Nintendo: The Slut of Accessories
Nintendo told us from the very beginning that the Wii was going to be different. Even the working title was Nintendo Revolution. And different it is; but revolution? Not yet.
Yes, Nintendo has officially been successful in bringing in the casual gamers - from the elderly to the nerd-phobic, it’s undeniable that people that have never before taken an interest in gaming are currently flocking to get a hold of a Wiimote. Even in the newspaper not a week ago, there was a lengthy article about an old folks homes using the Wii has a primary source of entertainment in the community. The article focused in on a 93 year old man that played Wii Sports Bowling like nobody’s business. With the Wii, Nintendo may just break the stigma of video games meaning that you are a nerd, or even an outsider.
And while this is all well and good, this also brings about the issue of a flooded market. When new gamers can’t tell the difference between gold and shit, why should third party companies care? Right now, they could pump out nearly any level of quality work and someone would buy it. But more to my point: is Nintendo going to be taking this same mentality? Before you slit my throat, don’t get me wrong. Nintendo is by far the only gaming company I fully support, and have supported since I was old enough to hold an NES controller. But with the Wii, they have found themselves catering to a new market, which doesn’t necessarily match up with the hardcore gaming community, the ones that have been with Nintendo since forever.
As such, we have seen various innovative peripherals from Nintendo that bring about new ways to play when coupled with their already influential Wiimote. The most recent of these is Wii Fit, a workout centric game that features a balance board to physically stand on, that reads the way you shift your weight. And just weeks before Wii Fit came Mario Kart Wii, packaged with a steering wheel to place your Wiimote in, for use in the game. The other major accessory Nintendo gave us that has been sorely overlooked is its Zapper, a light-gun like setup that places the Wiimote inside, which came packaged with Link’s Crossbow Training, a simplistic target shooting game used for playing around with the Zapper.
My worry is that Nintendo will unconsciously begin to successfully release peripherals like these and then never continue to support them with new games or improve upon them. Wii Fit is all the rage right now, and the recently announce Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party will be making full use of the Balance Board, as will Shaun White’s Snowboarding, and that is a definite step in the right direction. But will these titles be any good? My hope is that companies, including Nintendo itself will utilize their accessories to their fullest potential. If something doesn’t quite work in one game, improve upon it in the next, don’t simply give up on it. We’ve seen this before from them with things like the Donkey Konga drums, which wound up having only 2 or 3 games compatible.
As we look to the future, here’s hoping we find fully developed concepts, instead of brain spurts that somehow made it to market.
-Joey Esposito
Tags: useless products
