Hear me out, and this is the truth:
Super Smash Brothers for the WiiU is the most important video game in Nintendo’s long history since Wii Sports. The entire future of Nintendo is riding on the success of this game---which is shaping to be potentially the biggest triumph since Mario Kart Wii’s 32+ million rundown back when the Wii was king and Nintendo was raking profits like there was no tomorrow.
We all know that Smash Brothers will become a success, but the question is just how much hardware can it move? Can it make the WiiU more relevant and push it towards the crown currently being held by PS4? Can it remove the bad stench of the WiiU’s slow start (and seemingly constant denial from Nintendo)? Just what exactly can Smash Brothers accomplish? Nintendo is banking everything on this one game, with the 3DS counterpart being its sneak preview (which will also deliver plenty of sales, especially with the cool-looking Smash 3DS coming out).
Want more proof of Nintendo’s pure and utmost dependency on this game? Namco is working on this, and Nintendo rarely ever allows third-party companies to work on their first-party franchises—even though I have mentioned how this strategy should be explored more often. They took a proven company that has a popular and successful fighting franchise to lend their touches on what is now the top fighting franchise in the entire game industry. The amount of third-party characters has even increased, as Pac-Man, Mega Man, Sonic, and maybe even Snake will make an appearance. You can make your very own character to use in the game. Over six different composers have worked on the soundtrack, and the CD is available for free as long as you register your two Smash games.
The controllers that are being issued. You can use the Wiimote, use the Wii Pad, use the Virtual Console controller, and then we have a special Gamecube throwback controller being sold prior to the game’s release. We already have tournaments on this game and it’s not even out to the public yet. The game seemingly has taken note of every request fans have made, from customizable characters to new third-party characters, to enhanced online system, and even a (sort-of) ranking system.
The marketing. Nearly every week there are new announcement and updated news about the game, and Nintendo is usually extremely hush-hush about their projects. It has had its own Nintendo Direct conferences online to maintain the exposure in the gaming world. It had a tournament in the middle of E3. The upcoming game is also tied to downloadable content specials that are being shown in the WiiU and the 3DS. You cannot escape this game. If only Nintendo applied this amount of marketing to its other games.
So the question, what is left? Nintendo’s final step has to be bundles---lots and lots of bundles. We are talking bundling Smash Bros. 4 with WiiU systems in different colors, with different features, different memory sizes, and maybe other options like music CDs, Gamecube controllers, etc. Nintendo needs to guarantee that you can’t breathe the WiiU life without having the game close to you. Smash Brothers is notorious for reviving franchises (See: Earthbound, Fire Emblem, Kirby, and to a lesser extent even Metroid) so it would be extremely beneficial for new owners to have this game to see the different gaming worlds Nintendo usually offers. Who knows, maybe Mega Man can once again rise to the prominence it used to have in the NES/SNES days.
Everything is being thrown to make Smash Brothers 4 a success. Depending on the impact it makes this holiday season will determine whether or not the WiiU can ever churn out Wii-like profits, and whether or not Nintendo has to re-evaluate the way it makes and distributes games. It all boils down to this game, this holiday, and the world’s reaction.
Smash Brothers 4 will determine whether the WiiU can go down the path of the 3DS (slow start, ferocious run) or the Gamecube (sustains minimal sales, with few hits here and there).
No comments:
Post a Comment