Can Donkey Kong Save Video Gaming

Nintendo is once again blowing up the sales charts this holiday. From looking like the system was well and truly past it's peak this fall it has rebounded to outsell the competition handily again. As always system sales are driven by software and this years big holiday title from the big N is Donkey Kong Country Returns.

The return of Donkey Kong to home consoles is triumphant, but also very interesting. The title is very similar to Nintendo's huge Christmas title from last year; New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Both are designed to appeal to the nostalgia of older gamers, but more importantly; they are both 2 dimensional platformers.

The 2D platformer was all but dead as a genre heading into this generation of video games. The advances in hardware technology had evolved games into realistic 3D models. With the Nintendo 64 Mario made the jump into 3 dimensions and the traditional 2D platformer started its decline.

It is of course natural that games evolve with technology and 3D has been a huge improvement for most genres of games. There has also been plenty of excellent 3D platformers released but they have failed to live up to the sales and appeal of their 2D counterparts.

If this generation has shown us anything it is that Nintendo is not afraid to go against the grain, and that they often are handsomely rewarded for their innovation. This has been shown with the release of the Wii itself and reaffirmed with titles like Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort. For all the success of these titles Nintendo's return to their roots with the New Super Mario Bros. game has topped them all. Recently the game became the fastest game in history to reach 20 million copies sold. Going up against some of the biggest titles in the history of video gaming a 2D platformer still has unrivaled market appeal.

While Donkey Kong Country Returns will not be able to duplicate the astronomical sales of Super Mario it is still going to be a smash hit. The continued success of the 2D platformer has revitalized the genre in a way that will have huge impact on the industry.

The past few generations have seen game development getting increasingly complicated. One of this generations marquee games, Gran Turismo 5, was in development for over 5 years. The cost of creating games is skyrocketing with crippling effects throughout the industry. The huge cost of developing games has decreased the creative freedom of game developers and increased the influence of game publishers. With the cost of games approaching the cost of motion pictures the game industry is seeing a similar development. Publishers are less willing to risk money on innovative games as the cost of failure becomes unbearable. In Hollywood this has lead to almost complete creative stagnation, and the video game industry is quickly following suite.

The chase for high end products have spread to the hardware front as well where Sony and Microsoft have poured resources into technical powerhouses. The cost of the PlayStation 3 has been catastrophic to Sony and the profitability of the Xbox 360 is questionable. Nintendo has bucked the trend in the hardware department. By not adopting High Definition like the competition they have also bucked the trend of increasing development cost.

The success of the relatively uncomplicated 2D platform games is an important message to the industry. Cutting edge graphics and complex story lines are not required for a game to sell. There is still a healthy demand for traditional games. And while there will always be a part of the industry that strives for pushing the technological barriers, there should also be room for games that push gameplay and traditional game elements.