A Case of Quality Over Quantity

"It's no secret that the Wii has been inundated with crappy games ever since its launch. As Nintendo itself puts out superb, top-rate titles like Twilight Princess and SSB: Brawl, third-party developers continue to exploit the Wii's impressive sales and simple development kit to rush a bunch of junk out the door in the hopes of making a quick buck. The only way to put a stop to this is for Nintendo to put its foot down and find a way to at least educate consumers and help them steer clear of horrid titles. Luckily, the solution is easy, as they have done it before. Now is the time for the Big N to bring back the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality."

[cain141]

I was at Gamestop the other day... These parents were debating between two games (Super Smash Brother Brawl, and a random mini game collection). Luckily for their kid, the Gamestop employees sent them in the right direction.

Something needs to be done to protect the uninformed. Well meaning parents might not have a clue what they are doing.

[Silellak]

Does anyone actually think the Nintendo Seal of Quality meant 'THIS IS A GOOD GAME'? It was just something put on every Nintendo title so that people knew it was Official and not some random unapproved 3rd party game.

Unless you actually think all of the games releases for the NES and SNES that had the Seal were actually good games, in which case I would follow up by asking you if you were retarded.

[cain141]

There was more involved with the policy than just the seal. They also limited the amount of titles and such. Not sure if that would work now, but it seemed to in the past...

[aubradley]

As the article mentioned, there was a difference between the Seal of Quality and the regular old Seal. The Seal of Quality touted considerably more heft.

[Silellak]

No, there's not.

From The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent,

"The Nintendo Seal of Quality is still used today, with all Nintendo DS and Wii games bearing it on their packaging. However, it has recently been changed to read simply Official Nintendo Seal rather than Official Nintendo Seal of Quality.

When the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality was used, the meaning of the seal was explained as follows:

This official seal is your assurance that Nintendo has approved the quality of this product. Always look for this seal when buying games and accessories to ensure complete compatibility with your <insert name of Nintendo system here>.
This meant that the cartridge worked in the named hardware; it had nothing to do with the written quality of the software.

The current Official Nintendo Seal is explained as follows:

The official seal is your assurance that this product is licensed or manufactured by Nintendo. Always look for this seal when buying video game systems, accessories, games, and related products.
Aside from being more general in its description, the Official Nintendo Seal does not vouch for quality like the old Official Nintendo Seal of Quality did. The reason for the change has never been officially given by Nintendo, but it is generally assumed that since the extremely low-quality games the NES had to endure even with the Seal, many customers got confused thinking they bought a good game when this clearly was not the case, and Nintendo no longer felt comfortable in labelling all of the games they published as being quality games. Perhaps they also did not want to confuse this seal of quality with the player's choice games, which are popular games that Nintendo guarantees to appeal to most."

[tweaker]

That's Sony's line.

[HarryEtTubMan]

The case of PS3 over the Wackbox.

[ItsDubC]

Nintendo stopped w/ the stringent quality control when they saw the success of the PS1 and PS2, for which there were some high-quality titles amongst a multitude of low-quality ones. The Wii is not the 1st console to experience this situation.

[mistertwoturbo]

true, but look at the Wii in comparison to the PS3 and 360 titles. The only good Wii games are from Nintendo and only a few good 3rd party games. The other games are mostly just quick overnight developed mini games.

[predator]

good article, I think nintendo should do more to make sure that 3rd party devs are not just making cr@py games to make a few easy bucks

[Danja]

Nintendo wont do such a thing cuz they need 3rd party support either way...so without those crappy mini-games..it's just deja vu all over again..

"Gamecube"...!!

[LinuxGuru]

EGM did an article awhile back called WII CRAP.

It was an excellent article, needless to say.

[TheMART]

There are only 4 quality games for the Wii

Zelda
sUpeR MaRio GalAxY
Metroid Prime 3
Super Smash Bros.

1st party. It seems 3rd party devs aren't too pleased with the system. Its used for scoring quick bucks with stupid minigames.

Real 3rd party quality support are on the other consoles. It seems Wii is following the Gamecube path, only thing is at least the hardware sells...

[Danja]

you might wanna add

zack and Wiki
No More Heroes ...to that list

but otherwise I agree with what you stated.

[JD_Shadow]

EVERY console is going to have its crappy games. It's not exclusive to any platform.