Wii can’t even match Dreamcast’s online chat features
There’s been recent Wii news about Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Mario Kart Wii lacking any proper chat features in-game, which is extremely disappointing. In this age of gaming, where next-gen is just a term for the non-stop progression of technology and gadgety add-ons for consoles, It seems unthinkable that one of the companies vying for First Place in the current console war would fall so far behind in online interaction and online community based services.
At the turn of the century, Sega had the foresight to create a console whose software was based on Windows CE, which made peripheral compatibility very easy to achieve. The Dreamcast had accessories such as VGA adapters, tamagotchi-like memory cards with LCD screens, its own native Dreamcast-branded keyboard, (eventually) mouse and keyboard adapters, and even controller adapters to work with controllers from other consoles, like the PS2. Given that this technology was available to a console back In The Year 2000, you would think that it would be essential to every current-gen video gaming platform.
Evidently, that’s not the case. Nintendo has announced that there will be no chat features for Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and only before-and-after chat available for Mario Kart Wii. Sadly, the chat available to Mario Kart will only be in the form of preset one-liners that you can select by pressing the D-pad on your Wii-mote, again only before and after each race.
This sort of limited one-liner chat function was available on Dreamcast only a year after its release, but this was in addition to its full-featured chat functions already available in Phantasy Star Online, and again in Bomberman Online. While Bomberman Online offered full text chat before and after each onine match, Phantasy Star Online offered full text chat using the keyboard throughout any point in the online game, with an option to select small one-liners using only your game controller. Pretty advanced for a console in the year 2000!
So why is it, 8 years later, when other Microsoft and Sony branded consoles have offered some form of full text or voice chat, that Nintendo continues to snub online interaction between players, even though its entire marketign campaign revolves around bringing players together? Is Nintendo treading lightyly along a line of Political Correctness, since its games are targeted at a broader audience, most being children and young adults? Or maybe they’re just thoughtless.
At some point, loyal Nintendo fans will grow weary of this and choose a more robust video game platform that offers the freedom and interactivity that they desire. I myself swore to only buy the Wii in this generation of consoles, but the lack of games and features pushed me to buy an Xbox 360 as well. Here’s hoping the next generation isn’t more of the same. But even more importantly, here’s hoping that Nintendo wakes up while there’s still time to catch up with current-gen standards!
February 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
The one-liners in PSO on the Dreamcast were kinda lame until you realized that they were automatically translated into whatever language the other players spoke/read. It’s what allowed me to play with Japanese gamers until 7AM EST.
It’s pretty ridiculous that Mario Kart and Smash Bros are so crippled, communications wise. Still, I’m optimistic that they’ll hear us calling them out on it and avoid this in the future. I’m sure this is still part of their misguided policy that’s supposed to protect kids from…other kids who swear a lot. And kid touchers, I guess? I dunno. Honestly, we’re probably lucky that we’re getting two first party Nintendo titles with online multiplayer.
Of course, with Nintendo’s recent announcement that the Wii Animal Crossing won’t be an MMO-type game, maybe they’ll never learn. It seems like Nintendo’s just being stubborn and are fighting online gaming tooth and nail. Still, I don’t think they’ll LOSE people to Xboxen and PS3’s, people will just buy a second console like you and I did and will play both. Or they’ll continue to be casual gamers and won’t know what they’re missing.