"Their new game Mad World suffered a similar fate. A high level of buzz,"
Er, I don't think 'high level of buzz' is being used in the same way here as I would have used it. I regard a 'high level' of buzz as something like GTA IV last year where you had the game being covered by mainstrream news outlets, international billboards, commercials out the ear.
The closest to mainstream dissemination MadWorld got was an article in the Daily Mail -- which isn't...
So basically, they asked Nintendo about the game and Nintendo just said 'No comment'.
Great story.
"The PS2 had flops, this game woulda probably flopped on that system as well lol"
There's not really much of a 'Would Have' about it. As I pointed out in one of the other topics, God Hand -- the closest historical analogue on another system to a game like MadWorld that we have -- was on the PS2. Which, if people want to bring install bases into the discussion, had almost two-and-half times the Wii's current install base.
Incidentally, that game's sales...
"Also, Madworld had been released at probably the midpoint of the life cycle and not near the end when focus was shifting to the next generation."
I'm not really certain life cycle placement is really that much of a factor. Focus may have been shifting on the part of developers, perhaps, but in consumer terms, 2006 was two years and 20 million PS2s ago.
The cavalcade of "MadWorld would have sold better on another system" remarks is actually kind of amusing. I mean, for those who are paying attention, they tried that already. It was called 'God Hand' and it was on the PS2.
Spoilers: It killed their studio.
"The majority of those games got mediocre/bad reviews from people and critics"
If you take 32 of the games that mrnintendo mentioned (because Prime New Play Control and Resident Evil Classics haven't come out yet and therefore haven't actually been reviewed) and add them up, the average Metacritic score for his list comes out to 81.25.
For clarification's sake, we're calling that mediocre/bad?
"Don't move World of Goo, you have it at the right spot"
This is the truth.
"However, what other hack and slash is like God of War or Heavenly Sword? As far as storyline goes, in the context of videogames?"
Well, speaking about God of War, in the first place, I'm not certain that once a series has had two console games, a PSP entry, and a release on cell phones, that subsequent entries can reasonably be referred to as 'original' anymore.
But ignoring that for the moment, game developers basing plots revolving around Greco-Roma...
"Heavenly Sword... Uncharted... God of War.. are pretty original in the context of videogames IMHO"
You're joking, right?
"It's mature, it's tense, and it has everything you're looking for in a "real" survival horror game, because it is one. Oh, and it's not a rail shooter."
Sick burn.
Well, this could be interesting.
Hopefully since they're going back to Harry Mason story, the game's design will trend more toward Silent Hill 1-3 than, uh, Silent Hill everything else.
I'm not entirely certain why the article is titled the way it is, in part because that question seems to lie outside of the author's focus and in part because that's a question that depends a lot on personal preference. It's not really something with a universal answer. Well, whatever gets the hits, I guess.
Still, the article raises some fairly good points, which a lot of the comments seem to be inadvertantly reinforcing. I find this rather comforting.
"how the hell did they avoid the AO rating?"
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/...
One only hopes.
"I don't think Nintendo can go bad this time around, really...they did recieve the negative feedback. They can't do the same again, they know they can't. >_<"
Sidar, I think the two-hundred 'Nintendo is not hardcore and/or has abandoned us and the end is near' articles have finally gotten to you and convinced you that online editorials and random blog postings are more relevant to/representative of the market than they actually are.
"When someone walks into a store with $500 looking to pick up a PS3 they don't go "Hey! A PS2? Well, I don't need all those fancy features!" and walk out with the PS2."
Why not? That was exactly what I did last Black Friday.
Well, that's promising.
"Gimmicks, although entertaining or not, are only meant to last until the consumer gets bored of them."
Um, what product is there that's meant to last *beyond* the consumer getting bored of it? Aside from drugs, I mean.