By Kevin Shirley
“This isn’t trying to be an asshole or anything, but can Nintendo make a game with a character they didn’t make 30 years ago?”
Our glorious leader, Nick Tricome,
posed that question to us in a Facebook chat on the day of the Nintendo Direct
conference. But, he is not the first one to say such a thing.
The hardcore
gaming community always seems to bash Nintendo for rehashing the same games
over and over again. I find myself puzzled that Nintendo is always getting the
flack for franchise milking in an industry where most of the successful games
coming out seem to be sequels, an industry where Activision sculpts majestic
mountains of dollar bills by cranking out a new Call of Duty each year, an
industry where series that we were told were going to end at the trilogy mark
are now getting fourth installments.
Obviously, Nintendo isn’t the only company
that loves to continue franchises.
What makes Nintendo a bit special is
that they have been able to extend franchises for several decades, going back
to the 1980s.
Since the time a plumber first tried to save his girlfriend from
that giant ape in 1981, Nintendo has developed characters that they would bring
back again and again in series of sequels.
Mario, Link, Samus, Kirby: these are
just a few of the heroes that made “the big N” into the powerhouse that is
today. Yet, many people complain that Nintendo is too reliant on milking its
old franchises and is resistant to creating something truly new.
At the recent
Nintendo Direct Conference, the franchise fury appeared to be in full force.
There was a new Super Mario, a new Mario Kart, new Donkey Kong, new Pokemon,
and new Zelda. The event was bound to attract only more criticism of Nintendo
refusing to retire its classic characters.
But, do I want the house of N to
retire these characters? Do I want Mario to check into the Sacred Mushroom
Retirement Home? Do I want Link to disappear into the Kokiri Forest, never to
return? Do I want to wake up from Kirby’s Dreamland and never go back to sleep?
My answer is an uncompromising “no.”
I love Mario. I love Donkey Kong. Would I
like to see another game starring Donkey Kong? Yes!... I just wish it didn’t look so much
like the last Donkey Kong.
I’m not going to deny that Nintendo
has made boatloads of sequels over the years, yet I never considered them to be
a company that loved Xeroxing their games.
Even when Nintendo made a sequel,
which was constant, at the very least, it seemed like they were making a new
twist on an old formula.
If there is an era that defines this spirit of
experimentation in existing properties to me, it is the Gamecube era.
During
the little, purple lunchbox’s life cycle, Mario cleaned up rainbow sludge with
a high-tech water apparatus, Link traded the fields of Hyrule for a vast ocean and the long-forgotten Metroid series was reimagined as a first-person
adventure into a planet full of otherworldly terrors.
Not all of Nintendo’s
experiments worked perfectly; perhaps, they should have just kept Star Fox
Adventures as Dinosaur Planet; meanwhile, Super Mario Sunshine, while great
fun, was not quite on the same level of brilliance as 64 and Galaxy. But, there
was plenty of innovations that did work.
In spite of the initial backlash from
fans against the “kiddy” art style, Wind Waker would be recognized as a worthy
addition to the Zelda saga, and while I prefer the classic, side-scrolling
gameplay, few would argue that Metroid Prime wasn’t a wonderful achievement.
I
became a huge fan of Nintendo gaming during this generation, so a few of these
games may have felt fresher to me than they did to people who had joined in
during an earlier console cycle, yet I still believe that Nintendo made a great
effort to play with the conventions of their most famous properties.
When I watched the recent Nintendo
Direct conference, I felt the same as I did, watching E3 the year before:
underwhelmed, with the sense that Nintendo has become more adverse to
risk-taking. They revealed sequels that appeared to be retreads of the hits of
the last few years.
Retro Studios proved with the Metroid
Prime trilogy that they are one of the boldest, most talented, young
development houses in the industry, and a great asset to Nintendo.
Three years
ago, the studio proved its versatility by resurrecting the classic Donkey Kong
Country gameplay. With the ability to radically re-imagine as well as resurrect
classic games, many people wondered how Retro Studios would surprise next, so
we were all looking forward to the reveal of their new game at Nintendo Direct.
When Donkey Kong Country: Tropical
Freeze was unveiled, I found myself disappointed. I enjoyed Donkey Kong Country
Returns, and I’m certain that this one will be fun as well, but is that the
only job Nintendo could think of for Retro? Not the resurrection of F-Zero?
Paper Mario Online? Hell, I’m still ticked off that the Star Fox/Metroid
crossover, which was rumored a year ago, turned out to be not real.
Tropical
Freeze does not appear to add much innovation to the series, and looks like a
level pack for the last game.
Is it too much to ask that Nintendo allow Retro
to blow us away again?
Another game introduced at Nintendo
Direct, which looked fun but not groundbreaking, was Super Mario 3D World, the
Wii U follow-up to the 3DS system-maker, Super Mario 3D Land.
I liked 3D Land.
A lot. I thought it was brilliant how the game took the modern, 3D Super Mario
gameplay and combined it with a level structure and world lay-out similar to some
of the classic side-scrollers.
However, I expected the new, 3D Mario platformer
to provided its own major twist on the series: something as revolutionary on
the Wii U as Super Mario 64 was on the N64, or as Galaxy was on the Wii.
Instead, we got a game that looks like a souped-up Super Mario Land with a
4-player mode.
The revelation reminded me of Mario’s most prominent sub-series
in the last few years, New Super Mario Bros; originally a refreshing revival of
the classic Mario formula for the DS, Nintendo repeated the formula on three
other systems, never shaking up the gameplay drastically.
My greatest fear is
that Nintendo is going to avoid making the next big revolution for the Mario
franchise and instead repeat the 3D Land template over and over again.
Which is a shame. Is this all the Big
N has to offer? The house that created Mario in the first place? The company
that blew us away with Super Mario Galaxy six years ago? Hell, can’t we expect another series-redefining installment like, well, Super Mario 3D Land?
3D World should be plenty of fun; I have no intention of dodging it like the
plague. But, must Nintendo make one successful, innovative game, and say, “okay,
that’s it. We’ll just continue making that.”
Is this the narrow path of Nintendo’s
future? I shall dare to say, “no.”
Yes, Nintendo seems to be planting its roots
firmly in familiar soil, but there are glimmers of hope.
The new generation of
Pokemon looks like it will be shaking up the classic formula, while taking the
Pokemon trainer’s quest into the third dimension.
A new Zelda for the 3DS looks
like it will brilliantly combine the world of Link to the Past with the 3DS
hardware.
The Wii U is still young, and the 3DS is rising to the status of my
new favorite system. I think there is still plenty of hope for the House of
Mario.
And it’s not like Super Mario 3D
World looks boring.
Other Thoughts:
-MEGAMAN’S GONNA BE IN SMASH BROS!!!
Okay, I got really excited there. But if any third-party character belongs in
Smash Bros, it’s the Blue Bomber, a legend of the NES era, forsaken by a
publisher who has come to resent his creator. The Animal Crossing farmer should
also be fun, and to anyone who’s crying about the Wii Fit Trainer ruining the
tone of Smash: really?
-The Wonderful 101 looks quite
exciting. It’s an original property! Not only that, but it appears that we have
a game which really utilizes the Wii U gamepad, using the distinctive
controller to offer a new twist on real-time strategy. I shall be watching the
news on this game in the coming months.
-Pokemon X and Y has me excited. I
can’t wait to see how the fairy type shakes the battlefield, while sky battles
and swarms have me interested. But, let’s get real. You need to stop dodging
this question Nintendo: is it Mewthree? Don’t hold out on me.
-I have to mention this one to please
Bobby Caroselli: Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive. I’ve never played the first
game, but the trailer I’ve watched for this new game has me interested. I’m not
sure how well this will succeed as a Nintendo exclusive when the first game
wasn’t even on a Nintendo system, though.
-New game by Monolith Soft. The
worlds look similar. The gameplay appears similar. They show us an X in the
same font as before. Is it really that hard to admit that this is the sequel to
Xenoblade Chronicles?
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