Sega 'Probably' Done Making M-Rated Wii Games

[DoctorFinger]

Since it's launch the Wii has struggled with the perception that it's a "kids system" lacking in titles which appeal to core gamers. This quote from Sega will not help shake that perception. While speaking on the 1UP Guys podcast, SOA studio director Constantine Hantzopoulos had this to say when asked whether Sega would be making more M-rated titles for the Wii.

"That begets the question, you know, are we gonna do more mature titles for the Wii and it's like ... probably not."

This is a big change for Sega, who just this past August said it would be "arrogant" not to release games on the Wii because of the failure of one title. Up until now Sega - with titles like Madworld and The Conduit - had been second only to Capcom releasing M titles on the Wii. But in a climate where even high profile, critically lauded titles like Dead Space: Extraction fail to make a sales dent on the Wii, the philosophy has to change.

Sources - 1UP Podcast; Joystiq.

[Adam Blue]

Sucks. Not only does the Wii have a huge market of younger gamers/parents that wouldn't buy it, but there's also a lot of these so-called 'hardcore gamers' with elitist status that won't touch a Wii, despite these games being made for them. lose/lose.

[MachEnergy]

Having recently bought Mad World for $9, I love it. This thing is CLASSIC Sega style gameplay and presentation, ie: super arcade style. Knowing it was not an incredibly deep game, I waited to buy it. Hardcore gamers know how to work with game prices. At the same time, we are crippling their profits. We pretty much tell them that they would be better off making shovelware for the Wii. It's sad....but then I think about the world in which MadWorld was made for the 360, and I wish I could live there.

In conclusion? Perhaps the Wii has had enough time with real developers making games for it. Perhaps it's time the thing only receives good games when they are made by Nintendo, just like every other Nintendo system has done in the past.

[Cyndair]

It really is too bad. I would love to see more "hardcore" games on the Wii but then again I wasn't exactly in line to get Dead Space, Conduit, and Madworld on the Wii. As good as those games looked, there were far too many (arguably better) games to keep me busy on the PS3 and PC. So yeah, I guess I'm guilty along with everyone else. With the exception of a few gems (Okami, de Blob, Zack and Wiki.... I still need to get Muramasa) I've been using my Wii almost exclusively as a Nintendo machine.

[Ravenlock]

The Conduit was an okay game and I enjoyed it, but it was nothing special and I certainly can't recommend it to people already playing better shooters on other systems. It did absolutely nothing new, and did a few things much less well than it should have. The multiplayer was fun and gave me a very strong Goldeneye vibe, but aside from that, a pretty mediocre game.

Dead Space: Extraction, I've only played for about 2 hours at a friend's house, but I was really impressed with. Top notch production values, good tension, very solid and fun gameplay. I do want to pick that up eventually. That's a sales failure I really do think is a shame.

MadWorld, I just have no interest in. Isn't for me.

I continue to think 3rd parties can make truly excellent titles for the Wii - two of the most interesting and fun things I played on the system in the latter half of this year were Muramasa: The Demon Blade and A Boy & His Blob. But "mature" titles of the "drenched in blood" variety (MadWorld) or the "look how over the top we can be" variety (HOTD: Overkill) or the "we love poop and sex jokes" variety (No More Heroes) just don't appeal to me, and apparently don't appeal to that many other people either. As opposed to something like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is apparently a really great re-imagining of the series that uses the Wii controls and features in unique and effective ways.

[Savok]

Originally Posted by Ravenlock

I continue to think 3rd parties can make truly excellent titles for the Wii - two of the most interesting and fun things I played on the system in the latter half of this year were Muramasa: The Demon Blade and A Boy & His Blob. But "mature" titles of the "drenched in blood" variety (MadWorld) or the "look how over the top we can be" variety (HOTD: Overkill) or the "we love poop and sex jokes" variety (No More Heroes) just don't appeal to me, and apparently don't appeal to that many other people either. As opposed to something like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is apparently a really great re-imagining of the series that uses the Wii controls and features in unique and effective ways.

Thus we have the problem with most "mature" Wii titles, they're stuck in the fucking 90s, everyone is spraying blood everywhere, very little substance and you wonder if Rob Liefeld did the designs.

Worse yet most of the fucking things are rail shooters and/or fucking broken with shit you buy off banner ads being more stable. Yes the console lends itself to them, make a few not twenty fucking thousand.

What gems the console does get (Little King's Story is incredible) are buried in an ocean of shit no one cares about. It's literally drowning in shovelware because it's seen as a giant fucking toilet by publishers.

[Cyndair]

Originally Posted by Ravenlock

I continue to think 3rd parties can make truly excellent titles for the Wii - two of the most interesting and fun things I played on the system in the latter half of this year were Muramasa: The Demon Blade and A Boy & His Blob. But "mature" titles of the "drenched in blood" variety (MadWorld) or the "look how over the top we can be" variety (HOTD: Overkill) or the "we love poop and sex jokes" variety (No More Heroes) just don't appeal to me, and apparently don't appeal to that many other people either. As opposed to something like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is apparently a really great re-imagining of the series that uses the Wii controls and features in unique and effective ways.

Yeah, I feel much the same way. Overkill, Madworld, and NMH didn't appeal to me at all. They just seemed like they were trying to be "mature" for the sake of being mature instead of using mature content to truly add to the experience. I really need to check out Silent Hill, Muramasa, Blob, and Little King Story. I got so used to the Wii not having much to watch that I completely missed it when those titles did come out.

[Purple Santa]

Originally Posted by Cyndair

It really is too bad. I would love to see more "hardcore" games on the Wii but then again I wasn't exactly in line to get Dead Space, Conduit, and Madworld on the Wii. As good as those games looked, there were far too many (arguably better) games to keep me busy on the PS3 and PC. So yeah, I guess I'm guilty along with everyone else. With the exception of a few gems (Okami, de Blob, Zack and Wiki.... I still need to get Muramasa) I've been using my Wii almost exclusively as a Nintendo machine.

Have you played Deadly Creatures? It's not a "hardcore" title, but it's a fun T rated game (sorry it's not M ). I think it's a nice attempt at being "mature" while not having to resort to fart jokes, nudity and/or gratuitous violence. I just hope you don't have arachnophobia

[MagGnome]

I may pick up a Wii at some point for some of the more "unique" games on the system, such as Boy and His Blob, Little King's Story, de Blob, and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but most of the M rated titles on the game seem ridiculous and over the top. Like Savok said, they seem to be going for that 90s schtick of over the top blood and gore. Then again there are games like that on the 360 as well, and I avoid them like the plague.

[Cyndair]

Originally Posted by Purple Santa

Have you played Deadly Creatures? It's not a "hardcore" title, but it's a fun T rated game (sorry it's not M ). I think it's a nice attempt at being "mature" while not having to resort to fart jokes, nudity and/or gratuitous violence. I just hope you don't have arachnophobia

That is another game that I'm really sorry I missed out on. I'll add it to the list!

I am immune to the fear spells of spiders. I started catching them for my mom when I was 10 since they freak her out so bad.

[H.Bogard]

I'm curious to see how well Silent Hill did on the Wii.

Oh, and for those who argue against it: Dead Space Extraction sold 9000 copies on the Wii. There's no arguing against it. No matter what way you look at it, that's just the end of the road.

[Adam Blue]

It's pretty sad to see some of these responses. Being mature to be mature, or look how over the top we can be, or banner ads more stable? I understand when it comes to someone's opinion on how a game plays (and if you don't like rail shooters, like I don't like RPG's), but these statements seems to be misinformed generalizations. And like I said earlier, this is the problem.

I tend to go by the idea that I have no idea how a game will be until I play it. I actually have more fun this way.

[Ravenlock]

Originally Posted by Purple Santa

I just hope you don't have arachnophobia

Sadly, I do, and so that game is pretty much permanently off my playlist. It's a shame, because it does look cool.

[Ravenlock]

It isn't a misinformed generalization to say that MadWorld's primary - actually, only - visual element is red blood on black & white (an effect I don't care for in Sin City, either), or that HOTD: Overkill has more uses of "fuck" than almost any R-rated film, or that No More Heroes bases almost all its humor in jokes about bodily functions, be they reproductive or excretory. That's simply the design those developers went with, and as a consumer I'm not interested.

I wanted to like No More Heroes. I rented it hoping to. And I did enjoy some of the gameplay mechanics. But I sent it back unfinished because I found everything non-gameplay related about it completely unlikeable. I wouldn't have paid to buy it and am glad I didn't. It isn't for me, and I'm not sad if that type of thing doesn't end up a roaring success (though ironically NMH apparently did well enough to get a sequel, while Dead Space Extraction, which I'm actually really impressed by, didn't).

Obviously it's a matter of taste, but finding those things distasteful doesn't make one "misinformed." Even if I personally enjoyed those games, I wouldn't feel comfortable playing any of them in front of my family (child or adult family), and if a game can't even hurdle the bar of "do I have to keep this out of view as though it were porn?", I don't feel like it needs to get my money.

[Savok]

See, this is exactly what I mean, I'd written off Silent Hill on Wii as more useless drivel, now I'm reading about it and holy fuck they actually removed combat from the game. Whoever did that has balls of fucking steel. Now I actually want to play it... and it's not out here *sigh*

EDIT: I fucking hate No More Heroes, it came out about 15 years too late.

[MachEnergy]

XPlay's scathing Silent Hill review

[Ravenlock]

I can't watch XPlay's review at the moment, but for some contrasting opinion, you may want to check out Giant Bomb, who gave it a very favorable review and their Wii Game of the Year award.

[MachEnergy]

It's interesting to look at Gamerankings page for Silent Hill. It's all over the place!

Personally, I wrote the game off back during development when it was shown that they replaced the hell fire with ice, and that you can only run away and not fight. The game may actually be fun, but when I take my initial trepidation and combine that with the XPlay video review, there's just no way I'm going to bother with this game. I'd rather just play the PS1 original again.

[Ravenlock]

(Again, having not watched the XPlay thing) I'd say go dig up Giant Bomb's quick look video for it (EDIT: I did it for you), where they play through the first 20 minutes or so of the game. I suspect that'll tell you pretty much everything you need to know about how it actually plays, as opposed to reading / listening to opinions about it.

Personally, I really liked what I saw, but I'm also a huge wuss when it comes to horror games, so whether that'll translate into me playing it or not is yet to be seen.

[Savok]

Originally Posted by MachEnergy

It's interesting to look at Gamerankings page for Silent Hill. It's all over the place!

When that happens it means the negative reviews are full of shit, it's just a niche game that isn't for everyone.