Is "mini-game" a four letter word? It certainly is a pair of them. I've found that developers are cautious about the term.
I first learned this in August when the product manager on the soon-to-be-successful "Carnival Games," uh, Wii mini-game collection, told me: "We don’t like to characterize these as mini-games."
But if you think that's a touchy term, then what about "mini-game collection"?
You know, the term we use to classify "Wii Sports," "Wii Play," "Mario Party 8," "EA Playground," "Carnival Games" and a bunch more? What's the reputation of that phrase, now that it's become synonymous with one of the biggest genres on the Wii?
A couple of weeks ago I posed the question to David Luntz, the guy behind "Ninja Reflex," the six-mini-game martial arts Wii title he will be co-publishing with EA in March.
I was curious what he thought. Were publishers still really into mini-game collections? Did they think -- did he think -- there may be too many of them out there on the Wii already? Was he worried it would be hard to stand out?
One thing Luntz said stood out:
I think some games that just set out to be a mini-game game for that purpose... it's sort of like somebody wanting to write a book because they think writing a book will look cool. "Oh, I'll write a novel. That'll be fun." It's sort of like the cart before the horse. It should be the idea that drives the design and the structure of the game should follow out of the idea.
Take that, Miyamoto! Oh, of course he wasn't talking about Miyamoto. But perhaps you see games out there that deserve that comment?
I like "Ninja Reflex." I had fun playing it and was surprised to hear the game getting trashed on the 1upyours podcast a couple of weeks back. The head of EA's casual games division, Kathy Vrabeck, recently told Nex-Gen.biz that the hardcore gaming press doesn't even really understand these games.
OK. Well, whoever I am, gaming press, mainstream press, whatever, I'm trying to understand. Read on to see what Luntz and I were able to figure out.
Multiplayer: What do you think of all these mini-game collections? Is there a chance that there are too many out there? There seem to be a lot of games that look like they're designed to be another "Wii Sports."
David Luntz, founder, Nunchuck Games: Not all games that have mini-games are necessarily going to be structured like that. If you look at "Mario Galaxy" even... When you fly to a different level it's kind of like a mini-game where the stuff you do, like if you're on a ball or pushing yourself around with a fan, it's almost sort of mini-game in structure.
It just depends what the overall goal of the design is. I think some games that just set out to be a mini-game game for that purpose... it's sort of like somebody wanting to write a book because they think writing a book will look cool. "Oh, I'll write a novel. That'll be fun." It's sort of like the cart before the horse. It should be the idea that drives the design and the structure of the game should follow out of the idea.
In our case, because I wanted to give people different looks at things from the martial arts universe, it made sense. But I could also see extending the game further where you take the mechanics we lay out in this game and then apply them to a story progression. Obviously that's something we're thinking about.
This was -- I didn't get a sense talking to publishers that they were down on a game that had mini-games in general. I just think in general the main thing is publishers seems to want titles that really feel like they were conceived for and designed around the Wii. That was true in our case and I think in a lot of titles you see and in stuff that hasn't been as successful that may not have been the case.
Multiplayer: But do you or the publishers you pitched"Ninja Reflex" to worry that there are too many out there? It seems like it might be hard to stand out amid all the other Wii mini-game collections on store shelves.
Luntz: To me it isn't because I don't think the typical gamer, at least the people I'm trying to reach with the game really think -- to me that's like saying "There have been so many first-person shooters and some of them are total crap. Is it possible to make a new first person shooter that's going to cut through the noise?" Not to say that's easy, but it all comes back to the game itself.
"Wii Sports," for example, probably has gotten more airtime than any Wii game to date. There is clearly demand for the variety and bite-size gameplay that mini-game structure offers.
Well, Multiplayer readers / Wii players, how do you feel about the mini-game collections? I hear they're great at parties.
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