Industrial Gaming 09 | Nintendo Wii Awards

By Barry Lewis 01.06.2006 3

Nintendo Wii Awards
Barry Lewis :: 01st June 2006 :: Issue 9


When launching a new product in the games industry the first and arguably most important challenge is winning over the media, even before hitting market. This task becomes even more pertinent when a company plans to launch a new product so different, and against nearly all standard and successful strategies, such as Nintendo with their new console Wii. Admittedly when the Revolution was re-branded to Wii things were not looking good for the big N, but what a difference a month makes!

Following on from the flashing lights, musty smells and endless rhetoric at every E3, a selection of 37 top industry publications first nominate and then decide upon the hottest Hardware and Software being flaunted in LA, at the yearly Game Critics Awards. This year, after ditching the usual stats and figures approach and instead opting for a "try it out" press conference, Nintendo encouraged eager journalists to move on from the controversial name-change and judge the system on what matters, the games. It was a make or break move for the Kyoto based giant. While on one hand it can only be a good thing to boast the longest lines in history, the other hand will not write good things if the three hour wait is for a product that does not live up to such hype.

So, Critically speaking, how did Nintendo do at this year's E3 and in the subsequent GCA's? Nominated for the highly coveted Best of Show award Wii brushed off the competition from Assassin's Creed (UbiSoft / PS3), Bioshock (Irrational Games / X360), Gears of War (Epic Games / X360) and Spore (EA / PC) to come out with the biggest award of all. Quite a feat considering the amount of loving Will Wright gets for Spore, and Gears of War could be considered the single most impressive and hyped game for Microsoft and their newly released Xbox 360. Greg Kasavin, Executive Editor at GameSpot, spoke on behalf of the award team with a rather fitting acknowledgement of Wii's impressive victory:

"So despite how many great-looking games were on display at this year's show, the Wii stood out as the single most exciting and remarkable new product at E3 2006.


With Sony's Playstation 3 ominously missing from the best of show nominations the big test for Wii moved from best of show to Best Hardware. Wii was pitted against Nintendo's very own DS Lite, the PC Platform Logitech G25 Racing Wheel, Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, and once again Wii walked away with the award. Granted the fact that it was fresh from winning the best of show, well it's no surprise it shook off four other products that didn't even make the nomination stage for the bigger award. All the same, in the first industry based head-to-head between PS3 and Wii it is the little console with big ideas sitting victorious.

On the Software front things become a little more surprising for Nintendo, while other exceptional products have Wii move aside for some much-needed praise. Will Wright gets the first of three awards for Spore in the Best Original Game category, beating off stiff competition from Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Gears of War, LocoRoco (Sony Japan / PSP) and Nintendo title Wii Sports. Mr Wright also grabs his second for Best PC Title with Spore, leaving behind runners up Crysis (Crytek), Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Splash Damage / id), Hellgate: London (Flagship Studios) and Supreme Commander (Gas Powered Games). Last but not least on the Spore front another Nintendo title - Wii Music Orchestra - steps aside with Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft Games Studio / PC) Sid Meier's Railroads! (Firaxis Games / PC) and The Movies: Stunts and Effects (Lionhead Studios / PC) as Spore takes the Best Simulation Game award.


Now I did mention some surprises in store for Nintendo, with some good and some not so, the biggest of which in the latter sense would be the lack of Twilight Princess in the Best Console Game list. Super Mario Galaxy for Wii does make the cut but like Assasin's Creed, Bioshock and Mass Effect (BioWare / X360) nothing can stop Gears of War bringing home the console crown. From one end of the scale to the other with Zelda though as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on Nintendo DS fends off stiff competition from PSP titles Killzone: Liberation (Guerrilla), LocoRoco, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Kojima Productions) and Nintendo DS exclusive Elite Beat Agents (Inis). Good news indeed as praise abound that the cel-shader had "even matched up well against Twilight Princess for the Wii.", according to GamePro Editor Wes Nihei.

The final two Wii titles to come out on top are both unexpected and a great sign for things to come. Up against the massively popular American Madden NFL franchise, the simple-yet-innovative Wii Sports beats out Madden NFL 07 and its two versions (the shiny sweaty version, and the one where you'll be punching your mates by accident), from Tiburon / EA. NBA 2K7 (Visual Concepts / X360) and NCAA Football 07 (Tiburon / EA / X360 / PS2 / Xbox/ PSP) also made the initial cut for Best Sports Game, but to no final avail. Just as impressively, Wii title Excite Truck takes the Best Racing Game crown leaving the HD equipped Formula One 06 (Studio Liverpool / PS3), Gran Turismo HD (Polyphony Digital / PS3), MotoGP 06 (Climax / X360) and Test Drive Unlimited (Eden Studios / X360 / PC / PS2 / PSP) all weeping in the Wii-remotes dust.


Elsewhere on the list Nintendo fail to score in the Action / Adventure category with both Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess losing out to Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and PS2 title God of War 2 (Sony Santa Monica / PS2) also miss out. Super Smash Bros: Brawl doesn't even get a nod as Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory / PS3) emerges victorious over Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Midway Games / PS2 / Xbox) Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai Games / PSP) Virtua Fighter 5 (Sega for Arcade / PS3) and WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 (Yuke's / X360 / PS3 / PS2 / PSP) in the fighting sector. WarioWare: Smooth Moves on Wii does make the penultimate stages of the Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game selection, as does DS title Elite Beat Agents, but Guitar Hero 2 (Harmonix / PS2) comes out victorious. LocoRoco and Lumines II (Q Entertainment / PSP) also fail to come through victorious.

Nintendo fans may want to skip this paragraph as not one Nintendo game features in the Best Action, Role Playing, Strategy or Online Mulitplayer Game nominees. Gears of War grabs the action award, beating Crysis, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom / X360) and Resistance: Fall of Man (Insomniac / PS3). Mass Effect gets the RPG nod, with Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix / PS2), Hellgate: London, Neverwinter Nights 2 (Obsidian / PC) and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Blizzard / PC) getting the "DNF" call. In the strategy awards Supreme Commander pips Company of Heroes (Relic / PC), Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II (EA / X360), Medieval 2: Total War (Creative Assembly / PC) and World in Conflict (Massive Entertainment / PC) to the post. Finally Enemy Territory: Quake Wars grabs the online multiplayer kudos, Battlefield 2142 (Digital Illusions / PC), Gears of War, Huxley (Webzen / PC / Xbox 360) and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade being the other nominees.

So as I continue breaking my personal allowance of circa 1000 words (sorry about that, didn't realise what I was letting myself in for!), I do feel compelled to remind everyone that as good as Wii's E3 performance was, the console still has some way to go. I stated earlier that impressing the media was arguably the most important challenge, but so is a solid and lengthy marketing strategy, as well as providing a stream of content catering to the needs of all users, not to mention getting third party developers in on the game. That aside some of these awards, from an industry perspective, do indicate that not only is the "call of arms" to the development and industry circles a wanted and needed call, but that Nintendo are doing all the right things as they build up to hitting the market. Nintendo and Wii are looking in mighty fine shape, let's just hope it all stays that way.

Barry Lewis is Cubed3's top industry analyst and his feature, Industrial Gaming, is published every fortnight.

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Comments

SmilieGo Nintendo!! They sooo deserve itSmilie

Nice article Barry, interesting read Smilie

Trying to think of a witty signature after 'Hacker-gate'...

Nice work 10'do.

Its interesting to see how many of the same names popped up in different catagories. Gears of war mentioned a few times along with Spore.

Either way, the idea of playing and decideding fits Nintendo a lot better than deciding on hype. Games like Warioware: Smoothmoves and Wii Sports must have won over a few people for simplicity in gaming.

But it does go to show that theres a massive market for action related gaming. Shame Red Steel wasn't mentioned anywhere in there. Surely its more hands on action. Either way, Ninty didn't hold out too bad.

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