Now, when Nintendo says Core Gamers they don't really mean Hardcore Gamers they're actually referring to their Core Customers. Their Core Customers are most known to be either fans of Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Pokemon or any of their other games that have a following.-- That means, Yes, Animal Crossing is a Core game.
So if Nintendo's still making Core games why are Core Gamers disappointed?
I think Sean Malstrom does a wonderful job explaining why some Core Gamers are feeling left in the dust in his Email: The Zelda Patent article.
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...The fear of ‘Expanded Audience’ declining Nintendo’s Core games is silly. Nintendo’s Core games were easily in decline before they even began to target an Expanded Audience. One of the reasons why Gamecube didn’t do so well was because of the decline in Nintendo’s core titles. Windwaker and Super Mario Sunshine did not cause any mass phenomenon. One can argue that even the N64 games were a decline. Mario 64 and Ocarina didn’t strike the same note as the 16 bit versions. The phenomon of the N64 titles rested mostly on the 3d sensations at the time. Ocarina did sell very well. However, it sold very well to younger people. Nintendo’s N64 games are beloved by those who played them young. Many older folks did not find the titles as appealing due to the switch to 3d. The fanbase ended up fractioning... ...The Mario and Zelda games, as games of the 8-bit and 16-bit period, were glorious towers built on the solid rock of arcade gameplay. Yes, there was greater ‘adventure’ and ‘production values’ in the later games, but they all held the arcade gameplay core. The later Mario and Zelda games seemed to have the rock be ‘iconic franchise character and places’ with different types of gameplay built on it. Including Link snowboarding and Mario mantra racing doesn’t strike Nintendo as ‘odd’ because the ‘iconic franchise character and places’ are still intact. Bored core gamers have pleaded to Nintendo to use new intellectual properties. However, that would not solve Nintendo’s core dilemma... ...Miyamoto’s perspective is to remove all and any constraints in the Core titles. I do think this is the wrong way to go about it. He should just return to the Mario and Zelda roots. The market has made it known that they LOVE games like New Super Mario Brothers. Yet, where is such a game for Wii? Miyamoto revealed that the younger people at Nintendo, who grew up with the original games, want to make games like them again whereas the older people at Nintendo, like Miyamoto, have been there and done that and want to try out new things. Funny how this doesn’t apply to Mario Kart, whose sales shot up when Mario Kart DS was designed to return to its SNES roots... |
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So even though they are still making good games these games are disappointing. Like he said Mario 64 was fun but it lack most of the feel the old one's had. He said it "Arcade gameplay" that's what's been missing.
