Iwata Asks is an occasional feature on Wii.com where Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, sits down with his staff and grills them on their latest projects. Most of the time it’s just everyone really polite and respectful to each other in that charming Japanese way, and occasionally they joke about how someone went batshit insane while working on a game and killed another employee with a tea table. The most recent entry in the series is about Link’s Crossbow Training, a rather fantastic lightgun title, and some frightening truths were uncovered.

I’m mainly surprised, Mr. Miyamoto, by the fact that you’re the most widely acclaimed game developer in the world and you actually like first person shooters. C’mon, you’re Japanese! I’m also surprised by the fact that being weaned on your games has made me pretty much despise everything with a first person perspective. After you’ve played Super Mario World, how can you honestly pick up something like Turok and say “Hey, this isn’t complete shit?” That may be an unfair comparison. I had more fun with the Irréversible than I did with Turok.

Miyamoto produced games just have a certain quality that I have yet to encounter in a first person shooter. The control mechanics and intuitive gameplay that has become his bread and butter is rarely seen outside of a plaformer. And when that does take on the form of something other than a platformer, it’s something very different. Like Pikmin or Animal Crossing or Pacman Vs or Nintendogs. I still contend that Nintendogs is one of the best games ever created. Take that, street cred! Most FPS titles seem to lack that level of polish and accessibility.

First person games can be done right on occasion, as seen with titles such as Call of Duty 4 and… uh… Perfect Dark? The original Perfect Dark, not the shitty one. Portal was technically an FPS, although that part is very far removed from all the elements that make it a great game. I think Portal actually circumvents the limitations of the first person perspective by the way it handles the narrative. By having what basically amounts to a voice over narration–cleverly presented as coming from a PA system–be the sole voice of the story, the player character needs no ‘focal point’ to absorb the information. I can’t even count how many times I’ve missed important plot elements in a FPS because my character was facing the wrong direction. That is, you know, in the few first person shooters that actually contain plot elements.

Link’s Crossbow Training succeeds because it’s an arcade style lightgun game. Only one third of it is presented in a first person perspective, and the reason it works so well is due to the complete absence of story–it appeals to the gamer in a ‘personal best’ sense and nothing more. Could you imagine if Ocarina of Time was a FPS? It’d be… bizarre. As a matter of fact, someone with more free time should definitely crack open Half Life 2 and design a Zelda mod, if only to see how it could work. I can’t imagine the standard Zelda design being shaped into the mold of your standard first person shooter. A Nintendo FPS would be–

Oh, wait. I just remembered the Metroid Prime series. Those are most certainly first person shooters, but they do everything right, thanks largely to the ‘scan’ mechanic. The ability to bring up information on anything in front of you is wonderful. All of these things are linked together, and every component–from the little bug guys to the massive Chozo statues–is folded expertly into a larger overarching story. At the same time you don’t have to scan anything; more traditional FPS players can just blast the shit out of everything and speed through the game. In addition to that, you have things like the morph ball, beam stacking, inventory expansion… just the sorts of elements that are unique to a Metroid game but somehow work beautifully in a first person shooter.

All things considered, maybe a Zelda FPS wouldn’t be so bad. There’s a lot of potential with the formula, and Miyamoto has a good track record. Actually, it could be sort of badass. Climbing around with the hookshot, shooting arrows while strafing behind Darknuts (heh), using bombs to carve out tunnels… and no jumping puzzles since Link can’t jump! Well, no jumping puzzles until you get Roc’s Feather or cape or whatever. Hmm. I like the sound of that… I think that’s going to become my new personal motto.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Observed. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.