Mario Should Do What Midway Does
I really like what Midway’s been up to recently. This American publisher appeared to be going the way of Acclaim, then turned around with a new-found focus on high quality, original content aimed squarely at a slightly older audience — stuff like ‘Psi-Ops’, ‘Area 51’ and ‘The Suffering’.
It got even better when Epic announced that future ‘Unreal’ games would be handled exclusively by Midway. Talk about a great franchise to further expand the meaning of your brand name! To use Scott Miller‘s terminology, it’s a brilliant ‘line extension’.
I also like how the company is far from screwing up its most important IP: ‘Mortal Kombat: Deception’ is said to be pretty good, with a now finely tuned fighting system and some unexpected extra game modes including a ‘Puzzle Fighter’-style abstract action game. Deception is fully playable online as well, supposedly the first time a 3D fighter pulls this off.
Today I read that Midway is planning to capitalize on Mortal Kombat by releasing a new episode every year. To me, this is a great approach, especially since Midway is not simply going to rehash its fighting game. The next Kombat-branded title, scheduled for fall 2005, is an action adventure called ‘Shaolin Monks’. It looks to be much better than previous, deeply flawed attempts to expand the Mortal Kombat universe.
After Electronic Arts’ incredible success with annual updates it’s a mystery to me why so few publishers have followed suit. Yearly releases may be the only way for videogames to achieve the high visibility and recognizability top brands require. And combined with constant improvements, or even different types of gameplay, even us critics get what we want.
Of course, in a way, this is what Nintendo’s been doing. We get Super Mario’s annual ‘Mario Party’ birthday event, and a year after ‘Luigi’s Mansion’ we got ‘Super Mario Sunshine’, then ‘Mario Kart: Double Dash!!’ and this year there’s ‘Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’ for all to enjoy.
Still, I’ve argued before that Nintendo should go further. Why not create a huge 3D-platforming team with two subgroups, delivering a focused, just slightly evolutionary but certainly well-playing Mario-episode year after year?
Sunshine’s approach would have blended perfectly with lots of similarly themed follow-ups. Of course, Miyamoto’s experimental EAD-team could still work in the background — coming up with a revolutionary breakthrough at least once every console cycle.
Whether Mario should still be Nintendo’s focus is another matter entirely, but at the very least I think the company should feel no shame for capitalizing even more on what it does best.
October 26, 2004
Comments
I''m not very fond of annual updates. When I play one of those games I always get the feeling that the developer is holding back useful content (the things that can make a game or genre better) for future episodes, so that the product I'm playing never gives me a feeling that the game is 'complete'.
I think it's better that a company works extensively hard on a sequel or new game franchise than working on an annual game series.
Just think about it: would you like to play a new Mario game with meagre changes every year or do you want to play a new Mario 'when it's done' and full of new content?
I believe that people should be patient. The satisfaction is far greater when you play a game that is in development for three years than thinking: wow, I hope they improve this next year so I can spend my 60 euros at it.
Annual games can be good: they can serve as 'leuke zoethoudertjes' ;-)
Steve – 10-26-04
I don't really like the idea. Mario has an excellent reputation, and nintendo should be careful not to ruin it.
The best thing about the Mario series has always been that each new game (with the exception of mario sunshine perhaps) has NOT been a simple sequel that doesn't bring anything new to the table. I think people (well, nintendo-fans anyway) have come to expect Mario to push the envelope with each new release. Moving the platform-genre forwards with new and innovative ideas. I for one would be dissapointed if Nintendo decided to turn their greatest series into such an annual series that just keeps on delivering more of the same. I'm afraid it would ultimately make each new game in the series feel less special the last.
If they were ever to do something like this, they shouldn't use Mario. Maybe they could use Kirby or just invent a new character alltogether. There can never be too many Nintendo platform-games, I agree on that, but to do it with Mario would be a shame.
erik – 10-27-04
I agree
Steve – 10-27-04
Your suggestion got me thinking about a lot of related issues. First off, it's an *original* POV, certainly. ;) What with everyone else chastising Nintendo for milking its IP (especially Mario) too much -- there's at least one spin-off a month, it seems -- suggesting the opposite is a change. Of course, what you are suggesting isn't really for Nintendo to take the Midway approach (since Midway too are "extending" the MK line, which is arguably what Nintendo have already been doing for years with their Mario franchise) but more like EA's yearly updates (which you also mention) which Nintendo should apply to their 3D-platform titles, specifically.
I don't believe this is the way to go, certainly not right now. Mario Sunshine took a lot of flak for being 'a mere update' and 'rushed', as did The Wind Waker (and the GBA oracles), so it would seem counterproductive for Nintendo to try their fans goodwill even further at the moment. This is a key difference between EA and Nintendo: EA are despised by many for churning out update after update, but people buy the games anyway -- yet Nintendo owe much of their position to the fact that they (generally) don't screw around with their core series, such as their Mario platformers. I've said before that I feel Mario 128 is a make-or-break title for Nintendo; it must innovate, or people will lose faith -- and faith that they will deliver is the one thing Nintendo have over many other companies, including EA. Moreover, I think Mario's platformadventures (as well as, say, the Zelda series) are better compared to GTA than to FIFA -- GTA is a series that remains the talk of the town because of major bi-yearly innovation rather than yearly minor tweaking. I also think Nintendo are better compared to Sega than to EA -- and Sega is a great example of a company that has suffered greatly for squandering loyalist goodwill. Another warning sign is Capcom, who slaughtered the golden-egg-laying-hen years ago vis a vis its Mega Man platformers. We'll see how Midway fares, but personally I'm not optimistic.
That's not to say that some titles cannot benefit from yearly updates -- sportsgames in particular are fine examples, since upgrading would be worthwhile even if they just included fresh stats. Mario Party is another good candidate, where the boards and minigames need regular refreshment even if the core mechanics (arguably) don't need much work. Even so, EA and Nintendo (and Activision, who *have* followed EA's example with Tony Hawk) still receive a lot of criticism for asking full price for a too similar product... and I believe sales do steadily decline.
Branching off a little -- ultimately and in the long run, I believe that fans may demand online upgrading of things like stats and even Mario minigams, and perhaps even minor gameplay improvements (after all, the upgraded-via-XboxLive Ninja Gaiden is not much less of an improvement than, say, NHL 2005 is). I've long thought this the way to go for Mario Party, in particular. Of course, business-model-wise, it's a challenge to make such practices profitable, which is probably why they haven't been implemented yet. :)
This is nothing new, though. Years ago, when Sega released Sonic & Knuckles for the Mega Drive with its lock-on cartridge capability, I remember reading some speculation on how this might change game distribution -- such a system could be used by companies such as Capcom (for Mega Man et al) to distribute core gameplay on te lower cart and cheaper add-ons (new levels, bosses etc.) on the top cart. This of course was before the internet boom and before CD-based media completely took over the market... and before the 32X, arguably an extension of the idea, bombed. But downloadable content can be seen as a modern-day variant of this notion.
It's worth noting also that Nintendo themselves actually tried something along these lines fairly recently, with the e-reader levels for Mario Advance 4 (SMB3). Nintendo claim that the level data was "on the cards" (collectible and dirt cheap), which would imply that they could effectively release endless amounts of new content using the SMB3-engine (and, for another tangent, homebrew content is a possibility as well, making the FPS mod-scene a viable comparison; I gather a homebrew minesweeper clone exists, for use with the e-reader). Now imagine a DS version with kiosk (or online) downloads and the idea is the same (and not without precedent: compare that to the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 and the circle is complete :)).
Well, I've really gone off on a bit of a tangent now. My point is: by using such technology smartly, Nintendo (and others) could create interesting upgrades for their games without squandering consumer goodwill -- distribute them cheaply and hopefully still make a tidy profit -- alhough commercial viability is a chief concern right now. And perhaps most importantly: Nintendo, often seen as behind the times on this sort of thing, are actually at the forefront here, with experiments like MA4:SMB3, the IQue player and DS gamesharing. Implement it smartly and EA's practices (which is to simply distribute such upgrades and new content the old-fashioned way: by selling it as a new game) could go the way of the dinosaur. Here's hoping. ;)
Boersma2000 – 10-28-04
The oracles were created by namco, and they were for the GBC.
But that's not important.
What Boersma2000 says, reminds me of a project of a few friends of mine, to make a version of linux suitable for playstation 2, to run games within this software.
Why this? Because it would allow software makers to create base rendering, network, sound and AI software, load it up this disc, sell it, then spread games on extra disc. This would save development costs, since most software is already on base disc.
Hmm, I don't want to make this sound to technically. However, this is in fact the same principle Boersma2000 is discussing. Use a base game engine and create extra content for it. This would be a great way of selling updates, better than yearly updates.
Though I would like to see a yearly update of the (2D) metroid series, as long as they are high quality. Some basic ideas never get old and therefore, it won't hurt to bring out more versions of it.
dragonstorm – 10-28-04
Actually, the Oracles were created by Flagship, a Capcom studio. I cited them as an example because as valid installments in the Zelda mythos and as such caught some flak. They -- and Majora's Mask, a few years prior -- basically reused/slightly reworked an established engine to create 'quickie' sidegames; and Nintendo (who is ultimately responsible for their IP) have never done that before with Zelda. Mario Sunshine was criticized for similar reasons this, as was Wind Waker (though in the latter's case it was more the 'rushed' aspect and less the 'lack of innovation' part). My point was to illustrate that what Niels suggests Nintendo do with Mario-in-3D is something they've tried -- and which may have hurt them.
Of course, I think that reusing reworked engines is an accepted practice nowadays, so that's no longer a problem. Nintendo should still be able to ask full price for a sequel in the vein of Majora's Mask -- I just doubt a single year of development would be enough to yield something as distinctive as that. It's "sequels" like Ocarina Master Quest (which is really more of a Ninja Gaiden-esque remix), Mario Advance bonuslevels and -- yes -- even Mario Party updates that would benefit from a lowcost distribution scheme (and wrt Ocarina MQ, the 64DD was supposed to be exactly that). EA's yearly updates (partially) fall into that category as well, so any yearly update from Nintendo might, too.
Boersma2000 – 10-28-04