From beyond the grave, Gunpei still influences an entire generation of gaming:
“Although fancier, more powerful handheld technology existed at the time, Yokoi maintained that the Game and Watch systems should use affordable components that offered a decent battery life. Consumers, he believed, would prefer cheaper products with fun gameplay over the hottest, cutting-edge gadgets. This design philosophy, which Yokoi would later dub “Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology,” guided most of his inventions; to this day, Nintendo still gravitates toward well-understood technologies to design their novel, reinvented gameplay.”
The GameCube was Nintendo’s console market wake up call. They attempted to push out a me too system (with moderate success, yes), and in the process lost their focus. The majority of people gaming today don’t want realistic blood splatter or real time physics, they want an escape to cartoon land. And yes, I exaggerated that point on purpose. There’s nothing to be ashamed of with that though — it’s a GAME.
I suppose my beef with “other” companies today is that they TELL me what gaming should be, instead of showing me a fun product that I can just play. If making up my own mind about what’s fun and “next gen” is wrong, then I’m guilty as charged. Now, where’d I put Excite Truck…