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Nintendo Explains Why They Don't Do Achievements
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to receive an achievement for defeating Ganon in the next Zelda game? Or a trophy for earning that last star in Super Mario Galaxy 2? Keep dreaming, as Nintendo seems pretty set on avoiding a meta-achievement system for its games.
Speaking to Kotaku, Nintendo head of marketing Bill Trinen said that Nintendo is "not opposed to achievements," but he explained why the publisher has avoided using them for most of their games:
"When they create their games, [Nintendo's designers] don't tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward. Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery. To that end, I think that when you look specifically at games from EAD [the group long led by Mario and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto] and a lot of other games that Nintendo has developed as well, there are things you can do in the game that will result in some sort of reward or unexpected surprise. In my mind, that really encourages the sense of exploration rather than the sense of 'If I do that, I'm going to get some sort of artificial point or score that's going to make me feel better that I got this.' And that, to me, is I think more compelling."
While specific Nintendo games such as Wii Sports Resort and Super Smash Bros. Melee have in-game achievement systems, Trinen makes it sound unlikely that there will be any sort of system-wide achievements in place in the foreseeable future for Nintendo. Do you wish that would change?
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