Sega does what Nintendon’t

Back in the early 90s when the great Genesis/Mega Drive VS SNES war had erupted, Sega released a very interesting advertising campaign against Nintendo with the slogan GENESIS DOES WHAT NINTENDON’T… It’s been a long time since Sega was actually in the video game hardware business, but it seems that they haven’t lost their touch, even when it comes to sticking it to Nintendo on their own console.

Some interesting things have been going on in recent months on the Wii. While Nintendo hasn’t been doing very much of anything other than a Wii version of Animal Crossing, Sega has taken the opportunity to invest in a whole bunch of interesting games, three of which are focused very much on the more traditionalist core gamer. Sega is out to impress, Nintendo is worryingly quiet and Capcom… well, Capcom is confusing the hell out of me with whatever it is they think they’re doing on Wii.

Sega has been doing a lot on Wii lately but I’d like to focus specifically on the three games I mentioned earlier, House of the Dead Overkill, MadWorld and The Conduit.

House of the Dead Overkill is what you get when you take a well known arcade light gun shooter with its own established traditions and then suddenly turn it inside out with a completely new look and feel. The folks over at Headstrong Games deserve so much damn praise for the brilliance that oozes from this game. I could go on and on about why you should be playing this game, but all I really need to say is that this is one of three great examples of Sega does what Nintendon’t.

MadWorld is developed by Platinum Games which is made up of key members of Clover Studio, the folks who created Okami and Viewtiful Joe. This game is black and white and splattered in red blood, just the way we like it. HotD Overkill is one level of absurd, but MadWorld takes it up a notch in terms of gore and all out violence. Sega is publishing this game for Wii in the hopes that they can break the view that Wii is meant for family friendly games only. While it’s said to be a very short game, I personally can’t wait to get my hands on it because right now, Sega does what Nintendon’t.

The Conduit is a First Person Shooter for Wii and developed by High Voltage Software. This is exactly what a lot of Wii gamers have been craving for since they first realised the potential of the Wii Remote + Nunchuk. It took High Voltage quite awhile to actually find a publisher to back their game and from what I hear they went around to practically everyone before Sega finally stepped up to the plate. No one wanted to invest their money in a game aimed at a more traditionalist core audience on a platform that seemed to be focused more towards the family friendly gamer. It seems yet again that Sega does what Nintendon’t and practically everyone else don’t either.

Obviously, Sega has impressed the hell out of me lately, and this is despite their mediocre Sonic games, so even with that dragging them down, they’re really amazing me with what they’re willing to do. Not only that, but they have also greatly impressed me with Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3. Sega seems to have hit a very good balance on Wii. They have their family friendly titles such as Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, their quirky titles such as Let’s Tap and Samba de Amigo, and then the three core gamer titles listed above. I salute you Sega for all that you’ve done and hope that you continue to shine in the future. I hope to see you investing in more quality titles for Wii.

Oh, it’s not over yet…

Interestingly enough, while Sega has seemed to be doing everything right in terms of Wii games, Capcom, who happens to be one of my favourite developers, seems to be doing everything wrong at the moment. Capcom did start off pretty well on Wii with such games as Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition which may have been a port but proved that a game made with traditional controls could work using the Wii Remote + Nunchuk. The controls for the RE4Wii were so good that that alone made the Wii Edition the best version of RE4 you could own. Capcom also released Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, a brilliantly made cel-shaded point and click adventure with a tonne of charm and a perfect fit for Wii.

Capcom also released Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and was a nice crash course into the Resident Evil series for those who never got the chance to play the original games. While it is enjoyable on a novelty level, it isn’t exactly what Wii gamers wanted out of the Resident Evil franchise. So, the people banded together and yelled at the top of their lungs in Capcom’s general direction that they wanted a game that included the Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition gameplay mechanics. Capcom heard their plea and immediately started working on such a game… that turned out to be Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. It wasn’t exactly what the people wanted… I know it’s definitely not what I wanted and to be honest, after watching a tonne of footage of the game on the net, I’m extremely disappointed in Capcom for even trying to release a game where the entire point was to push the system (Xbox 360) into piling as many zombies into the screen as possible.

To make matters worse, the latest news we’re getting is that Capcom is offering Wii gamers yet another Resident Evil game. They told us that it would make us very happy… and then thanks to a sneak peek in the pages of Famitsu we’ve learnt that it may very well be just another on-rails shooter just like The Umbrella Chronicles. While there’s nothing wrong with on-rail shooters, there is something very wrong with doing it with Resident Evil. Who knows, maybe this “Resident Evil: Dark Side Chronicles” will turn out not to be an on-rails shooter… but with Capcom’s current track record on Wii of “YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!“… I doubt it.

If only Capcom was more like Sega when it comes to Wii games…

On a final note, EA is also insisting that their Resident Evil 4 clone, Dead Space would also be better off as an on-rails experience… I don’t exactly understand why this is such a trend but for the majority of people it seems to be something they’re not 100% happy with. I loved playing Dead Space on my 360… and I guess I’ll wait and see how Dead Space Extraction turns out on Wii.