Toy/Games for Nintendo

Nintendo has been going through some hard times the last few years. They reported a 3rd year of losses for their company. This has meant doing things like releasing games they normally don’t release into the states. In fact, previous decisions are being looked at again. For example, Nintendo once said no to a game called Skylanders.

This turned out to be a good move, since the game is suddenly competing with Disney Infinity. The Disney game is just like Skylanders, but has characters from anything that is covered by giant mouse ears. Keep in mind, Marvel is owned by Disney.

There have been a lot of ideas for how Nintendo should begin to make money again. Most of these ideas don’t seem to work. Many other companies are going through a similar financial downturn. Games like Skylanders, Disney Infinity, and a new Nintendo game seem to be good bets. The problem is how will they compete against each other, and will fans really want all of these games?

Ideas for how Nintendo can get better have been rampant. The big one, which is usually spread by some guy wanting attention via press release, is to move into the mobile market. While the 3DS was not selling well, there were all sorts of articles about how handheld gaming was no longer relevant. Now that the handheld system is making a profit, and doing much better you don’t hear it very often.

The next one is that Nintendo should be paying for major exclusives, like how Sony, and Microsoft do. The truth is, Nintendo does pay companies for exclusives, and even lets the company use Mario and company in those games. Thus we have Mario Golf, Mario Strikers - a football game-, Mario Baseball, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, and Donkey Kong Country. Each one of those games was funded by Nintendo, and has done fairly well. In fact, every system has had a version of each game the last few generations. Many of these companies make games for other systems, but hold exclusives with the Nintendo brand characters.

What is actually meant by fund exclusives is that the larger companies like Activision want Nintendo to pay for the funding of a random game. Skylanders was one of these games. Once again, there have been attempts to get exclusives, but almost none of them have worked out. Resident Evil 4 was supposed to be an exclusive game for the Gamecube. It ended up being released for the Playstation 2, and the game design has been used for multiple games in the series. Most of which have not been sold on Nintendo systems. In other words, paying for exclusives without adding Mario in front of a game doesn’t seem to work.

The next declaration is that Nintendo should go edgier, darker, show some blood. The reality is that Nintendo has had exclusive games made for their systems, with all sorts of blood, and dark themes. Geist was released for the Gamecube, and is about a ghost that posseses everything around him. It has blood, dark themes, and a tricked out story. It didn’t do well.

Bright happy games tend to sell better for Nintendo systems. For every Grand Theft Auto there has been a Wii Sports selling three times as much. For every declaration that a game is cool, edgy, and mature, Nintendo releases a weight loss game and outsells them. It’s been like this for years. The mature games don’t sell well enough on Nintendo systems, and the happy games tend to last for a long time on the top seller list.

Japan is going through a lot of problems with videogames. Companies are going through stagnation in sales, and profits falling flat. The company that made Resident Evil 4, has been reporting losses. Namco Bandai, which still owns the rights to Pacman, is in the same boat. Konami has been feeling the burn. Sega has been going through some hard times as well. In other words, Japan as a gaming centric area has been suffering. Saying that Nintendo should do this, or that is missing out on the fact that whatever is going on is hitting more than just one console maker.

The suggestions seem to be demanding that these companies do things that will only fix a small symptom, or give short term solutions. A new CEO of the company will not fix the economic problems of the entire country. In fact, videogame companies in the US have taken on new CEO’s only to flounder anyway. The mobile market is great, but it does not seem to be generating the income needed for companies the size of Nintendo.

Nintendo has come up with an odd solution, but it needs another article to write out all of it. Basically, they are working with the big companies, but leaning more towards the indie. You won’t get money from Nintendo unless the company owns the rights to the game, but they will make it really easy to make or port a game over. There are engines entirely designed to take something like Flappy Bird, and move onto the Wii U. If you sign up to make a game for the Wii U, Nintendo will send you several programs that will help in building the game. They will also answer questions, and deal with any beginners problems you have. It is both working and not working right now, but it makes an interesting look at games.

Skylanders was made by two companies for a larger company. Like Mario Tennis, or Donkey Kong Country, one company holds the rights to the game while others make it. The two companies are Vicarious Visions, and Toys for Bob who both work for Activision.

Toys for Bob are known for making fun filled games with comical worlds. My personal favorite game of theirs was Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam. It created a cartoon universe for skaters to race down mountains, into cities, and out into the ocean.

Vicarious Visions is known for their technical skills in design. They tend to take game ideas, and then port them to other systems. This includes taking Tony Hawk, and porting it to a Game boy Advanced. The most impressive was Tony Hawk American Sk8land, which was considered the best Tony Hawk game that year.

Toys for Bob began the Skylander series, and during this time showed it to Nintendo. Activision offered the game as an exclusive to the Nintendo systems if it was cofunded. Ultimately Nintendo declined.

Skylanders is now one of the top 20 game franchises, and has sold 175 million toys. Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions work together to make each addition to the game be the best it possibly could be.

The game design is a bit interesting, so let me show you how it works. The game is a giant world full of things to explore, and monsters to destroy. What makes it unique is the toys for the game.

You can play with them, pose them, attack other toys with them, make all sorts of noises for them, and anything else I totally admit to doing as a kid. They are way cool looking toys, that cost in general about the same amount as any other cool toy. The difference is that this toy has a microchip on it that can save, and place information. The toy can be scanned by a device connected to your console.

The toy is placed into the game, and ready to be played. You can save stats for your toy, and take them to your buddies house to be played. Making noises, and setting the game characters up on a blind date with Barbie do not happen.

Skylanders has hundreds of toys with all sorts of different options for playing in game. Each toy adds to the game, and your own personal collection.

Disney saw this, and decided to do the same thing, only using everything Disney had the rights to. So you can play Pixar characters, Disney Characters, Marvel Superheroes, and many more. They have sidescrolling levels, giant 3D levels ready to be explored, and every character must be bought as a toy first. The only problem I have with this game is that Disney sold the rights to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Team Pink Ranger, Thor, Loki, and Darth Maul will have to wait for only my imagination.

This is a crowded field already, and to be honest Disney has won. They have more recognizable characters than anyone else. Creating a team for Perry the Platypus, Captain America, Qui Gon Jin, and any Disney Princess is by and far the winner.

This doesn’t mean that Skylanders is losing right now. It continue to outsell Disney as families try to collect as many toys for their collection as possible. The competition for the toys/game franchise is already fierce, and now it has a new contender.

To make up for the flub from earlier, Nintendo has decided to enter into the fray. The Wii U system already has a scanner on its controller to collect information from toys. There is also a stable of characters that would do well for such games. In fact, we know this is true because there already is a game like that without toys.

Super Smash Bros which debuted on the Nintendo 64 has had an edition for every console. In fact, the newest version will release for both the Wii U, and 3DS handheld. The development story is a strange one, since the original game was made by a company wholy owned by Nintendo, and directed by someone who retired from the company. At one point, the game was announced and that he would direct before being asked or even told.

The game is about videogame characters from all of Nintendo’s franchises battling it out. Other companies have allowed their characters to be playable, so Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, and Solid Snake can now battle Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong. It is considered one of the top games in the world.

Nintendo is also known for letting their franchise out. Such things as a Super Mario Bros TV show, Mario Kart toys, and patches have been seen everywhere. There was even a movie, though it sort of stank.

In other words, a big toy/game franchise would be perfect for Nintendo. It was announced as a way to help get out of the current slump Nintendo has been travelling through for the last three years. There is little to know about now, but the slides released by Nintendo do show a great deal.

This is the slide that I believe says the most about what will be happening. Basically, one toy of Mario can be used on multiple games. With this, you can add Mario onto a game. Let’s take this into speculation for the moment.

What if there was a giant open world game, much as Disney Infinity, and skylanders has built. You scan Mario from your controller, and the game can be played with Mario. But what if that doll came with a level or game. You have a Mario Bros side scroller, with character scanner. So the next thing you know, Mario can play on a Sonic level, and Sonic can play on a Mario level.

Sonic has a free add on to one of his games most recently, showing off the Blue Hedgehog in the world of Legend of Zelda.

But what if Super Smash Bros also allowed toys? There has been rampant desire for all sorts of characters to be playable within that game.

What if you could add all of those characters by just scanning the right toys? And it doesn’t have to be just Smash Bros either. It could be Mario Kart as well. Scan the Simon Belmont toy, and suddenly you have the Castlevania level with Simon whipping his way around the corner.

We do have something like this without toys. Called Downloadable Content -DLC for short-, a player pays for some extra item the creators have just released. So a game continues on way after defeating the released levels.

The slide would basically mean a form of DLC for every single previous game within the Toy/Game franchise. You scan Samus, and now she is playable in several different games. Possibly even allowing extra levels, and items for those games as well. Nintendo has a working relationship with many companies that would love to make some extra money by adding characters. You buy Strider, and you get the strider game, and also the character in Smash Bros.

Back to the open world, as you buy items, the giant open world changes with the new enemies and items. If you can play with others online, one person could have having a Street Fighter battle, while another is in a giant robotic suit of armor being tripped by a Crazy Taxi driver. Nintendo’s ace in the hole is that they are the kings of gameplay. If other companies add to it, then you have a never ending game with tons of characters to play with.

Each game you buy adds to the open world, and lets you play toys on it. It continues to expand past the original.

To be honest, this is what I wished I could do with a bunch of Dreamcast games. If this turns out to be true then my dream will be fulfilled. Especially if Sega releases toys and games to this franchise.

The conflict is who owns what. Activision has the rights to Tony Hawk games, and will likely not be adding anyone onto a Nintendo or Disney game. Although Capcom has made a game where Marvel and Capcom characters battle it out, we should not expect Marvel characters to show up with Mario. Likewise, Disney owns so many more characters that it is almost impossible to beat them.

So, we have the originals, the most characters, and the best gameplay makers going against each other. It is not an easy thing to figure out who can survive such a battle. This is especially sad because I want to see Bob Burnquist driving a Taxi for money. The companies will work to get other companies to release their own characters onto a game.

Nintendo has a lot of money, and knows how to work with it carefully. They have been losing money lately, and working to overcome problems. There have been suggestions, but most of them only seem to work in the small term, or don’t work at all. The company tends to prefer having game that they can control, and then let other companies do what they want. If Nintendo can raise everyone up, they will, but on their terms. The Toy/Game seems like a brilliant move to do everything Nintendo wants or needs. It has some problems though, Disney and Activision are already in this business and not likely to step down from it. There will be fierce competition between the companies.

All of this talk has made me want to play with some toys. We won't really know all that is going to happen until June, so we have some time. Who wants to play Barbie? I will be Thor and the Pink Ranger!