Friday 22 June 2007

Beginning to like Nintendo... I didn't see that one coming!

I 've been an avid videogamer for some years now. Although, currently undergoing one of my less "videogaming" periods, I am still getting informed about new game releases and related news quite regularly. A few days ago, I saw on the rack of a local newsagent's the game magazine "Edge". Not really my style this mag since I think it takes the medium way too seriously(although as an industry it has eclipsed the Hollywood money making machine by far) and I do prefer the approach of mags like "Games" (both of those mags are published in the UK). Regardless, what drove me to this particular issue of "Edge" was the cover. It was about Nintendo and the current success it is enjoying with its current handheld (DS) and home (Wii) consoles. I extended my right arm, picked up the mag from the rack, went to the counter, payed for the mag and left the newsagent's. At that particular moment it hit me "When the fuck did I become a Nintendo fan? Shit, I didnt see that one coming... oh man I am doomed beyond redemption".






Granted I dont particularly like Mario but this trailer is too nuts not to put on my blog. Plus you get to kick Mario's ass in this game, how cool is that. Now, if only they had Sonic the Hedgehog as an unlockable character...lol!



I'll provide some backstory to show you the depth of the identity crisis I was facing. My first meaningful games console was Sega Megadrive(Sega Genesis in the US) back in 1992 or thereabouts (it was the year Jurassic Park was out, you do the math...lol). I bought that console to play Sonic the Hedgehog which was way too cool a game not to play. Back then the other major player on the console market was Nintendo and its Super Famicom (or Super Nintendo Entertainment System "SNES" as it was marketed in the European market). SNES had been released with the game Street Fighter 2. I remember arguing with my friends a lot at the time about which console and consequently company was better, Megadrive or SNES, SEGA or Nintendo. It was a stupid fanboyish argument where there wasnt really any right or wrong. Still, it was important enough for me at the time to consider Nintendo as "the enemy" and whatever they made "shit". It didnt matter that my criticism was unfounded to a great extent, I was a teenage pawn of the corporate market that thrives upon such meaningless rivalries. Plus it was just fun to have a laugh with friends about our stupid little past time called videogaming.






T
he series that started it all for me...truth be told it all went downhill after the two first games in the series LOL! Oh, where have the good times gone...




Years passed, SEGA became a shadow of its former self to the point of stopping producing any hardware at all and solely focusing on either development of software or acting as a publisher for the software of smaller companies. Nintendo on the other hand kept doing what it did best, make profit, regardless if it had been corporately sidelined by Sony and the Playstation brand. Up to this point I still liked SEGA (I always have a soft spot for those suckers, lol), I dug the PLaystation game console and I didnt care at all about Nintendo. All these in the time period between 1996 -2000 or thereabouts.



Forward a couple of years and I was dealt with a major shock to my gaming sensibilities. One of the gaming franchises I adore, Resident Evil became an exclusive for the then newly released Nintendo console , Gamecube. It was a no-brainer really, I needed to have my Resident Evil fix so it was only a matter of time before I buy the damn thing. Never have I felt so shit buying a product, after all I bought the damn thing for a grand total of 4 Resident Evil games!






Although Resident Evil Outbreak was more of a failed experiment than a decent game its beautiful introduction illustrates greatly what Resident Evil is all about...enjoy!



It just felt wrong buying a Nintendo console. Still I did it.... Then after a couple of months passed by I got acquainted with some of the Nintendo franchises that up to that point I was only remotely aware of (I hate Mario by the way so he wasnt an option never has been...). Such franchises included , The Legend of Zelda, Metroid Prime and some other exclusive games. Playing those games I progressively became fond of the way Nintendo approaches gaming, a mentality permeating most of its "home grown" games. In most of its games you can see that this company makes games that address to the kid inside the adult or the kid in general(making huge profits along the way...lol!). Its games are just fun to play, they may seem too cartoony or too childish on the surface but break them down to their basic components and they are just fun with their colourful little worlds that remind you how it felt like when you were a kid and you were waking up really early in the morning to watch the Saturday cartoons. Trust me, I still like my "adult" Playstation 2 games and that console's library is huge but there is something about Nintendo... that is aluring. In 25 years of existence this company has ALWAYS made profits one way or another so they cant be totally stupid it seems.





Simply beautiful...



So here we are in the year 2007, Nintendo has already two consoles out the Wii and DS and both are equally original and fun. I think it will be the first generation of consoles that I'll probably buy two different home consoles "the really fun one" the Wii and one of the more "adult" ones (either an Xbox360 or a PS3 with the former having an advantage simply because I really hate SONY at the moment...). Still, all in good time...


Check out the cool ad below for the Wii (if there ever was a console for the casual gamer this is it, so you women out there start saving money, it is really fun it seems and not a complicated mess for the non-initiated gamer):








So where do I stand now as gamer? After all those years I still like SEGA (I wouldnt call myself a fan I am old enough not to be THAT stupid, lol!) but I have a soft spot for the big N as well. Truth be told, there is something awfully wrong seeing Sonic the Hedgehog appearing in Nintendo consoles' games and I 'll never get used to that (he will even co-star WITH fricking jackass Mario into a game about the upcoming Olympic games in China in 2008....and then they say I am twisted, lol!).


So here I am talking nice about Nintendo, oh man I feel so sick all of a sudden, what is this world coming to...

Till next time, take care all of you!

8 comments:

Shan said...

lol

1) Sonic... god that brought back so much memories... that little thing curling up into a ball and bouncing up and down hahaha

2) Resident Evil - shit, i played that once and just stopped. Too much stuff lol

3) I never got into console gaming but did get into pokemon when i was young lmao, i was a master mate, i had everything including celebi and mew back in the ages of silver/gold lol!

these days, it's all about computers such as fps/rts... enjoy what you enjoy i guess haha and have fun!!

Anonymous said...

Ah, good old Sonic the Hedgehog! Those were the days.
My sister currently has a Nintendo DS and plays Pokemon games on it.

K.J. said...

Dead, As a woman I can tell you I love the DS and the WII. I live with 3 boys and 1 husband...all addicted gamers. The DS and Wii are the first ones I've wanted to play. I love Brain Age for the DS and the Wii is just too fun. Nintendo really hit the mark with both products. My kids haven't looked at the playstation in months. Love your Blog.

Adam Silfven said...

It's funny you say that about women and the Wii. My wife has never shown any serious interest in gaming outside of occasionally playing a sports game with me after I beg/barter with her.

Then the other day we are sitting here watching Tv and she says "Why didn't you get a Wii instead of your 360?" Being a male, and therefore a smartass, I said "What difference does it make, you don't play games anyhow?" She responded to me "If you bought me a Wii I would, those commercials look like fun."

So needless to say, we now are plannig on buying a Wii for her and the kids once we come up with $250.

As far as Sega vs. SNES back in the day? SNES had all the cool games, but Sega had Sonic, so me and my best friend each asked or a different one for Christmas and dragged them back and forth to eah others houses everyday. We got the best of both worlds, and I loved them both. (I had the SNES by the way, still have it in fact.)

Deadpoolite said...

@shan

1)It was all about the excessive speed on offer for me. I mean SOnic was running sometimes so fast he got out of the screen literally:) Good fun times:)

2)It has escalated from a niche game to a well known franchise now. Man - shotgun- zombies the trilogy of happiness for every man:) (I am sick I know, guilty as charged,lol). Resident Evil 4 is a gaming masterpiece by the way even for someone that doesnt like Resident Evil in general, tremendous fun that game!

Having fun is what this is all about (DP closing his eye with a wink)!

Have a great weekend Shan!

2)Welcome Jo!

Both Nintendo DS and the Wii made gaming accessible to people that were intimidated by complicated controls and gamepads. At the end of the day it is all about having fun!

As for Sonic, I have a soft spot for the blue furball, that is where my console gaming started (although when I played SOnic Heroes for 5 mins I thought that would be where my console gaming would stop as well, lol, it was that bad , lol).

Good fun times indeed, simpler times... Have a great weekend!

3)Newbies overdose for DP today it seems:) Welcome k.j.!

You are a true modern hero you know, 3 kids and a husband addicted to games plus your own gaming fixes now and then. I think we have a candidate for the super mom of the year in our hands! Personally, I am really looking forward to try and make my parents play with the Wii, just thinking of my mom playing Wii bowling makes me giggle! I'd better have some funds ready to replace the TV in case she gets overexcited:)

Glad you like the blog and hope to talk to you soon again!

@comicgeek

The untapped potential of the casual gamer user base was a wise marketing target for Nintendo. People that were left out of gaming now feel part of the fun, great achievement from the company. All they need now is a game where a desperate housewife chases the husband around with a slipper like a wannabe Michael Myers (as in the Halloween one not the comedian,lol) because he got home late. Survival horror of the highest order:)

As for SEGA I loved it as a kid and Sonic was just so much cooler than that other italian plumber. Still got all my consoles by the way, I even got my Amstrad CPC 6128 stashed somewhere. I was never much into selling I am afraid.

Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

So many memories !

I envied all my friends who had a Nitendo when I was young. I only had a Gameboy with Tetris (and the Tetris music... oh no, it's stuck in my head again !).

I was a big gamer until probably high school. Then you know, I was back to reading. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

I go through phases where I would play non-stop, but only on computers. I had my SIMS phase, my Civilisation phase etc.

I can't get used to the true gaming now. Best I can do is play on my computer. I tried to play on the Playstation with my brother, but he kicked my ass. That was painful.

Graham Ettridge said...

Great post....

I guess I lived a sheltered childhood - my first insight into the gaming world (after the chunky hand held space invader games), was my first computer (Vic20 then Commodore64 for those who are old enough to remember) - the 20 minute wait for the game to load from the tape-cassette made it seem even more exciting. Then things moved on and then we progressed to a propoer windows PC with all new exciting games (that could be loaded onto a hard drive and played at will). Then came along any young adult's dream...the Playstation. Goodness such a choice... The "Final Fantasy" series kept me gripped for years. I don't get much time for games so much now - but I must admit that the PS3 catches my eye every time I walk through a Mall (I can here it calling, even now...."buy me!!")

Thanks for the trip down memory lane...heck I feel old now!

Take care ~ Graham

Deadpoolite said...

@Ζhu

Well Wii is changing all that it seems, it takes you few moments to get familiar with the controls of some games since they are designed to be very intuitive and motion based.

Shit, I started talking like a Nintendo stockholder again, better call an exorcist!!!

@getty72

I always got a soft spot for my Amstrad CPC 6128. Lots of good times with that machine as a kid, it is still operational after all these years mind you (at least I think it is, lol). Good think to know that if all Windows madness bursts into flames I can revert back to my Amstrad dinosaur,lol (well not really but it is the thought that counts, heh)

Take care all!