Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Pixar : Dreamworks :: Nintendo : Sega




I've decided that there aren't enough obscure SAT references for you analogy fans out there, so I cleverly incorporated one into my title. That's right, not only am I going to oversimplify the movies made by the two major animation houses of the minute, but I'm going to do it using an obscure analogy to the video game systems of my youth. I'm seriously considering high-fiving myself right now.

So when I was a kid I had a Nintendo, and my friend had a Sega (genesis). We would constantly argue over the merits of each system, positive that our own was the far superior system, and ignoring the merits of the other. Unbelievably I think that some insight can be gleaned from these arguments, which probably gives you a hint as to my current mental faculties.

The arguments go like this. Nintendo released far fewer games but for the most part, their games were always up to a certain standard. It was a relatively safe bet to buy a Nintendo game, because even if you didn't love it, you'd most likely like it. However, their color pallet was very similar from game to game, and the games rarely ventured too far away from the center line.

Sega, on the other hand released more games, and a greater variety of games. This made their games more interesting, but also very hit or miss. Sometimes they had break thru games like madden football, but the risk of innovation gave them their fare share of duds as well. Their games also had a greater variety of look and feel.

So what I'm saying here is that Pixar is like the Nintendo of old. If you go see a Pixar movie, it's a safe bet, because they know the recipe for a great animated movie. It will, however, most likely look and feel similar to their others. Dreamworks Animation is like the Sega of old. If you go see a Dreamworks Animation movie it's riskier. You may like it, you may not, but it will definitely be different from the norm.

So which is better? Personally I think the world needs both, unless either of them is willing to give me cash to say otherwise. And we're not talking about a lot of cash here. Really. Call me.

2 Comments:

At 9:26 AM, Blogger Ben Jaedecke said...

Why not compare sega master system to NES and Sega Genesis to SNES? That seems like a more reasonable comparison. At this level, the arguing points may have to change based on comparisons of game variety, color, and complexity. Keep it apples to apples, c'mon Man!

 
At 2:54 PM, Blogger Ben Jaedecke said...

Dude...this blog is a mere 386 compared to my 700 mhz pentium 3!

 

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