Creativity is Unnecessary
In talking to many people about the Nintendo Revolution, the main selling point is not the controller. It’s the backwards compatibility. Everyone is excited about playing classic Nintendo games over again. If you look at a lot of titles these days, everyone is jumping on the re-releasing bandwagon: “Midway Arcade Treasures 1-3”, “Taito Legends”, “Sonic Gems/Mega Collection”, “Sega Classics Collection”, “Tecmo Classic Arcade”, “Namco Museum”, “Intellivision Lives”, “Capcom Classics Collection”, “Megaman Anniversary Collection”, and the list keeps going on and on. Nintendo, always ahead of the trends, was pioneering this with “Super Mario All Stars” for the Super Nintendo, long before the current re-release craze. So, this leads me to believe that we as game developers no longer need to make new content. We just need to repackage old good games and sell them over again. Think about it: count how many times you bought “Tetris”. A lot more than once, I’ll tell you. I even had “Welltris”, a “Tetris” clone in a well where the pieces could go on four walls and a floor. Man, that game was sweet. The only reason people over 10 buy a GameBoy is to play the re-releases of Nintendo games.
If your conscious bothers you when you re-release a game that is less than 10 years old, you can just do a straight port with updated graphics, like the GameCube version of “Resident Evil”, “Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes”, and the oft-rumored “Final Fantasy VII” remake. If you want to get really snazzy, you can “update” classic gems. There’s a lot of this going on: “Ninja Gaiden”, “Metal Gear Solid” (The BIG G will bet you that 99% of the MGS fans never even heard of, let alone played the Nintendo game), “The Bard’s Tale” and the new “World of Final Fantasy VII” or whatever blasphemy Square is doing to their precious IP. (Did I say blasphemy? I meant... errr... What a great business move! Saps like myself will totally buy anything that says “Final Fantasy VII” on it... Well, I suppose I won’t buy the cell phone games, but still...)
So, why haven’t all the publishers caught on yet? It’s essentially free to re-release all your old gems, and people will buy them! Someone at Interplay or Acclaim should be taking notes. I’m sure they could make a “Best of Interplay” (Fallout, Descent, Battle Chess, The Bard’s Tale [the original, not the remake], Out of This World) or “Acclaim Classics” (NBA Jams, Turok, Arch-Rivals, Smash TV, Mary-Kate and Ashley: Girl’s Night Out, and... well, it doesn’t matter what’s on it, as long as the name is cool, people will buy it). These products would save their bankrupted companies, unless they already liquidated their IP, so they couldn’t re-release their back catalog.
If your conscious bothers you when you re-release a game that is less than 10 years old, you can just do a straight port with updated graphics, like the GameCube version of “Resident Evil”, “Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes”, and the oft-rumored “Final Fantasy VII” remake. If you want to get really snazzy, you can “update” classic gems. There’s a lot of this going on: “Ninja Gaiden”, “Metal Gear Solid” (The BIG G will bet you that 99% of the MGS fans never even heard of, let alone played the Nintendo game), “The Bard’s Tale” and the new “World of Final Fantasy VII” or whatever blasphemy Square is doing to their precious IP. (Did I say blasphemy? I meant... errr... What a great business move! Saps like myself will totally buy anything that says “Final Fantasy VII” on it... Well, I suppose I won’t buy the cell phone games, but still...)
So, why haven’t all the publishers caught on yet? It’s essentially free to re-release all your old gems, and people will buy them! Someone at Interplay or Acclaim should be taking notes. I’m sure they could make a “Best of Interplay” (Fallout, Descent, Battle Chess, The Bard’s Tale [the original, not the remake], Out of This World) or “Acclaim Classics” (NBA Jams, Turok, Arch-Rivals, Smash TV, Mary-Kate and Ashley: Girl’s Night Out, and... well, it doesn’t matter what’s on it, as long as the name is cool, people will buy it). These products would save their bankrupted companies, unless they already liquidated their IP, so they couldn’t re-release their back catalog.
posted by The BIG G at 8:29 PM
4 Comments:
I've always thought that Nintendo has been making wayyy too many remakes. Super Metriod was a remake of Metriod. Metriod Zero Mission was a GBA remake of Metriod. Star Fox 64 was a damn good remake of the SNES Star Fox. The Classic NES Collection (RIPOFFS!) are remakes as well.
I'm pretty sick of Nintendo remakes. They have such great characters, but they hardly use them for anything else besides sequels and remakes.
SoulBrotherRool: You aren't seeing this from Nintendo's perspective. Remakes or Nintendo characters = guaranteed revenue. Creating new good games? That requires a lot of talent and is a big risk. For the investors, remakes and sequels make the most sense. For the gamer it makes sense too because playing new and unfamiliar games is scary and unpleasant. I'd rather stick with the safe choice and play something familiar.
Idiot, do you even comprehend how much illegal emulation people do nowadays? This Virtual Console is a way for Nintendo to achieve to things:
- For a very small fee (if not free), allow to PLAY OLD games. Meaning, that it will be design to deminish the impact of illegal emulation somewhat, or just allow Nintendo get a share out of it.
- Allow real hardcore gamers like me, a bum like you not included, to play oldies... Of course, if other companies won't allow Nintendo to release their old games on the Virtual Console we will be missing a hell lot.
Oh, by the way, I must say that you fool are nothing more than a Nintendo basher. Cause you completely choose to ignore that just about every freaking company enjoys releasing remakes of their current games. Just look at Capcom, SEGA, SQUARE, and others, they make profits when making their colections.
Martlur: I know reading is difficult, but let me correct you on a few things. Firstly, Nintendo is getting a share of it without the virtual console since it re-releases all of its old games (NES Classic series?). Secondly, I play oldies. I play a ton of oldies. I have over 100 NES games, and several working NESes.
Thirdly, I have all of Nintendo's (non-portable) consoles, and I like them all. I'm not a Nintendo-basher.
Fourthly, here's probably the most important thing to realize: this wasn't an article targeting Nintendo. In fact, I called out all the companies that you mentioned in your list. Here's a link, since apparently you didn't read the text of the article. Here's the quote:
“Midway Arcade Treasures 1-3”, “Taito Legends”, “Sonic Gems/Mega Collection”, “Sega Classics Collection”, “Tecmo Classic Arcade”, “Namco Museum”, “Intellivision Lives”, “Capcom Classics Collection”, “Megaman Anniversary Collection”
That named Capcom and Sega. Later, I talk about Square:
“the new “World of Final Fantasy VII” or whatever blasphemy Square is doing to their precious IP.”
So this article wasn't about Revolution at all. It was about ALL companies re-releasing old material.
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