yeah the problem is they aren't really building assymetrical games. Assymetrical gameplay in Watch Dogs and the Division looks exciting, but on Nintendo it just looks lame. It's unfortunate since the controller has so much potential.
Iwata on Asymmetrical Gaming
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 On 06/21/2013 at 06:50 PM by dustin See More From This User » |
Kotaku posted a story recently covering a Q&A with Iwata in which he argued that the big special thing about the Wii U "gamepad" was asymmetric gameplay and that they simply failed to sell gamers on how cool that is.
Nintendo Wants To Re-Convince You The Wii U Gamepad Is Cool
The problem with local asymmetric gameplay is two-fold. First, you can experience asymmetric gameplay with online gaming. It's been going on for years in games like Halo-- it's called, you drive and I shoot. Nintendo's second issue is the fact that Nintendo's version of asymmetric gameplay is really boring. The big sell on this has been modes where one player has the bird's eye view with the tablet controller while the other players are wandering a maze.
The right way to do asymmetric gameplay is something like an online Star Wars game where player-one flies the Falcon while player-two fires the guns. Again-- you drive and I shoot.
Iwata argued that Nintendo needs to adopt a new phrase to express what the "gamepad" is about. He said, "As for the software going to be released from now on, we would like to describe the experience that the GamePad provides with a different expression in order to adequately convey its necessity to consumers and increase the number of consumers that think, “Indeed it is good to have a GamePad.”
The problem isn't the message in selling their asymmetric gameplay. The problem is they have no primary use for this controller for mainstay games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Bioshock, and GTA. The problem is Nintendo is focusing on software like Mario Land 2, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, and Pikmin instead of 3D adventure games, shooters, and free roam worlds.
Nintendo cannot just change the message. Nintendo has to change the types of games they are developing to titles like Metroid or their next Goldeneye (in terms of role).
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