Here's the problem with the DS, and I'm going to say this with it sitting next to me and after I've had an absolute blast with it:
Right now it's not doing anything new, and since this is left SOLELY to the developers, there's a huge possibility that no one is going to do anything worthwhile.
What I'm hoping is that the DS gets tapped in the myriad ways that it has the potential to unleash - completely new game types and genres that could be spawned from the advent of two screens, touch play, and wireless capabilities. The sheer possibilities, given the correct nurturing, make me salivate in wonder. I can't imagine Miyamoto right now staring at the thing - he has to be jumping around madly in anxious glee.
But that's the problem entirely - the system is so innovative, there's a chance nothing good will come of it.
Think of it like the GBA-GC link. NO ONE did anything good with it outside of Nintendo. Four Swords Adventures is a marvelous game and a lot of fun, but outside of that, did any other companies do anything really worthwhile? Not really. Download a small game, unlock some sort of add-on "me too" device, etc. No one did anything great with it. Nintendo touted the capabilities of linking the two systems together, even going as far as to make it the showpiece at E3 '03, and no one cared except for Nintendo. And it was a card that only Nintendo had in their hand, and it had potential immeasureable.
And after all of that, we got a few games that, while showcasing the innovative capability of the link, ultimately come up short. They look dated and didn't do much to call attention to the Gamecube because...well, it really wasn't that impressive in the end.
And this is what I fear about the DS. Who is going to care about Madden on it if all you get to do with the touchscreen is pick a play? Or if all you get to do with 3D platformers is get an overhead map? Or if racers only have a map that lets you see positions and so on...
The answer is that NONE of those things do ANYTHING to help gameplay. In fact, they do so little to enhance gameplay that they might as well be negated. In essence, right now, we basically have a portable N64, and only a few games so anything truly different (Feel the Magic is one of the few exceptions, almost everything else is invalid and essentially "N64gametitle DS").
I'm not going to be happy with the DS if, in a year, we're getting the same thing that's available now, and unfortunately that problem lies ENTIRELY on how well the developers work. If everyone brings their games over but they do nothing special with them, and they merely want a peice of the portable pie (of which Nintendo holds some huge percentage...95% or something...you know what I meant), then they aren't going to do anything special. They'll just half-ass the game over to the DS because Nintendo has huge potential to make them money.
That's what happens with the GBA market already. We get Tekken and GTA on the GBA but not on the Gamecube for that exact reason. Hell, we get TONS of great mature games on the GBA that developers swear won't sell on the Cube. Castlevania comes to mind. Klonoa. Tons of RPGs. But none of them show up on the GC, and why? Beacuse why risk the money if you know you can sell 50K copies on a system with a userbase that's downright insane? The Gamecube won't get Castlevania because Konami is so convinced the game won't sell, and in a sense, they have every reason to beleive that. We get Metal Gear Twin Snakes and it tanks, when is an absolute gem of a game and would have sold well over a million on the PS2 or Xbox.
So we're going to get developer support, but so what if it's the same thing? Therefore....
The fundamental problem with the DS is that it's so innovative. It's going against a system that Sony knows they can work with. Throw a developer a portable system that's highly analogous to game design over the last 10 years - 3D platformers, etc - and they can pick it up and program something instantly. It may not be anything different, but who the hell cares so long as the developer is happy, makes money, and ultimately helps Sony sell a few systems? So you port Jak and Daxter to the system beceause it's easy and because it will sell. Nothing worthwhile about it in any sense of the word, but who cares? Sony can still tout that as a selling point.
Meanwhile you hand a developer the DS and tell them "This is the second coming of handheld gaming and it's going to make toast too," the developer looks at it and thinks "Nintendo won't care if I make...the Sims on it without anything special, or if I put my crappy racing game on it and show the map on the bottom screen...."
That's the problem.
It's easy for people to say the PSP will win because there's very little standing in the way of it succeeding in terms of certain factors - name recognition (Sony), graphics, nice screen, multimedia capability, developer support, etc. The main flaws with it are the battery life and the load times (although I'm almost positive the movable media and dead pixels are going to be nightmares). But so what if the system can get Metal Gear and Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy?
Meanwhile the DS is demanding that people think in new, creative ways on how to present games and how to play them, and I think that's going to be a kind of double-edged sword.
The problem is that you are asking people to work harder and to think in new ways.
You know, I work for tech support on the phone, and I'm really aware of how idiotic the majority of people are and how lazy everyone is. I can't imagine a super huge company like EA giving two sh*ts about the DS in terms of innovation, they just want money. Why break a routine that's going to make you money no matter what you do? They could do NOTHING with the touch screen, but "so what?" is what they think.
So how does Nintendo convince a company to take a chance and spend resources on something this innovative?
It's easy for me to get angry about the PSP because it does nothing new. I don't want to play an anemic version of a PS2 game. I don't want the handheld industry to go 3D. I don't want Sony to ruin another market and turn it into a race against Nintendo, one of the few companies left that's willing to put their balls on the line with new technology and innovation.
But that's what is going to happen and I can't stop it unless Nintendo makes the DS known to be a fun, great system, and that can't be done with only their support.
I fear the DS could be ahead of it's time. And I fear people are too lazy to support it properly. And I fear that the PSP, being so truly unextraordinary, will succeed because "golly gee it's purty" and because people just CAN'T imagine living without Gran Turismo on the bus.
As for IGN, they can go to hell. Different opinions are good and all, but don't work on a subject if you so blatantly dislike the product. Criticism and downright brutality are different things. That said, what I'm talking about - innovation - is what is where all the criticism comes from.
/ranting at work is fun
Topic: DS-IGN Controversy (Read 22666 times)
