Nintnedo Rant

The following is from our reader Larry800. I came across this e-mail and decided to post the story. Larry800 provides an in depth look at the next generation war. It's a good read. Thanks again for the e-mail!

The time is now for Nintendo, its do or die, the following are my thoughts and strategies that Nintendo needs to follow in order to be successful in the next generation. First things first, let's talk about the situation at hand. Right now you have the Xbox 360 which is following the successful formula of Sony by not having the best graphics but being first to market and with plenty of breathing room and tactics up its sleeve. They can drop the price, offer a bigger hard drive, copy Nintendo's virtual console idea, they have a hd-dvd drive, they can lower they game prices...basically they can combat any competition they feel the least bit threatening. The good news for Nintendo is that all their attention will be focused on Sony and not Nintendo. If you read articles over the past 6 months Xbox and Nintendo have been playing nice and throwing each other compliments back and forth. The only thing here I don't like is the Rare fiasco.

I mean no Goldeneye, Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong, Perfect Dark, on the Revolution's virtual console or the 360's? I say be nice and let each other share, and please pretty please bring Killer Instinct 2 or a new version to 360. I know some consider it a marginal game, but it defined the emphasis of combos in a game and who could resist that repetitive announcer. Anyways back to my rant. I figure Sony I am going to compare to the company Bose. As far as stereos they do have the best sound on the market but at a very hefty price and although people may really want one, they often settle for that pioneer system that's on sale at circuit city. Sony is forcing Blu-Ray on the public by forcing everyone who wants a playstation to buy one. They have to make their system expensive so they do not diminish the value of their stand alone Blu-Ray players. My guess $500. Guess what, they are doing the global launch on purpose to create buzz because if there was large quantities at launch I doubt they would sell out other than the ebayers trying to make a quick buck (good idea by the way!). They are putting all their chips on the table that the playstation brand will indulge consumers to buy. One thing they are forgetting is unlike Nintendo they do not have solid franchises exclusive to them, at least not anymore. Final Fantasy is starting to go multi-platform starting with FFXI, rumor mill has GTA shopping around, Metal Gear I will give them for now, but last time I checked Jak, Ratchet, Sly, and Daxter are no Mario and creating a new character and giving them 3 sequels, one every year, leads to burn out, remember Crash! On top of that Sony doesn't want to be a Video Game system, it wants to be an entertainment system. This is where it loses it core audience. The company itself is very bold in gambling with their last big market, considering their electronics dept. is losing ground to LG and Samsung. I am not a Sony hater and I will be picking up God of War II but I cannot see myself picking up a system with no big launch game while for the price they are asking, I could spend the money for a trip to Vegas and a cheap used car that could get me there. Ahhhhh Nintendo lets get things right this time. First lets get a lot of third party support, Red Steel is a good start, but lets start hammering away at PC developers. The Rev controller is essentially a mouse only better so lets get some quick ports going.

How about F.E.A.R., expansions of Half- Life 2, unreal, and counterstrike. Then lets finally bring out the Mario you have been working on since the early days of the Gamecube. Bring back Kid Icarus, Rad Racer, Uniracers, Turok, I don't care but take some good ol' Franchises, redo them and then give the customer the original free via the virtual console. Nintendo needs to slide in as the companion system to get right beside your 360 or PS3. Hopefully with enough support the next generation Nintendo can slide back into 1st place.

It won't happen to with the Revolution but hopefully after it. I like the $200-$250 price tag and I also like the games at $50. I remember paying $80 for Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey and I will never do that again.

What can go wrong? I will tell you. First off, with the controller you kind of limit your progress, if it catches on you are golden if it doesn't you have nothing to work with in the future unless you incorporate into your next gen. If you build new franchises like Red Steel, then the next system will have to have the same controller.

However if you kill the controller you kill any new franchises. I also don't like the no hard drive factor. Why in 2006 do we still have load times on next gen systems. No hard drive means even longer waiting time and guarantees the virtual console to be available only online. Last but not least embrace 3rd party, don't be so protective.

Let it go. Let companies put whatever they want on your system.
Kabuki Warriors 2 bring it on. This will spawn more development for your system. PS2 had the most games, granted a lot of them were crap, but because it was more developer friendly it sparked more productivity for new games ont he system. That is about it for now, I hope you enjoyed it!

What do you guys think? Let him know in the comment section. Also our favorite reader/reviewer Dantendo will be posting a couple of reviews very soon so be on the look out for them!