This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
Full disclosure: Nintendo covered my travel and hotel entirely to attend a catered preview event in New York City last Wednesday, January 19.
OK, Nintendo’s newest handheld isn’t exactly a manifesto against co-option by politicians and revolutionaries alike, but the headline — taken from the seminal lyric in The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” — holds some truth for the game company.
The 3DS is banking on new technology to drive the device into homes the world over: a glasses-free 3D display, motion and gyro sensors, and increased online connectivity and interoperability between other systems. Nintendo hopes to change the way we play games once again, which has been the company’s standard operating procedure since unveiling the Wii in 2006. Nothing cements that point more than Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime’s description of the Wii as “a new way to play video games” in an interview with ABC News, and the philosophy continues with the company’s latest handheld.
As I played the portion of the launch lineup available to the press at Nintendo’s preview event last week, a creeping suspicion overran my senses: The 3DS is exactly what the company derided the competition as in the console space — who Nintendo lambasted as overly concerned with technology. Even Nintendo’s flagship console, which we were told wouldn’t focus on “next-gen” hardware and graphics as Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, demonstrates their hollow arguments. What system has showcased more on its hardware than the Wii? Motion controls currently define this generation, as evidenced by both Sony and Microsoft issuing the Move and Kinect, respectively.
I fear that Nintendo has lost sight of its origins (a focus on substance over flash) and has instead assimilated its own criticisms toward its competitors. The 3DS titles on display — whether from first- or third-party developers — are emblematic of this, as they’re more concerned with the handheld’s new capabilities than anything else.
[Disclaimer: I had a very short amount of time with each game, and many were timed demos with limited feature sets available. As a result, my opinions reflect a quick impression rather than a measured analysis.]
Kid Icarus: Uprising is little more than a tunnel shooter with sections of third-person action — the gameplay “innovations” rest entirely on using the stylus and touch pad to aim and the 3D display. Both Super Street Fighter 4: 3D Edition and Dead or Alive: Dimensions merely auto-execute combos with the push of a touch-screen button. Others, such as the rather pedestrian turret shooter Face Raiders and the card-based, augmented-reality (AR) games, seem to have but one purpose: to showcase the 3DS’ tech.
Then we have those that do little more than add the 3D effect. Other than the three-dimensional view, Asphalt 3D and Ridge Racer 3D are both standard racing titles. Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars is a basic platformer with simple puzzles and light combat. Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D and Madden NFL Football seem like countless other sports games.
Even worse are those titles that appear little different from their previous installments. Pilot Wings Resort plays identically to its 16- and 64-bit forefathers. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is exactly that: the N64 cartridge rendered in three dimensions. While this may satisfy fans, subsequent games have evolved that formula (such as Demon’s Souls), and I’m hard pressed to be excited about a mere update to a classic. Nintendogs and Cats feels awfully similar to my wife’s dusty copy of Nintendogs. If you’ve played Resident Evil 5, you’ll recognize Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D as the same song and dance.
Two other games, Steel Diver and Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D, held promise as original ideas. Unfortunately, neither really delivered at the event. Combat of Giants is a strictly linear, rock-paper-scissors brawler with prehistoric beasts (who telegraph every move!), and Steel Diver amounts to little more than Lunar Lander under water. Sure, the submarine title has a “Periscope Strike” mode, but its only draw is the 3D display and motion-sensor-based view.
All of these launch titles put their tech first while gameplay took a back seat. Throughout the show, I felt that the 3DS had little to offer me despite Fils-Amie's assurances that the handheld holds something for everyone.
I recognize that not every game released concurrently with new hardware blazes trails, but past Nintendo systems routinely innovated with launch titles. The Mario series is an illustrative example: The NES' Super Mario Bros. popularized the side-scrolling platformer; the SNES' Super Mario World built upon the overworld concepts introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 and added interconnectivity between levels; Super Mario 64 helped define the console 3D platformer.
But unlike our favorite, overall-sporting plumber, the preview titles were essentially games I'd played before; much like the Wii, any "innovations" focused merely on how I'd physically interact with software — not on the challenge presented from manipulating interactive systems of choice and consequence.
Maybe if I saw Julian Gollop’s Ghost Recon Shadow Wars (an upcoming squad-level, turn-based tactical wargame for the 3DS), I might think differently. Gollop has a solid track record of innovation with his genre of choice: His early games, Rebelstar Raiders and Laser Sqaud, culminated in the strategy masterpiece X-Com: UFO Defense, where Gollop successfully married turn-based tactical and real-time, resource-management games into one. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Gollop describes how The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge (cancelled in 2000) implemented a third-person/turn-based hybrid similar to Valkyria Chronicles. And picking up from X-Com: Apocalypse, Laser Squad Nemesis eventually created a "we go" system that solves the first player's advantage in turn-based games. Unfortunately, Gollop's Ghost Recon wasn't on display.
As of now, I’m content to wait for something that furthers the medium rather than reinvents how I interact with software once again. Who’s Next isn’t any more meaningful, though-provoking, or fist-pump inducing because I can queue up the album on my iPod rather than drop the needle on wax. Just the same, MP3 players alone haven't furthered the musical impact of ideas like concept albums and rock operas pioneered by The Who.
Pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday, indeed. I won't get fooled again.
