If Nintendo Made Halo 3:

[ShadowTiger]

Apparently, This Video (http://kotaku.com/5008566/if-nintendo-made-halo-3) was recently released and people missed it. Pretty cute, and will beg the question: "How accurate is this, really?"

Actually no it won't. You'll just recognize the music from it and nod a little that you recognize the contents of the video.

[AtmaWeapon]

I'd like to think that Nintendo will never really do a first-party shooter. Metroid Prime doesn't count: it's pretty much controlled by Retro Studios right now and I consider it 2nd party. The core Nintendo company tends to like to define new genres; there was an article I read long ago that discussed this at length and made a lot of points, but it's all pretty obvious when you consider games like Mario Party. There were no "party board games" that existed before this game, so the bar was at zero. Nintendo was able to skimp on graphics and turn our palms into bloody messes with no competition. Lower development costs + high sales is a big win. Take a look at Wii Play or Wii Sports; the genre "motion-sensitive casual game" didn't exist, so they churned out a ton of minigames with low resolution graphics and built a mountain of cash off of them.

Sometimes they just bring a new refinement to an old genre: Pokemon was not the first RPG by far, but it did introduce the obscenely complicated mechanic of a party that you have to collect and train. It didn't win any awards for storyline or graphics, but the collecting/trading mechanic combined with the battle system has made Pokemon a cash cow that keeps on giving.

I think a lot of people lose sight of the fact that games that win awards don't mean anything if they don't sell well. With all the development effort that goes into a game like MGS4, I'm curious what the net profits look like vs. a game that requires less development effort. I kind of wish it was easier to find the budgets used for game development than it is.

All that aside, if Nintendo tried to make a first-person shooter in the vein of Halo I'm pretty sure it could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. Nintendo is best at three things: selling the same game over and over again, refining their franchises, and sailing into completely uncharted waters. First-person shooter is a genre that has a very obsessive fan base that wants something very particular: the same game with the same maps and the same weapons with different models every now and then. You'd think Nintendo would be able to get this right, but here's some things that make a good FPS that Nintendo is not good at: Balanced gameplay that does not correct the advantage of skilled players. Online gameplay that suffers no lag. Lobby-based matchmaking and many communication options. Graphic violence. Precise, unforgiving controls that require training and skill to master.If a Nintendo FPS were announced, I'd be less than excited.

[Mak-X]

...

LOL at the video, with the mixing of Pokemon Snap, Starfox, Zelda and Mario.

You know, I thought it was pretty big deal at the time when in Zelda: Ocarina of Time when you'd use a bow or hookshot and the camera switched quickly to first person so you could aim.

[Aegix Drakan]

Don't quote me on this, but I THINK "Geist" was first party nintendo.

What is Geist? A highly innnovative M rated FPS that appeared on the gamecube a while back. You were a ghost, and you could posess people, take them over, and use their weapons.

:P Multiplayer is a blast. Especially when someone posesses a missile, and rockets right into someone's behind, while they're occupied with the guy in front.

[The_Amaster]

Nintendo is best at three things: selling the same game over and over again, refining their franchises, and sailing into completely uncharted waters. If you view that as past, present, and future, then that pretty much covers the bases. ;) Although a Nintendo developed FPS would be...interesting. I mean, even Metroid Prime (2nd party or not) still had deep amounts of platforming and adventuring. Hardcore FPS just isn't their thing. Prime Hunters came pretty close though.

[Mak-X]

Don't quote me on this, but I THINK "Geist" was first party nintendo.

What is Geist? A highly innnovative M rated FPS that appeared on the gamecube a while back. You were a ghost, and you could posess people, take them over, and use their weapons.

Played through that and found the gameplay of possession fun. It's worth a play through if you can get it for about $20. Geist went through a lot of changes because of Nintendo's input, going from an action FPS, to a more adventure/puzzle solving game with FPS bits.

Metroid Prime became first person because Miyamoto decided the game would work better in the first person view. Is Retro really that different than Nintendo's other developers (EAD Tokyo, HAL Labs) other than being a western developer? I mean, isn't it more of an issue of the style of Japan vs. Western developers?

[Archibaldo]

That video was really cool. Pretty well done. I don't think that it's much of a problem that Nintendo doesn't make an FPS. IMO, FPS players are very hardcore and Nintendo has never been a hardcore system. There wouldn't be as big of a market than and FPS on the 306.

[Kairyu]

but it's all pretty obvious when you consider games like Mario Party. There were no "party board games" that existed before this game, so the bar was at zero.
There were several, actually. Rockman Board springs to mind, and I remember seeing a page on Aeon Genesis about a SFC board game RPG.


Take a look at Wii Play or Wii Sports; the genre "motion-sensitive casual game" didn't exist, so they churned out a ton of minigames with low resolution graphics and built a mountain of cash off of them.
You really don't remember those really lame motion-sensing 'video games' they sold at toy stores? The ones that connected to a TV and had one game, like baseball or dodge the ninjas?


Pokemon was not the first RPG by far, but it did introduce the obscenely complicated mechanic of a party that you have to collect and train. It didn't win any awards for storyline or graphics, but the collecting/trading mechanic combined with the battle system has made Pokemon a cash cow that keeps on giving.
Suikoden, Digimon...

[Stephan Reiken]

There were several, actually. Rockman Board springs to mind, and I remember seeing a page on Aeon Genesis about a SFC board game RPG.


True, true...


You really don't remember those really lame motion-sensing 'video games' they sold at toy stores? The ones that connected to a TV and had one game, like baseball or dodge the ninjas?

Come on, those were neither good nor casual. Difficult to obtain if you went looking, thereby not casual. It wasn't a genre until nintendo created the niche.


Suikoden, Digimon...

Pokemon came before Digimon.

Suikoden is still a fantasy rpg with an extra feature instead of a game that can only be called rpg because its combat is the turn based you go I go kind.

[Warlock]

but it's all pretty obvious when you consider games like Mario Party. There were no "party board games" that existed before this game, so the bar was at zero.

Honestly, the "board game video game" was/is not a popular genre. So you are going to be hard pressed to find a lot of examples (other than the aforementioned Rock Board, etc). However, there are SEVERAL cases of say, video game Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, etc. In fact, they even had a video game version of Star Wars Monopoly before Mario Party. And of course, there were also minigame collections which resembled Mario Party. Just not very many Board Game + Minigame games.


Come on, those were neither good nor casual. Difficult to obtain if you went looking, thereby not casual. It wasn't a genre until nintendo created the niche.

This is not true. In fact, my little brother used to own one of those Baseball games. It wasn't as advanced as what Wii does, but you'd plug it in, and it came with a bat. Then when you swung the bat, it would swing the bat on screen in relation to how you swung (obviously exaggerated, as I don't think a 10 year old is going to be hitting home runs, but it was a kid's game). It may have even used a relationship to how close you were to the base (the actual hardware/software was stored in a home plate-shapped device which the bat was wired to), I can't remember for sure. These type of games existed for awhile and were not that expensive nor rare.

Now the motion-sensing games were not prevalent, I think most were limited to a few sports - specifically baseball and probably golf too. But they did exist.

[Grasshopper]

I thought Brain Age and Nintendogs were pretty cool, but now seeing all the crap that followed suit, I sort of wish they'd never came out.

[Skulkraken]

I doubt Nintendo would bother making a true FPS because:

a) The people in charge of Nintendo aren't really interested in making stuff with graphic violence. Though I wonder, does a FPS *need* graphic violence to be enjoyable?
b) Nintendo doesn't have to actually make the game itself if it's able to secure another developer to do the work instead. Unless I'm mistaken, isn't Mario Party actually done by Hudson, and not Nintendo? Why bother competing with developers when you can just license their work instead and make more money that way?

[Dann Woolf]

Didn't my man Shiggy M. once say that he could've made Halo?

[MottZilla]

Yes there was a bit about that, but you have to remember people often miss their translation and blow it out of proportion. I think in the end, what he was really saying was there was no reason he couldn't have made a game like Halo, but he had no interest in doing so, or something like that. Just like how the MGS creator kept getting translated wrong and being these big headlines that seemed like he was slapping Sony across the face with his giant cock.

Ofcourse it was all bullshit, he said something that got translated wrong and then taken out of context even further.

[gryrozx]

if nintendo made halo 3... in reality, they try to find their own way of fun. they get their ideas from varous stuff. like zelda classic was inspired by mr.miymato's child hood. get the picture?:D