IDTGA has MOVED!

I’ve setup a Tumblr blog for It’s Dangerous to Go Alone since I find Tumblr infinitely more flexible for the sorts of things I want to be able to do with this blog; namely, post videos, links to cool things, quotes, screenshots – that sort of thing. I’ll be leaving this site up as a sort of “archive” of old IDTGA posts and eventually I’ll move the full URL over to the Tumblr blog, as well.

If you’re using the Feedburner RSS feed, you shouldn’t have to do a thing to keep the updates flowing.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the new digs. If you’re on Tumblr already, give us a follow.

Nintendo brings a NEW summer problem

We are all too familiar with the unpleasantness that summer brings. You know, besides the unbearable heat, the constant sweating, and the sickening smell of barbecue smoke. It also brings with it the seemingly endless drought. That period of time where publishers refuse to sell any games because people are spending time outdoors or on vacation.

Luckily, Nintendo has historically been one company to ditch the summer doldrums and force people back inside (air conditioning! proximity to the refrigerator! proximity to the toilet! it’s heaven!) to play Nintendo games. They haven’t been shy about releasing titles in May, June, July, or August. Any month is fair game to them. It just means they get more shelf space while more conservative publishers wait until they can duke it out with other properties in the merciless holiday period (which now begins sometime in September, apparently).

But forget the summer drought. That’s old news. Nintendo now has a serious issue with clumping.

Last week, Nintendo announced at a press summit the release dates for Super Mario Galaxy 2, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, and Metroid: Other M.

• Super Mario Galaxy 2 – May 23rd
• Sin & Punishment: Star Successor – June 7th
• Metroid: Other M – June 27th

Seriously, Nintendo? You have three major titles coming out this summer, and they are all hitting within a single month?! This is beyond ridiculous. How am I supposed to pick up all three of these games released so closely together? You aren’t thinking of the average consumer here, obviously. The one that is essentially flat-ass broke.

And not only that, but Capcom is releasing Monster Hunter 3 — with NO monthly subscription fees, mind you — this April. AND Square Enix is bringing out Dragon Quest IX for the DS at some undefined moment during the summer, as well. And let’s not forget that Arc Rise Fantasia had already been moved to summer 2010.

At this rate, there will be nothing left to purchase come the holidays. Unless Zelda comes out, of course.

Ha! Yeah, I almost wrote that with a straight face.

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Will the next Metroid give Samus some life?

Sometime last week, one of the creators of Metroid — and, more importantly, one of the principle designers currently working with Team Ninja on the upcoming Metroid: Other M — Yoshio Sakamoto spoke with Famitsu about what they’re planning with the new Metroid game. Here’s a small portion of what he had to say:

However, different from the rest of the series, this time we’re strongly depicting the human side of Samus through such things as movies. She’s a strong woman, but she also has a fragile side. We want to make a game whose charms can be felt from the story areas and these human touches as well. It’s an action game, but it’s capable of having a clear emotional side.

My first thought: it’s about damned time.

My second through twenty-eighth thoughts are slightly more verbose.

When Nintendo fans talk about what they want to see Nintendo “upgrade” most in their properties from one generation to the next, at the top of the list is almost always “give Link a voice” (as in, voiceover work in Legend of Zelda). It used to be “make a 3D Mario”, but that desire was satiated with Super Mario 64, and then, done even better with Super Mario Galaxy. But I digress.

What I personally have always humbly requested is that Samus become a more dynamic character.

Because she is incredibly flat.

A-hem.

First and foremost, Samus is a kick-ass bounty hunter. We get it. This is not a point that requires debate. However, the argument has always been that Samus is a lone interplanetary bounty hunter living an isolated life out in space. And while that’s all fine and dandy, why does that existence automatically preclude any need for emotion or depth?

Living the solitary life of an interplanetary bounty hunter is exactly the sort of thing that warrants a deeper investigation into the heart and soul of a person who is willing to lead such a life. I’m tired of the persistent silence of our favorite heroine. Samus isn’t a cardboard-cutout, strong, silent action hero. She is a highly-trained, very intelligent woman who happens to kick some major space pirate ass when you attach a mercenary-grade weapon onto her arm.

We’ve been offered tiny, nearly insignificant pieces of her backstory in games like Fusion, Zero Mission, and Corruption. But she still feels like this static element that Nintendo trots out whenever they want to please the hardcore Nintendo fanbase. Just don’t ever expect more than a female character model skin grafted onto last year’s top action hero from another game. Because that’s all we’ve ever gotten up to this point.

And I’m thankful that Sakamoto not only realizes Samus’ lack of depth, but plans on addressing exactly that point in Other M. I crave a deeper story, I yearn for a more complicated character. In every other game I play, I manage to be able to form some sort of connection with the protagonist. But in Metroid, Samus has always been just a girl in a suit.

I look forward to that changing.

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Are we at all prepared for a Sonic 4?

Apparently Sega still thinks they’re a relevant company, because they just made a groundbreaking announcement today. This summer, we will see Sonic the Hedgehog 4 — supposedly a true Sonic sequel — on WiiWare (and XBLA and PSN).

Well, it certainly looks like a true Sonic game. It even sounds like a true Sonic game. But show caution, gentle gamer friends. The question we should be asking ourselves isn’t “is this going to be a good game?” The question we should ask ourselves at this point is “do we trust Sega?”

You see, Sega has a condition. It’s probably medical, but more than likely just a result of poor management and too many yes-men in the ranks. Sega no longer knows how to take care of Sonic. This much is patently obvious if you look at the history, especially just the past couple of years:

• Sonic the Hedgehog (360, PS3) – a horrendous mess
• Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii) – pointless story, terrible controls and gameplay
• Sonic Chronicles (DS) – hey, guys! You know what would make a great Sonic game? A TURN-BASED RPG
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) – any game where Toad can outrun Sonic is an instant FAIL
• Sonic Unleashed (Wii, 360, PS3) – hey, guys! You know what Sonic has been missing all along? WEREWOLVES
• Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii) – see Sonic and the Secret Rings

Sega quite simply has no freaking clue what to do with Sonic. It’s like handing a gun to a caveman. You just know they’re going to end up beating an antelope with the thing instead of using it correctly. They are handling a property to which they hold no emotional attachment, no discernible history, and absolutely zero insight into what made the games fun in the first place.

But here, we finally get a tiny glimpse of Sega doing something that — at least on the surface — appears like a tentative step in the right direction. But look at that history. Can Sega screw this up?

Yes, I’m certain they can. And here’s my prediction: it’s going to be crazy expensive.

Because Sega simply cannot be trusted to handle Sonic properly, even when finally attempting to stay true to its roots, I have absolute faith in their ability to screw up Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Since they’re going with an episodic model, where each episode will be published independently on the various download services, I think they will probably price the game’s installments too high. Gamers will probably end up paying double buying the episodes separately than if Sega had just put the game on the disc and shipped it out.

That’s my theory, and we’ll see how it turns out since the rumors now circulating peg episode 1 for a July release.

Despite my prediction, I hope you understand just how desperately I want to be wrong on this one.

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Namco Bandai Banks on Nintendo, and Loses

Namco Bandai has announced a startling financial loss for 2009. $130M loss, compared to a $100M profit just a year before that. It’s a painful realization that our global economic climate is not yet back to where it used to be.

What’s really interesting here, however, is that Andriasang has pulled some of Namco’s unit numbers, and while the data looks impressive on the surface, it points to a story being told here. A story of sadness, of betrayal. A story of attempting to cash in on the success of the Wii and the DS, and in the process, crashing and burning.

Let’s take a look, shall we? I’m sure there’s something impressive to be gleaned from the data.

Here we have a listing of how many titles by system Namco published in 2009, and how many total units were sold on each system.

Titles and units sold by system

Wii: 9 titles, 3,765,000
PSP: 13 titles, 3,351,000
DS: 26 titles, 3,083,000
PS3: 5 titles, 2,015,000
PS2: 4 titles, 1,798,000
X360: 5 titles, 1,256,000

If you look at those numbers, at first glance it appears as though the Wii and DS did really well for Namco. But let’s do some simple number-crunching to guess at what really happened here. Let’s split those unit sold up and divide the total by the number of titles published for each system. While this isn’t necessarily a true reflection of the sales figures, it gives us a good average upon which to base the rest of our pure speculation.

Average units sold by system

Wii: 419,000
PSP: 258,000
DS: 118,000
PS3: 403,000
PS2: 450,000
X360: 251,000

As you can see, while these are nothing more than base estimates, the PS2 was by far the best value for Namco. Only four titles were published, but they sold a whopping average of 450,000 per title, which is pretty good. Especially when you consider that these are essentially last generation games with likely lower than normal production costs associated with them. It just goes to show that sometimes, the lines between this generation and last generation are a tad bit blurry.

The biggest money loser (somewhat ironically, given its near-legendary “money-printing” capabilities) has to be the DS. Sure, they sold over 3 million units, but that’s across 26 different titles. That averages out to about 118,000 units per title, which is atrocious. Even if each of those titles were budget productions, it would still be horrendous. There’s just no way to slice these numbers and make them look halfway decent.

The PSP was no real friend here, either. Namco invested in 13 titles for the Little Handheld that Could™ and sold an average of around 260,000 units per title. That’s a fairly weak showing. Looks like Naruto and mini-Soul Calibur aren’t what PSP gamers are looking for.

It was actually surprising that the Wii averaged 419,000, which should be a decent number. However, the Wii isn’t as cheap to develop for as the PS2, and this was an average on investment in nine titles. It’s important to note that two of those nine titles I’m really looking forward to: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (expected in March) and Tales of Graces (no US release announced). So it’s especially disconcerting to this self-described Nintendo fanboy that these two excellent third-party Wii titles with absolutely top-notch production values are being completely overlooked in Japan. Of course, their fairly niche titles, so I don’t necessarily expect them to do well in the US, either, unfortunately.

So, is there a lesson to be learned here? I honestly have no freaking clue. I just like over-analyzing pointless statistics. I also pray that Namco is still around to release Tales of Graces stateside sometime this year. Because that Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World? That thing was a piece of crap.

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