my topic, you will notic it ends by saying
> that everything I say is debatable, and that the whole point is to create
> discussion... this topic does none of that... all it acheives is to allow a
> Nintendo fan (oh, and remember, I'm a huge fan of Ninty too), rant on about his
> optomistic view of the future, when this could be better done in a discussion
> such as in my topic.

I like writing console war debates but they are all getting old now including your post i have battled against this before i won a game writing a post about it i do belive, what next which console has the best format... Not again when there is a new angle to look at i will look at it.

Basically, this topic is a waste of space.

lol.

I wouldnt say they are making games smaller on purpose, but as with all launch games, they have a set dead line and have to have the game ready for then, thus it means they are normally shorted and more glitchy than later products.

Althought ninty do seem to be making games fast, like one every few months rather than one BIG game every 2 years or so. Which is nice.