Do you think Nintendo has been stepping up with their games recently? We haven't gotten any huge franchises like 3D Mario (a side mission in a port doesn't count), Zelda, Smash, etc. to compare, but their usually less impressive games are looking leagues better recently. Kirby Forgotten land is way better than Star Allies. Mario Party Superstars is much better than Super Mario Party. Metroid Dread is way better than Samus returns. Pokemon Snap was great. Mario Strikers looks fantastic.
We'll have to see BotW 2 and Splatoon 3 to really know for sure but I feel like there's a definitive improvement occurring in Nintendo's software output lately. Maybe this is reflecting the increased investment they made lately in their games, or a shifting in design philosophy or something, but I'm liking it.
Ever since the sales record of BOTW first party titles have been getting a budget bump, I think it gave Nintendo more incentive to to go big or go home with certain IPs. I hope Star Fox is next to get the AAA bonus.
Connor Young
>Do you think Nintendo has been stepping up with their games recently Not really
I mean relative to others in the same franchise, of course. The fact that the next 3D Mario or Zelda isn't done yet has nothing to do with the current quality of their game design. Obviously I'm not trying to compare Kirby to 3D Zelda here, or Mario Strikers to Smash bros, nor 2D Zelda to 3D Zelda. Simply because of the timing, we are getting mostly smaller titles lately, but those smaller titles have all felt like a marked step up from their previous entrees, with maybe the one exception of Warioware which still seemed pretty low budget.
Carter Diaz
Kirby isn't first party. Hal is an independent studio, they just have an exceptionally friendly relationship with Nintendo. Of course, Kirby being co-owned by Nintendo helps too. But they're not technically any different from Game Freak. It's just that Hal actually has talent and passion, while Game Freak are incompetent.
Cooper Wood
No because their games are still 30fps.
Jacob Davis
This is just a flaw of the hardware, not the software. If you want to do 60fps on the switch you're gonna have to do dynamic resolution where you frequently drop below 720p, which simply isn't worth it.
Eli Johnson
>Do you think Nintendo has been stepping up with their games recently? It's less that they're stepping up and more that's they've finally recovered from Iwata and can make Yamauchi era games again.
Lucas Adams
Yeah I also hold the extremely controversial opinion that Iwata was holding back the company, by focusing too much on gimmicks and treating their consoles as toys. But I don't think most people agree with us.
Joshua Morgan
It's a wonder that people defend him. I mean, the first half of the wii era was the remnants of Yamauchi ideas and Miyamoto but when those ideas ran out and miyamoto stepped down everything started going to shit. The wii u was even worse since they had to rush out games to fill in the void left by third parties.
Ayden Jenkins
A lot of people just don't like Nintendo operating as a cold calculating business, and Iwata was definitely no businessman.
Justin Hughes
N64's lack of success and the failure of the Gamecube pushed them in that direction. Half the reason the Wii turned out the way it did was because they wanted to use the Gamecube hardware that they weren't able to sell. It was a purely pragmatic decision. But they couldn't just sell the Gamecube as is, and rebranding without changing anything was a huge no-no as well. That's why the Wii exists. The Wii is, for all intents and purposes, a powered up Gamecube with motion control.
The Wii U was an attempt to created an HD Wii with an added peripheral, but at this point they gave up on competing directly with Sony and Microsoft in terms of power. The gimmicks exist primarily to make up for the inferior hardware. Ultimately it didn't work out though, in no small part thanks to the shit advertisement campaigns. In regards to the Switch, again, that's really just symptomatic of Nintendo's refusal to compete in terms of power. If you can't match up to the Playstation and Xbox in terms of specs, you have to make up for it some other way. A lower price tag on its own ain't gonna cut it.
Make no mistake. Nintendo will NEVER compete in terms of power again. It's not profitable.
Jack Cook
As gimmicky as Iwata era Nintendo consoles are I still love them for it. The Wii, 3DS, and Wii U had fun little things built into the systems that you could do. Stuff like the Wii Channels, Miiverse, the 3DS AR games and Streetpass. Along with the UI's having a lot of care and thought put into them. The Switch although great, feels soulless and barebones in comparison
>The gimmicks exist primarily to make up for the inferior hardware Well no, not exactly. They realised that power had basically offered everything it could in gen 6, anything beyond that was just bells and whistles for graphics with very little benefit.
Oliver Peterson
I wouldn't say that. Power is still good for higher framerate. The Switch's framerate issues are well documented, it's part of the reason why its emulators are so successful.
Grayson Davis
>Power is still good for higher framerate That's the thing, high framerate don't necessarily need a lot of power. It's why the wii had more 60fps games than the ps3 and xbox. At the end of the day it's all about optimization.
James Martin
>new Kirby is 30 fps That's disappointing to hear. I miss the Wii U era where most of the first party line up was 60fps.
Ian Flores
>it's part of the reason why its emulators are so successful. The switch emulator is one of the slowest developing Nintendo emulators
Chase Richardson
It feels like a more refined version of arguably the worst era of Nintendo, being the early to mid 2010s. While some games may still come with their issues, they're at least improved versions of what came before. There's no NSMB2 (compared to everything in this list it's okay but its so whatever), no Mario Party 10 or Tennis Ultra Smash, no Sticker Star, no Federation Force. There have been efforts to make a better experience, offer something different that isn't emptily appealing to a crowd of casuals that doesnt even exist, though it still suffers the blemishes of modern day gaming & attempts to retain interest over time rather than give a complete game. Some games suffered from it more than others, from Mario Golf to Mario Party Superstars.
Mason Hall
>I miss the Wii U era where most of the first party line up was 60fps About that... Most were either 30 or had heavy drops.
Sebastian James
Personally, I think there's something rough going on at Nintendo. The BotW sequel is taking way too long for what it is. It might have run into some sort of rough patch. Thing is, though, first party Nintendo titles have sort of slowed to a crawl all over the place. Kirby's not first party.
Chase Parker
>Odyssey meh >Botw shit game >Xenoblade 2 good stuff >animal crossing new horizon boring compared to gamecube version >Metroid Dread good >fire emblem three houses fun, and has waifus >Mario Party Superstars at least they were smart enough to bring back Nintendo 64 maps and mini games when this series used to be good >legends arceus It was okay.
they're getting better.
Nathan Peterson
It feels like the FPS depends on the series, like Kirby and Zelda are 30 and Splatoon and Mario are at 60
Adam Nguyen
This. I regret buying a Switch and still haven't bought any games for it. Only thing I use it for is YouTube and Asphalt 9. Wii U/3DS was the last soulful generation, and I didn't expect them to be. Switch is a good system by conventional standards, but it's boring to me.
Gavin Powell
Why the hell did you buy it if there weren't any games you wanted for it?
Jacob Richardson
I thought I could hack it and play emulators on the go. I'm too retarded to get it working, though, plus I scratched my screen getting a screen protector on, so my enthusiasm for it went down even further.
Brandon Diaz
Well we're five years into the Switch's life and the coof killed Japan's game development productivity the hardest of all. Devs making games for other consoles just chose to go ahead and release their games across both current and next gen systems. However, internal Nintendo development is probably still deciding whether they want to push big games on the Switch, or wait for its successor in a couple of years. BotW2 will probably be another dual-gen title like the first and Twilight Princess.
Adam Jones
Most of these games where made by third parties and not nintendo themselves though. Also dread is overrated af but what Metroid ins't tbqh.
Luke Cook
Successor's probably not gonna happen any time soon. Releasing new game hardware in this current environment seems like a bad idea all around.
Dylan Allen
odyssey was 60 and splatoon 2 is 60, smash, mario kart, mario parties, yoshi is 60, links awakening... targets 60.
Jaxon Johnson
It still feels like they're struggling to adjust to HD development resulting in most of their games feeling unfinished.
Ryan Baker
HAL is technically 3rd party, but constantly works with Nintendo Mario Party is made by NDcube, a first party studio Dread was made by both MercurySteam and Nintendo collaborating I think you're 100% right about Snap, I think it's all Bamco Even before NLG was bought, they worked incredibly close with Nintendo
Logan Ward
>stepping up More like putting slightly more effort, then go back to the way they were. Rinse and repeat. They have mastered the system honestly
Colton Carter
Nintendo's struggle with HD development is something that most other devs who pursue it tend to ignore: how to do it as cheaply as possible without sacrificing quality too excessively. Despite being one of the market leaders, Nintendo doesn't really like throwing excessive amounts of cash at game development.
