If Prime 2 is as important to the game as I suspect it might be (I know nothing, just a fan who notices some stuff looks sorta similar in ways I can't place) then I'd place that as a sure bet. In fact, I'm expecting Prime 4 to launch in March, along with the Switch 2. I think it'll launch whatever day the system comes out, as the first game for a new initiative of games for older gamers.
I've thought about this. Why would Nintendo repeat the same exact strategy as the last system? For hardware, sure. Nintendo has the safest bet in the world. But they have a problem. A problem nobody wants to admit, because the Switch is doing so absolutely insanely well, and because the memories of the Wii U still linger. Nobody wants to say it, so I'm gonna be the guy.
They need new games. Not the usual new games either. They need SURPRISING games. And let me tell you something else: those games? They need to be something in a new franchise. A recognizable franchise. A franchise like Splatoon, but not for kids. A franchise like Fire Emblem, but not for teens. A franchise like Eternal Darkness, or Geist, but NEITHER ONE of those franchises. I do NOT want Nintendo to haul around another corpse. There is a firm reason Star Fox remains in the past: it doesn't resonate. It doesn't resonate because it doesn't grow with its audience. It wants a NEW audience. There is a difference , whether you want to admit it or not. Nintendo cannot chance this on any sort of old sh*t. If they continue to strategize on the same old stuff.,they will forever be known as the Zelda and Mario guys. What can they do? I have some ideas.
1) Zelda? Remake Twilight Princess. Properly this time too, make it the way they were going to make it look, because they finally can make that art style work, because they finally have the technology to do so. They have the tech now. This console is the GameCube 2 in all but name. There is ray tracing, the ability to run at 120 fps, the works. There is no reason Nintendo cannot make their own spin on a Souls like that doesn't rely on Zelda or Fire Emblem being dark and mysterious so people will buy it. But, until they do that, start and lay the groundwork with the last game they tried to make that fit that description, in my opinion.
2) They are in serious trouble if they cannot come up with new IP fast. Not 1 or 2. They need 5 at an absolute minimum, with an effort to grow those series as fast as they can through cheap spinoffs that appeal to the fans and new spins that bring in new fans. As a game dev myself, I fully intend to pitch them as many games as I can come up with until they tell me yes (because I need a job that pays me more than $22 an hour full time at a Hospital to work and find rent on Long Island, NY lmfao). They need to bring the same energy they are giving Mario to these new series. Which brings me to point number 3….
3) COOL. IT. WITH. MARIO.
I like Mario. He's a good guy. He doesn't have the sauce I crave though. To be clear, Mario has sauce. He resonates with such a large audience that he will forever be reinventing himself until he dies. And that's just it: he's going to die. Not because people don't like him, but because there will be so many existing Mario games that the man will have oversaturated himself. Gamers like games. They also like approachability. Mario has an approachability problem in that he has so many spinoffs and series that the way I see it, he has two audiences: people who buy Mario games, and everybody who doesn't get it yet. They may NEVER get it. And if Nintendo doesn't give them something else? They will be right back at the Wii. They absolutely cannot afford to fail in that manner again. The Wii was a software failure. The console should be studied forever as a novelty for its time, but a disaster for Nintendo's software output. They are only just now shedding the "for kids" stigma and even then, its among people who GET video games. For those that don't? They have Call of Duty, Forza or Gran Turismo or GTA V (because they like Cars), MAYBE Doom or a Souls game if they're into cool ass sh*t and don't get the fuss, and whatever open world game they're hearing about from a buddy. They will never be Nintendo fans, because Nintendo is REFUSING to give them something to chew on. They play to their strengths, which is cartoons. They make cartoons. Those are their games. They do not do realism, they do not do spooky and they do not do adults. They view adults as untapped markets, and for everyone else they get whatever cheap ports they can. We see how that plays out: why would you buy Doom on Switch if you have a Steam Deck? Why buy it if you have a PS5? A Series X? What about a Gamecube? AKA the last time Nintendo made games for us. For me.
I have been sitting, waiting, patiently, at every Direct. Ok that's not true. I am so impatient that there are definitely forum posts that count how much I can't stand Nintendo's offerings this gen. There are franchises. Franchise I liked: when I was a CHILD. They don't grow up with us. They abandon us when they feel like it gets too difficult. They are so thoroughly disinterested in the controversy, the think pieces about what a bold step this would be, about what NEW territory they're entering. This would be something new. Surprising. Exciting! There is NO scenario where Nintendo abandons the audiences they have right now. They make far too much money to quit that now, and they would be absolutely inept business people to suggest otherwise. What they aren't doing, and I have not seen a SOUL suggest it, is appealing to adults. To kids who don't give a f*ck about any of these existing series because they do not appeal to them. The COD Bros. The Ubisoft fiends. The Rockstar addicts. Which brings me to point number 4:
4) Make two new series to test the waters: a Souls-like with a new mascot protagonist who doesn't look ANYTHING like their existing offerings, but still feels familiar. Nintendo used to be absolute masters at character design. They're not anymore. The designs have been WAY too busy in ways I'm not a fan of. Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, it feels like the kind of thing a young adult or kid in high school would love. I'm not that. I'm 32, I enjoy Souls games, Doom, Call of Duty, GTA, Pikmin and Metroid. I'm burnt out on the latter, and there are PLENTY of games at this point, even for Pikmin (which I never thought I'd say, Pikmin 4 is so definitive a game that I actually think it's going to be a long time before we see the next one because they're gonna up the budget and scope). Prime 4? That's the finale to my investment. I'm going to LOVE IT. And it's going to make me wish they had something new that wasn't a bone throw because they know how cool I found Samus in Jr. High School. It's not the same anymore, nostalgia as a concept has been burnt through by every person who has tried to sell you something since Two Thousand & Twenty (hindsight is 2020 after all heheheheh).
I sound bitter. I sounded jaded. I am. I am so f*cking SICK of poorly performing remasters of PS3 games and PS4/PS5 workhorses that play great, if it's your first exposure. But why should THAT be something Nintendo is fine with? Why are they not treating grown men and women as a worthwhile audience to invest in. People in their 20s and early 30s love Nintendo. People in their 40s and 50s? They loved them back in the day or they never grew out of the console wars as a concept. Nintendo has forfeited an audience they are gonna need a full decade to cultivate because they didn't wanna put in the legwork during their most popular console. I don't care how many IP they needed to try, they only needed ONE game that was desigmed explicitly-for-adults-and-no-one-under-the-age-of-16-that-doesn't-really-like-how-tropey-and-loud-anime-even-Nintendo-Anime-can-get-these-days. They didn't do that. They tried making Bayonetta 3. It took five years and they don't even work with Platinum anymore other than that one series, because it's a safe brand to make games for. People know what Bayonetta is, and it's occasionally really really embarrassing and crass in a youthful way, and if people catch it out of context and they don't game like Nintendo kids and the grandparents and moms and dads who stuck around after the Wii do, they're gonna dismiss it as "not my thing", maybe even a little offensive to their tastes for very valid reasons. I don't enjoy Bayonetta these days, so that's one down. Next is the multiple series they pulled from the dead or tried to put a new spin on. Those games for me were Pokemon Legends, Smash Ultimate, Pikmin 4 and Metroid Anything. Smash was the nostalgia cycle, I'm kind of done with it other than parties where I will continue to use my "slam into the ground as Banjo until I hit something" technique. Pokemon was the "it actually did something new" that stuck with me. I have been hearing "Nintendo FINALLY listened to its fans" and this was the last time I really feel like this was a big deal. They don't FINALLY listen to their fans, they've BEEN doing it for a decade. It's not novel anymore that they have a AA empire of franchises that have been in rotation since the 80s and 90s and 00s. They need something new to resonate with a new audience or else the current audience, who is 100% in denial that Nintendo absolutely NEEDS to do this SOON, is going to give up on waiting for this company to grow up with them beyond their 20s.
I've tried having this discussion before. I've been shut down by kids and teens and young adults who love their favorite games ands they don't really want the Wii U 2 again, but to them that means Nintendo never ever altering their current strategy, which is to do everything besides make the final piece of the puzzle come to them. They do not have guys my age who don't follow this sh*t right now. They are still ignoring them because they're passing those men and women (and everybody in between) on to third parties who do not make their games the same way as Nintendo does. I include indies in this. The indie space is made up of people who work like Nintendo used to, and work how Nintendo used to AND appeal to all sorts of people, including people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond in ways that other games just don't. Nintendo may make really cool programming flexes, and fun platformers, party games, you name it. They do not make new experiences that only they could make. The indie scene proves this, in a way I've never seen anyone point out. They talk about how the indie scene is just like the good old days! It's not. It's better. Say what you will about Scott Cawthon, but if FNAF was snatched up by Nintendo as early as they could, they could have had their first success in the M rated space that was truely their franchise to cultivate and give resources to, to grow in ways not nearly as tacky as they ended up becoming to non-fans of the franchise. I know that thought never crossed their minds. I think it should have. The characters' designs have resonated with so many children and adults alike in a way I've never seen before. The fans have taken to Freddy Fazbear as a Mario for Adults, because they recognize him and he provides a context that feels more grown up than what I see on the Switch from the first party side.
So the wrap this sh*t up, because I have work in 6 hours and I wanna play Elden Ring first, if Nintendo wants to stay relevant, they are going to need to change their approach. Cultivate an audience of adults and capture their imaginations like Mario does for kids. If they can do that, i guarantee by the next console they will have a complete monopoly on the market in a way that would actually force Valve to compete again and make games. That is its own discussion, one that I'll have one day because it ties in with the rest of the industry waking up and seeing Nintendo as a competitor again. Interestingly, Nintendo doesn't seem to think they have competition. If Astro Bot fails, they'd be right. We do not want that and its effects on the game industry would be more disastrous than the layoffs the game devs of the world are dealing with rn. It's a hostage situation dependent on you liking the Playstation brand, because its appeal is that it looks like a Mario game kinda in an offputtingly charming kind of way, but its hook is still "wow look how many original ideas we used to fund! Sure was nice wasn't it? Anyway can't wait for God of War 3-II: Kratos f*cks off to Biblical Gods and Chills With Jesus so we can add some more callbacks for the next game". Astro is cute. I want him to succeed, but I don't want him to succeed if all he's gonna offer kids is the Playstation hardware and mascots to gawk at. They're not going to find this game appealing, because its hook is dependent on how much you actually know about it. They're the people Sony needs to court if they want to be competitive. LEGO Horizon is a good, new start that I actually think is genius brand synergy. Astro? He isn't going to cut it. Kids already have a free Astro game that they likely never played, they are probably not asking for it for Christmas if they want something else even slightly more. So that's where Sony is. If Nintendo can peel off the remaining people who just don't give a f*ck about the Playstation brand anymore, it'll wake Sony up juuuust enough that they will do something about it. Maybe even Microsoft will try a new strategy, they seem to think Nintendo is worthy competition if they want to make an Xbox handheld so they don't need to rely so much on Switch or Steam Deck for a portable Xbox.
I hope we're all on the same page. I'm ringing the alarm bell now so that hopefully Nintendo can prove me wrong. Until then, I have about 15 ideas for different games that could help them jump start this strategy and I fully intend to develop and pitch every single one until they finally agree to let me make them a cheap single A, Nintendo quality M-rated game. They need it. There's no way around it, or we'll have Metroid, Nintendo's T-rated offerings (which are for teens, whether you think they're just as mature as any M rated game on the market or not) and the corpses of old Gamecube IP to chew on. I don't want that future, anyone else?
