Nintendo focusing on other titles beside mario this year. Good? Bad? The future?

[Hi!]

But I keep hearing a lot of gamers/Nintendo fans saying they were wish Nintendo would step away from Mario for a bit for different stuff. Granted I am unsure what Nintendo fans want since some say they want more grown up games like PS and Xbox and than some say those would pollute Nintendo's name. If we do get a Mario in 2016/2017 I would be ok with it. I'm not saying no Mario.

They don't have to stop developing their staple franchises to have some variety. They have development teams who can work on the Mario/Zelda games, and have other teams working on other things. We've had 3D World and we're getting Zelda U this year, as well as a good variety of things such as Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei, Bayonetta 2, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country, Xenoblade and a new Starfox.

As for more mature games 'polluting' Nintendo's name.. I don't think Nintendo games can be summed up as a whole like that. Sure, you have the happy colourful sunshine and rainbow games, like Mario, Kirby etc, but there are also things like Metroid which are a little more on the mature side. It's evident that Nintendo are a little more reluctant to have 18-rated games on their systems, but Nintendo games as a whole cover a vast range of genres and age range targets, even if they do try to appeal to people of all ages.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

What about new super mario bros 2 for 3ds, with all the coins? Wasn't that 2011 or 2012? I consider that main series to. But that in its's self could be debated as to whatever or not it really is. As for the rest of the timeline it seems to be fine and correct.

Shiggy was talking about the Wii U, no? So, why consider the portable output?


EDIT: Oh, oops. I had included 3D Land on that list XD That shouldn't have been there. *removes* Ignore me. No portables

 

[Sydian]

I'm fine with it. Nintendo has a bunch of other fantastic IPs like Zelda, Pokemon, Star Fox, and Splatoon's debuting this year as well. It's gonna be a great year for Nintendo, and Mario isn't sitting this one out even if he's not the main focus. We've still got Mario Maker and Mario Party 10, so he's not missing out on the action. It's gonna be an awesome year.

Edit: I remembered Xenoblade too and my face melted off. Oh, 2015, I love you already.

 

[Sir Codin]

I don't hate Mario, but I think he could use a break for a while. Let him have a real vacation in Isle Delfino (and not get caught up in adventure last time he was there). At his age, working him too hard will make him sprout grey hairs too early.

Have Nintendo give his other Nintendo star co-workers some glory for a bit, ya know?

 

[Hikamaru]

I think it's nice to see Nintendo not doing as much Mario games this year, since this can give its other major franchises the spotlight for a while. We'll wait and see if it was a successful move or not.

 

[Pendraflare]

I feel like they've rushed, or rather pumped out too many Mario games in the past couple of years. It will be good to see them focusing on other titles and franchises and I'm interested to see what approach they take for this year.

Basically this.

Nintendo released quite a few non-Mario titles that turned out to be successful, like Kirby and Zelda related ones, so if they try for more of that, then Mario might turn out to get something more creative or different after a while off from it.

 

[Fossy]

Being new to the Nintendo scene, I haven't grown tired of the mario games - purchasing three games for my 3ds so far. But I can see it as a good thing for Nintendo, instead of focusing on such a long running title as Mario, they can turn to new IPS, or other games that have laid dormant for so long. I think it's a breath of fresh air in the gaming community/industry whenever developers/publishers focus on something new for a change. Especially when you have sequels upon sequels being churned out for so many games - Xbox/Sony, I'm looking at you!

 

[Hi!]

I think it's a breath of fresh air in the gaming community/industry whenever developers/publishers focus on something new for a change. Especially when you have sequels upon sequels being churned out for so many games - Xbox/Sony, I'm looking at you!

Tell that to GameFreak. They're little more than a Pokemon factory.

It seems like the Mario name is a little saturated, since they like to put him and his friends on anything they can to generate appeal. Without Mario, 'Mario Tennis' would be a pretty normal Nintendo tennis game. It's very easy to put Mario and co. on that to generate appeal for the games, and that's what they do, which leads to people getting bored of seeing Mario everywhere.

 

[Yukari]

Tell that to GameFreak. They're little more than a Pokemon factory.

That's mainly because Pokemon is the only reason that they are what they are today. Really nothing else they made took off. Everybody's heard of Pokemon, but almost nobody's heard of Pulseman.

 

[Z25]

Shiggy was talking about the Wii U, no? So, why consider the portable output?


EDIT: Oh, oops. I had included 3D Land on that list XD That shouldn't have been there. *removes* Ignore me. No portables

lol shiggy, i like that nickname. And i hadn't even noticed the 3d land on there XD. It never occured to me lol. Ajd then that list is good, not to cluttered,but it's still nice to focus more on other games.

 

[Hi!]

That's mainly because Pokemon is the only reason that they are what they are today. Really nothing else they made took off. Everybody's heard of Pokemon, but almost nobody's heard of Pulseman.

That's true, but with the success they've seen with Pokemon and the amount of money they're bringing in, they could stand to branch out with more things, even if it means expanding the team. Of course, I guess it depends on whether Nintendo are content to let them just continue to pump out Pokemon games, but their last release was Harmoknight I believe, which was a pretty small eShop release. I think a company with the recognition and success of GameFreak could do a lot more with what they have.

It's like Treyarch/Infinity Ward with Call of Duty. They just pump these games out continuously because that's what Activision want and they don't really have anything else that would be a success.

 

[Yukari]

That's true, but with the success they've seen with Pokemon and the amount of money they're bringing in, they could stand to branch out with more things, even if it means expanding the team. Of course, I guess it depends on whether Nintendo are content to let them just continue to pump out Pokemon games, but their last release was Harmoknight I believe, which was a pretty small eShop release. I think a company with the recognition and success of GameFreak could do a lot more with what they have.

It's like Treyarch/Infinity Ward with Call of Duty. They just pump these games out continuously because that's what Activision want and they don't really have anything else that would be a success.

That is also true. But making a Video Game is really a gamble. You could make money, or you could lose money. And with the massive following Pokemon has (Hell, this is a Pokemon forum, as much as I forget that.) and the large demand for Pokemon games ( Particularly OR/AS.) making a Pokemon game is the best, and most successful. course of action. Now, I'm not necessarily trying to say "Pokemon should be the only game that GameFreak makes." but that is perfectly understandable. And we did get remakes of Ruby and Sapphire. And that does show that GameFreak is listening to their fans.

 

[Hi!]

Yeah, I agree with you. I'm a big Pokemon fan myself, and I welcome more Pokemon games. I was just responding to the post addressing Sony/Microsoft for putting out too many sequels, which Nintendo/GameFreak do themselves.

It's perfectly understandable, I mean Pokemon is so huge and I have no doubt it could keep GameFreak alive and well for years to come, not to mention they're likely very passionate about the franchise since it is nearing the 20th anniversary and it's come so far, and they've built something really great with it. It's just so big that I think there is potential for GameFreak to funnel some of that success into something fresh, perhaps with a respectable budget behind it.

 

[Z25]

And a smaller mario title has been announced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0vIXnXoi6U


Looks neat, may have to pick it up.

 

[Sir Codin]

That is also true. But making a Video Game is really a gamble. You could make money, or you could lose money. And with the massive following Pokemon has (Hell, this is a Pokemon forum, as much as I forget that.) and the large demand for Pokemon games ( Particularly OR/AS.) making a Pokemon game is the best, and most successful. course of action. Now, I'm not necessarily trying to say "Pokemon should be the only game that GameFreak makes." but that is perfectly understandable. And we did get remakes of Ruby and Sapphire. And that does show that GameFreak is listening to their fans.

Except, how did Pokemon get so popular in the first place?

Answer: Gamefreak took a gamble.

 

[Yukari]

Except, how did Pokemon get so popular in the first place?

Answer: Gamefreak took a gamble.

Yes, but at that point Gamefreak needed to take a gamble because they weren't making enough money given the popularity of their games. It's really just sheer luck that Pokemon became popular.

 

[Sir Codin]

Yes, but at that point Gamefreak needed to take a gamble because they weren't making enough money given the popularity of their games. It's really just sheer luck that Pokemon became popular.

Still, my point is they wouldn't have made it where they are today if they didn't take the risk.

And considering how much money they've made off of Pokemon over the years, I think they can afford to make a few gambles here and there.

 

[Yukari]

Still, my point is they wouldn't have made it where they are today if they didn't take the risk.

And considering how much money they've made off of Pokemon over the years, I think they can afford to make a few gambles here and there.

They definitely could, but Pokemon manages to both keep the fans happy, and makes money. It's really a win-win situation.

I do agree, however. Gamefreak could afford to make a game that isn't Pokemon with minimal losses.

 

[Z25]

Gamefreak definitely should take more gambles, nintendo can afford a ton of resources to make a brand cult classic for people of all ages from gamefreak. I would like to see them do something likw shovel knight in terms of a simple but good story and gameplay elements.

 

[Dying Light]

Personally, I see this as a bit of fresh air. Nintendo wondered why Wii U wasn't selling as good as they wanted aside from redundant console design. For a company such as Nintendo, they have so much potential in other series than a constant Mario theme. While I appreciate that Mario was Nintendo's claim to fame, repetition is annoying.