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Which forgotten Nintendo IP deserves a new game?


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Which forgotten Nintendo IP deserves a new game?  

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  1. 1. Out of these 5 Nintendo IPs, which one deserves a new addition to the series?

    • F-Zero
      3
    • Earthbound/Mother
      1
    • Wario Land
      3
    • Punch Out!
      2
    • Star Fox
      5
    • Other/Not Listed (Comment below!)
      7


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Nintendo has created a ton of First-Party games exclusive to their several systems released over the years. While we've got plenty of Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pokémon, and Fire Emblem to last us decades, there's a few IPs of theirs that have unfortunately been forgotten about and haven't gotten a new title in a long time. 

I'll only include 5 of the more highly requested series that I've seen from fans, since there's a whole bunch more that could technically be listed, and I don't want there to be too many poll choices. If there's a forgotten Nintendo IP that isn't listed in the poll, select the 6th choice: Other/Not Listed, and tell me which series it is, along with why you think it deserves a new game. 

Edited by CyberZord
Old topic was too niche to warrant discussion.
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I said Wario Land. The first two games were some of my favorite platformers on Game Boy Color. The first one added some new spins to what Super Mario Land was doing, while the second altered things further, with branching storylines, variant forms based on getting attacked, and no more "lives" system. Crazy to think that Wario Land 2 predated Super Mario Odyssey doing away with lives by almost two decades! I've also been playing Wario Land 3 lately, which... some of the stuff it does feels like a natural expansion of 2, while other elements are moreso annoying and/or disappointing.

Still, I'd love to see Wario make a return to platforming. I know he's doing his own thing with Wario Ware, and I don't at all begrudge fans of that series. Still, a new platformer with an emphasis on coins and treasure, the various "Wario forms" with no lives, and branching storylines, would be really cool. Maybe throw in Waluigi as a 2-player partner, as well.

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In terms of which one deserves a new game, it would probably be Star Fox simply because of how Nintendo has mishandled the franchise over the years; the most notable example of that being Star Fox Zero: aka Nintendo's last desperate attempt to make the Wii U more relevant.

 

That said, the Nintendo franchise that I think is most overdue for a new game would have to be Ice Climber. It had one game on the NES and nothing since then, despite the titular Ice Climbers repeatedly appearing as playable fighters in Smash Bros. It would be particularly interesting to see what they could do with the franchise thanks to three dimensions; one of the biggest advantages of 3D over 2D when it comes to platformers is that it is a lot better able to utilize verticality, and this is a game about climbing mountains; it's all vertical.

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I'll go for F-Zero. I don't love it. It's way too intense for me, but I still think it deserves a resurrection.

One fundamental, colossal problem of F-Zero, is that Mario Kart exists. Mario Kart is more casual-friendly, cheery, and features a better known IP. It's a tried & true juggernaut that never fails for sales. F-Zero is obscure and was intended for a much smaller hardcore audience. It can't possibly sell as well yet would still require a significant investment of time, resources, and money to achieve the "technical perfection" the surviving diehards of X and GX would be expecting. It'd also need top-of-the-line HD graphics for coolness and a consistent 60 fps online to successfully master its niche. A new F-Zero would almost certainly be a selfless gift to players, but loss to Nintendo's shareholders.

Nonetheless, Nintendo should branch out again with its racing games. Mario Kart is stagnant and suffocating, give us options again Nintendo! Remember F-Zero, Diddy Kong Racing, Kirby Air Ride, and Excite Trucks/Excitebots. 

For an F-Zero revival...

  • I would keep it fairly conservative. F-Zero doesn't have to reinvent itself, as F-Zero has been dead a long time, what it needs is to become un-dead and modernize up.
  • 20 or 25 new race tracks, maybe with a bunch of GX/AX's brought back too. Perhaps X tracks even. 
  • Bring back all 41 of GX's racing crew too (minus maybe Deathborn), and the ability to create your own vehicle.
  • I would then add 4 or 5 new racers to top things off at a nice 45. With 30 per race, 45 would make for a clean 2/3rds participating each time.
  • Then, I'd focus on trying to make the assortment of characters alive and appealing, this could help the franchise widen its audience a little. Probably via an expanded version of GX's story mode, with a casual difficulty added for those who want to see characterization but not lose a thousand times to F-Zero's usual brutality.
  • Considering GX is lacking in actual vehicle balance I'm told, I'd try to fix this.
  • Then, I'd try distinguishing each vehicle a little more by the addition of 15-18 different "special traits", that go beyond mere parameter differences. Like "Energy Steal", which would replenish some Energy each time you damaged another racer with a spin attack. Each machine would get one trait, so most traits would have 3 users with a roster of 45.

...And I think that'd about do it! We need a good new sci-fi racer, sci-fi cool.

It'll never happen.

 

2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I said Wario Land. The first two games were some of my favorite platformers on Game Boy Color. The first one added some new spins to what Super Mario Land was doing, while the second altered things further, with branching storylines, variant forms based on getting attacked, and no more "lives" system. Crazy to think that Wario Land 2 predated Super Mario Odyssey doing away with lives by almost two decades! I've also been playing Wario Land 3 lately, which... some of the stuff it does feels like a natural expansion of 2, while other elements are moreso annoying and/or disappointing.

I will say I have enjoyed Wario Land myself. My entry point being 4, although I have played everything except the Virtual Boy entry.

I get what you're saying with WL3. Figuring out/remembering what levels to return to after you do something in a different one could get confusing. Though having levels affect each other was still a novel idea.

4 brings back health, yet retains a good variety of forms. Shake It! ditched forms practically altogether, yet remains what I felt to be a solid platformer, if not as Wario-distinctive as the others.

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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On 5/26/2022 at 9:59 AM, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I have to go with Star Fox. Zero could have been REALLY good if it didn't rely so heavily on an experimental, kinda gimmicky control scheme. I think deserves another shot.

The problem is that Star Fox Zero wasn't a Star Fox game ruined by Wii U gamepad gimmicks; it was a series of Wii U gamepad gimmicks turned into a Star Fox game. Nintendo would not have made a Star Fox game for the Wii U if they weren't absolutely desperate to justify that second screen.

Ironically, the best time for a new Star Fox game would've been the Wii era, as a rail shooter would've been a great demonstration of the Wii pointer. Other rail shooters like Sin & Punishment 2 are a good example of this: according to an Iwata Asks, when the dev team at Treasure handed the original version of the game to Nintendo, they expected to be told that the game was too hard (as Treasure are known for making insanely difficult games), only for Nintendo to tell them that the game was too easy, as the Wii remote proved far better suited for the game than Treasure anticipated, so Nintendo's playtesters made quick work of every level in the game. Iwata's reaction to this was hilarious: "Of all things, you told none other than Treasure to make it more difficult?"

Edited by vanguard333
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8 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

The problem is that Star Fox Zero wasn't a Star Fox game ruined by Wii U gamepad gimmicks; it was a series of Wii U gamepad gimmicks turned into a Star Fox game. Nintendo would not have made a Star Fox game for the Wii U if they weren't absolutely desperate to justify that second screen.

Ironically, the best time for a new Star Fox game would've been the Wii era, as a rail shooter would've been a great demonstration of the Wii pointer. Other rail shooters like Sin & Punishment 2 are a good example of this: according to an Iwata Asks, when the dev team at Treasure handed the original version of the game to Nintendo, they expected to be told that the game was too hard, only for Nintendo to tell them that the game was too easy, as the Wii remote proved far better suited for the game than Treasure anticipated, so Nintendo's playtesters made quick work of every level in the game. Iwata's reaction to this was hilarious: "Of all things, you told none other than Treasure to make it more difficult?"

I agree, and it's such a shame. I was really excited for Zero, but then when I got it and played it...yeah. I've been hoping for a new Star Fox game to come to Switch to redeem it, but, so far, nothing.

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6 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

I agree, and it's such a shame. I was really excited for Zero, but then when I got it and played it...yeah. I've been hoping for a new Star Fox game to come to Switch to redeem it, but, so far, nothing.

Yeah, it is a shame. I know very little about the Star Fox games (I haven't actually played any of them) but I know that it hasn't exactly been handled well by Nintendo.

A bad Nintendo game that flops tends to make a series disappear for a while (just look at the silence that followed Metroid Other M after it flopped), but I do hope you get a Switch Star Fox, and hopefully one that's actually a new game rather than another revisit of 64.

By the way, what did you think of that little story about Sin & Punishment 2?

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12 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

The problem is that Star Fox Zero wasn't a Star Fox game ruined by Wii U gamepad gimmicks; it was a series of Wii U gamepad gimmicks turned into a Star Fox game. Nintendo would not have made a Star Fox game for the Wii U if they weren't absolutely desperate to justify that second screen.

Ironically, the best time for a new Star Fox game would've been the Wii era, as a rail shooter would've been a great demonstration of the Wii pointer. Other rail shooters like Sin & Punishment 2 are a good example of this: according to an Iwata Asks, when the dev team at Treasure handed the original version of the game to Nintendo, they expected to be told that the game was too hard, only for Nintendo to tell them that the game was too easy, as the Wii remote proved far better suited for the game than Treasure anticipated, so Nintendo's playtesters made quick work of every level in the game. Iwata's reaction to this was hilarious: "Of all things, you told none other than Treasure to make it more difficult?"

Honestly, a new Star Fox in the vein of Assault would probably have been a good use of the pointer, but you know what I really want from Star Fox?

A new Star Fox Adventures. That is, a Star Fox game with significant on-foot gameplay in addition to vehicle sections. You could visit various cities on different planets, take on mercenary jobs from NPCs, acquire an arsenal of weapons, and also fight enemy ships in the Arwing, Landmaster, and other vehicles. And of course I'd want to bring Krystal back, preferably by reintroducing her in a capacity that makes more sense for the series and that allows her to take a more active role in most of the game's events. Like, if they still want to have a mission where you rescue her, I'm cool with that, but then maybe let her join Fox on his adventures afterwards, or set out to do her own thing and cross paths with Fox repeatedly.

I'd have loved SFA even more if we got to rescue Krystal early on and have her travel with Fox, watching their personalities bounce off one another and letting them save Dinosaur Planet together. Picture something like this:

The SharpClaw have captured Krystal with the intent to use her as a conduit for the Krazoa Spirits, only they need her staff as well which just so happens to have ended up in Fox's hands. Through the staff, Krystal is able to communicate with Fox and guide him to where she's being held captive, allowing him to free her and return her staff to her. She promises to reward Fox later for freeing her and sets out to save Dinosaur Planet, only for Fox to stop her and insist that he come along to make sure she makes good on her promise, not to mention ensure she doesn't get captured again. Krystal's a bit annoyed, but relents, marking the start of their new partnership.

During their adventure across Dinosaur Planet, the two vulpines butt heads now and then over their different priorities regarding the well being of Dinosaur Planet's inhabitants and Star Fox's payment, but also manage to bond over the fact they both lost something to Andross years ago (Fox's father James and Krystal's entire home planet, Cerinia), and come to see the validity of each others' viewpoints (Fox caring more about the dinosaurs' well being and Krystal accepting that Star Fox really needs the money), not to mention Fox starts to sympathize with Krystal a lot when he learns she's been alone for most of her life since losing her planet. The two also find each other highly attractive of course which leads to some cute or even funny moments where they become a bit (or a lot) more awkward around each other.

By the end of the story, a romance has blossomed between them, and Krystal promises Fox a bigger reward for helping her save Dinosaur Planet on top of rescuing her. She asks to join Star Fox at the same time Fox asks her to join Star Fox, causing yet another adorkable moment in which they answer "yes" at the same time as well.

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On 5/25/2022 at 5:38 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I said Wario Land. The first two games were some of my favorite platformers on Game Boy Color. The first one added some new spins to what Super Mario Land was doing, while the second altered things further, with branching storylines, variant forms based on getting attacked, and no more "lives" system. Crazy to think that Wario Land 2 predated Super Mario Odyssey doing away with lives by almost two decades! I've also been playing Wario Land 3 lately, which... some of the stuff it does feels like a natural expansion of 2, while other elements are moreso annoying and/or disappointing.

Still, I'd love to see Wario make a return to platforming. I know he's doing his own thing with Wario Ware, and I don't at all begrudge fans of that series. Still, a new platformer with an emphasis on coins and treasure, the various "Wario forms" with no lives, and branching storylines, would be really cool. Maybe throw in Waluigi as a 2-player partner, as well.

Same here, I also voted for Wario Land. Love the first 4, though I wasn't a big fan of Shake It!. My personal favorite would have to be Wario Land 2, mainly because of the branching paths, invincible Wario (hence the status effects in place of losing a life), and the forms themselves. Wario Land 3 certainly improves upon 2 in some ways (no loss of coins upon getting hit, various ways to beat levels through 4 different colored chests), but there's also some cons, too (the golf-minigame, the hunt for those music box pieces is rather lengthy). Even so, I still think Wario Land 3 was a great successor to Wario Land 2. If I could rank them, this is what it would look like (from worst to best): 5. Wario Land: Shake It! 4. Wario Land: SML3 3. Wario Land 4 2. Wario Land 3 1. Wario Land 2. I suppose I could include Wario World as well, but it feels more like its own thing rather than being apart of the Wario Land games. Though it would probably be between Wario Land: SML3 and Wario Land 4 if I would rank it. 

WarioWare's a solid series, but yeah, I'd love to see another Wario Land (or even World) title. I would (almost) kill to have Waluigi included as a 2nd Player option in a Wario game. It would be nice to have the poor guy appear in a game that's not a Mario spinoff or Smash Bros. for once. 

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9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

A bad Nintendo game that flops tends to make a series disappear for a while (just look at the silence that followed Metroid Other M after it flopped), but I do hope you get a Switch Star Fox, and hopefully one that's actually a new game rather than another revisit of 64.

By the way, what did you think of that little story about Sin & Punishment 2?

The funny thing about Other M is that it wasn't even a flop, as far as sales go. The sales were about average with the rest of the series, despite how divisive it is. Nintendo just never has any faith in that franchise, hopefully Dread's huge success changes that.

To be honest, I'm not particularly familiar with Treasure or Sin & Punishment, I can't really say I fully understand the difficulty of the series or why it was a point of note in Iwata Asks.

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1 hour ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

The funny thing about Other M is that it wasn't even a flop, as far as sales go. The sales were about average with the rest of the series, despite how divisive it is. Nintendo just never has any faith in that franchise, hopefully Dread's huge success changes that.

To be honest, I'm not particularly familiar with Treasure or Sin & Punishment, I can't really say I fully understand the difficulty of the series or why it was a point of note in Iwata Asks.

Ah; I didn't know that. Interesting.

I didn't know about those things either until I saw a video about motion controls that mentioned that Iwata Asks. Apparently, Treasure is a company known for making extremely difficult action games.

 

7 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Honestly, a new Star Fox in the vein of Assault would probably have been a good use of the pointer, but you know what I really want from Star Fox?

A new Star Fox Adventures

A new Star Fox Adventures game could be interesting; there's one main problem I can see that could prevent them making it: Microsoft.

Star Fox Adventures was the last game Rare made for Nintendo before Rare got bought by Microsoft; in fact, the purchase happened during the later stages of the game's development, contributing to its troubled production. I don't know who has the copyright for what when it comes to something like that; it could be that Nintendo has full control over everything that was in Star Fox Adventures, but it's possible that there might be something that they'd have to ask Microsoft for permission to use, and I doubt Nintendo would want to do that.

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6 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

A new Star Fox Adventures game could be interesting; there's one main problem I can see that could prevent them making it: Microsoft.

Star Fox Adventures was the last game Rare made for Nintendo before Rare got bought by Microsoft; in fact, the purchase happened during the later stages of the game's development, contributing to its troubled production. I don't know who has the copyright for what when it comes to something like that; it could be that Nintendo has full control over everything that was in Star Fox Adventures, but it's possible that there might be something that they'd have to ask Microsoft for permission to use, and I doubt Nintendo would want to do that.

Rare were the developers, but everything developed for SFA (and presumably, Dinosaur Planet before it) belongs to Nintendo, as far as I know. Granted, Rare retained the copyrights to their other original IPs, but once Dinosaur Planet became Star Fox Adventures, everything in it transferred over to Nintendo far as I know. Krystal certainly did.

At any rate, my idea is less of a retread of the original SFA and moreso a new game with a similar on foot style of gameplay.

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1 hour ago, Lord_Brand said:

Rare were the developers, but everything developed for SFA (and presumably, Dinosaur Planet before it) belongs to Nintendo, as far as I know. Granted, Rare retained the copyrights to their other original IPs, but once Dinosaur Planet became Star Fox Adventures, everything in it transferred over to Nintendo far as I know. Krystal certainly did.

At any rate, my idea is less of a retread of the original SFA and moreso a new game with a similar on foot style of gameplay.

I see. That makes sense. In that case, they could probably make a new Star Fox Adventures game. Star Fox definitely deserves a new game after all the ways Nintendo has mishandled it in recent years.

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Punch-Out!! is a better Nintendo franchise than Zelda, because unlike Zelda a majority of Punch-Out!! games are actually good. Part of me feels like Punch-Out!! on the Wii was as good as any such game could reasonably be, so the natural response is to make the best version of Super Punch-Out!! possible. It's mechanically different enough to the NES and Wii games to build something different, and there's certainly enough characters left to make a full game.

I never played F-Zero but I had a friend with 10,000 IQ who did and he described the series as "vibe powered". Such a revival would need to go fast, be cool, and look pretty, and then all would be set for another 20 years. This would greatly benefit from a release on PC, which is never going to happen. I call up @Saint Rubenio to assess this assessment.

Now, looking for a sixth alternative, the answer is easy. Joy Mecha Fight is an NES game about a pink robot comedian going through a fighting game version of Mega Man. Now that Mashed Potato Sack of Rice has achieved peak Smash Brothers, he really only has two options. Self-destruct the series with memes (overdone at this point), or try his hand at a real fighting game, which this would be perfect for. The main character is already round and pink, so it's right up his alley.

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I choose StarTropics as my highest choice in the list. That NES franchise deserved to be renewed to the modern Nintendo console like Kid Icarus had gotten. I also choose EarthBound and F-Zero franchise since they definitely deserved it as well.

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22 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I never played F-Zero but I had a friend with 10,000 IQ who did and he described the series as "vibe powered". Such a revival would need to go fast, be cool, and look pretty, and then all would be set for another 20 years. This would greatly benefit from a release on PC, which is never going to happen. I call up @Saint Rubenio to assess this assessment.

It would also need to have a banging soundtrack. Non negotiable. Whenever I get nostalgic for F-Zero, the music is always one of the first things that comes to mind for me.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would also prefer F-Zero. The thing I found with the little I play was that it didn't rely anywhere near as much on borderline cheating CPUs like recent Mario Kart entries are doing. If I screwed up in F-Zero, that was it. The difficulty came more in the tracks themselves - once I practiced, then I could actually win, unlike how luck-based higher difficulties in Mario Karo become. Unless if they change 100-50cc Grand Prix in Mario Kart to be a lot fairer and strategic (read: more basic items even in lower ranks for everyone as the added difficulty and force you to actually practice instead on relying on cheap items and ban item loss altogether) I'll have to say Mario Kart no longer has a good single-player mode. Keep the item-fest in multiplayer mode.

Finally, it would be nice to tie-in the story between the main series and FZ Advance that was set 25 years later. Tell me what happened between then and now. Did Captain Falcon retire, or did he pass away?

Edited by henrymidfields
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  • 4 weeks later...

Voted for Wario Land. It's cool that Good Feel enjoy success with their Yarn/Wool series but The Shake Dimension is still their best work, so I would love them to bring Wario Land back. 

Especially since the WarioWare games are getting kinda stale, there's not much more left you can squeeze out of the micro-game concept. Hell, even a Wario Land game in the WarioWare universe could work.    

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Hear, hear! I want Wario to return to his adventuring roots, the days when he'd brave islands full of pirates, magical music boxes, and cursed pyramids in the name of filling his coffers with gold.

Of course I'd also be up for Wario and Waluigi finally getting a game together, something akin to a platform brawler with a crime theme (as in, Wario and Waluigi beat up rival crime gangs and steal their cash). But that's really more of a new IP, albeit one conceptually related to Wario Land.

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10 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Of course I'd also be up for Wario and Waluigi finally getting a game together, something akin to a platform brawler with a crime theme (as in, Wario and Waluigi beat up rival crime gangs and steal their cash). But that's really more of a new IP, albeit one conceptually related to Wario Land.

Hm... what about a game where Wario and Waluigi come up with harebrained "get rich quick" schemes and try to fleece the Toad townsfolk, Ed, Edd, & Eddy style? With the goal of repossessing Wario's castle (and Waluigi's Tennis Court) from the dreaded Bank President Syrup. The gameplay could combine Adventure game fare (moving around town, talking to people, finding clues) with actually operating the business (each scheme would be like a "minigame", say, pressing the right buttons to pour amd distribute bootleg Chuckola-cola). And there could be fighting elements, when the town's Koopatrol officers try to bust them, or Don Pianta accuses them of stepping in on his turf! Also it's set in Rogueport and they're made of paper. Send help.

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