Nintendo has been clicking on all cylinders this generation, establishing new franchises and re-creating old ones that, in the end, will end up selling more copies than the combined number of shallow, eye-candy games saturating the market thanks to Sony and Microsoft.
While it’ll be difficult and probably downright impossible to beat their performance thus far, Nintendo still has some remaining loose ends to address to kick-start the new decade.
Here are my top 5:
1.) A 2D Zelda for the home console – Observe the mammoth sales of NSMBWii (currently overshadowing the ho-hum success of FF13 in Japan) and one will wonder why this idea hasn’t been implemented already. Close to 5 million copies of Phantom Hourglass has been sold for the DS, and while a home console replica might not mirror its success, I believe maintaining the simplicity of PH while revamping the engine and pace of the story to better mimic Zelda: LttP would serve to catapult this hypothetical title to heights never reached by any adventure game this generation.
2.) A 2D Metroid for the home console – Honestly, I was a bit disappointed to learn that Team Ninja was going to head the development of Other M. Save for F-Zero w/Sega and the GB Zelda games w/Capcom, all of Nintendo’s third-party collaboration have been lukewarm, and I don’t trust the pedigree of Team Ninja to produce anything Nintendo couldn’t with 1/3 the effort. I would much rather have Nintendo handle their own franchises at this point, and leave B-rated developers to their own devices.
3.) Fatal Frame 4 – After playing SH: Shattered Memories and hearing nothing but good things about Cursed Mountain, the Wii is arguably the best home console to have if you’re a fan of survival horror games. RE4:Wii, SH, CM, FF. All top notch games from what I’ve played/heard, and it’s a shame that Tecmo has dropped the ball in bringing the game over to the western markets, further validating my earlier comments with regard to third-party collaborations.
4.) Wii Sports 3 – The Wii has effectively stolen the sports gaming crown from EA and Konami, with the sales of Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort reaching a sales level unprecedented in the sports genre and gaming altogether. I’ve played the hell out of both, and a sequel with more games, online playability, and a ranking system would launch an existing juggernaut franchise to the moon and beyond.
5.) Wii FPS – It’s been painfully apparent over the years that third-party developers still have yet to come up with the perfect FPS for a system that is built to house first-person shooters. We’re in the Wii’s fourth year, and a lucrative genre is being ignored as a result of third-party incompetence. With a solid effort, good marketing, and excellent polish, the Wii could very well be the first Nintendo console to be the home for console FPSs since the N64, before Microsoft usurped the crown with the overrated Halo series and other developers followed. I think it’s time for Nintendo to put a solid effort into investing in the genre and hopefully running away with it.
What about everyone else?
