| nintendo is certainly revolutionizing the way games can be played - but they are not revolutionizing the games themselves as far as i'm concerned.
my brother has the wii and i've seen and played a bunch of the games. the gameplay design is interesting, but i felt it got a little annoying after a while. also, the difficulty (ex. mario) was noticeably scaled down in order to accommodate the new gameplay design. many of the games seemed markedly easier than the games i have and play on my 360.
one thing the wii has failed to do imo is create new genres/sub-genres of games. three examples that come to mind.
1. gears of war - there have been previous attempts at creating action-based tactical shooters (ex. operation winback), but this game truly redefined expectations of what those types of games should be like. up to the point of its release, there was not a single game out there that performed close to as well as gears did.
2. bioshock - an fps with roleplaying/character-building elements... a game where you get a multitude of user-defined powers in addition to weapons. you can play it using stealth, or run & gun. and, it was an fps that actually had a very well developed storyline that held up strong throughout the game.
3. mass effect - this game's characterized as an rpg, but it doesn't fit into any of the genre's as far as i'm concerned. the dialog system forces the player to make very difficult choices that effect gameplay. you can be as ruthless or nice as you want to be, as well as shades of grey in between. the action/fighting system can be run & gun similar to gears, or very tactical like a rainbow six kind of game (where you can command your partners to use various weapons & powers against objects & enemies). you can decide whether you want to manage the way your character levels up, or automate it (i.e. choosing between a traditional RPG setup or pushing it into the background).
all in all, nintendo is pushing the envelope as far as gameplay goes - but they are failing dismally at pushing video game genres forward. games can be much more than playing decade-old franchises and doing the same things you always used to do (find the bomb power up, then the power bombs, then the super missiles, then the screw attack, etc..). and, this is being proven on the 360's titles. |