Five Nintendo Franchises that Need to Die

[Julius Seeker]

In my humble opinion.

Also, before I begin, this is outside of any really great new design ideas that work well: because that can be said about any franchise.

1. Metroid - This one has a rabbid fanbase, some people here are probably a part of it, but I think the main attraction to this franchise is based on the idea that Gamecube got a mature title, and less about the actual game itself. The rest of the attraction is the fact that the early Metroid games do indeed kick ass. I played through the NES Metroid recently, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it (much more than Super Metroid and other later 2D Metroid titles). I am also a big fan of Metroid 2, and I hope the remake gets an enhanced port to Switch despite how beautiful I imagine it looks in 3D. I think the sort of Metroid game I want, and the sort of Metroid game the Prime fans want are of small appeal, and that is why this franchise can never sell well without a major overhaul to the point that only resemblance is a skin deep. They COULD make a new Metroid game along the lines of Mass Effect, it could sell great, and prove me wrong: but let's be real, a Mass Effect quality game wouldn't need the Metroid franchise to be successful... and vastly revamping any franchise and making it good can be done.

Actually, if I were to design a Metroid game for me, it would be 8-bit style like Metroid 1 (perhaps with a Shovel-Knight-esque facelift). It would take place across multiple planets (like Hunters) with ship upgrades allowing for travel to different locations. A hub, similar to Hollow Knight, that grows as the player completes objectives. Colonies of allies within the planets (different from other Metroid games), or people/scientists to rescue for the purpose of expanding the hub. To me, something like that would be interesting. Or a straight-up Metroid 1 clone... Axiom Verge sort of covers that.

2. F-Zero - The time of futuristic racers has come and gone. I find the persistent fanbase of this genre bewildering. Especially since they're rarely satisfied by ANYTHING released in the genre since around 2002.

3. Star Fox - If Nintendo was making high-end hardware, this is a GREAT franchise to show that off. That time is in the past. Play Star Fox 64 and tell me how long before you're bored, I'm willing to bet many NES games stay interesting longer than this one. This one's fanbase also bewilders me, people were genuinely upset about the injustice done with Star Fox Zero... which was the closest to Star Fox 64 of any of the games. IMO, this franchise is out of date. Like Rogue Leader, it's only interesting when the graphics look better than most other games. This franchise has had numerous attempts at re-envisioning, and they all failed.

4. Kirby. And it hurts me to say it because this is one of my favourite platformer franchises of the early-mid 1990s. Without Iwata at the helm, I feel this franchise is not going to go in the right direction; he always ensured the right game for the right time and hardware. There was something very different feeling about the Switch title. Objectively it was a fine game, but it didn't feel like the right time or hardware for that sort of game... and frankly, I think the new Yoshi game looks dozens of times more interesting. I only see this game's legacy being done poorly going forward.

5. Pikmin. On paper, this game sounds like something I'd really dig. The Will Wright game that inspired it, Sim Ant, was one of my favourite games on SNES. Perhaps it's just the level-based gameplay of it, but I never found it too interesting. Little King's Story released on Wii and Vita was much more interesting to me. I think if Nintendo wants to make a franchise based on the Pikmin concept, they should look into co-developing Little King's Story Switch with Marvelous, rather than trying to make Pikmin work again. Again, this is one of those game franchises where it has a fanbase that likes it because it was on Gamecube, and generally like the idea of the game more than the game itself.

If it's not clear, I find a lot of the Gamecube fans to be a little cult-like. They're still defensive of the machine as though still fighting a system war against PS2. Either that or they genuinely forget how miserable that generation actually was for Nintendo fans; or might not be old enough to remember. A couple of years later a growing contingent of Nintendo fans has begun arguing that the Wii U was actually a lot better than the Switch - if this was two years ago, such a thought would be insane: similar to Gamecube (in regards to the Wii), many looked upon the Switch as a betrayal to Wii U fans... but also similar to the Wii/Gamecube, that whole thing began with concern trolling from anti-Nintendo fans - I am baffled by how effective that tactic is =P

[Eric]

They all just need a fresh take, they all play to their formulas and don't evolve much.

Metroid had an inferior version of a Metroid 2 remake to a fan game, and the last main game was Other M in 2010 and we're not gonna talk about the throwaway Federation Force. I agree if Nintendo just gives out the IP to shitty devs with no inspiration to make a great game they should shelf it.

I mean there's the genre, and there's F-Zero. I've never really liked Wipe-out but I did like F-Zero, but why is it on your list, it's pretty much dead

Kirby is another one that's realllllllllllly needs a fresh take, the platformer genre in general is like the #1 thing indies like to tackle and there's a ton of fantastical games out there, Kirby just doesn't stand out and plays it way too safe.

Never played Pikman, looked weird.

[Julius Seeker]

A fresh take could help out any franchise. How about this: "Need to die in their current form."

Metroid, IMO - has two ways to go: Large-scale Mass Effect style game. Or back to its 2D roots with something along the lines of Curse of the Moon. You brought up the talent of Indie Developers, I am sure there are several who could see an 8-bit Metroid game as their dream project. A 2D Metroid game in the 8-bit style hits 2.5M sales easily at 15 bucks or less; probably more. Any other treatment is going to get a lot of complaints... I say a big Mass Effect game, but I can see the Metroid Prime Gamecube people crying about that right now. They're going to want a game that's desolate, with lots of switching back and forth between the scanner and the blaster.

F-Zero is on my list because there are still a number of "We need F-Zero now!" people. You're right, Nintendo has pretty much killed it. I suppose it's more of a "this should stay dead" post.

With Kirby, I think if we had Iwata still around he wouldn't have greenlit the last game. Canvas Curse and Epic Yarn were great takes on the franchise. But I think he cared about the franchise, and without him, it's just a "We should fit a Kirby game into this slot" sort of thing. Kirby hit the right note most of the time in Iwata's era, but since his death, it seems to be constant misses.


Breath of the Wild is a good example of how to fix a completely stale (and flawed) formula. Ocarina of Time was clearly a major benchmark for Zelda. Part of the issue with design trends following Ocarina of Time was: bigger areas, bigger dungeons, and exploration and puzzle solving was more about trying to find out where you're supposed to go in order to progress. Breath of the Wild threw that out, exploration became about "what's over that hill, or through that woods." and it felt free. The game was very open, you could do whatever you wanted, and players got super inventive. Also, the dungeons took about the same amount of time as 2D Zeldas, much shorter than other 3D Zeldas; they were easier and more difficult, more difficult because the actual skill required was significantly higher, but easier because it wasn't so difficult to find out where you're supposed to go... and in this way the dungeons felt MUCH closer to the 2D Zelda games. In the end, the changes were so great that it felt like this is how 3D Zelda should have always been.