Wii would like to provide you with another chance to view Nintendo as something only for children and adults with sick Princess fantasiesAllow me to preface: I do not own a Wii, nor do I play one on a highly frequent basis. Both of these can be justified by the fact that the Wii’s pricing point, when compared with the game selection, is simply not reasonable. Before I buy a console, I have to be able to mentally list off fifteen games I know I cannot get on a system I already own, that stand a reasonably good chance of staying exclusive titles. This, in turn, is why the Wii has been a problematic buy for the hardcore gamer audience, in addition, in a multiplatform universe, the Wii is often underwhelmed button-wise to handle control schemes of more “button demanding” titles, and has to result to gestures commonly utilized to signal ships via a system of flags back in 1800s. This is where the Wii could have developed a niche in the market, in the realm of intuitive controls. Instead, they induce carpal-tunnel, and generally result with a Wiimote embedded in one’s television.

It can’t compete visually or control-wise, and so, by definition, the only games that tend to fare well on the Wii are those that are custom developed as an exclusive Wii title. Again, one would be inclined to believe that when working with a laid-back set of hardware that many employees were already quite familiar with from the previous generation, this would encourage developers that wanted to lower their development costs to develop games for the Wii. Instead, developers saw the Wii as a veritable “dumping ground,” a place to “recycle” games of the past generation by porting them to the Wii, without any optimization for the Wii’s (while limited) increased capabilities, either in the controls or visuals department. There will be exceptions, like Okami or Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, but for the most part, this holds true.

If you played it on the Gamecube, you’ve got a lot of bonus conent and a completely new satisifying way to play it here. If you didn’t play it on the Gamecube, wellcome to civilization, consider this your passport.Of course, the natural intuitive response is to play the blame game. Just who is culpable for this scenario? While most hasten to blame the developers, or Nintendo themselves, I’d first point the finger at the marketing team of Nintendo, as well as the public. There is no denying that Nintendo has repeatedly marketed the Wii as a system that is played as a family, as their initial advertising campaign clearly demonstrated. Two Japanese men show up at the quaintly suburban home, suggest that “Wii would like to play” and are invited in, to demonstrate to the non-threatening white family just how much clean wholesome fun can be had on the Wii. We’ve (pardon the pun) all seen such an ad. Perhaps this can be contributed to Nintendo’s launch titles, which have never really incorporated more than one or two “Mature” games. Due to such, they’ve always “set the stage” for each system as another “safe” buy for parents, only to have to sporadically defend this image as Mature games went through the production cycle.

Now, let me be clear, there is not a 1:1 understanding between Mature games and hardcore games. Titles like World of Goo and Braid clearly demonstrate that a game can be hardcore without utilizing the tropes that a mature game generally does. But, for the most part, this tends to be the case. Consequently, game developers are afraid to release more “hardcore” titles on the Wii, they tend to not sell well, and frequently are admonished for placing a “profane-laden” title on the doorstep of Mario and the Princess. Someone needs to get the message to the public that the Wii is no different than any other gaming console: it sells games for varying age groups and demographics, and it is the parent’s job to display the basic understanding of the alphabet to discern whether or not the child should be playing the game. Parents are inherently lazy however; they assume that in selecting the Wii as their console, that Nintendo will do the rest to make sure their kid has a 0% chance of encountering something objectionable. But that’s not Nintendo’s job, to be a digital babysitter for today’s youth. The Wii should not be scared into pigeonholing itself to the pre-teen or “bingo and bedsores” demographics. Sony brought us God of War and Killzone, but also Crash Bandicoot and Katamari Damacy. We don’t see anyone calling them out on this theoretical act of hypocracy.

However, a few brave souls have ventured to provide Wii owners with exclusive titles that are genuinely good, but perhaps don’t have the marketing bucks or mass appeal of Wii Sports. Then again, what does? This doesn’t excuse the fact that games like the wonderful port (to call it a “port” is a disservice to the title, perhaps “reimagining” is more appropriate) of Okami, or the recent entry in the Fire Emblem series should have to fight to crack a half million sales worldwide. Hardcore gamers may complain and bemoan about the relative lack of “hardcore” games, but when given the chance to “vote with their dollars” they’ve abstained. This is why No More Heros, Suda51′s masterpiece of meta-gaming criticism couldn’t even sell four-tenths of a million copies, or why Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox was left straining to sell a million copies. Even a new entry in the Resident Evil series, The Umbrella Chronicles, which attempted to capitalize on the “light-gun” capabilities of the Wiimote, was barely able to reach 1.5 million copies sold. These are numbers that the decidedly “above average” Army of Two and Perfect Dark Zero were capable of on the Xbox 360.

People, this looks beautiful. Yes, it’s violent, I get that. Just wait until your kids are asleep to play it. Set their bedtime earlier if you can’t wait.Perhaps Wii gamers don’t realize that passing up every one of these in apathy, and waiting for the next dyed-in-the-wool Nintendo mascot game is intrinsically damaging to the system. For every title that fails to sell (many of these do fine becoming critical darlings, mind you) it sends a message to the developer that creating Wii games that don’t follow the exploits of plumbers with high blood pressure or a mute sexually androgynous protagonist with a green windsock for a hat, is a waste. It tells the publisher that investing in developers with these interests is unprofitable. It tells Nintendo that, despite whatever cross-demographic plans they might have had in mind, adhering to the model that the abovementioned individuals have doctored up for them, is the only way to survive.

To those who want to see a revival of the utopia that was the Super Nintendo era, BUY House of the Dead: Overkill or Madworld, or The Conduit. Send the message that these games can sell on the Wii. People need to realize that if these games were on the Xbox 360 or PS3, none of this “killing simulator” talk, or complaints of excessive violence would be levied. But until these games can sell well, and provide a foothold for Nintendo as a company to cater to the hardcore gamer once more, they will be forced to cater to their only other stable user base: Wii Fit users and Mario fans. Hurry! before all that’s left is the Mario Party series and Wii Bowling: The Sequel.

White is the author of A Vastly Ironic Life, which covers the gaming industry and game culture

A review of Prince of Persia

By Joseph Schafer

There is an episode of The Twilight Zone entitled “A Nice
Place to Visit” in which a gambler’s eternal punishment in hell is to win every
game he ever plays. Poetic justice aside, this illustrates a vital lesson in
game design: without the threat of loss, victory becomes much less meaningful.
Ubisoft Montreal obviously should have watched more Twilight Zone when making
the new Prince of Persia.

 What the developers have created, in all their well-intended
and misguided fervor, is something that should have never seen the light of
day: a game the player cannot lose. Whenever death by battle (which is all too
rare) or by falling off a cliff (which is far, FAR too common) threaten to
break up the tiresome monotony of continual gameplay, the player’s ever-present
sidekick swoops in to rescue you with her magical powers. Neither fall, nor
opponent (even the final boss), nor even incredible distance can stop her from
sparing the player a sense of failure.

 This newfound sense of ease is a result of the best of
intentions: to open the series up to the casual market. Never forget the road
to hell is paved with good intentions. Also never forget that casual sales
right now equal more profit, and good intentions are an urban legend.  All that ease of mind and time,
however, gives the player the opportunity to soak up the art and graphics,
which are outstanding. This may be the most beautiful game ever made. The pot
leaves the player ruffles loose while climbing on vines all look good enough to
load in a Roor. Too bad the art style is pilfered from equal parts Okami and
post-2004 Magic: the Gathering (read: bad Magic: the Gathering. Why they didn’t
base the art on the legendary Arabian Nights set is beyond me).

 Since its inception, critics have continually regarded Tetris as one of the few (if not the only) perfect games. Tetris is maybe the most casual of casual games, and it is
hella hard. Tetris is so good it nearly single-handedly brought Nintendo the
head of the handheld games market on a silver platter when it came packaged
with the original Gameboy, a stranglehold Netendo holds to this day. Tetris is
invariably one of the first games ported to any new play system, including the
iPhone, and people love it if, for no other reason, because it is a game you
cannot win. It is an unstoppable dominatrix of a game, and perhaps at heart, we’re
all just white-collar stiffs in need of a post-nine-to-five spanking.

 If Tetris is a
weathered but still beautiful mistress of pain and torment, Prince of
Persia is a young mother with an infinite
supply of Xanax-fueled patience and the kind of new age child-rearing
sensibility resulting in five-year-old members of PETA. She will not punish,
she will not even scold. Persia
thinks you’ll learn better with an infinite amount of pop-up tutorials and an
androgynous babysitter to pick you up and put you back on track at the
slightest sign of trouble.

 Well, that’s a bit unfair. Elika is both the best and worst
part of the game, but she is most certainly not androgynous. In many ways she’s
the ideal feminist figure in games: strong, charismatic, reserved, loyal, and
with tits that don’t seem to deserve their own ring of satellites. That’s all
surface though. Secretly, Elika is everything that is wrong with how men think
of women.

 She is clearly the most powerful character in the in game
world, what with her powerful magical attacks, teleporting, inhuman acrobatic
skill, and encyclopedic knowledge of in-game lore nobody gives a shit about.
She holds your hand to the point the player can’t help but wonder “Why doesn’t
she do all this herself, instead of clinging to my back like a baby koala while
climbing?” Normally, such nitpicking and refusal to suspend disbelief is the
sign of weak minds, but Prince throws
inconsistencies in the player’s face so often they become inescapable.

 The last third of the game—the parts occupied by the same
fine-tuned platforming that made every other Prince of Persia game such a joy to play—are quite good, though a
so-called “open-world” constructed of two-lane platforming streets to run
circuits around has made it easier than ever before. If Persia had embraced, say, a Super Mario sunshine approach in creating a go-anywhere-in-any-way
world, it might have been a marvel. As it stands the game exists at the crossroads
of a Zelda dungeon and a giant
obstacle course.

 The mark of a failure in a series is when it makes you want
to go back to its prior installments. Playing Prince of Persia just made me want to play Sands of Time that much more, even the irritating Tower
of Dawn, and forget this current version ofPrince was ever made.

 Prince stands,
however, as more of a Quantum of Solace failure than a Phantom Menace, as it is superior to Asassin’s Creed, and in some ways is a genuine step forward, only when
compared to earlier versions of similar games, in taking that one step forward,Prince takes two steps back. Oh
to be able to play Warrior Within
with this combat system, or Sands of Time with the ability to crawl on the ceiling and gauntlet-slide down
walls!  Prince of
Persia’s world is a nice place to visit,
but living there for the duration of the game left me feeling like the main
character in Metallica’s One—wishing
for the ability to just die already.

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http://www.princeofpersiagame.com/

$59.99 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, $49.99 for Windows Vista.