Is Miyamoto a detriment to Nintendo?

[henrymidfields]

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJhNCo4kjSI


This was previously discussed in Serenes Forest and I've also discussed in it. To be honest, in recent years, I agree with the commentator from the above Youtube clip. Particularly, it reminded me when I resented the decision that Miyamoto decided to remove whatever actual story potential it had in Super Mario Galaxy in the sequel to go way beyond the save the damsel scrappy story, when his dev team actually had the right idea in introducing Rosalina's backstory. And this was when BAFTA was awarded to Galaxy when the awards in general seems to go for others that generally have more story substance. I might have retained, or even regained some interest, if a more story-heavy approach has been made with the main Mario games, but the recent entries has been such jokes (especially in regards to Luigi and Peach) that I've lost what little interest remained from my childhood.

On the other hand, I am glad that Aonuma is one of those few people that didn't make Miyamoto as the Nintendo's holy cow, which led to stuff like Hyrule Historia and a general expansion of the Zelda entry's stories, along with a more varied role for Link and Zelda. I only had a glimpse of playing Breath of the Wild, and the world building in particular blew me away. Then I also heard from a couple of people from Serenes Forest that there was going to be an even bigger story in Skyward Sword until Miyamoto intervened.

These recent events made me lose all respect for him. I feel that he's better off not dealing with the game production anymore, and deal with more administrative matters. Either that, or go lock himself up in a glass display for eternity. This is how I feel about this old washed-up geezer:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/349/621/58f.jpg

 

[FroyoDragon]

We don't really know the extent of Miyamoto's involvement on the projects though. Chances are he does do a lot, and we're just hearing the blown up negatives without seeing the positive, as expected on the internet.

Mind you, I agree that his dislike for story is bothersome and has led to a few missteps, won't argue that; but I still think saying he should retire is a bit harsh.

 

[henrymidfields]

Mind you, I agree that his dislike for story is bothersome and has led to a few missteps, won't argue that; but I still think saying he should retire is a bit harsh.

Yeah, sure, I may have been harsh. But I do think people at Nintendo should start reining him back a bit and trust the younger generations more. The other thing is that the urge for new gameplay gimmicks or nothing, which pretty much means no F-Zero. What's to say that a new F-Zero with an expanded story cannot be a thing? Such as F-Zero AX/GX HD with an extra storyline showing how it transitioned to the setting of Maximum Velocity?

I'm glad that at least for Pokemon, there's a new set of characters, setting, and some difference to the stories to keep me interested in writing my interpretations for the Pokeverse. And I'm saying this both in terms of the game and the anime to a smaller extent.

 

[ReturnofMCH]

imo, he had his run, he was a visionary and a huge influence on the industry yes, but post wii fit he hasn't really done much, and it shows. like he's often compared to movie industry directors like alfred hitchcock or steven spielberg, but spielberg decicded to stick to the stuff that made him famous rather than continue to innovate, which is what I think miyamoto should do.

 

[FinalArcadia]

He's absolutely an influential figure and has created some of the best franchises in video games, but I think there are certain things that would be better off without him having his hand in it.

He seems very devoted to Pikmin and has done a consistently good job on those, so keeping a hands-on approach there seems to work. It helps that Pikmin isn't exactly story-oriented.

On the flip side, I wish he'd stop having any say on the Paper Mario (and, to a lesser extent, Mario & Luigi) series. Sticker Star is probably the most disappointing video game I have ever had the displeasure of playing and Miyamoto's comments to Intelligent Systems about not wanting something too much like Thousand-Year Door and not having hardly any original characters pretty much killed that game. It killed classic Paper Mario gameplay (to be fair, SPM did that first, but otherwise it kept most of the PM 1 and 2 spirit so I can forgive it somewhat), it killed classic Paper Mario plot... it killed most everything I played and loved those games for. Color Splash was a little bit better - I at least enjoyed most of that game to some degree and Huey was a good character - but Paper Mario is currently a pale shadow of its former glory. Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi fill two very different RPG niches and could coexist as RPGs rather than transforming Paper Mario into... whatever you call it now. Why Intelligent Systems took advice for a story/character-oriented series from Miyamoto - a man who clearly doesn't like too much plot in his games - is beyond me.

Miyamoto almost set M&L on that same path, but the devs for that series seem a little more willing to hold their ground, thankfully. And I think they saw that Paper Jam - the one that adhered more to Miyamoto's "no original characters" thing - wasn't as well-received as others in the series, so I think Mario & Luigi is safe at least for now.

Oh, and Star Fox. Star Fox Zero is an okay game, but Miyamoto's insistence on the goofy gamepad + TV gyro aiming controls certainly didn't do that game any favors. If it had controlled just like SF64, it would've been great. If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. It's just funny because everything else about that game tried so hard to be Star Fox 64, yet not the controls, which hold up very well in SF64. I dunno if Miyamoto is the one who wanted SF Zero to be a pseudo-SF64 retelling/reboot, but if so, that was unnecessary as well. How many reboots does a series with only, like, 7 installments need? I want a new Star Fox that's like Assault in story and gameplay, not more reboots and retreads of the same original/64 plot.

So tl;dr I think Miyamoto should only mainly be involved in games that don't have much of a story at all, because he is clearly not suited to those that do.

 

[TeaWest]

I had no idea Miyamoto had a hand/say in the direction of the recent Paper Mario games, that's very interesting. I still want to play Color Splash on the Wii U, because I've wanted to check the game out for myself despite the negative feedback the game has gotten.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Although I have my priorities backwards compared to Miyamoto when it comes to what games should be, he's the industry icon, not me. I simply could not imagine Miyamoto any place other than where he is right now.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

I feel like one reason why he's being placed into a more negative light is because he is producing less and less games over the years. From 2000 to 2008 he had been involved in the creation of 64 games, including masterpieces like the first 3 Paper Mario games, Pikmin 1 and 2, and of course the good Mario and Zelda games like Galaxy and Twilight Princess. And in the same time period this decade? 36, almost half the number of games he did a decade ago in the same time period. Because of the less games there are, obviously, less good Miyamoto games. In other words, during the 2000s, the number of games Miyamoto helped create was a lot, meaning more good games that would overshadow the bad ones.
Either that or my logic during midnight is terrible