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Time for me to hark on about another incredible quality of Nintendo, the creation of game crazes. It is Nintendo’s way of advertising really, whilst Sony use the tried and tested 2D and 3D campaigns Nintendo publicize a game so large that the entire world goes mad for their new creation. And even when the craze dies, when the cards are no longer bought, the specialist magazines no longer sell and the cartoons are no longer aired the entire world know about this game, and when a new one comes along they’ll know about it too. An early craze from Nintendo wasn’t even a game at all it was the Game boy. Some of you older gamers will remember the time when every parent had to get his or her child a Game boy for Christmas. The first “game” craze from Nintendo was good old Mario; the plumber had special acted TV programmes, cartoons, a movie, figures, McDonalds toys basically the world went Mario mad. And Mario is proof that a game craze will last even after it has died. Despite Mario not making the world go mad anymore he is still making the most money for Nintendo, Mario Kart 64 was the largest selling N64 game, Super Smash Brothers featuring Mario is the largest selling Gamecube game at the moment but looks set to be beaten by Super Mario Sunshine. The most recent craze from Nintendo comes in the form of Pokémon which made Ł15 – 20 billion and that is excluding game sales. Pokémon single handedly lifted the N64 from the gutter and created a U-turn on the Game boy’s sales. So creating game crazes is exactly what Nintendo do to keep them in the console race. Nintendo are the greatest when it comes to creating world renowned characters and games, only one company has managed to match that and that was SEGA’s incredible Sonic and sure enough his games are still selling millions.
But I’m not here to tell you the story of game crazes not only is it boring but also because I’ve done it before. Instead I’m here to tell you of Nintendo’s next attempt at creating a worldwide phenomenon, the major difference this time is the fact that it isn’t a new game character. Kirby is the next big thing that is preparing to crash into America and Europe after a year’s head start in Japan. Now Kirby unlike Pokémon and Mario before him isn’t a new games character and so a little brief about what he has been up to is necessary. Now Kirby is far more successful in Japan than the western world but that isn’t saying much, Kirby is one of the few games in the world that has succeeded because of its brilliance alone not due to advertisement. Kirby’s Dreamland was one of many Nintendo games that attempted to revolutionize platform games (to prove they’re the best at the genre they created) and succeed, Yoshi’s Island, Doki Doki Panic (Super Mario Brothers 2) are other such games and of course Sonic (but that wasn’t a Nintendo game). What was so different about Kirby is his ability to suck enemies and other such things up and take their ability and to some extent their form and use their abilities against them. This was necessary to complete many of the games puzzles and it was also damn fun, the character floated rather effectively as well. Kirby is a Warpstar knight in training. After crash landing on the planet Popstar, he becomes the sworn protector of Dream Land, where all the happy dreams in the universe originate. Bad storyline aside the games were awesome, the main series includes Kirby’s Dreamland (Game boy), Kirby’s Dreamland 2 (Game Boy), Kirby’s Adventure (NES), Kirby’s Dreamland 3 (SNES) and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. (N64). Now Kirby like Pokémon and Mario began life on a handheld system and also like Mario and Pokémon starred in many spin off games. These games include Kirby Avalanche (SNES puzzle game), Kirby’s Pinball land (often compared with Pokémon Pinball), Kirby’s Dream Course (SNES Golf game), Kirby’s Block ball (Game Boy Breakout style puzzler), Kirby’s Super Star (SNES party game), Kirby’s Star Stacker (Game Boy Puzzle game) and Kirby Tilt ‘n Tumble (Japanese only game where you tilted the screen to move Kirby, a Gamecube version was confirmed but Kirby was later removed from the game).
Kirby’s cult following increased with the release of Super Smash Brothers and Super Smash Brothers: Melee, he was one of the better characters and many fell in love with him. Future titles for Kirby include a Gamecube adventure title and the GBA game “Kirby’s nightmare in dreamland”. So after 5 normal games, 7 spin off games and 2 special appearances Kirby is ready for the big time. Nintendo of America will be using $10 million to unleash upon the world a new craze, the same guys who unleashed Pokémon on the western world. Plans that are already in action include the airing of the new Kirby cartoon (Kirby right back at ya!), Kirby toys in an American food chain, six weeks were spent on the logo, and hundreds more plans are being spent on making this the next big thing by flooding the market with everything from toys through to pajamas. Both the GBA game and the cartoon home video are set for December and November respectably. So as the world prepares for a new Nintendo triumph to go besides Pokémon and Mario what is the betting that they’ll succeed a third time? Surly as they have never failed before bets are that they will succeed, or have they never failed before?
Although the Legend of Zelda is called the greatest game of all time each time it is released and goes on to sell millions each time, it has never made $15-20 billion from non-game sales. And don’t you try and tell me Nintendo didn’t try to make it a craze either because they did. Zelda toys, stickers, bed sheets, posters and even a Zelda cartoon were all made and released but all flopped. Zelda failed to take the world by storm despite being Shigeru Miyamoto’s second best creation. Like Zelda, Kirby could fail to take off, after all it is just a Pink cute ball and the entire cute idea might have died with Pikachu. If Nintendo truly wish to succeed with a third worldwide phenomenon they’ll need to find something about the character and use it to full effect, the ability to change appearance and abilities via sucking up the enemies is a prime example of what they can do. Yet Kirby’s past games were not always a triumph, although the main adventures were often good the spin off puzzle games were given low grades even on Nintendo’s home website. Kirby 64 was a good game but nothing more, the game was fun but was limited and in the end was just a 2D platformer with nicer graphics. Kirby’s Gamecube adventure was supposed to be the Kirby tilt n’ tumble game, this game was original released on the Gameboy Colour and by tilting the GBC you could move Kirby around a maze. This was given rave reviews and so in order to attempt to sell the GBA-Gamecube link up they did it again, tilting the GBA tilted a board on a Gamecube version of the game. That game has since been renamed Roll a Rama and Kirby has been dropped from the game. Instead Kirby is planning a Gamecube adventure, could is be Kirby’s first 3D outing? In the meantime we do have a promising little number on the Gameboy Advance Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland is scheduled for a Christmas release in America and promises to recapture Kirby’s older triumphs.
The Kirby cartoon airs in America on Fox Kids network this Saturday, the cartoon is to be called Kirby: Right Back at ya! And the early scenes of the programme look quite frankly disturbing. It is to do with the new look Fox attitude to Saturday morning Television. In an attempt to put up a good fight against Nickelodeon. Fox has suffered declining Saturday morning ratings as of late and the new look Saturday morning line up is supposed to counteract that. 4Kids the company behind the Pokémon cartoons is currently in charge of the new look morning and in particular the Kirby cartoons. Kirby’s cartoon outings have been around for nearly a year in Japan and its success is growing. In Japan Nintendo expect to make $150-200 million by the end of the year. Nintendo of Japan (the main HQ) are looking after Kirby related affairs in Asian countries. With the power of personality proving to be a large success for Nintendo the gamble of $10 million is very much worth it, after all if it does succeed that amount will appear tiny in retrospect.
Kirby is almost a lost Nintendo character, out of all the Nintendo characters he is taken the least seriously and maybe that is about to change. Naturally the success of Kirby over me depends on the playability of the games, but because this is Nintendo I doubt that’ll be a problem.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
But I’m not here to tell you the story of game crazes not only is it boring but also because I’ve done it before. Instead I’m here to tell you of Nintendo’s next attempt at creating a worldwide phenomenon, the major difference this time is the fact that it isn’t a new game character. Kirby is the next big thing that is preparing to crash into America and Europe after a year’s head start in Japan. Now Kirby unlike Pokémon and Mario before him isn’t a new games character and so a little brief about what he has been up to is necessary. Now Kirby is far more successful in Japan than the western world but that isn’t saying much, Kirby is one of the few games in the world that has succeeded because of its brilliance alone not due to advertisement. Kirby’s Dreamland was one of many Nintendo games that attempted to revolutionize platform games (to prove they’re the best at the genre they created) and succeed, Yoshi’s Island, Doki Doki Panic (Super Mario Brothers 2) are other such games and of course Sonic (but that wasn’t a Nintendo game). What was so different about Kirby is his ability to suck enemies and other such things up and take their ability and to some extent their form and use their abilities against them. This was necessary to complete many of the games puzzles and it was also damn fun, the character floated rather effectively as well. Kirby is a Warpstar knight in training. After crash landing on the planet Popstar, he becomes the sworn protector of Dream Land, where all the happy dreams in the universe originate. Bad storyline aside the games were awesome, the main series includes Kirby’s Dreamland (Game boy), Kirby’s Dreamland 2 (Game Boy), Kirby’s Adventure (NES), Kirby’s Dreamland 3 (SNES) and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. (N64). Now Kirby like Pokémon and Mario began life on a handheld system and also like Mario and Pokémon starred in many spin off games. These games include Kirby Avalanche (SNES puzzle game), Kirby’s Pinball land (often compared with Pokémon Pinball), Kirby’s Dream Course (SNES Golf game), Kirby’s Block ball (Game Boy Breakout style puzzler), Kirby’s Super Star (SNES party game), Kirby’s Star Stacker (Game Boy Puzzle game) and Kirby Tilt ‘n Tumble (Japanese only game where you tilted the screen to move Kirby, a Gamecube version was confirmed but Kirby was later removed from the game).
Kirby’s cult following increased with the release of Super Smash Brothers and Super Smash Brothers: Melee, he was one of the better characters and many fell in love with him. Future titles for Kirby include a Gamecube adventure title and the GBA game “Kirby’s nightmare in dreamland”. So after 5 normal games, 7 spin off games and 2 special appearances Kirby is ready for the big time. Nintendo of America will be using $10 million to unleash upon the world a new craze, the same guys who unleashed Pokémon on the western world. Plans that are already in action include the airing of the new Kirby cartoon (Kirby right back at ya!), Kirby toys in an American food chain, six weeks were spent on the logo, and hundreds more plans are being spent on making this the next big thing by flooding the market with everything from toys through to pajamas. Both the GBA game and the cartoon home video are set for December and November respectably. So as the world prepares for a new Nintendo triumph to go besides Pokémon and Mario what is the betting that they’ll succeed a third time? Surly as they have never failed before bets are that they will succeed, or have they never failed before?
Although the Legend of Zelda is called the greatest game of all time each time it is released and goes on to sell millions each time, it has never made $15-20 billion from non-game sales. And don’t you try and tell me Nintendo didn’t try to make it a craze either because they did. Zelda toys, stickers, bed sheets, posters and even a Zelda cartoon were all made and released but all flopped. Zelda failed to take the world by storm despite being Shigeru Miyamoto’s second best creation. Like Zelda, Kirby could fail to take off, after all it is just a Pink cute ball and the entire cute idea might have died with Pikachu. If Nintendo truly wish to succeed with a third worldwide phenomenon they’ll need to find something about the character and use it to full effect, the ability to change appearance and abilities via sucking up the enemies is a prime example of what they can do. Yet Kirby’s past games were not always a triumph, although the main adventures were often good the spin off puzzle games were given low grades even on Nintendo’s home website. Kirby 64 was a good game but nothing more, the game was fun but was limited and in the end was just a 2D platformer with nicer graphics. Kirby’s Gamecube adventure was supposed to be the Kirby tilt n’ tumble game, this game was original released on the Gameboy Colour and by tilting the GBC you could move Kirby around a maze. This was given rave reviews and so in order to attempt to sell the GBA-Gamecube link up they did it again, tilting the GBA tilted a board on a Gamecube version of the game. That game has since been renamed Roll a Rama and Kirby has been dropped from the game. Instead Kirby is planning a Gamecube adventure, could is be Kirby’s first 3D outing? In the meantime we do have a promising little number on the Gameboy Advance Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland is scheduled for a Christmas release in America and promises to recapture Kirby’s older triumphs.
The Kirby cartoon airs in America on Fox Kids network this Saturday, the cartoon is to be called Kirby: Right Back at ya! And the early scenes of the programme look quite frankly disturbing. It is to do with the new look Fox attitude to Saturday morning Television. In an attempt to put up a good fight against Nickelodeon. Fox has suffered declining Saturday morning ratings as of late and the new look Saturday morning line up is supposed to counteract that. 4Kids the company behind the Pokémon cartoons is currently in charge of the new look morning and in particular the Kirby cartoons. Kirby’s cartoon outings have been around for nearly a year in Japan and its success is growing. In Japan Nintendo expect to make $150-200 million by the end of the year. Nintendo of Japan (the main HQ) are looking after Kirby related affairs in Asian countries. With the power of personality proving to be a large success for Nintendo the gamble of $10 million is very much worth it, after all if it does succeed that amount will appear tiny in retrospect.
Kirby is almost a lost Nintendo character, out of all the Nintendo characters he is taken the least seriously and maybe that is about to change. Naturally the success of Kirby over me depends on the playability of the games, but because this is Nintendo I doubt that’ll be a problem.
Here’s to the future.
Dringo.
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Exactly the same with me and my brother!
I've downloaded the Kirby Nes game. It's pretty cool, and clever.
My brother always played as Kirby in Smash Brothers, although he's not as good in Melee as the original (and even then, Samus and DK were better anyway! ;-) )
Kirby sucks! Best special move in the world! :-D
My brother always played as Kirby in Smash Brothers, although he's not as good in Melee as the original (and even then, Samus and DK were better anyway! ;-) )
Kirby sucks! Best special move in the world! :-D
Apart from the excellent games, of course.
Yes, but usually Nintendo produce quality merchendise. The Pokemon franchise was just tacky.
All companies do it - Make money.
Why??? Nintendo always do that.
Nicely put together post, Dringo. Personally, I've never played a Kirby game (as they look like they've been designed for the younger generation) but I've found him great fun to use in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
If this new Kirby platform/adventure game looks promising and gets some good reviews I might just get it. On the craze part, I hope Nintendo don't go so over the top like they did with Pokemon, and try to cash in on everything. I lost a bit of respect for them during that craze.
If this new Kirby platform/adventure game looks promising and gets some good reviews I might just get it. On the craze part, I hope Nintendo don't go so over the top like they did with Pokemon, and try to cash in on everything. I lost a bit of respect for them during that craze.
Dr Duck wrote:
> You forgot to mention the game where you bounce a ball off the bit
> where the pavement meets the road.
>
> The video game version was kind fo lame though.
Ha ha very funny.
> You forgot to mention the game where you bounce a ball off the bit
> where the pavement meets the road.
>
> The video game version was kind fo lame though.
Ha ha very funny.
You forgot to mention the game where you bounce a ball off the bit where the pavement meets the road.
The video game version was kind fo lame though.
The video game version was kind fo lame though.
Ah knew they're would be something missing damn stupid nintendo.com.
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