by Jeremy Parish, 11.14.2006
As they say, those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. For Nintendo, though, that's not entirely a threat. In recent years, the general consensus has been that the company's best days are behind it. The DS has started to turn things around, though, and now Nintendo's single most naked ambition is to recapture the past, to become the powerhouse of quality and creativity for which it was renowned, once upon a time. But things won't be as easy for Wii as they were for the company's first console, 1985's 8-bit NES. Back then, the games industry was practically comatose, so it was no trouble for a relatively tiny company to waltz in and take the lead. The irony here is that in doing so, Nintendo vitalized an industry that eventually outpaced it. Each of the NES's successors has had a successively more difficult time making its way. Enter the Wii. If any system has ever had the potential to shake things up, it's Nintendo snowy-white dark horse. The entire philosophy behind Wii is entirely different from the likes of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, in large part because Nintendo realized that playing by the same rules as everyone else was a quick route to third-place irrelevance. But with that potential for radical success comes the possibility of crushing defeat. So which history will Nintendo be learning from? Will it be reliving the good times or repeating the failures? Things could go either way, which makes looking back at the company's launch track record all the more intriguing. 
The Lineup
Super Mario World | F-Zero | SimCity | Pilotwings | Gradius III The Lesson
Show your strengths early and often. Remember back in the day, when a new console could launch with just a handful of games in tow and not be deemed a failure? Super NES was perhaps the last time that happened -- and only because it had a few advantages in its favor. For starters, it had a game packed in... and not just any game, but Super Mario World, one of the deepest and most substantial launch titles in history. Packed with solid gameplay, innovative gameplay features that showcased the Super NES's special capabilities without degenerating to sheer flashiness and an overwhelming abundance of secrets to uncover, SMW was pretty much all gamers needed for the system's first few months. Which isn't to say it was the only game they wanted. Super NES was a powerhouse of a machine, loaded for bear with special functions that easily eclipsed the competition. And Nintendo's other launch games, F-Zero and Pilotwings, existed almost entirely for the sake of showing them off. Super NES's innate 3D capabilities were entirely chicanery, but that didn't make precision landings any less fun -- nor did it make streaking across a futuristic race track any less amazing. It was obvious by looking at those games that Sega's Genesis may have had a lead in time, but Super NES had the upper hand for technology. How Does the Wii Stack Up?
Wii is a different animal than Super NES -- no one's going to be impressed with its modest hardware specs -- but its launch lineup performs a similar function in showing off the Wii's innovative controller. Wii Sports (which is pretty much the first launch pack-in seen since, well, Super NES) is a perfect demonstration of the motion-sensitive controller's ability to allow an interface that mirrors the game to the real world. And Zelda is a robust demonstration of how the Wii remote works for traditional "hardcore" games. And there's plenty of third party software built around the remote controller, too -- all in all, a good sign. 
The Lineup
Super Mario 64 | Pilotwings 64 The Lesson
A killer app just isn't enough. When the Nintendo 64 arrived, it launched with just two games. Two! Luckily, one of them was Super Mario 64, which single-handed revolutionized 3D gaming, blew away every 3D action game that had come before and offered depth comparable to Super Mario World. People didn't buy N64s in 1996; they bought Mario 64 and grabbed a system to play it with as an afterthought. It was a great start for the system... but Nintendo promptly failed to follow up. When asked about the lack of compelling software coming down the N64 pipeline, Nintendo's president Howard Lincoln confidently told Next Generation magazine that all the system needed was Mario 64. But a month after the console arrived, it became clear that wasn't the case. Everyone loved Mario 64 -- but after mastering its ins and outs, gamers wanted something more. Very little was forthcoming. Many dedicated Nintendo fans toughed it out, content to wait for a slow trickle of top-notch titles like Zelda. But just as many threw their hands up in the air and decided to dock their affections with PlayStation and its constant flow of greatness. How Does the Wii Stack Up?
Nintendo's done a very wise thing with Wii. Well, two: one, it's convinced plenty of third parties to hop aboard to ensure there's something to play once you finish killer app Zelda. Secondly, it's holding back some of its early games to ensure there won't be any painful waits for something good. Wario Ware hits in January, and beyond that there's Metroid, Super Mario Galaxy , Smash Bros. -- and plenty of goodness from other developers, too. And if that isn't enough for you and your demanding ways, Nintendo has promised at least ten "new" Virtual Console titles each month. 
The Lineup
Luigi's Mansion | Wave Race: Blue Storm | Rogue Squadron II | Super Monkey Ball | Crazy Taxi | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 | Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 | Batman Vengeance | All-Star Baseball 2002 | Madden NFL 2002 | NHL Hitz 20-02 | Tarzan Untamed The Lesson
Exclusives define a system. The GameCube launch was seen by many as a disappointment; Nintendo systems had always arrived with an instant Mario classic in tow, but for the GC all we got was Luigi's Mansion. But what that decent-but-not-amazing title really accomplished was to throw into sharp relief how shoddy the system's third-party support was. Granted, none of the past generation systems had particularly great launches; only Xbox had a defining killer app on day one (in Halo). But GC's lineup was a sign of things to come. Very little of its initial content was noteworthy -- which is to say, exclusive. The two really unique third-party titles were the cool-but-overly-familiar Rogue Squadron II and the kids-only Super Monkey Ball. And that was the rest of the GC's life: a morass of seen-it-before sequels and squeaky kid games. True third party exclusives were a precious rarity, but apparently not previous enough; Nintendo's partnership with Capcom was to yield a bevy of awesome GC-only games, all of which eventually ended up on PS2. Killer 7, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe -- the lack of GameCube-exclusive content hobbled its install base, which in turn meant the few rare exclusives that did appear had to show up on competing systems in order to be be profitable. It was a painful lesson for all involved. How Does the Wii Stack Up?
Here's where it all comes to a point. Wii has a decent amount of third-party exclusives coming off the starting blocks, most notably Trauma Center, Red Steel and, yes, Monkey Ball. It also has plenty amount of straight ports, especially coming from Ubisoft. Seeing a next-gen system launch with a last-gen-quality rendition of Splinter Cell or Call of Duty isn't going to impress the kids, control scheme be damned; if anything, it's only going to call attention to the technical disparities between Wii and its competition. Still, there are encouraging signs. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam isn't a halfhearted port but rather an entirely different game from PS3 and 360's Project 8: Fan-favorite developer Toys For Bob is crafting a totally new take on the THPS franchise that recollects old-school skate games like 720?. Likewise, Rayman: Raving Rabbids is completely unique in its Wii incarnation as well. Nintendo's success with Wii hinges largely on the company's ability to excite developers about the system's unique features, to encourage them to create entirely new takes on games rather than straight ports. Wii doesn't stand a chance competing graphically with Microsoft and Sony. But if the Wii gameplay experience can sustain the same uniqueness as the system itself, gamers who value originality over beauty will likely find much to love about Wii.  |
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