Nintendo Franchises That Lack a Coherent Vision

[A Link In Time]

I was watching some videos about Star Fox recently, and it's pretty clear that Nintendo doesn't know what to do with the franchise.

Star Fox 64 built on the original by adding all range mode and new vehicles, Star Fox Adventures was originally supposed to be a brand new action adventure IP that got turned into Star Fox, Star Fox Assault added on foot segments that broke the pace of the game due to their tank controls, and Star Fox Command as well as Zero were used to show off new control schemes for the DS and Wii U, respectively.

It feels like Nintendo doesn't know what to do with the franchise since the success of Star Fox 64.

I'm wondering what other franchises you'd argue are all over the place in terms of trying to find what sticks and being haphazard about it instead of gradually improving over time.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Star Fox Assault was straight up the natural direction to go following 64, literally just the controls needed to be refined and have a few more levels and you have a good formula for Star Fox to keep going in, yet they just...stopped

Nintendo's handling of the series is so weird, the formula is right THERE in Assault, keep moving the story forward, take a page from other TPS games and retrofit that for Star Fox, have chaotic online battles, actually PROGRESS the series instead of thinking it needed another reboot

 

[Daku Rinku]

Starfox should have focused on the Top Gun like bonds between pilots and flushed out Andross' Empire. Basically, I hate to say, Bowser, Andross, and Ganon have pretty much the same motives and similarities even. Ganon is a little more unique when they made him Gerudo, but its essentially Nintendo's safe big bad model. We needed Andross to be the Mad Scientist he really is and not a floating head and gauntlets.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Starfox should have focused on the Top Gun like bonds between pilots and flushed out Andross' Empire. Basically, I hate to say, Bowser, Andross, and Ganon have pretty much the same motives and similarities even. Ganon is a little more unique when they made him Gerudo, but its essentially Nintendo's safe big bad model. We needed Andross to be the Mad Scientist he really is and not a floating head and gauntlets.

this is another point to Assault b/c it showed that we didn't need Andross, in fact the Aparoids were objectively a bigger threat than Andross

 

[Daku Rinku]

this is another point to Assault b/c it showed that we didn't need Andross, in fact the Aparoids were objectively a bigger threat than Andross

Yeah Assault had a pretty epic threat, reminded me of The Borg from Star Trek.

I agree we need other villains. I was dissapointed that at the end of Star Fox Adventures it was Andross and not General Scales. There was all this build up for your showdown with him to save Krystal and then sudden switcharoo with Andross.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I don't really understand Nintendo's inability to understand Star Fox. It feels like a franchise that they deliberately a hamper so that they can justify not releasing another game. Internally I'm sure that Star Fox Zero is used as financial justification for why a new Star Fox game is a bad idea. Feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Heck, it's a franchise with a pretty simple core premise: big space battles and big land battles being fought beneath them. If someone at Nintendo doesn't understand the appeal of such a thing then maybe they shouldn't be working there.

 

[Dizzi]

also the baby dino bit random for starfox surely hed have computer assistant???

 

[Daku Rinku]

I don't really understand Nintendo's lack of understanding what Star Fox. It feels like a franchise that they deliberately a hamper so that they can justify not releasing another game. Internally I'm sure that Star Fox Zero is used as financial justification for why a new Star Fox game is a bad idea. Feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Heck, it's a franchise with a pretty simple core premise: big space battles and big land battles being fought beneath them. If someone at Nintendo doesn't understand the appeal of such a thing then maybe they shouldn't be working there.

I think the problem is the target audience for such a game back in N64 Days did not have a lot of other options than Starfox. Then came Microsoft and Sony who can do space battles in a more realistic way.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I don't really understand Nintendo's lack of understanding what Star Fox. It feels like a franchise that they deliberately a hamper so that they can justify not releasing another game. Internally I'm sure that Star Fox Zero is used as financial justification for why a new Star Fox game is a bad idea. Feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Heck, it's a franchise with a pretty simple core premise: big space battles and big land battles being fought beneath them. If someone at Nintendo doesn't understand the appeal of such a thing then maybe they shouldn't be working there.

might be the same person that doesn't understand the appeal of F-Zero, a series that's never had an HD installment despite having a completely unique appeal that no other Nintendo series matches, and has even had devs saying "yeah I'm down to make a new game for it"

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

I think the problem is the target audience for such a game back in N64 Days did not have a lot of other options than Starfox. Then came Microsoft and Sony who can do space battles in a more realistic way.

I could see that, but there's absolutely a desire for another Star Fox game. The space combat and space flight genre remains a steadfast one. The only real thing hampering Star Fox in my mind is Nintendo's inability to produce a new game in the franchise without tying it to some garbage control gimmick.

 

[Daku Rinku]

I could see that, but there's absolutely a desire for another Star Fox game. The space combat and space flight genre remains a steadfast one. The only real thing hampering Star Fox in my mind is Nintendo's inability to produce a new game in the franchise without tying it to some garbage control gimmick.

For me its the characters. I absolutely love Fox McCloud, Slippey, and Peppy and my all time favorite is Wolf O'Donnell, the head of Star Wolf. They need to invest in the stories of the characters, like maybe Wolf is the cause of Fox's pain, like his father dying.

 

[Riven]

Dragon Age. After the first game, Bioware never made a real sequel. All of them feel like spinoffs. There's no cohesive vision like there was with Mass Effect.

 

[Commander_Has]

Mario is the most classic game, and has no general story.

 

[Daku Rinku]

Mario is the most classic game, and has no general story.

True, its why I prefer the spin off Paper Mario. It had more a story.

 

[Riven]

Mario is the most classic game, and has no general story.

The story is to save princess Peach.