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When he recently spoke with GameDaily, Yannis Mallat from Ubisoft Montreal, appeared to be very excited after receiving compliments from Nintendo about a game of theirs for the Wii and DS. You may know it; "My Word Coach". If you know it, I'm sure it's probably because your little sister or brother enjoys to play it.

Considering that Ubisoft can make some decent hardcore games, such as Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia, you would think they would be bragging about these titles. Obviously not as Mallat was much happier to brag about the compliments Ubisoft recieved about one of their casual games, "My Word Coach".

"We were working in secret on a game called My Word Coach and we had the chance to show the game to [Nintendo of America President] Reggie Fils-Aime. Once he saw the game he said 'You got it. You guys got exactly the type of game we want for this machine.' " - Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft

If you're already shocked that this casual title managed to gather praise from Reggie, I'd prepare for what Mallat had to say next. Look who else is dishing out the compliments for the Z-list title:

"He (he meaning [Nintendo President] Satoru Iwata) told us, 'Alright, we are going to treat you as if you were an internal Nintendo team.' Obviously it was an honor. I guess that Nintendo decided to do that because they felt that maybe we captured the spirit of what a 'casual' game could be or should be in a way," Mallat said.

Considering that this title wasn't exactly a chart topper (did it actually make it to the charts?), it seems these compliments have gone to Mallat's head slightly. He later said that when he and his team went back to Ubisoft Montreal they invented some "rules" for future Nintendo titles. These are his so-called "rules":

"There is a simple rule... especially with those games... they have to have a consumer benefit.", he said. "Strong, obvious, and accessible. They are to be designed for people who were not used to playing games, they have to be accessible. They have to have a consumer benefit because those guys, if they don't play games... they usually do something that matters in a way. They're used to making the most of their time. Even when they are doing crosswords they are doing something valuable for them. So those are two of the main rules that a casual game should fulfill."

So why is it suddenley that casual games are worth bragging about, especially when you can say you developed a title as big as Assassin's Creed? If developers are going to receive compliments like this over casual games, then they are going to take over the Nintendo consoles. Mind you, casual games seem to be already ruling the charts at the moment. Especially with the likes of games such as "Dogz" and "Catz" out there...

Written by: Natalie Wilson

Really great article Natalie, a brilliant read!

But here's a sad fact. If this is the direction Nintendo wish to take their gaming, then I can't see myself as a future customer of theirs. I can't deal with many more years of this casual crap.

Great article. But I really wish Nintendo wasn't encouraging to flood our market with casual trash. I mean Nintendo's stuff is bad, but Ubisoft's is FAR worse.

Nintendo go die, you can't praise this crap. But Natalie, awesome article.

games like dogz and catz are kiddie games,

rayman and wario and wii sports are for everyone

What about the people who actually bought the Wii because they want to play games and have been doing so for a while now? That's some sad stuff. Sure, I'm one of the few that like Rayman but only up to a certain point. This reminds me of the GH: Aerosmith. Sure Aerosmith is/was great but I'd like some variety.

It's all well and okay for Wii to have kiddy games. No problem, really! But when hardcore game developers like Ubisoft and EA go out of their way to make kiddy games exclusively for Wii, whilst canceling production of many hardcore games, then we have a problem. Assassin's Creed, Fight Night etc.

lets not confuse kiddy games like horsez with a great but casual game like rayman, thats all i am saying

Ugh, Rayman. Wario Ware was far better. Rayman was just a failed attempt to grab at the Wii's casuals. Sadly I think it succeeded it some areas, but Wario Ware surpassed it.

Wario Ware was a great game, it's a shame you can complete it in around 2-3 hours.