Well I was reflecting on my last article about Nintendo being out of touch and how I wish that they would take more gambles on games. And then started thinking about the possibilities of their current back catalogue of franchises and what they could do with them on HD and with a bit more focus on Multiplayer. While there are numerous games I’d like to see from them here are just a few that I’d love to see brought up to date.
F-Zero GXU
F Zero GX on the Gamecube was one of the consoles shining moments. The frantic fast paced races with 30 racers on screen were such incredible fun. Not only was it fun, it really looked stunning. There were no shortages on the visuals department. The environments and tracks were just amazing and the sense of speed was so very real on the game.
Now Nintendo have finally embraced the HD Generation, Can you imagine what this game could look like on the Wii U. We’ve already seen that the console can produce some stunning visuals as evident in Super Mario 3D Word. It could very much be one of the Wii U’s ‘Show Off’ titles in terms of comparing it’s visuals to its competitors. Well here’s the next catch, I think you’ll like it… 2 words. Online Mode!
I know right your minds are all blown! Imagine the mayhem of 15-30 people smashing into each other, reaching unimaginable speeds, through some of the most visually stunning race tracks to ever embrace your television. That’s the possibility, that’s the dream. Nintendo’s online infrastructure would have to make a significant improvement to make this dream a reality, but damn would it be amazing. Leader boards could be updated; you could boast you’re the fastest racer not from Mute City well until someone else comes and tops your fastest lap. Customise your racer as you wish (WITHOUT MICROTRANSACTIONS PLEASE!) from colours to the design of the rig. As for the single player, well more of the same from GX please. Maybe a career mode where you start from the bottom with a beat up racer and improve over time under the mentorship of Captain Falcon? Or you know you could be Captain Falcon progressing through his career?
The Wii Pad could be used as the HUD with the player’s position switching frequently on the pad and a display of the map showing your position in terms of where you are on the course and where your competitors are. Don’t have motion control to steer, use the thumb stick (personal preference). The display on the TV could display HUD if you wished, but I’d think it better to just be complete frantic racing with all the minor details displayed on the pad.
Metroid U
I know Metroid franchise has featured more than most Nintendo franchises in the past 2 generations, and we were lucky enough to play as Samus on the Wii, but that shouldn’t put Nintendo off bringing Samus to full HD Glory. It doesn’t have to carry on with the Prime name, perhaps a new arc can be created for this iteration. This game should primarily be focused on a truly epic and engaging solo player campaign. Something that would attract people to buying the console. Metroid traditionally is one of the more mature titles that Nintendo develop; well seeing as they have the power of HD, why not ramp up the maturity of the game a little more. Make some truly terrifying enemies. I’m not saying make the game as scary as Dead Space, but they could certainly focus on vamping them up visually and creating an atmosphere on being alone in Space which Prime franchise often achieved.
Now I’ll say 2 words again… Online Mode.
Yup there it is again, while you can make the single player campaign engaging and deep, include a multiplayer mode akin to other first person shooters that we see in the games market. You don’t play as Samus but another rookie bounty hunter. Then borrow some of the elements from Call of Duty in terms of levelling up and unlocking weapons. Your arm cannon can be upgraded to include a flame thrower, one of the abilities you could unlock is to cloak for 20 seconds. Have modes like team death match, all vs all, again keep stats of your K/D ratio. I know this is a pipe dream, but as a Nintendo fan I’d buy it in a heart-beat, and it could again be another attractive title to people contemplating to purchase the Wii U.
As prime worked so well with the HUD on the TV, leave that as it is. Use the Wii Pad to display the 3d map that was present in the Prime series. With regards to the multiplayer, use the pad to display your position in the ranks of each match type, are you top of the table with most kills, or mid table mediocrity.?
Star Fox Universe
Yup… I say reserve the Universe name for Star Fox rather than Mario. And rightly so as with this title you’ll be flying around the universe in the solo campaign akin to the previous SNES & N64 games. Once again I need to mention that Wii U is HD! Can you imagine the dog fights in space with the power of Wii U? We’ve seen in Mario Galaxy just how amazing Nintendo can be at creating well err galaxies, so the prospect of seeing them in HD with 4 Arwings battling out in the solo player campaign would be awesome. You could potentially have a co-op campaign option via Online Mode.
And speaking of online (yup online mode again) well its self-explanatory really isn’t it? 15 people in space battles participating in dog fights to be ruler of the universe. Well not ruler, but you get it. Again the option to customise your Arwing, choose your online character. Perhaps your Mii? Matter of fact perhaps your Mii should be the online character in all the games mentioned so far, your Mii could end up being the best racer, bounty hunter and flight navigator on the Nintendo Network?
As for Wii Pad functionality again a simple map on the screen, option to zoom in and out of the universe on it to see your progress to the final destination of the solo campaign. Damage meter along the top or bottom and maybe a few trivial stats some people may interested in such as hit accuracy percentage, or if your friends have the game it gives you a target to hit to beat them like AutoLog in recent Need For Speed games. Game modes such as attack the base / defend the base where if you successfully destroy opponent’s base you win, or if they defend it they win. Of course standard all on all battle mode and heck why not chuck in a race mode where you’re racing and can be as violent as you wish in the race. Any way to win is allowed.
I know the age old argument is that Nintendo are often scalded for being too reliant on their back catalogue to save them, and I appreciate people may groan that new IP’s should be introduced rather than another rehash. But this method seems to work for other companies such as Activision, EA, Sega and they don’t get ridiculed half as much as Nintendo do, and for some reason for all number of people that do complain about Call of Duty… well it still somehow sells by the truck load yearly. So I say let Nintendo do as they wish with their franchises. The fact we haven’t seen an F Zero or Starfox for Console (not handhelds) since the Gamecube is a large enough gap to wait.
While I could of added Pokemon Wii U in the vein of the traditional RPG series to the list, and could speculate as to just how earth shatteringly amazing it would be, its one game that I don’t think we’ll ever be fortunate enough to see Nintendo develop. While aspects like trading and battling would be rather epic and convenient on console I believe it a franchise where Nintendo will want to keep the main series games to handheld.
There are other franchises that could be looked at, but other than Zelda, Mario & Pokemon I believe the 3 listed are the other A tier Nintendo franchises that they must be contemplating a Wii U version of. But boy would I like to see a Golden Sun Camelot developed RPG on Wii U 😉
– Murr
To be honest, I’d rather see Nintendo focus on something new and original. The fact they keep having to rely on decades old franchises is a worry to me.
Did you ever play Metroid multiplayer on the DS? Didn’t suit the universe at all. Metroid, to me, should be an epic single player experience. I don’t think it needs multiplayer.