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7. Grand Theft Auto
Nothing says a good time like committing felonies and leading police on a daring, high-speed chase through a densely populated city only to jump of your car at some point and fire a rocket launcher into the sea of black-and-whites trailing you. Grand Theft Auto embodies that former statement and is a great video game because of it. GTA is, at this point, a household name, so much so that most of the time when someone hears the phrase, “grand theft” they don’t think of actual automobile crime, rather Niko Bellic killing his way to redemption. At least, that’s what happens when I hear the term used. Anyhow, GTA is a solid game. There was a time in my life when I intentionally tried to hate it, but I just couldn’t. The entire series is really quite spectacular, and it’s certainly one of the most influential group of games in history.
Nintendo’s mission with Wii U is to recapture those who abandoned the company over the past few years. It plans to do this by giving us less shovelware and more experiences that resemble actual video games. Grand Theft Auto is about as much of an experience as you can get, thanks to its scope, breadth, and well-executed gameplay mechanics. What’s always made this franchise so successful– apart from its edgy take on pop culture and lack of filter for violence– is its brilliant way of combining storytelling and interactivity to mold an experience not easily replicated by most other developers. Even aside from all of this, GTA games can be enjoyed by anyone. They’re never overly complex, they never involve some kind of unnecessarily contrived mechanic that requires intense concentration and practice to master. They are playable right out of the box, no reading of the instruction manual needed.
This is what Nintendo has always stood for; games and gameplay that sold themselves, that needed no explanation. Think of Mario for a second– have you ever once consulted the manual to understand how to play? No, your hands pick up the controller and immediately start pressing right on the d-pad and the ‘a’ button to jump. No fluff. No nonsense. Pure gaming right out of the box. Grand Theft Auto is the same. You load up the game and, without thinking, immediately try to highjack a car to speed you around the city. GTA and Nintendo make more sense than one might realize, and it’s because of the aforementioned reason, why I would play the hell out of Grand Theft Auto V via my Wii U.
What about the Conduit? I know it had problems but, it could have a good chance to be alot better graphically and story-line wise if it was on Wii U or if the title was purchased by Nintendo and messed with by Retro
I think the Conduit is a solid series, however, I wanted to focus on franchises that hadn’t really made an appearance on a Nintendo console ever, or at least for quite some time. Since Conduit was just last generation, I avoided it. It’s a great game, though!
One game I wish I could’ve fit on there was the Souls series (Demon’s/Dark Souls). Now that’s a fantastic franchise that I think would really fit in line with Nintendo’s new focus on the “hardcore”. Talk about a game that is truly hardcore…
Another writer here shares my love of Shenmue!!! I would love to see a Yakuza title on Wii U as well. Better yet… Nintendo should team up with Yu Suzuki and Sega to finally release Shenmue III on Wii U. This could also accompany HD re-releases of the first two games on Wii U with the ability to continue your save file. The possibilities… I’m almost crying.
A fellow Yu Suzuki loyalist! There are far too many people who don’t know about Shenmue! I’m in the process of constructing an article idea for why I think Shenmue III belongs on Wii U. In the meantime, though, I agree whole heartedly with everything you said. I assume Sega is preparing a Shenmue HD release, however, as they’ve been slowly releasing their biggest titles on XBLA and PSN (Jet Grind Radio, Sonic Adventure, Virtual On, Daytona, etc.). So, I suspect Shenmue is coming. My hope is it’s released on the eShop.
So many issues with Borderlands would be fixed if all of the menu stuff was on the gamepad! It would seriously improve the game sooooo much.
I would absolutely LOVE to see the Persona series come to Wii U. Persona 4 is my all-time favorite rpg ever. Persona 5 for Wii U?
Third party games — I want them all. The Wii missed out on almost all good-quality 3rd party games. If Microsoft and Sony gamers gets something from third party companies, why not Nintendo gamers? There was no problem on NES, and there definately wasn’t any major problems with third party support on Super NES (N64 and Gamecube were largely ignored).
It’s a shame that people moved away from Nintendo, but hopefully, we Nintendo console owners, especially those has just a Nintendo console, can be equally as excited and happy as the rest of the gaming world.
Speaking of “world”, I’d love to see more come out of Japan. I’m not talking about your everyday action game or rpg. There’s far more, and they’re holding back so much, it’s not even funny. Nevermind the excuse about their games being “culturally different”…if games like Harvest Moon, 999, Phoenix Wright, and Persona can make it over (with pretty much all Japanese references intact), why not more?
Niche titles have grown into popular fan favorites in past generations. I wish there were more (I’d love to have the Densha de Go/Railfan series in English).