Opinions on 2009?

[hisak]

and the game wasn't very compelling either, I've had more fun watching paint dry.

That's because you only played five minutes.

DK was really innovative and worked surprisingly well, Paper Mario 2 had a really original story and actually had well-written dialogue unlike the first, and Wind Waker, while not as good as OoT or MM, is still a very good game.

I liked Excitebots and have Dead Space Extraction (which got good reviews, probably the best of any Wii rail shooter yet) waiting for me on my shelf. And people liked Punch-Out!!, which I sadly haven't had the chance to play.

[Poewarrior]

Paper Mario 2, Wind Waker, and Jungle Beat were all steps down for those franchises. 

I can agree with you about Wind Waker and Jungle Beat, but Paper Mario 2 is at least as good as Paper Mario, and is in my opinion better.  The game may have had a lot of text, but it was all very well written.  The battling was also much more dynamic with the addition of the audience. 

[hisak]

Jungle Beat was a step down from DKC, I suppose, but saying it was worse than DK64 is insanity.

The battling was also much more dynamic with the addition of the audience. 

Everything about the battling was better. The Crystal Stars and the partner HP systems were much better than their 64 counterparts.

[JordAnime]

Thousand Year Door was more sophisticated, but the experience of the original Paper Mario was just better.  It is possible to make a technically superior sequel and still have it be inferior to the original.

[hisak]

I still think TTYD was better. It was more creative and had more interesting characters. If I could pick one game that would get a proper sequel on Wii, it'd be this game.

(Or Luigi's Mansion.)

[Ignus]

want to know what my opinion on 2009 was? (and the wii in general for that matter?)

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=269

Nintendo has turned their back on us.... it makes me sad.

[hisak]

If this was mid-2008, when the only future releases were Animal Crossing and Wii Music, I'd definitely agree. I don't get why so many people are convinced that Nintendo doesn't make games for them anymore. If Nintendo was pumping out 5-8 casual games per year, I might see it, but they only released two this year, and Wii Fit Plus seems like it hardly took any development time at all.

The only thing Wii Music and Sports Resort might have caused is some of the teams to be thinned out, which would explain why we didn't get many games this year. But until the next Wii Series title is announced, I don't see any reason to think they aren't spending enough time on "our" type of games.

I would like, however, if Nintendo stopped delaying their games so much. Sin and Punishment was announced for 2009 and now it's not even on their release list for Q1 2010. It was released in Japan two months ago. There's no reason for us to be waiting this long.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

EA likes lists. So he's wading into this thread with three. In no particular order.

Top Five Wii Games in 2009 - House of the Dead: Overkill - Metroid Prime Trilogy - Wii Sports Resort - Punch Out!! - New Super Mario Bros Wii

Top Five Games on DS in 2009 - Professor Layton 2 - Mario and Luigi 3 - Spirit Tracks - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Chrono Trigger

Top Five Games I Still Need to Get From 2009 - Little King's Story - Muramasa - Rabbids Go Home - Scribblenauts - Lost Winds 2

If anyone disappointed with the output on Nintendo consoles in 2009 can say so having played all 15 of the titles listed above, then I'll give them a cookie. If they're even one game short of a full house, however, they have no right to complain about a lack of things to play this year.

Nintendo aren't resting on their laurels, they're working on the titles we love that take so long to develop to perfection. In the meantime, third parties are doing the best to win over "hardcore" snobs with a range of more mature titles. But even GTA couldn't break new ground on the DS, which probably leaves the developers wondering what the point is in even trying.

There's also plenty to look forward to in 2010 with new entries in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid titles which seem to be the only three "core" players give a damn about, more from third parties when it comes to Motion Plus and sequels to the likes of No More Heroes, a new Ace Attorney game and - with any luck - another freshly translated Layton adventure.

[hisak]

There's also plenty to look forward to in 2010 with new entries in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid titles which seem to be the only three "core" players give a damn about,

We're not getting Zelda. However we may get Pikmin, which the core cares about too.

Top Five Wii Games in 2009 - House of the Dead: Overkill

Dead Space is better. It still has lots of blood and gratuitous violence, but it actually feels like a shooter and has zombie dismemberment! Okay, to be honest I haven't played House of the Dead. But Dead Space is really, really good.

]Top Five Games I Still Need to Get From 2009
- Little King's Story

Dammit I need to get this too.

[Be_yourself]

There's also plenty to look forward to in 2010 with new entries in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid titles which seem to be the only three "core" players give a damn about,

We're not getting Zelda. However we may get Pikmin, which the core cares about too.

Its not completely impossible, Spirit tracks was announced and released last year, seeing as Nintendo have been holding off announcing Zelda when it seems that Miyamoto and Aonouma want to talk about it so much could mean that they view it as ready for an official announcement but Nintendo is holding them back. 

But really i am playing devils advocate here, from what i've read it seems they are not to far into development...eitherway...halfway through this year we know we are going to hear at least one good thing...

[hisak]

Oh, I definitely think it'll be announced, trailer and all, at E3 2010. But a release is stretching it. Announcing such a huge Zelda title so soon before its release seems out of character for Nintendo. If they weren't ready to announce it at E3 09 (when they announced two enormous 2010 games), I don't think they'll be ready to release it in 2010.

[Ignus]

EA likes lists. So he's wading into this thread with three. In no particular order.

Top Five Wii Games in 2009 - House of the Dead: Overkill - Metroid Prime Trilogy - Wii Sports Resort - Punch Out!! - New Super Mario Bros Wii

Top Five Games on DS in 2009 - Professor Layton 2 - Mario and Luigi 3 - Spirit Tracks - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Chrono Trigger

Top Five Games I Still Need to Get From 2009 - Little King's Story - Muramasa - Rabbids Go Home - Scribblenauts - Lost Winds 2

House of the dead: not my genre.
Metroid prime trilogy: IIRC it's a repackaging of old content that was indeed awesome. Also not my genre.
Wii sports resort: Prime example of casual gaming that wii exemplifies now.
Punch Out! :good, but mini-game-ish.  Classic nod to oldschool nintendo, but not really a powerhouse by any means.
New Super Mario bros. : Good classic nintendo, haven't played it personally.

Professor Layton 2 : Ultra casual game. Fun, but not really core.
Mario and Luigi 3 : Classic nintendo, great game.
Spirit tracks: eh, no opinion. Looks gimmicky and cash-in like though. did not like phantom hourglass very much.
GTA: chinatown wars:  spinoff game that does not really count.
Chrono Trigger: Re-release of old game.
LIttle king's story: looks weaksauce.
Muramasa: do want.
rabbids go home: minigame collection if I'm thinking of the right game.
Scribblenauts: made a big splash but apparently was a big dissapointment.
Lost winds 2: Isnt this a wiiware game and not even a disc?


Let us compare with, say, 1995:
Chrono trigger: Uber Classic!
Donkey kong country 2 : Fantastic game
Mortal Kombat 3 : Classic!
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island : Classic!
Megaman X3 : Uber Classic!
Tales of Phantasia : Fantastic game no one knew about
Secret of Evermore : Fantastic game no one knew about
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) : Masterpiece game no one played
Megaman 7 : Awesome!
Terranigma : Masterpiece game no one played
Final Fight 3 : Awesome!

that's 10-11 games depending on taste that were genre-defining moments of epiphany, absolutely fantastic classic games that all stand the test of time.

That's the nintendo I'm referring to when I say they've changed.  There's really no comparing those two lists.

Now, I'm not saying they have to return to an all-star lineup like they had back in their heyday, but if I could get a chrono trigger, a megaman X3, a seiken densetsu 3 and a donkey kong country 2  in one year I'd be a happy camper.
Chrono Triggers are simply not made anymore, and we're lucky to get one game of equal caliber to the others, let alone 2 or 3 in a given year.
Now I won't go into a discussion of the hows and the whys and all that, that's a topic for another thread.
For example, of all the games on this list I'm looking at for 2008, all I see are Super smash bros. Brawl, and Okami.  Both are classic games, but only 2 that year, as opposed to 10-11 in 95.

[River Devil]

Let us compare with, say, 1995:
Chrono trigger: Uber Classic!
Donkey kong country 2 : Fantastic game
Mortal Kombat 3 : Classic!
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island : Classic!
Megaman X3 : Uber Classic!
Tales of Phantasia : Fantastic game no one knew about
Secret of Evermore : Fantastic game no one knew about
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) : Masterpiece game no one played
Megaman 7 : Awesome!
Terranigma : Masterpiece game no one played
Final Fight 3 : Awesome!

that's 10-11 games depending on taste that were genre-defining moments of epiphany, absolutely fantastic classic games that all stand the test of time.

That's the Nintendo I'm referring to when I say they've changed.  There's really no comparing those two lists.

Tough crowd.  I wouldn't expect any system to pump out 10-11 "classics" per year anymore.  All video game companies have changed because the whole market has changed - which is mainly because WE, the gamers, have changed.  The technological and innovative leaps and bounds of the 80s and 90s that helped propel games to a status of "classic" will probably never be seen again.  The consumer market of gaming is too fickle anymore.

Of course, as with all video game comparisons, this is all a matter of opinion.  For instance, I look at your list of games from 95 and would argue that almost all of the sequels are not as "classic" or "defining" as their predecessors. 

[hisak]

Spirit tracks: eh, no opinion. Looks gimmicky and cash-in like though. did not like phantom hourglass very much.

Oh, it's much better than Phantom Hourglass. They really put some effort into the puzzle and dungeon design. The same thing happened with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

rabbids go home: minigame collection if I'm thinking of the right game.

No, that's Rayman Raving Rabbids. This is an action-platformer, if I understand the trailers right. Some people liked it, others didn't.

GTA: chinatown wars:  spinoff game that does not really count.

People loved this game. Enough for multiple gaming outlets to give it DS GOTY. Some people even like it better than GTA4.

Lost winds 2: Isnt this a wiiware game and not even a disc?

The best Wii game released in 2008 was on WiiWare. Don't underestimate the service. I'd say that World of Goo is up to par with the "classics" on the list you just gave us, and so is NSMBWii and, to a lesser extent, Spirit Tracks (some would also argue that A Boy and His Blob is too, though I haven't played that yet).

And sure, 1995 was a great year. But we have the benefit of being able to see the great games that were ignored at the time. Games that were ignored in 2009 are still being ignored. We should really be comparing it to more recent years.

"Notable" GameCube releases in 2005:
Resident Evil 4
Star Fox Assault (no one liked this game)
DK Jungle Beat (no one bought this game)
TimeSplitters (no one bought this game)
killer7 (no one noticed this game, at first)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (niche title)
Shadow the Hedgehog (lol)
Super Mario Strikers (yes, this was their big holiday title)

So this is why people complaining that the Nintendo has somehow "changed" since the Wii was released confuse me. Yes, they've made mistakes, mistakes that have annoyed me and everyone else who cares. They put way too many people to work on Wii Music and Wii Fit, which stretched their other teams too thin and resulted in the unbelievably bad showing at E3 2008 and a paltry number of games for the past year and a half. But I look at the list of upcoming Wii and DS games, announced and unannounced, and it still convinces me that these systems were the right decision.

No More Heroes 2
Sin and Punishment 2
Golden Sun DS
Okamiden
Monster Hunter Tri
Mega Man 10 (not everyone cares about this, I know)
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Metroid: Other M
Pikmin 3
Zelda Wii
Epic Mickey (I have a few reservations about this)
Red Steel 2 (Reservations here too but so far it looks very good)
A Retro Studios game
A game developed by Masahiro Sakurai that Nintendo thought was important enough to create an entirely new studio just for the game. ("It's something that can be made because Nintendo is backing you up, but is also something that Nintendo could not make.")

And that's just what we know about. I know it won't be enough to please everyone, but it's enough for me.