Oh wow, like many gamers this generation of consoles [if you’re counting at home, this is the seventh generation of home consoles] hasn’t heard this topic before. What’s sad about it though is that if many of the once loyal Nintendo fans are jumping ship this generation, where is that going to leave the Big N next generation? Are they going to continue to try to market the Blue Ocean strategy in order to court even more casual gamers? Will they realize that the market that they penetrated does not buy nearly as many games as the “recreational” user does? Will they think that they won’t even need a new console since the Wii is still selling by the shit load? Who knows what the future will hold as the most important thing happening now is literally just that: what’s happening NOW.
When I was going up, my parents took my brother and my sisters to Montgomery Ward one day because that’s just what families do, except this time we came home with something awesome; a Nintendo Entertainment System! This wasn’t the first console that we had since we did have an Atari that we all used but it wasn’t until we played the NES we knew what gaming REALLY was. This is the conundrum that arises throughout my memories. If I liked games like Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and many more, why am I complaining about how they’re not going for my tastes when these early games are just as easy for little old grandma to pick up as it was for me? The thing is that these games were anything but easy. Super Mario Bros got extremely difficult in the later levels while Zelda II was just a sex crazed lion ready to fuck your eye sockets! Underneath those 8-bit visuals were games that were ready to train your reflexes, test your patience and, above all, make you feel like completing the game was an achievement. This is one of the parameters that Nintendo has failed me in this generation.
Having played Twilight Princess, Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and many of the other “traditional” games that are supposed to appease to my tastes, they left me craving more difficulty. Although my age has risen considerably since we first popped open the NES box, I found out that when a game is invigorating enough I will get extremely involved that sleep eludes me. A recent case of this was Gears of War for the 360. My friend and I, who are both reasonable men with responsibilities, threw ourselves into the gauntlet in order to complete this game on Insane Difficulty. What’s even more off the wall about this tale was that we had beaten it twice before but were so entranced by the game’s gameplay, visuals, interaction, variety, storytelling and difficulty that we HAD to do it. Then I bought me the Wii and my initial hopes were extremely high. Then this motherfucker decided to crush, broil, serve and then shit them out.
Upon first opening the packaging for the system, memories from my childhood came rushing back to me like no other system before it had done. I eagerly plugged in the system, popped in the game [Twilight Princess] and proceeded to save Zelda all over again. Like my first time of sex, it was over all to fast with some disappointment. I didn’t think that the game was over because it was, frankly, just too easy. Ironically, the preceding console game [The Wind Waker] was easy too but that game had character while Twilight Princess was just a brown mess filled with a DSL packed Link, an imp who doesn’t get the screen time she deserves and a bunch of weird creatures that are VERY suggestive. After completing this game it finally hit that it was over because, unlike Gears of War of Corruption, there is only one difficulty to complete the game at. Some may have found it hard while others may have found it just right. Well you know what? Fuck them! Give me options to at least increase the amount of time playing it rather than just saying, “Oh you’re done? Here’s the bill. Get out.” It was the exact same way with Super Mario Galaxy. Corruption actually bucked the curve and went and gave us three options like all good games should do which I am glad they did even if Hyper Mode Difficulty was easy. At least they gave the option to make it more difficult.
The most common rebuttal for these types of rants from people who like the games that come out for their system is that the Wii has tons of good games that provide hours of fun while providing unique control methods and this argument holds merit on some grounds. Where their convincing fails on me is that the games they talk about are ones that really have no progression methods that I’ve grown accustomed to. Also, like the proverb of teaching an old dog new tricks, I am extremely comfortable with complicated methods of controlling my character. I find games with no story progression to be pointless to play just because what is my motivation in playing it: high score? There are some exceptions to this “rule” in that I love music rhythm games with a passion while some puzzle games tickle my funny place so nice I dream about it. A theory I have concocted is with music games I really enjoy actually being a part of a song I like and with the introduction of the drums, I can actually get more involved than ever before. Puzzle games are a different story just because some are good while others suck. One puzzle game that completely turned me on was Polarium. This game wasn’t about quick reflexes or falling blocks but rather a game you could stop and think about for weeks on end only to get that “AH HAH!” moment while at work. Simply lovely.
Story progression was something I really didn’t care about when I was growing up but that might be because storytelling in-game wasn’t implemented all too well. As I got older I started going towards more sophisticated means of getting a really engrossing story which came from books, movies and even well laid out tracks on albums. Video games weren’t even on the radar when it came to narrative until 1999 when Final Fantasy VIII came out. VIII may be the asshole of the bunch, but its story entranced me because I had never seen a fully played out love story done in a video game that was full of emotion. The year before that Ocarina of Time had come out but that game’s story was almost as non existent and full of “ORLY” moments that it wasn’t what I was craving. VIII gave me a reason to actually feel for the characters, what they’re feeling and the rejection that every young boy feels in his life when the girl he loves gets possessed by an evil [but smokin’ hot] witch lady. This game single handedly changed my perception on the narratives found in this medium and only expanded the already filled database of wonderful stories inside my noggin. Just like books though, as I age the stories that I get more involved with are about things I like. At the time when I was introduced to stories within games, I was an angst ridden teenager with raging hormones whereas now I’m a mid twenties grownup who likes intense scenes rifled with everything that makes me enjoy being a guy (explosions, busty women and curb stomping).
Apart from ripping the Wii a new one, it did make me realize just what type of gamer I am. I like games that actually have some meat to them more than the bones of gameplay. I want motivation, options, satisfaction and, above all, a memory that will stay with me when I get older and even more decrepit. Shadow Link from Zelda II isn’t in my memory because he was just challenging but more because he was fun to play, he was my doppelganger who needed to get busted up, I had multiple ways of beating him and when I beat him I threw the controller to the floor in accomplishment. This memory is one that has stuck with me since I was five and will probably follow me to the grave. The Wii does have also one more redeeming quality within its gizzards and that is the ability to try to beat that fucker again on the Virtual Console because, as of writing, I still have yet to beat him a second time.