Nintendo supporting indies?????

#21 I recently emailed nintendo about asking them how they plan to get smaller devs on board... because the vast majority of us indie developers don't have the dinero to purchase a $10,000 SDK. We'll see what they have to say... butif I could get my game on Revolution... I'd jump at the chance and so would my team.

#22 I didn't mean to say that racing games are shallow, or easy, what I was saying is, it doesn't matter if you switch which button does what, it's still going to be the same mechanic, I have a freind who is a decent gamer, but he played Grand Turismo a LOT, I always try to avoid playing a racing game against him, 'cuz he's just really good at racing games, and he wasn't until he got GT that he started being so good. Even now, he doesn't play GT very much but he'll still own me if I try and play him in any racing games. Not that only racing games have this extreme similarity, in fact, many genres tend to produce very similar games, like FPS games, i'm good at them in general, I wasn't at first, but when I got Halo, and played it a lot, i went and played UT and could still kick my freinds' asses even though i'd never played before, same with fighting games, I have Soul Calibur2 and the other day when I played my freinds in Tekken, I won, despite the fact I had never played before. It's not like this is a bad thing though, it means that people are going to have a familiarity with certian games, which can make the developers' jobs a lot easier.

What I meant by the stuff about graphics wasn't at you, it was just a general statement about how they usually tend to trun certian people away, even if they give it a chance and play it, they still aren't drawn in because of they might not be used to the graphical style, for many, Nintendo's style makes them feel like a little kid playing Zelda 2 and they like that, on the other hand it turns some of the same demographic away, because they feel it's too childish. and lot's of teenagers tend to have a strange, uber negative reaction to childish graphics.

Back on the main topic, I hope that Nintendo's willing to release cheaper DEV kits, it would be a nice change to be able to make content for consoles like with PCs. Actually, come to think of it, if they get lot's of dev kits into Indie's hands they could gain a big advantage in the console wars, one reason PC games are so succesful is cuz of all the content you can get later on, like with Half-Life and UT. It would also greatly increase their library. I think that they're main reluctance though would be that they wouldn't have much control over the content if they start handing out ton's of dev kits. I think they're afraid lot's of crap would end up coming out for they're system, I beleive that the whole BMX XXX thing scared them about being too open. It was one of the only times they were open to something Mature targeted and it became a horrible abomination.
What do you guys think??

#23 You mentioned Mario and Sonic. Has anyone else noticed that Sega's games a turning horrible? Like the past few sonic games have qualified as decent and mediocre, they haven't realeased a good Sonic game since their Dreamcast got dicontinued, and I heard that they're Sega Classic collection is horrible. Now they're going even further down the drain with their Shadow game, hedgehogs should NOT have guns!! I think that they're trying to copy Devil May Cry. and Sega used to put out such good games too.

#24 Well ... they weren't doing good financially even with their innovative games ... they had to try something different.

#25 Sega is odd, period... Even when they do something good, it seems to backfire on them. Of course the best, and most original game that they've come up with the past few years has been Super Monkey Ball, and it didn't even sell as well as it should have.

I stared out on consoles, maybe it would have been different if I had a computer as a kid, maybe not... I do find those 'Nintendo' games fun though.(ESP old school Mario... I STILL play SMB 1 through SMW to this day)

#26 Wheee... with all the classic NES and SNES games on Revolution... we'll finally have some games on next gen consoles with real game-play value!

Well.. maybe that is a bit unfair, but truly good games are few and far between these days. I can probably count the games on PS2 and Xbox that were worth the time it takes to put the DVD in the drive on one hand.

Nintendo does well because they are still releasing awesome, fun titles almost 100% of the time. In the last couple of years at least half the games that I have really gotten into playing have been by Nintendo.

#27 Different? That's riddiculous, if that game is anywhere NEAR as succesful as Devil May Cry, I think i might kill myself, but first i'd have to COMPLETELY reevaluate my vew on what is a good game, or maybe not, maybe WILL be a good game, but that would be a MIRACLE, if Sega can pull off something like getting it to be as good as DMC, i think they could just as well jump back into the console wars RIGHT NOW and get a 50% market share. No offense, but i don't think it'll happen, maybe it will, but only if they put a lot of effort, time, and care into this game, even then i think it would take a second or third sequel to pull off somethin like that. I liked their games before, but now they're VERY far from their previous luster, in fact, can somone PLEASE point me to a good Sega game on the Xobx, Gamecube, or PS2 game made in the last 3 years(i want to exclude Jes Set Radio Future, an XB launch title).

#28 Why is it ridiculous? They're not doing good with their usual approach so ... try making the hero a little darker and a little more violent ... that's what seems to succeed these days. Honestly, the last Sega game I played was Sonic Heros ... it seemed decent ... about their usual fare.

#29 A lot of people really enjoyed Ninja Gaiden. I'm not really into this type of beatem up. But for what it was worth, it was very cool, and easily one of the best in that genre. I never liked many Sega games, I liked Vitua tennis a lot though :) My favourite DC game by far.

I recently played Super monkeyball for the forst timeon Xbox. I didn't like it much at all, thought the way the screen tilt was done was really poor and could have been much better. I prefer the super hamspter ball game by a long shot. Monkeyball could have been cool though, I justfelt it lacked some polish. I was surprised how poor some things were like the character animation in cut scenes.

#30 Heh, I loved Super Monkeyball... Of course I didn't pay much attention to the cutscenes(it's a stinkin puzzle game, there's no need for a 'story'). The puzzle portion of the game is alright, but it's the party games that really make the game shine(well, some of them... Monkey Bowling is the best, Monkey fight is probably the worst)

#31 Hmmm, I never played the party games, but I'm not really much of a social gamer unless it's on xbox live. playing games is usualy something I do to fill in the time like other people watch TV. Probably something that develops from growing up with computer games and simulations in the early 80's.

#32 Interesting how different people approach gaming - I am almost exactly the opposite of what you describe Adrian; I really like games as a social experience, and quickly get bored playing any but the most compelling games alone.

Over the last year probably 90% of my time on consoles has been with social games like Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers... alternately co-op ala Dynasty Warriors is also amusing.

#33 Yeah, I used to be a solo gamer ... but now I won't play anything unless I can play with someone else. Monkey Ball ... I basically only played the party games to begin with ... my favorite was Monkey Target!

#34 It used to be that, in order to get "in" with the N, you had to either have a proven track record of solid games or be evaluated as a second party under Nintendo (Rare, Retro Studios, Hal Laboratory, Square, Silicon Knights, etc.).

I had heard of their plans for the integration of indie into Revolution as well and I'm staying posted (if not constantly digging deeper myself) for any information reguarding where and how far they plan to take this. After all, I am (probably) but one of the many/few(?) people constantly harrassing Nintendo to open up to us indies, and I think they're finally seeing the light. I, for one, would love to make games for Nintendo and I believe, given the opportunity, my games alone could refuel their "declining" line-up just as Rare did with the N64.

Considering the fact that Nintendo started off just making cards, you really should give them more credit and respect. They've constantly revolutionized the industry time and time again, and their genuine line-up of franchises can only expand further.

Hopefully, that could incude some of us in the near future. :D

- Ronixus

#35 Hehe, the nearest thing to a party games I enjoyed playing with friends were Settlers 2 a RTS/resource management game, which was really cool and fairly unique with its split screen dual mouse 2 multiplayer. And the lotus turbo series. (On the amiga)

I really like Xbox live, but that was played alone at home, there were other players online of course.

#36 I'm sorry, i forgot to explain WHY i think it's ridiculous, it's because the character Shadow is already a somewhat dark character, giving him a gun isn't going to make him darker, and their REAL problems haven't been the characters, its the gameplay, they haven't done anything innovative and interesting in a while, apart from Super Monkey Ball. I think THAT has been they're problem, it's that they HAVEN'T done anything new and innovative, oh and why did you mention Ninja Gaiden Adrian? TECMO developed that game(didn't they?). and thank you for reminding me of Super Monkey Ball, i'll be sure to get it(once i finish my 7 games i've barely started, too many games!! lol).
Oh, and how did the discussion turn to party games? this is about Nintendo possibly supporting indie's, let's talk about that, one of the important things will be Nintendo's "revolutionary" control method, but then again they haven't even confirmed it's the CONTROLLER that's revolutionary, i remember hearing about some hand-held system Atari was developing, they only made 5 prototypes(supposedly) anyways, it was going to have a 3d holographic projector, maybe they're going to have another part to the console which they haven't shown yet, maybe it'll have something of the sort, i've also pondered the possibility of them employiung a mesh of IR beams so that you could touch the projections, ONE source who supposedly leaked schematics for the Revolution(i don't remember where, i think it was the Gamespy forums), said that Nintendo's idea had been âttempted but never employed in exactly thew way they're going to use it(more or less)

#37 What do you guys think??