Gimmicks, Yay or Nay?

[Deleted member 25310]

I'm talking about gimmicks in general, let them be gameplay gimmicks or hardware gimmicks (I.E. Nintendo Wii or DS).
I personally love a well developed gimmick that evolves over time during game time, or makes a established genre fresh and new. What do you think?

 

[PhrawzT]

It all depends on how well it was implemented. Nintendo Wii motion controls and the 3DS 3D graphics were neat, however I absolutely hate Sony and Nintendo's attempt to use tilt controls in order to do things in recent years. Just let me use the analog sticks, I am not tiling my controller to look around or turn.

 

[Deleted member 25310]

It all depends on how well it was implemented. Nintendo Wii motion controls and the 3DS 3D graphics were neat, however I absolutely hate when Sony and Nintendo's attempt to use tilt controls in order to do things in recent years. Just let me use the analog sticks, I am not tiling my controller to look around or turn.

Ironically, there is a group of people that love gyroscopic aiming on controlers since it gives them more "finess". The analog gives hard aiming while you use the motion sensor on the controler for fine tunning aiming, I couldent wrap my head around it so I just turn it off.

 

[Yousef]

Gimmicks in my opinion are generally very yay.
They’re only nay if implemented poorly.
So execution is more important.
The “obvious” factor is important too, if they’re not obviously a gimmick and implemented naturally then that’s great!
Lack of Intrusiveness is also important

 

[Cu-Neo]

If they are good implemented is always a "Yay this is very cool" in my part but if they are badly implemented or make the game more complicated to play years later on a emulator (looking at you Dawn of sorrow) is a Nay

My favorite Gimmick is the Map screen on Etrian Oddisey is really fun making the map on the lower screen and they adapted very well that idea on the HD re release and thanks god the Dominus Collection exist

 

[Deleted member 25310]

If they are good implemented is always a "Yay this is very cool" in my part but if they are badly implemented or make the game more complicated to play years later on a emulator (looking at you Dawn of sorrow) is a Nay

My favorite Gimmick is the Map screen on Etrian Oddisey is really fun making the map on the lower screen and they adapted very well that idea on the HD re release and thanks god the Dominus Collection exist

Very true, if you dont have original hardware the seals are very annoying. But if you cant buy the Dominus Collection, you can always download DoS DE+, it removes the seal mechanic altogether.

On the same note about hard to emulate, the Wii is a VERY hard system to emulate by its nature, and its a shame since there are some Wii exclusive games that are defo worth playing.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Actually, the DS's poor implementation of its touchscreen gimmick was the chief reason for me to ignore it untill the advent of emulators. It was hell on my hands before.

 

[moonbits]

Gimmicks were soulful, now everything plays the same. Same gamepad, same inputs. I applaud Nintendo for doing it, it gave us really cool experiences.

 

[middler]

Gimmicks were soulful, now everything plays the same. Same gamepad, same inputs. I applaud Nintendo for doing it, it gave us really cool experiences.

Nintendo is the only company I even bother buying hardware for these days. They are different enough from the generic modern gamepad to actually have original exclusive games. With Microsoft or Sony I can just wait a year and play them on my PC if I am interested. I can wait.

 

[dropsmegamega]

nay I hated having to shake controls in the wii in every single game just because it was novel
didn't care about the touch screen gimmicks in the ds either, I'm glad there is that hack that removes then from Dawn of Sorrow

only arcades ever implemented different controls in a meaningful way

 

[What's His Face]

Depends. The Wii was a gimmick-heavy console, as was the DS. Some devs did right by the systems, others...deserve to be drug out into the middle of the street and shot. Else be forced to play their own abominations until their soul escapes their body for that sweet, sweet release.

One game that gets shit on regularly also had a fantastic gimmick - Arc Rise Fantasia. The gimmick was that EVERY weapon had some sort of bonus to it - +# ATK/DEF/MAG, skills, etc. which were set in a 4x4-block ArmForce Frame. Every weapon also had an experience counter. As the weapon gained more experience, more blocks of that frame would be opened, until eventually you could remove, or add, skills from one weapon (which are shaped like Tetris pieces) and plop them into another. Which of course was MANDATORY to learn and learn well else the game would destroy you.

 

[Leifang]

No. I love sidescrolling games but barely play any because everyone wants to make the gimmick central to it, like every Shantae has a set of dances or animal transformations or other stuff that just distracts from normal exploring, platforming and fighting. Pirate's Curse remains the most popular because there's no gimmicks, she just gets tools.

Hardware gimmicks are even worse, at best we eventually get something playable with regular Dualshock or XBox pad, worst case games become lost media because you can't even emulate hardware. And I used to LOVE lightgun games, now can't even play Time Crisis because my PS1 hardware broke and even having a CRT emulators don't like peripherals.