MTV's Totilo thinks Nintendo's done with single-player

by Justin McElroy { Nov 5th 2007 at 3:58PM }

You know that moment at the end of the thriller when the main character realizes that their best friend has been the murderer the whole time, and they start flashing back to scenes that before might have seemed random but now all start making sense? That's a little like the sensation we got reading MTV's Stephen Totilo's recent piece in which he puts forth the theory that Nintendo's in the middle of leaving single-player behind completely in favor of multiplayer experiences.

Totilo has some solid backup too, pointing at everything from Super Mario Galaxy's co-op play to Nintendo's recent group-centric advertising. "Where I'm going with all of this is the idea that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess may be a relic of a previous era," he writes. We're not sure whether to be excited or terrified.

Tags: mtv, nintendo, stephentotilo, zelda

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

s256 @ Nov 5th 2007 4:02PM

That's weird.

I approve of this situation. Except I need more friends to play with.

._.

F. Rocker or Fernando R.? @ Nov 5th 2007 4:03PM

Noob.

Jeff @ Nov 5th 2007 4:04PM

Stupid. Sure, multiplayer is going to become a bigger part of all games, but it isn't even worth arguing the fact that Nintendo most certainly isn't done with single-player.

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 5th 2007 4:04PM

I had just got done reading this

http://malstrom.50webs.com/risingcontinent.htm

And I had to laugh at this headline.

ColossalHat @ Nov 5th 2007 4:13PM

That article became less and less readable as I went on due to the author's overuse of italics and shitty random ass commentary pretending that someone was arguing with him.

JodyAnthony @ Nov 5th 2007 4:07PM

everyone is moving towards multiplayer. i'd argue Microsoft is doing it moreso than Nintendo with their Live program

beanman101283 @ Nov 5th 2007 4:08PM

Best Joystiq article picture ever!

Also, I don't know enough fellow gamers to make this exciting for me. I'm struggling as it is to find people to play Rock Band with.

rv @ Nov 5th 2007 5:23PM

That picture is hilarious

Skeffington @ Nov 5th 2007 4:09PM

Nintendo has been geared from the start towards multiplayer. So more and more emphasis on it? Of course. Scrapping entirely the single player mode?

Don't be daft.

Ranus Studios @ Nov 5th 2007 4:11PM

Goddammit no. That would suck so hard.

Fortunately it's most likely not the case, but still- a horrifying thought.

deaftly @ Nov 5th 2007 4:11PM

great pic!

WiNG @ Nov 5th 2007 4:11PM

To some extent I agree but let's be fair here.

1. Mario was originally a 2 player game.
2. Zelda has had multiplayer a la Four Swords
3. Metroid had multiplayer last gen although most thought it sucked.
4. Mario Kart, Brawl, sports games were alwasy multiplayer.
5. The N64 was the only system its generation to have 4 controller ports, and AFAIK the first system to have it period.
6. Gamecube had a handle so you could carry it around and play with friends.

So I see what he means but basing that on one game is iffy logic. Nintendo has always been about multiplayer.

Zertoss @ Nov 5th 2007 4:51PM

The SNES had an adapter packed in with Super Bomberman, IIRC, which brought the system's port total up to 5. I think it was called the Super Multitap. I think Hudson even made a similar one way before that for the PC Engine.

Still, those adapters were sold separately. The N64 was 4 port out of the box.

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 5th 2007 5:21PM

I've still have my Four Score for my NES, my Super Multitap for my SNES, and I have 2 Game Boys, 2 copies of Tetris, and a Game Link cable. Nintendo's always been about multiplayer. They had a 16 player game on the original Game Boy for dick's sake. Faceball 2000.

Giving up on single player though? Nobody on the planet's doing that ever, or else we'll get more crap like Shadowrun.

WiNG @ Nov 6th 2007 12:04AM

Well I don't count these. Hell the Sega Saturn had a 6 player adapter.

And SATURN BOMBERMAN had up to TWELVE PLAYER MULTIPLAYER.

Yes, you read that right.

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 6th 2007 2:03AM

Man I hated you guys with your 12 player Bomberman! I was playing 5 player Super Bomberman 2, and then I downgraded to 4 player Bomberman 64!!! Bomberman 64 is still my favorite though.

But yeah, 4 player gaming wasn't standard until the N64, with GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64, and Smash Bros. rocking it out.

Now the Wii has 8 player Bust-a-Move, but sadly it sucks ass... :(

Mr Khan @ Nov 5th 2007 4:14PM

Yeah, Nintendo is king of offline multiplayer, and i could see them pushing for more emphasis to help keep this Wii of theirs shooting up into the ionosphere, but not abandoning completely, not when they are the creator of Zelda, Metroid, and Fire Emblem

Brandon @ Nov 5th 2007 4:16PM

I think that everyone is going more towards multi player. More and more multi player is being made a bigger deal. GTA 4 has co op and Halo 3 is best knowen for its multi player and co op.

d-pad @ Nov 5th 2007 4:17PM

Get that cockgobbler off my joystiq homepage.

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 5th 2007 4:19PM

well seeing as 9/10 times (that 1 exception recently being call of duty 4) i hate playing multiplayer, so this would just give me 1 more huge reason to never touch a nintendo system again

Sean @ Nov 5th 2007 4:24PM

Single player will live on, but stories will become more and more stale and derivative as time progresses.

Zach L @ Nov 5th 2007 4:33PM

If Nintendo was so interested in abandoning single-player, then they wouldn't have cut multiplayer from Metroid Prime 3 and said that they felt that some games aren't built for multiplayer.

Mr Khan @ Nov 5th 2007 5:21PM

You can't cut something that was never there

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 5th 2007 5:26PM

It was in development, but they cut it early.

Chris @ Nov 5th 2007 4:38PM

I lost respect for this guy when he said Phantom Hourglass was his last Zelda.

What game reviewer would say something so stupid? Burned out? I can understand, having 2 Zelda games in less then a year. But to say you are done forever with the series when both games are excellent. Maybe he should rethink his career choice, because he's going to HAVE to play Zelda again some day.

ColossalHat @ Nov 5th 2007 4:41PM

I'm going to have to agree with good ol' Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation on this one. In general, "multiplayer would have to start teleporting whores into the room before I started caring." Enough with your damn pay-per-month MMOs, party/sports games, and other games that are only half-fun with multiplayer. I demand my old style games in which I can have fun alone with no retarded 12-year old screaming about how gay people are.

(How I wish all game developers would hear this next one) Pay more damned attention to the storyline and how fun the game is than how many damned pixels you can waste on somebody's teeth. Do this and I swear you'll be able to sell more than ten thousand of any given game.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 5th 2007 4:50PM

I agree with that. ONLINE CO-OP IS FUCKING OVERRATED!!! Multiplayer is fun, but it shouldn't be the reason why you buy the game (the only ONLY exception to this rule is Halo).

Seriously I want to bash people's heads in every time they complain about a game not having online co-op and threatening not to buy it, even if the single player game is incredible.

RDX @ Nov 5th 2007 4:46PM

Although I doubt it would ever happen, if the next Zelda was some mulitplayer fest like 4 Swords (although it was cool), I'd poop myself.

Or worse, some microgame bullshit...*shudders*

i_hate_mtv @ Nov 5th 2007 6:15PM

Link's Crossbow Training.

I swear, if Nintendo try to pass that shit off as the next installment in the Zelda series, I will laugh my ass off.

BananaBoat @ Nov 5th 2007 4:51PM

Why don't we all just pull random crap out of our butts.

My prediction: Sony is done with (decent) games.

Rob Accomando @ Nov 5th 2007 4:54PM

In the past few years many gamers would cry if there wasn't some kind of multiplayer aspect to a game.

I could care less if a game has multiplayer or not. Give me a good single player game any day.

samfish @ Nov 5th 2007 4:58PM

If Nintendo every completely abandoned single player I think I'd pretty much quit playing video games as an activity. I like playing with people, but I prefer to just kind of sit and go through a fun game and not have to worry about competitiveness and stuff sometimes.

BananaBoat @ Nov 5th 2007 4:59PM

I almost forgot

If multiplayer Zelda or Mario happens before Hi-Def, 5.1 surround sound Zelda/Mario, with a full orchestral score recorded in Dolby's surround format, I will punch....somebody

samfish @ Nov 5th 2007 5:13PM

I actually wouldn't mind a co-op only Zelda, but only if it were like a side game to the main one of something.
It would be potentially sweet to have to work with another person to get through dungeons and stuff.
But if they ever switched the series' focus to co-op, forget it. I don't think I could bring myself to play it.

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 5th 2007 5:25PM

Remember when king asshat Tommy Tallarico said Twilight Princess should have had online multiplayer? Remember how we all laughed at him because he's batshit crazy?? That was great.

Single player games aren't going anywhere.

I'm getting Smash Bros. for multiplayer, and I'm getting Galaxy for single player. It's the Nintendo way.

Darrell @ Nov 5th 2007 5:13PM

Why is ANYONE taking someone from MTV seriously in the first place? What's wrong with you people? Are you all avid Halo fans or something?

Mr Khan @ Nov 5th 2007 5:30PM

That he thinks they would leave it behind completely is idiotic, however

neat little assist modes like Galaxy's co-op are, well, neat, but they really are single-player excellence at their core

i_hate_mtv @ Nov 5th 2007 6:02PM

My name alone should tell you what I think of this.

i_hate_mtv @ Nov 5th 2007 6:04PM

And I wish MTV would stop trying to get into the game industry. They'll only mess it up (like they mess everything else up).

Am I biased? Yes, I'm biased against MTV.

Superstar90 @ Nov 5th 2007 8:09PM

you are tobias!

Jonny @ Nov 5th 2007 7:44PM

I disagree, but then who knows more about alienating their fanbase and selling out than MTV?

playwhutyalike (take my shoes off) @ Nov 5th 2007 8:03PM

I call shenanigans.

Superstar90 @ Nov 5th 2007 8:19PM

I would kill for a 3D 4 Swords Adventure, but make it online so there is no split-screen or fixed camera. It should be like that for the next DS Zelda game... Imagine 3 other Links helping you kill monsters, while you voice chat with them. You see where they are on the top screen, and can meet up with them if you need.

A Wii Zelda co-op game is long off, actually any Wii Zelda game is long off. The future ones will probably end up having some sort of online play, but will be fully optional.

Blast Processing Megadrive @ Nov 6th 2007 4:22AM

I think they should've had Four Swords 3 (FSA = FS2, I guess) as a part of Phantom Hourglass. While the game of cat-and-mouse that is the multiplayer aspect of PH is fun, a new FS, with WFC support, would've been grand.

gonk @ Nov 5th 2007 8:24PM

anyone working for mtv is automatically a retard

Questworld @ Nov 5th 2007 8:42PM

More co-op isn't a bad thing, in fact we could use more of it.

(01) @ Nov 5th 2007 8:44PM

Hmmm, the thousands of (incorrect) people screaming for multiplayer in MP:3 would beg to differ...and I don't really see the "2nd player can shoot stars" mechanic in SMG as constituting "multiplayer"

Prototype @ Nov 5th 2007 9:24PM

Sorry, MTV lacks any respect from me, in opinions or otherwise.

Nintendo has more than enough resources to keep a few single player games in the works no matter the situation, games such as Super Mario Galaxy's co-op falls short of a full co-op experience, such games can be considered single-player as you don't need a second player, and handheld games remain very single-player centric. If he had the foresight to suggest to a mild incorporation of co-op into most prominently single-player games (such as the case of Super Mario Galaxy) then maybe he would have had a point. However, as suggested in your reporting, he seems to be an uninformed gamer in a position to make unreasonable claims. Please stop reporting on events not noteworthy.

Derek @ Nov 5th 2007 11:04PM

Look, this is entirely retarded. While I cannot argue with the push toward multiplayer games( I love online FPSes) an entirely multiplayer environment is silly. Games like Metroid are totally built upon the premise of being ALONE in a huge, uncharted world, and denying this is ludicrous...