Creating Generative Value

A recent news article posted on IGN reported that the new Kirby game, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which was just released in Japan, failed to keep up with the sales of Pokemon Black and White which is now moving into its 5th week in the market.

For those of you who haven’t seen the two games here are some trailers:

Kirby’s Epic Yarn



Pokemon black/white



Both of these games look pretty solid, however it bugs me that the new Pokemon game is doing so well in comparison to Kirby’s Epic Yarn. The gap is quite huge in terms of sales with Kirby only selling 92,000 units while Pokemon sold 168,541 units in its 5th week.

The main reason this article is getting to me is that Kirby’s Epic Yarn is presenting something new and different. Unlike the old Kirby games where you’d suck up enemies and spit them out, this game allows you to transform into a number of different forms to help you complete certain puzzles and defeat certain enemies. As well as this, the graphics are very unique. I don’t recall seeing a game similar to this and I think the concept is great. The game received extremely high praise from reviewers because of its originality and I think that originality is something that is missing in today’s gaming market which is flooded with first person shooters and MMORPGs.

Pokemon Black and White on the other hand is not all that original. Despite the fact that the game uses a new graphics engine which allows for 2.5D graphics, the game looks like all of the previous titles. Of course the older Pokemon games were classics, but I’m starting to feel that they’ve had their time in the gaming market. They’re really starting to recycle old game play and when they add in a few more pokemon, which look extremely similar to the old ones, they call it a new game.

I hope that people will come to realise that it’s creativity and originality that make good games. People need to realise that the new Pokemon games are basically exactly the same as their predecessors and that graphics don’t make a game. While it might look prettier, the core mechanics are still there. So do yourselves a favour and go and pick up a copy of Kirby’s Epic Yarn and experience something new.