Here’s two games that should be of interest to any Nintendo-watchers. They represent experiments into the “free-to-play” style of game that has proved so prodigious on mobile platforms. Given that Nintendo will now be expanding its business to mobile, people may be looking at these as examples of the direction they could go.
I reckon that’s a mistake though. Both of these games are more or less conversions of existing titles. Pokemon Link Battle and Super Pokemon Rumble existed already on 3DS, and it seems that these games just take the gameplay of their predecessors and slap a microtransaction model on it, with mixed results. For a better idea of what Ninetndo’s partnership with DeNA might bring about, I’d recommend checking out Final Fantasy Record Keeper, which is made by DeNA with a popular existing license.
As with most F2P games I’ve played, all three of the games I’ve mentioned managed to hold my interest for a while but inevitably the nature of the business model will impose itself on the gameplay experience. Sooner or later, the game will become too difficult or start to drag, requiring either tedious grinding or gouging cash for easier progression.
The most successful for me was Shuffle; I made it through all the stages prior to the first content update, at which point I discerned that the difficulty curve, which had seemed pretty fair, was just going to keep climbing and the return on my time investment was bottoming out. The puzzley gameplay was well suited to the short bursts, although said bursts were short indeed in “no money down” mode. I also appreciated the improvements they’d made to the mechanics from Link Battle, with Megaevolution, something approaching a story, and more strategic combo play.
Rumble World has a fun concept. Up til now, the three previous games in the series had not enticed me to buy them, but why not a free download? The simple isometric brawler style is well done, with plenty of chaotic colour and effects. The progression was a little odd though; you’re always acquiring better toys to use so you’re forced to sack off your old ones, whose abilities you may be familiar with. Ultimately the game is very repetitive, as you’ll be doing the same basic thing over and over. The reward is an endless stream of new critters, and presumably the draw is finding them all and getting to the next little story mission, but that wasn’t enough for me. Rescuing Miis that you’ve Streetpassed is a nice touch, but it then makes the game into an escort mission. And the endless ways to spend your currency always makes you feel poor.
Unfortunately I think both of these games haven’t quite nailed the balance of a free-to-play game. I always feel like I’m being asked to pony up for this or that, and that if I did make a purchase, it wouldn’t help me much. But then what do I know, I’ve never made a game like this and I don’t usually like playing them. It shows what you can do with an existing game structure to force it into this business framework, and it’s a little depressing that more and more games are like this by default. Even big-budget games you buy have more to buy in the game itself these days. But enough good-old-days ranting, I’ve got more games to play—with these, I could have kept going for much longer (as they want me to) but had to pick a point to stop and say “no more”.
