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Nintendo's chief gaming architect Shigeru Miyamoto agreed with criticism that the Mario game was too hard. And, in a decision that might anger the hardcore crowd, the word has since come from up high to make games less challenging.

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Ok, Mario sunshine was not hard, it was really easy. The only hard part was steering the stupid boat in the crappy last level but that was more annoying than hard.

I guess he was fair. I don't like his introduction paragraph, but overall I would have to agree with the guy.

I agree a diffuculty setting needs to be put in if they are going to make them less difficult, I didn't die once in WW, didn't even have to use a fairy. My first time through LttP i died 20 times, with fairies. I loved the harder parts of Mario, it brought it back for me, it was just this side of being in 1986 again.

I know since I am at planet gamecube right now, I am just preaching to the choir but, MAKE UP YOUR MINDS! I agree that Mario Sunshine was hard. The levels without the water pack were hard, but awesome! Man, it gave me a rush that video games hadn't given me in a long time. Mario hard, is a good hard. I do not like games that are hard because they are tedious. But when I had trouble in Mario Sunshine, it made me want to play more, I couldn't stop until I could get past it. Then, I wanted to keep playing even more until my body couldn't take it anymore! So, yes I am sad to hear that Mario will be made easier. But what I want to know is, why/how does that make it kiddy? I keep hearing people crying about Nintendo being for kids. Well, I don't hear the other game makers saying they will make their games easier! So which is it? Is Nintendo for kids? Maybe that is why Nintendo doesn't have mass apeal. The casual gamers are ashamed they can't get past a level in Mario. I am sad that they will be making the games easier, but this being Nintendo, I am sure they will compensate and give us something else. Maybe some voice acting in games, or extra levels? I also would like to comment on what they said about online gaming. GOOD! I'M GLAD! Online gaming is a joke right now. It's called friends. If you want to play the newest Fifa game, walk/drive over to your friends house. Video game players have a stigma to them that they are "social losers" well what a better way to feed that stereotype by playing with your "friends" with them not even there. The Sims online is a great example. Here you have the best selling PC gamer ever, it goes online and crashes. Not everyone has broadband hookups, and not everyone is willing to tie up their phone lines to play a game. Online gaming works for some computer games, but right there lies the answer 'computer games.' Nintendo isn't in the computer game business, they are in the console business. Consoles are much different than PC's. That is Xbox's main problem (amoung many others) is that it is a weak computer, or you can see it as a powerful console. Consoles aren't about power, they are about using the console to it's strengths. Online gaming, is not, and may not be for a long time a strength of consoles. I think this article doesn't really say anything new about what Nintendo is going to do. No they will not be number one in sales, but if they are going to remain in last place (in sales) yet release the masterpieces they have in the past 4 months alone. Well all I have to say is, It feels great to be last!

Make games less challenging? I hope he does not bring those games down to Wind Waker's level of challenge.
I think many people who thought Sunshine was hard must not have touched NES games. Go back and play the original Zelda on NES. I played that shortly before Wind Waker's release. I knew where to go in that game, and I had good armor on Link early in the game, but I still died 82 times. Now that's a challenge.

Super Mario Sunshine was a GREAT difficulty level! I'm an above average gamer, but not an expert by far. I found it to be delightful, difficult, but very doable. It wasn't too hard, it just lacked that magic spark of originality.

I'm not too excited about Nintendo's plan to make games easier myself but I can't blame it. The company is looking for a way to find new audiences, and the fact is that a lot of games nowdays are way too hard for inexperienced gamers. Super Mario Sunshine is a particularly good example of this, my girlfriend played through about 10 Shines, and gave up because it's just too hard for her. It's not "fun", it's annoying, and I think that hardcore gamers are a minority audience when they request really hard games.

I also trust Nintendo to search for other ways of making games easier besides giving characters huge hit meters and making enemies wimpier. I think Nintendo should (and will) look at ways to make new games easier to learn. Mario Sunshine and The Wind Waker both have a huge amount of complexity to their controls, and while it's no problem for those of us who have played Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time, when I play with less experienced players I find myself constantly reminding them how to do things or teaching and re-teaching them the advanced moves. Someone mentioned the Legend of Zelda. That was a much harder game than the Wind Waker, but it's also a lot easier to learn to play.

I suggest Nintendo look for ways to make a gentler learning curve, while trying not to reduce the overall difficulty of the games too much. I also think they company should look at adding challenging levels that give you a useful but not absolutely necessary reward. I like how Super Mario 64 allowed you to get your 70 required Stars any way you wanted, so you could skip over hard stars if you wished, but they were still there for gamers who wanted a bigger challenge.

As for the article in general, I think it's perfectly good, and true. Nintendo is in third place, and now matter how much we scream "bias", it's Nintendo's job to fix that, and it's CNN's right to report on the company's progress.

"Steven says: The man's no Steven Kent, but he sure knows what he's talking about. "

You're kidding right?! Did you not read the article?! He hardly knows what he's talking about. Case in point:


"(Nintendo has converted many of its most popular N-64 games over to the GBA.) "
This statement alone tells me he's overly swamped by the media's grasp on his opinions and thoughts. Get the facts straight before conducting an article dude. Almost all of the N-64 games are too powerful to even run on a GBA system!

"Super Mario Sunshine did better, selling over a million copies, but the game got lukewarm reviews. "
He's joking right? Let me prove him wrong on a statistical point of view. Assuming by what he means by "lukewarm" is a little better than
average at best, right? If we were to look at review scores alone, we'd be seeing most review scores in and around the range of 7.5/10 score, right? Well smart guy, out of 81 reviews (81!) the AVERAGE score given was 9.2/10!

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/22110.asp
Once again he has got to get his facts straight. This is pitiful considering this is coming from a CNN spokesperson.

"Several AAA titles didn't do as well as expected last year. 'Metroid Prime', for example, only sold 800,000 copies."

One huge point he "forgot" to mention was the fact that Metroid Prime was released mid November of 2002. Sales of 800,000 copies in a month and a half is simply incredible, even for a "AAA" title! Yet another important piece of information he reluctantly kept out of his article.


Steven, don't be so sure of yourself. Maybe next time you need to read articles more carefully before posting opinions on them.

It's misinformed people like this CNN represenative that make it that much harder for Nintendo to climb this "uphill" battle he describes. He has an unbelievable opportunity and right to be able to inform a gigantic population with the articles he writes. Please, don't waste that privilege.

I don't have too much of a problem with Nintendo making games easier as long as they're still fun. Wind Waker isn't very hard but it's a lot of fun to play. While you don't need lightning fast reflexes to beat it you do need some puzzle solving skills. Plus the game has a lot to do so no matter what there's something fun for you to do.

Super Mario Sunshine was a pretty difficult game by today's standards but it wasn't overly hard. I think it's problem was that is was too linear so if you got stuck on a hard shine you were stuck in the game period and couldn't really do anything else. Super Mario 64 had some really hard parts too but there were more areas and you could get some stars out of order thus allowing you to skip certain hard parts. Personally I think in terms of difficulty Super Mario World was the ideal Mario game as it had tons of levels of a variety of difficulties and you didn't have to beat every level to beat the game. Something like Tubular was for hardcore gamers and everyone else didn't have to play it. Personally I think if the next Mario game had more, smaller levels that were based around completing the level instead of collecting junk and had one goal per level it would make the game more fresh and allow a good balance of difficulty for gamers of all skill levels.

As for the article itself, yeah there are a few mistakes made by the author, but that doesn't change the fact that his arguement is still valid. The Gamecube IS in last place and with the games it has shouldn't be. Therefore Nintendo does have to do something because making the best games doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

This just goes to show that Nintendo is dead. Wind Waker was a big disapointment and way too easy, as was Mario. If they really want to make kiddy games for a kiddy machine then let them, but I am not buying anymore. Maybe when they are reduced to a third party publisher (and they will be after thier next console fails) they will see the market has grown up. Too bad they refuse to grow up with us.

FYI- Cube + GBA is so lame it is sad.

MarioLinkSamus, please get your information straight before trying to make an argument.

Hmmm... Interestingly enough, I re-registered to reply to this topic.

In any case, there is a few things that I agree on, but must also point out. Even though Nintendo is losing in the overall worldwide market, if you notice, it's in Japan that it's starting to climb the ropes. This article was written from an American's point of view, therefore, ignoring the homeland's arena of gaming. XBox is getting killed over there. Even though it's been a while since I've checked, the last time I did, the PSOne was beating the XBox. Ouch.

Also, I'd like to say that I'm happy with the Online decision that Nintendo has given. I am a gamer that does in fact enjoy online games, but not for consoles. The online capabilities should stay on the PC's, where more players can join in on any kind of connection. It also seems a bit more... what's the word I'm looking for... obvious perhaps, that something that can handle chatting and the like while setting up connections for gaming would be more suited for the PC to handle. I mean, the headset idea that the PS2 and Xbox are basing thier online strategy on is rediculous. I mean, heck, I don't want to know what half the players sound like. Most of the gamers playing online sound like hillbillies. Dunno why.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like all three gaming systems. The PS2 is my main RPG source, but I don't play RPG's that often enough to enjoy it fully. The XBox I must say does include some impressive graphics, and it's more suited for FPS', but it's franchizes are quite weak and don't catch my interest. But perhaps that's because I'm an artist, and that's why Nintendo's offerings appeal to me more. I don't have all the time in the world to sit and play a game for a long long long time. Or even multiple games for that matter. Super long games are fun, but I don't play them and expect more games just to suddenly pop up after I'm done, like most "hardcore gamers" do. Those people have a tendancy to be XBox people. Oh well....

Now, the difficulty issue is what really takes my cookie. I mean, heck, I like challenging games. I feel that these so called "casual gamers" are in fact ruining the Video Game market and industry. If in my future of game making I'm going to have to make sure that the game I'm working on is tailored for some shmuck on the corner of 5th and Henry, who's never played some games before, and expect him to appeal to him just because it'll be cool with blowing up cars, killing civilians, and running from cops. I mean, seriously, those are the kinds of games that really do ruin the industry. For those of you who have the latest issue of GamePro, which in my opinion, is very biast in it's decisions, they have this small little thing featuring GodSmack. (It's right after the WindWaker walkthrough, I believe.) In any case, the small interview held points out that GodSmack's favorite game is..... GTA:VC. Why? Because it's geared for the gamer who doesn't play games, ie: Running around doing nothing but violence. That just makes me sick. Sure, a little violence is okay in games, like swords and stuff, but when a game comes completely centered on the idea of killing, it's kinda disturbing. I'm a 17 year old, captain of the swim team for my highschool, have had plenty of girlfriends, like to draw stuff, a Day of Defeat and CounterStrike addict, but you can bet sure as heck that GTA:VC didn't appeal to me. Neither did GTA3.
Anywho, back the the difficulty idea. I think games should have a difficulty selection, but also have the difficulty in the set mode be sort of... by choice. I love to explore games. I love the challenge of trying to be the first one to find something new (IE: The Secret Worlds in Metroid Prime. For those who haven't heard about it, zoom on over to http://www.classicgaming.com/mdb for the Metroid Database's cover on Metroid Prime Tips and Tricks. I was the one who discovered the Secret World mentioned there. ) SO, bringing this to mind, I like to play the game until the very very end. Whether it be the first time through, or maybe even the third or fourth time, I like to find stuff. That's what dissapointed me in HALO. There was absolutely nothing to find, do, or complete after you've beaten it. And same goes with quite a bit of all these other "popular" games. They simply have no challenge to them, and end as soon as you're done. I'm not happy at all that you have to have these overly simple games to appeal to the masses. It just doesn't make sense. Sure, I can understand why some things, like the tediousness of some tasks, may get annoying, but heck, that's what makes games like the original Zelda so great. You couldn't get to areas and such without figuring out what's going on. I mean, heck, they removed part of the WindWaker's Triforce hunting so us Americans because they thought it would be "too tedious". What is it with this country, huh? Gamers complain when a game is linear, but when it's not linear, and emphasizes on exploration, it's shot down for not being linear, and called annoying for having to do some simple searching tasks. Sure, the Banjo days are a tad bit old, but at least they did offer some fun by running and collecting items, doing tasks. I still have yet figure out why doing such things gets people in such a tizzy.

Oh well, I suppose I should stop rambling on before someone shoots me for posting something this huge. I just thought I should voice my opinion. If you wanna talk to me some more, contact me via AIM: MyLonelyLog, and perhaps head on over to Starmen.net and check me out there. I've always got some artwork for you junkies as well http://antago.virtualave.net/stuff (All hand drawn by me). Anywho, ciao.

First of all, the article states nothing about converting N-64 games to the GBA, however it does talk about many SNES being converted to the Game Boy Advance. Here is the quote from the article: "Nintendo has converted many of its most popular SNES games over to the GBA". Nowhere in that quote does it state any information about N-64 software; MarioLinkSamus make sure you get your facts stright before you try to voice your opinion on an article.

The Doc

two points.

first off, i would like to back up mariolinksamus in saying that originally the article did state that nintendo was converting over n-64 games to the gba. it has since been changed to read snes games. so don't jump all over him.

second point, i've been e-mailing chris morris (author of the article) and he let go this little bit of information:

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George Harrison and I played F-Zero - which was pretty darn fun. Damn fast paced, but if that's your thing, you should enjoy it. And a new Mario Kart is indeed in the works - and is currently slated for a November 2003 release. Start salivating now. Expect screen shots next month.

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first thing first, i'm glad nintendo are avoiding online gaming.

secondly, making games like mario easier? puh-leeezzzzzzzzz.....mario sunshine was hard in places, and i liked it. super monkey ball was insanely hard, and i loved it for it. at least give us gamers a difficulty selection.

we don't play games b/c want them to be easy, we play them b/c we want a challenge...