Steps to Salvation - How Nintendo Can be Saved

SO! If any of you guys are like me, you grew up with Nintendo. From the first time I played Pokémon Yellow to Super Mario 64, I knew this would be my gaming company of choice. Although I eventually picked up the PS3, that doesn’t stop me from grabbing a GameCube controller and whooping my friends at Super Smash Bros. I’ve always had fun playing Nintendo games and have rarely had complaints in the past, but lately, Nintendo has been disappointing me. This entry is going to cover a couple of simple solutions that have the potential to drastically change Nintendo for the better. To get a better idea of where I’m coming from let’s talk about the Wii. 

             Now, when the Wii was first announced I knew I was going to get it regardless of the positive or negative hype. It’s Nintendo; therefore, I will get it. I was not going to miss a chance to play a new Super Smash Bros or any Zelda game, as was the majority of old school Nintendo fans. Nintendo knew this though; they knew Nintendo fans would buy it no matter what, so they took advantage of this and shifted its focus. They focused on drawing in new gamers, people who wouldn’t normally think to buy a gaming system. How did they do this? The Wii’s motion sensor.  

The Wii’s niche was the motion sensor, bringing non-gamers into the mix by introducing something that appealed to everyone and their mothers. This urged them to do something they wouldn’t have done in the first place, buy a gaming console. What’s wrong with that?  What’s wrong with getting mom, dad and grandma into the gaming world? Practically everything. Don’t get me wrong, it was a noble effort, but a wasted one.

             So everyone buys a Wii because the motion sensor lets us play sports indoors. The family comes together to talk trash while playing Wii sports and Rayman Raving Rabbits keep us quite entertained. For a while, it has an appeal and I’m not going to lie, I had fun playing Rayman with my mom. I was surprised; my mom was actually playing video games. Now I don’t know about you guys, but that is a major freaking accomplishment. But a week passes, and nobody cares for the motion sensor anymore. Besides those party games like Rayman and Wario Ware, the motion just became annoying. While the Wii became a party hit, it was a gamer flop.

Nintendo ends up shooting themselves in the foot because now that the motion sensor phase is over, it’s time to make real games: Super Smash Bros, Zelda, Mario series, etc. Did they really think gramps would play Zelda? Hell no. What Wii forgot was that it’s the diehard Nintendo fans that buy the games, not the non-gamer. We (real gamers) put food on Nintendo’s metaphoric table. The non-gamer is perfectly content just playing Wii sports, they don’t need any more than that. So now the hardcore gamers are stuck with a shitty controller made for non-gamers. This brings me to the first thing that needs to change, the controller.

 My buddy TheDevicer and me duking it out. Check him out on YouTube, hes pretty big on brawl and such.

Reaching Controller Nirvana

So let’s take a stroll down the evolution of Nintendo controllers. We start with NES, which doubles as brick. This was fine, we were all new to gaming anyway, what the fuck do we know about a good controller? Previous controllers (Atari and such) were just a joystick and a button, making this an obvious improvement. This controller also sets the formula for the rest of Nintendo’s controller history, so for the first controller, we’re off to a good start.

Next is SNES. Finally…Nintendo realized that we’re men goddamn it, and that our controller needs to have some sexy curves. The controller now feels nice in our big, burly hands.  What could be better, we have four more buttons to push and play with. (triggers and X Y buttons) This gives the game developers more range in the gaming department.  All is well with the world. 

So next is the N64, and a couple of things happened. Firstly, Nintendo decided to go with the flow and copy Playstation lead by adding grips. Because let’s face it, we men want more control on our wome- I mean, controller. The Problem: Now we’ve got one too many fucking grips. The three pronged beast was a monstrosity. It was just too big, and three grips? Really? If you ask anyone who ever owned or played the N64, they’ll tell you they never touched the grip on the far left. It was clumsy and annoying, but on the bright side, it did bring us camera control buttons which later evolves into a camera joystick. All in all, this entire controller was an epic fail. 

And now we’ve reached it, controller Nirvana, the GameCube. The GameCube controller finally got everything right. It had the sexy curves, it had the grips (the N64 got a sex change), the button layout was fluid, triggers were actually triggers, and the joysticks were located where they should be. Perfection. It took them a while, but they finally found their go-to controller. Things were looking bright again, with releases like Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, AND Super Smash Bros Melee, how could you go wrong?  Little did the world know, Nintendo would soon throw it all away.

*sigh* Well we’re now in the present, and what do we have to show for it? The Wii remote and Nunchuk. Which is basically two sticks connected by a rope. Nintendo decided to scrap everything they had worked for in the past, and have a brand new controller. They decided to throw away 21 years of controller development, and for what?? To accommodate the stupid fucking motion sensor! This was supposedly done to broaden their range of gamers. Why? Were we not good enough for you Nintendo?  

Where do I start with the Wii remote? Firstly it’s a stick, what happen to those beloved curves? Our controller is now some sort of phallic symbol, yuck. The buttons are just all over the place and the B button is now a trigger. Sure, let’s just forget that Nintendo had engraved the standard button layout since the NES. The X and Y buttons are now 1 and 2, and located in the most inconvenient place on the controller. They were no longer an option in a game unless they revealed your map or menu, making them practically useless. Oh, but let’s not stop there, let’s make the Nunchuk a separate accessory so you have to pay extra to have a joystick. Seriously? How evil is that? When you buy a Wii remote, you’re essentially buying half of a controller. That’s just not fair to the entire gamer community who has stuck with you from the beginning. 

Though I give the controller a lot of crap, I’ll admit, it was good for party games like Wario Ware, Rayman Mario Party, etc. But for that, just make the Wii remote an accessory. Have the Wii come with a new GameCube-like controller,that way gamers are happy AND you lure in a new crowd with a Wii-remote accessory. Hell, they already have half a million controller accessories so what’s wrong with making the Wii remote one? 

            What really annoys me is that the Wii did have good games, but all of them were at a handicap because of the Wii remote. Games like Metroid Prime Corruption or Twilight Princess did what they could with the Wii remote, but the truth is they would have greatly benefited from an actual controller. The GameCube controller would have worked wonderfully for these games, but Nintendo would not stop pushing for that motion sensor. 

            Then you have games like Super Smash Bros Brawl, I mean, who ever used the Wii remote as a controller option? No one. Now, how about GameCube controller? Everyone! This just proves my point that if you give gamers the option between a GameCube controller and a Wii remote GameCube beats it out every single time. It’s unfortunate, but the default controller for one of the best games for your system is not the controller of choice. Every Wii game, besides The Wii Fitness and Sports Games, would have worked exceptionally with a GameCube controller.

Nintendo’s Salvation

          So here is step one on the path to Nintendo’s Salvation: Remember who your audience is. Sure you should always try to get fresh meat in the gaming department, but if you’re sacrificing a major chunk of your fan base for it, it’s not worth it. Nintendo’s head was in the right place by thinking ahead with motion sensor technology. If you look now you see the X-box 360 and Playstation 3 are just now getting motion sensor accessories but, an accessory should not be the foundation for an entire gaming system. Just because Playstation and X-box are your rivals, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them. (You would think Pokémon would have taught Nintendo this lesson…I’m sure Gary Oak is laughing somewhere.)

          Next, fix the controller. It’s sad that this needs to be said so late in the game, but if you look at Playstation systems, their controller has barely changed from one system to another. This is because they follow this one simple rule: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. From the NES and SNES there was a clear, logical progression. I don’t know what the fuck happened with N64, but the GameCube was also a strong step in the right direction. Then the Wii remote came and I cried a little. But that’s in the past, let’s just move on and fix things. Bring back the GameCube controller, or something similar. It’s as simple as that. We have the technology, we can rebuild it. 

          I stumbled upon this picture (on the right) a while back and I thought the idea was fantastic. Though it’s a little late, (because of the announcement of the Wii-U) it still would have been nice to see. This is just proves Nintendo is capable of something like this. Speaking of the Wii-U, I’m absolutely terrified. The controller is scaring me *sigh* will Nintendo ever learn? Oh well, another topic to discuss on a later date. Well, that’s all for this post. I plan on making a second part soon, so be on the lookout.

Your Nerdy Nintendo Lover,

Randomthing34

PS. My mom used to pwn me at Rayman Raving Rabbits and Wario Ware. It hurt my gamer pride a bit….maybe that’s why I hate the Wii…