Last night Nintendo announced that Platinum Games would be developing a sequel to Bayonetta, and that it would be exclusive to Wii U with Nintendo publishing it. Naturally, given that Sega’s recent financial problems meant that any chance of a sequel was all but dead, this news was met with joy from many gamers who were either planning to buy a Wii U anyway, or have decided to now based on this news. And that’s good.

However, yesterday’s decision also caused the ugliest side of the internet to rear its head, with some comments from so-called “hardcore” gamers being at best hypocritical and at worst disgusting.

“How in the nine hells, a fast paced – combo driven game like Bayonetta, could be handled with a tablet device rip-off ??!!” asked a grammatically challenged gamer on Kotaku. “Why do they have to steal our games?” asked a NeoGAF user. “That’s exactly what they do, taking a beloved 3rd party franchise and making it exclusive so others can’t play it is stealing.”

The terrible sales of MadWorld wasn’t enough to show them that Nintendo just isn’t the place for these kinds of games?” moaned a user on Joystiq. “Get the f**king message already: NINTENDO DOES NOT NOW, NOR WILL IT EVER AGAIN, POSSESS A HARDCORE IMAGE. They’ll regret this decision.” Most disturbing of all, Twitter users started issuing death threats to the development staff for their treachery, with one enlightened soul offering the wise words: “Nintendo f**king sucks, I better see a Xbox release in the future or I’ll kill you.”

[note: it should be made clear that these comments don't represent the entire userbase of those sites, and there were plenty of positive comments from other gamers there too].

The sheer hypocrisy is the first thing that springs to mind. For six years Wii owners have had to sit back and watch helplessly as much-loved so-called “multi-format” series pass them by. Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, BioShock, The Orange Box, Skyrim, Portal, Fallout, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Virtua Fighter, Marvel Vs Capcom 3 – all of them on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, none of them on Nintendo.

The reason for this was clear – the Wii was too underpowered to manage many of these games – but the fact remained that even though Nintendo had essentially put itself out of the running, fans of other systems were getting to enjoy them and Nintendo gamers weren’t.

Naturally, some of the less mature “hardcore” gamers (a more laughable title you’ll struggle to find) invented their own reasons for this, many coming to the derisive conclusion that the reason these games weren’t on Wii was because Nintendo only dealt with “kiddy games” and “hardcore developers” wouldn’t touch their “toy”. Of course this isn’t true – had the Wii been powerful enough developers would have been more than happy to put their games on it, since money is money – but in the world of internet forums, people don’t like to let accuracy get in the way of a good slagging.

The Wii U is Nintendo’s attempt to redress the balance and give developers the power they’ve needed for years to bring their games to Nintendo systems. This has already been proven, with huge PS360 titles like Assassin’s Creed III, Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders II, “proper” FIFA and Call Of Duty: Black Ops II all heading to the system either on or around launch day. Games that Wii owners could only have dreamt of are now arriving in their droves.


Whereas it once was a case of “Wii does one thing, PS3 and 360 do another” Nintendo is now muscling back into the space it once used to occupy pre-Wii, and some of the “hardcore” gamers who weren’t old enough to remember the SNES, N64 and even GameCube days don’t like it. And, naturally, they’re taking to the anonymity of internet forums to make their biased views heard.

It’s laughable that after six long years of Wii owners taking a back seat while countless big name games pass them by, a single title is made a Wii U exclusive and suddenly the online world loses its mind, outraged at the audacity that Nintendo would somehow want to have good games on its system and that Platinum Games would have the nerve to make a game for someone willing to help them get in on the shelves, rather than scrap the idea and never make Bayonetta 2 at all if it can’t be made for their system. The sheer selfishness and arrogance displayed by many last night was staggering.

This is nothing new, of course. I can remember as a nine-year-old watching my SNES-owning friends taunt my Mega Drive-owning ones because they had Street Fighter II on their system. “We’ve got Blanka and Guile,” I still remember one saying. “Who’ve you got? Pishy Altered Beast”. I can also remember their red faces when Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition ended up on the Mega Drive a year later.

I also remember the outrage felt by my Nintendo-loving mates when Squaresoft announced that Final Fantasy VII wouldn’t be arriving on the Nintendo 64 after all and that they’d made the jump to PlayStation, or the anger felt when Microsoft bought Rare. So to suggest that yesterday’s outbursts were the first ever incident of “butthurt” ever felt by a set of video game fans would be as mindless as some of the imbeciles that spouted their nonsense last night.

However, back then the internet was but a mere foetus, and the ability to spread this rubbish was severely limited. Back then I had one knob in my class who was adamant that Sega would be on top for the next 30 years because they had the “magnificent” Ecco The Dolphin (true story), but I was comforted by the knowledge that his ramblings wouldn’t even travel as far as the next classroom. Now such idiocy can be quickly slapped online for thousands to see, even more if websites pick up on it and quote it (um, like we just did at the start of this article).

Gamers – real gamers, not Neanderthals who bellow obscenities at people over Xbox Live and blow things up for a few hours before taking a break for a nappy change and a couple of Rusks – are in real danger of being drowned out by this sea of bile that engulfs the world of internet forums and article comments. These knuckle-draggers do not represent the majority of real gamers who judge games on how well-designed, accomplished and downright entertaining they are, not by whether the box it comes in is green, translucent or (as will soon be the case) blue.

Though we may be called Nintendo Gamer, we have always respected other systems and will continue to do so. The very first issue of Super Play back in 1992 proudly declared: “We’re not in the business of taking gratuitous swipes at Sega here – the Mega Drive is a damn fine games machine.” For a couple of years the magazine in its NGamer iteration featured a section called Meanwhile… in which other systems’ games were discussed and reported on.

We understand that while our readers have a passion for Nintendo games, many of them also own and love other systems too. I personally have been an ardent gamer for 26 years and have owned every major console since the days of the NES and Master System. I still own a chunky launch day PS3 (you can’t take my backwards compatibility away from me, Sony) and my Xbox Live gamerscore is currently 114,296 (not a lie, look it up – gamertag is Scully1888). I speed-run Super Mario Bros on the tube to work most mornings, enjoy FIFA at evenings, play through Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect at weekends and bought a Windows Phone so I could get achievements on games like Angry Birds. A game is a game is a game – snobbery and fanboyism isn’t acceptable in my eyes and it’s a stance Nintendo Gamer will continue to take while I’m at the helm.

Some of the comments made last night were embarrassing to the gaming community. We understand that some Xbox 360 and PS3 owners are disappointed that a game they love is coming to another system. Gaming is an expensive business, and some people who didn’t plan on buying a Wii U may now have to reconsider if they truly want to play Bayonetta 2 that much. But threatening one of the game’s developers with death for accepting Nintendo’s offer to revive their flatlining game? That’s despicable.

People often cite French writer Voltaire when talking about freedom of speech, using his quote “I do not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (even though he actually said “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write”, but whatever). Naturally, everyone has the right to comment, so we don’t have the right to tell these numpties to shut up, no matter how misjudged and misinformed their comments are. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t make it clear to right-minded souls that these people don’t share our views.

To all the so-called “hardcore gamers” who embarrassed themselves last night with their hypocritical, shameful comments – you don’t represent real gamers like us, and your comments are in serious danger of giving the rest of us a bad name. Have a word with yourselves, and make it a sensible one this time.