The Lifespan of Nostalgia (by Elliot S.)
February 15, 2011, by Elliot S. - You're in a car. For how long you don't know -- we'll call it a few excruciating hours -- but what you do know is that if you don't get something to distract you soon, round 35 of Twenty Questions could be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back in this mind-boggling boring parody of a road trip and convinces you to once and for all throw yourself out that ever more appealing window. To your left, your cyberpunk of a little brother offers you a go with his PSP2 -- "C'mon bro, it's the next generation!" -- but you decide you got your fill of Little Big Planet last decade. To your right, your older, much more mature cousin is sitting just as bored as you, lamenting that his 360 isn't more portable -- "Dude, what I wouldn't give for some matchmaking right now," he sighs. You shake your head in disappointment, but just as you're about to resign yourself to a nice upright, uncomfortable "nap" here, sandwiched in the backseat, Grandpa turns around at the wheel -- "Here sonny, give this here Nintendo 3DS a try. It's totally hip!" -- and you eagerly snatch it from him, desperate for anything, starting it up faster than he can blink. To your delight, it is indeed in 3D, but for some reason, a few barrel rolls into the game and the Star Fox Team seems to be finding themselves in a rather familiar situation . . .
"Wait a minute Grandpa, isn't this an old game?"
"Of course it is! But it's a classic, sonny. And it's in 3D! Ain't it pretty?"
Well, yes and no.
Everyone knows that Nintendo is a franchise-based company. That becomes all the more obvious when you realize that they're still releasing games in the same vein as their now 30-year-old first foray into video gaming, the original Donkey Kong in 1981. And that's understandable from a variety of perspectives. For one, there are still people who once loved Donkey Kong that still love Donkey Kong. Secondly, Donkey Kong still appears marketable to people who haven't even heard of the game in the first place, including such people as my own generation, not yet born back in the early '80s but still fans of the series due to later releases, such as Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64 in the 1990s. Additional examples abound -- Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Kirby -- even franchises added later are still somewhat proliferated, such as Star Fox and F-Zero, a more popular example being Pokémon. Even franchises like the latter, which seemed for a while to be new and innovative during my childhood, have by now been around so long that I have to explain to the kid I used to babysit that yes, SoulSilver Version is indeed a remake.
Now, the point of all this mindless, self-indulgent game talk is to set up a much larger point, and that is to say that while Nintendo has often been known as a company very dependent on its franchises merely due to its age in comparison to its competitors, it's important to realize now that we're already in the second decade of the 21st century, and as such Nintendo isn't the only old-timer on the field anymore. Sony, having released the original PlayStation in 1994, has since then enjoyed an immense amount of success, due in part to their franchises, yes—such icons as Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon instantly spring to mind—but how incessantly prolonged have these franchises been by Sony? I contend almost nothing compared to the continued recycling of Nintendo franchises.
Still, I always feel somewhat a traitor when having this conversation. In all fairness, Nintendo's franchises are primarily first-party, and as such cannot appear on another console anyway. One could say in defense of Nintendo that the reason such franchises as Crash and Spyro aren't as frequent on Sony consoles (and thus why Sony isn't likewise accused of beating its franchises to death) is because they have always been developed by a third party, and as such appear just as frequently, except across a different array of consoles (a la Season of Ice, developed for the GBA of all things).
So what's my real question? I'm curious what the so-called "life span" of this nostalgia is, the nostalgia Nintendo seems to be so friendly with. Fanboys aside, there has to be a real question in most people's minds just how many times a game can be rehashed. Having been born a Nintendo fanboy, I'm nothing but pumped to embrace this new gadget they call the 3DS, but once again, the launch titles leave something to be desired. It was more or less to be expected—one is immediately reminded of the launch of the original DS in back in late 2004, itself marred with less-than-spectacular titles at the outset. Super Mario 64 DS seemed to be one of the few launch titles anyone cared about, given that the others were simply various third-party developments and handheld ports of much better console counterparts. And what was SM64DS? An enhanced remake of a then-8-year-old game. Sounds strikingly familiar.
Overall, I guess I can't say I have that many complaints, because there's obviously nothing new about Nintendo relying on its franchises, given how well-received and well-established many of them are. Still, I implore the likes of such giants as Miyamoto and Iwata to take some initiative and start to really create again, regardless of how well-hyped games like Ocarina of Time 3DS or Star Fox 64 3DS are. Given the fact that the last new franchise for Nintendo was the Wii "Enter Activity Here" series (unless you count the Professor Layton games and The Last Story), I'd say it's time for some change. There have been failures in the past, but in my opinion there haven't been enough of them to warrant relying so heavily on such old gameplay formulas. At the same time though, if the creation of the next big Nintendo franchise is still a little time off, it's understandable that more traditional, well-loved titles are pushed, as long as the right ones are pushed—controversy over whether the OoT reboot, among other highly anticipated remakes, will even appear at launch is thus appropriate, I think. Nintendo has to garner a sufficient consumer base for the 3DS before releasing a wider variety of titles, so I think that, while obnoxiously and copiously overdone, OoT, SF64, Pilotwings, and other reboots are ultimately necessary during the launch window (preferably early).
So thanks for the hardware, Grandpa. The software's a little behind for my taste yet, but you bet your britches I'll make do just fine for now. It's at least better than the Virtual Boy Grandma tried to regift me last Christmas.
