Nintendo & Hardcore Game(r)s

Published on July 22, 2008 By Al3xandr0s In Gaming

As a result of its E3 conference, Nintendo has been critiqued heavily over abandoning the hardcore gamer therefor here I am, once again playing the devil's advocate.

I have to say I find that kind of response peculiar as Nintendo may actually have the largest selection of hardcore first party titles available, while the DS has been an outlet for niche hardcore titles like the dungeon crawling roguelike Etrian and Shiren series. Perhaps the problem is that even their serious games, like Zelda and Mario for example, can also appeal to the casual crowd for various reasons. This however really shouldn't be a problem for any gamer as long as they can get their hours worth of entertainment.

In any case, even though Nintendo didn't showcase any of the first or third party hardcore focused games during their E3 conference, does it mean all that much when many such games are actually being developed as we speak? I'll attempt to list the titles which made an impression to me, feel free to look them up on your favorite video and screenshot websites for additional eye candy. I should note many of these were actually available during E3 even though the media seemed to ignore their existence only to constantly bring up Nintendo's lacking conference. Coverage really wasn't up to par making new information hard to find.

Mad World
Blood. Violence. Gore. Whatever, it's all about fun and this seems to deliver. You can't really expect anything less from the people responsible for titles such as God Hand and Okami.

Castlevania Judgement
The title doesn't try to compete with the likes of Soul Calibur as expected and provides an alternative fighting game with as much emphasis on dodging as on blocking and attacking, interactive levels (note the zombies in the graveyard) and some great looking, over the top special moves which fit the series it is based on. If random anime shows can have fighting games, so can Castlevania.

De Blob
I urge everyone to try De Blob for the PC, a student project of yesteryear, which can give you a clue of what to expect from this, though judging by all the Wii trailers it has much improved aesthetics, style, controls and variety. I get a "Katamari meets Jet Set Radio" vibe and that's a classic waiting to happen.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI
A renowned strategy game series returns with many improvements, changes and enhancements. You wanted hardcore, right?

Call of Duty: World at War
More than enough effort seems to be done on the visuals this time, while with COD3's great reviews for the Wii, largely thanks to the great controls it offered, this sequel could be a must have.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Namco know how to make a good RPG, and this sure looks like one. It also adds a monster capturing and training element to an already great series for that extra addictive twist.

Little King Story
I get all kinds of good vibes from this. It looks kiddy, but it seems close to the Heroes of Might & Magic series, except done in full realtime rather than have separate exploration sections and turn based battles. Charmingly unique is the least I can say.

SPRay
This could be a grand adventure of the Zelda / Okami type with a few welcome gameplay twists. Why not then?

Deadly Creatures
A unique premise with pleasant visuals and reported great use of the Wii controller. What more can you ask for?

Monster Lab
What I saw looked like a combination of standard adventuring and pokemon stadium style battles complete with fully customisable monsters and locational damage. Explore, find parts, build monsters, fight other monsters, repeat. It sounds like fun.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
A fully featured, hardcore console dungeon crawler / roguelike. You really can't go wrong with this much improved sequel of an underrated original Playstation series.

The Conduit
Hopefully the FPS to show you can have both a good single player campaign and a robust online portion on the Wii. Don't let us down!

Wario Land: Shake It!
I saved Nintendo's only game in this list for last (sort of*). Mario's rival has always been able to provide a different kind of fun which should be welcome by all types of gamers. This title looks like a glorious return to his roots complete with beautifully animated characters, colorful environments and all around fun gameplay.

*Here are a few games which weren't actually demonstrated during E3 (unless they merely weren't covered by the media), but are most certainly on their way and looking promising.

Fatal Frame (Project Zero) IV
Be afraid. Again. A potential return to form for the creepy series.

Fragile
A brand new Namco RPG with a different, creepy, almost post apocalyptic atmosphere, involving some sort of epidemic.

Sky Crawlers
Anime inspired combat flight game from the developers of the Ace Combat series (yes, that would be Namco once again).

Shiren the Wanderer 3
The latest part of a hardcore dungeon crawling roguelike series which has been receiving great reviews on the DS.

FFCC: The Crystal Bearers
An anticipated, unique and pretty action RPG from Square.

Arc Rise Fantasia
Another promising Japanese RPG with unique ap based battles.

Tenchu 4
A welcome return to the original creators for the celebration of the series' 10th anniversary. It already looks very promising.

This list only includes my favorite promising titles and doesn't mention multiplatform games like Crash and Spyro, Sonic, Tomb Raider, The Force Unleashed, Ultimate Alliance 2, the various Lego titles, Dead Rising, etc, except for the COD game which I believe we can all agree will offer a different enough experience on the Wii. Upcoming hardcore WiiWare titles like Megaman 9 and Animales de la Muerte were also skipped for the sake of a future blog and actually getting this one published while E3 is recent.

We also know that Nintendo themselves are working on new AAA titles as well, Zelda, Disaster: Day of Crisis and Pikmin being a few of those. They'll obviously take a long time to get right, especially since Zelda is going to be an all new adventure and not just "Zelda as we know it" so it will take a lot of experimenting with Nintendo's dedication to quality. I'd prefer all these to start showing up 1-2-3 years from now than see them today looking like expansions of the last games instead of all new titles. And who really thinks we won't be seeing more of Metroid, Pokemon, F-Zero, Bomberman, Starfox, Mario and many other quality series?

There are bound to be many other third (and first) party projects we don't know of (like Sega's two secret projects announced with Mad World) or know very little about (like Monster Hunter 3) but may get to see at Leipzig, TGS, or other shows and future E3s. Good games usually take sometime after all.

It's also worth noting that, with the relatively low penetration of the GameCube, there are many worthy last generation titles for Nintendo newcomers to enjoy, while they honestly don't lack compared to any fancy next generation games. Let's not forget the Virtual Console, you really can't get much more hardcore.

All in all, I believe the Wii has and will have a lot to offer for the hardcore gamer. I hope this blog helped some of you Wii owners (or potential buyers) see there's little to worry about and that the future of Nintendo's console is looking very bright indeed, no matter what your gaming habbits may be. Game on!

Comments

MagicwillNZ

on Jul 22, 2008

What hardcore gamer are they talking about? The kind which own X-Box 360 and PS3, who play far too much Halo and that wouldn't touch a Wii with a 10 foot pole? Nintendo hasn't abandoned anybody who wasn't a nintendo fan anyway.

Maybe it's because the FPS's on the Wii aren't... uh... hyped enough. As far as I'm concerned, the way the Wiimote is designed has made the FPS more fun than it could ever be with a regular game pad. Still can't beat a mouse and keyboard.

Ravenblack

on Jul 23, 2008

I think gamers take things too personally sometimes. I fail to see what the big deal with Nintendo's comment is really. As usual, they just want to reach out to a wider audience. Maybe they could have put it across a bit better.

Looks like a nice lot of titles coming out, which is what the wii needs. I think wii needs to get over the "what wii can do and others can't" mode and actually start being like the ds and be about playing innovative and fun games. For most part, it's the lack of really interesting titles and awkward controls that put me off getting a wii for myself.

Vinraith

on Jul 24, 2008

The DS is packed with Rogue-likes (Izuna 1&2, Shiren the Wanderer), Wizardry throwbacks (Etrian Odyssey 1&2) and deep strategy RPG's (Rondo of Swords, the upcoming Fire Emblem). In a lot of ways, it's the last bastion of some hardcore genres. This criticism of Nintendo, frankly, makes no sense to me.

JesseJ

on Jul 24, 2008

It will be a disapointing year on the Wii for hardcore gamers. Nintendo's next hardcore games are still early in their development cycle, and third-party games for Wii tend to be shovelware. I can't think of a good hardcore game for Wii that isn't made by Nintendo. Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii are all products of Nintendo.

Al3xandr0s

on Jul 25, 2008

I disagree, all the games in my list above are highly promising either parts of proven for their quality series or from respected developers who have shown they don't have the intention of mere fast cash ins. I'd say at least half of the titles will be must haves for any gamer as long as they're even remotely into the respected genres.

Also, adding this little gem from Namco, this makes it the fourth game they're doing for the Wii. Two Tales of games, Sky Crawlers, and this one, Fragile. Maybe I should have added links to the previous games on my blog but it's not hard to look up videos and see their potential for greatness, it's not mere concept art or something, many of them are far in development, many of them already tried out by the media, and again most importantly, many of them from respected developers. Pessimism is unfounded at this stage.

JesseJ

on Jul 25, 2008

I have been disappointed with the promise of third-party Wii titles in the past. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords [censored version of Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones with poorly tacked on remote and nunchuck controls and PS2 quality graphics], Far Cry Vengeance, Red Steel, Soul Calibur Legends [Namco], and Tomb Raider: Anniversary [poorly tacked on remote and nunchuck controls and PS2 quality graphics] didn't live up to their hype. A lot of third party titles have PS2 quality graphics or worse when the Wii is capable of Xbox quality graphics. Only first party games such as Metroid Prime 3 and Super Mario Galaxy push the graphical capabilities of the Wii to it's limits. Third party publishers don't even bother to push the Wii to it's limits because it's the weakest console out of the three graphically. I am speaking as a Wii owner who has only found joy in first party games and virtual console downloads when it comes to Wii. I have gone to PC and PS3 for the good third party games that live up to their hype.

Al3xandr0s

on Aug 01, 2008

Well, 90% of the shitty titles you mention are Ubisoft. Hint: Don't trust Ubisoft's ports until they're proven to have improved (don't second guess, read up on them). Every system has an extremely high ratio of shovelware compared to the good titles available. The Playstation must have had actual THOUSANDS of titles, how many were worthy? 50? 100? If you had tried 10 of them and thought they sucked, would you dismiss basically a whole generation of console games and stick to the unsupported (but still my favorite) Saturn and PC? The Wii's success is similar to that situation.

As for quality third party titles on the Wii, they're starting to prove themselves. Stick with actually reading reviews. If you ignore all of the titles I mentioned just because of a general "third party games suck" rule, then you're the one who will have missed out.

Going off on a rampage calling every current AND future multi platform game a watered down experience with crappy waggle controls is absurd, but I suppose you can have your own opinion on things. Just don't present it as a fact, especially when you sound so definite about the future and have nothing to back up your claims other than presenting mostly unrelated bad games. If I mentioned Sonic on the PS3 would that mean Valkyria Chronicles will be shit also, both being by Sega? Somehow, I don't think so.

Already released third party games which received good reviews (even though some of them were VERY niche titles or mere ports) include Sega's Sonic and the Secret Rings, LucasArts' Lego games, Suda 51's No More Heroes, EA's Boom Blox and Capcom's Resident Evil 4. Various FPS games like Call of Duty 3 and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 were very well received and often rated better than the other consoles' counterparts thanks to the added Wii controls.

For even more recent games, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon from my initial list has already received the first reviews and despite being a VERY niche title also, it's been receiving top marks accross various mainstream media proving its worth. Moreover, Famitsu has rated Namco's Tales of game with a 35/40, while Shiren 3 (another great dungeon crawler not in my intiial list) also got 35/40.

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