Appealing To Western Audiences
And then, we come to the elephant in the room. We all know that the Western market is far larger than the Eastern market. How can Nintendo get the average Call of Duty player off an Xbox and onto the Wii U? Short answer, they can’t. Microsoft understands that audience better than anyone else and has got that market locked down. Besides, Call of Duty‘s sales have been in decline since Black Ops, so it wouldn’t make much sense to try to steal them away now. But I do think there are some things they can do to catch the eye of different Western gamers. Picture this: what if Firaxis made a Fire Emblem game? What if Ninja Theory made a Pandora’s Tower game? What if Bethesda or Obsidian or CD Project RED took a stab at one of Nintendo’s traditional JRPGs?
If only one of these were to happen, I really want Firaxis to handle a Fire Emblem. Fire Emblem isn’t all that different from Firaxis’s own XCOM: Enemy Unknown when you think about it. The only real mechanical difference is that in XCOM, you create your units rather than having them created by staff. I honestly don’t see how this could go wrong. Firaxis’s pedigree is well established in the strategy realm, what with Civilization and now XCOM. Remember, the new XCOM was originally going to be a $15 downloadable title to appease the fans, but ended up becoming a full retail release and one of the surprises of 2012.
Would a Fire Emblem from them be story-driven or tactics-driven? I’m excited with either prospect. Not that the Intelligent System games were bad, mind you. They’ve all been great games, but they’re a little predictable. Maybe it’s time for fresh eyes with a different perspective to handle the franchise.
Of course, when I say Ninja Theory should handle a Japanese game, some red flags might go off in some people’s heads. After all, look what they did to Dante in DmC: Devil May Cry. But actually, when all was said and done, Ninja Theory’s take on the franchise was actually pretty good. It wasn’t the Devil May Cry that we had grown to love, but despite being a project that seemed like it wanted to be a new IP from the beginning, the Devil May Cry brand may have added new ideas that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.
I guess what I’m saying is that Ninja Theory is a really good studio. Letting them take the reins on an admittedly niche action RPG might turn Pandora’s Tower into a God of War-level powerhouse. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? Ninja Theory makes a mediocre game, and the series stays largely niche and unknown.
These three are all Western RPG developers with amazing pedigrees, and, more importantly, marketable names. And they all seem to be willing to try new things. Why not take a couple of franchises due for revival and hand them to these guys? Or hire them to make new IPs? Or get other Western RPG developers to make exclusive games for the Wii U? I mean, what are Harebrained Schemes and InXile entertainment going to do after their respective Kickstarter projects are done? Might as well make Wii U games on Nintendo’s dime. It’s not like Nintendo doesn’t have enough dimes to go around.
And you know how successful Nintendo’s partnership with Rare was back in the day? Well, there’s now a five-man team made up of some of the former Rare greats. It’s called Flippin Pixels.
These guys want to do really risky things now. Nintendo, sign a contract with them, just like you did with Rare, and get their unique vision as a part of your console.
More Retro Revivals
There’s one other genre that I think needs to come back: the 2D platformer. Last generation, we made great strides to bring that genre back, and I think more could be done. After all, Nintendo is a master at 2D platformers. New Super Mario Bros. U and Yoshi’s Epic Yarn are good starts, but let’s dig a little deeper.
Now that the Epic Yarn style is in full force, I think it should be a yearly release. Hang on, not like Call of Duty. I just think that ever year, we should get an Epic Yarn game based around more of Nintendo’s too-cute characters. Pikachu’s Epic Yarn, anyone? Starfy, perhaps?
Plus, I think that Nintendo should license third-party characters due for a revival: Klonoa, Mega Man, Bubsy, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, etc.… Klonoa, Mega Man, and Bubsy all started out as 2D characters, and is there any reason that Crash and Spyro couldn’t work in 2D? Okay, they were Sony franchises back in the day, but Sony gave them up to Vivendi/Activision, which doesn’t seem to care about them at the moment. Why doesn’t Nintendo capitalize on third-party franchises that aren’t being used right now?
We also need to see more retro revivals of Nintendo franchises. This would fit well with Nintendo’s current business strategy: low to moderate investment for low to moderate returns. How difficult would it be for Nintendo to adapt the engine for NSMBU for any other release? Sure, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a great game, but why can’t we get another 2D game in HD? More Wario Land, too, please. How about a new 2D Legend of Zelda? Yeah, we know the next big 3D game isn’t coming for a while, and while Wind Waker HD is a good start, you could buy yourself even more time by getting the guys at Capcom who did the Oracle and Minish Cap games to do another 2D adventure. Chances are it would make even more money than the big 3D one you’ve got cooking, even if it sells fewer units.
The point here, Nintendo, is that we all love all your 2D games. As long as you continue to give us big 3D releases, 2D could lessen the agony of the wait time.
