I'm with you right up until you equate expanded hardware capabilities with "the same, but more so." New advances in hardware open up totally new opportunities, not just the ability to do what was done before, but bigger and better.
Granted, that's what often (usually?) happens, but Nintendo is the big counter example. Look no further than side-scrolling 2D Mario and the transition to Mario 64. Yes, the vastly more capable Nintendo 64 could have enabled Nintendo to do "Super Mario World 4" in "side-scrolling 3D" - more detailed characters, more sounds, more enemies on screen simultaneously, more textures, blah blah. But that's not what they did. (Well, until New Super Mario Bros for the DS, anyway ;)
Big hardware advances mean big opportunities for new, different, better gameplay. (And yes, so do big advances in control schemes.) I guess I just want it all ;)
by John — Oct 22
Granted, that's what often (usually?) happens, but Nintendo is the big counter example. Look no further than side-scrolling 2D Mario and the transition to Mario 64. Yes, the vastly more capable Nintendo 64 could have enabled Nintendo to do "Super Mario World 4" in "side-scrolling 3D" - more detailed characters, more sounds, more enemies on screen simultaneously, more textures, blah blah. But that's not what they did. (Well, until New Super Mario Bros for the DS, anyway ;)
Big hardware advances mean big opportunities for new, different, better gameplay. (And yes, so do big advances in control schemes.) I guess I just want it all ;)