No future for F-Zero?

[ALK]

Seemingly the only people who don't think a new F-Zero game (or even a rehashed one) would be a good idea.....are Nintendo.

Strange.

Or seemingly Starfox, Metroid Waverace, Pilotwings........

There were new StarFox and Pilotwings games on 3DS not so long ago, and I'm 100% certain Metroid will show up at some point on Wii U.

People are probably concerned about Metroid as it has already been 4 years since Other M and pretty much nothing came out of the 25th Anniversary from Nintendo. I'm certain it will show up on Wii U or even 3DS, but I can understand the worry.

Probably waiting for enough time to pass that people forget about Other M's flaws.... XD

[kiwimike]

Seemingly the only people who don't think a new F-Zero game (or even a rehashed one) would be a good idea.....are Nintendo.

Strange.

Or seemingly Starfox, Metroid Waverace, Pilotwings........

Totally agree, I'd love to see em on 3DS, and frankly Wii U needs all the AAA title help it can get

[kiwimike]

Seemingly the only people who don't think a new F-Zero game (or even a rehashed one) would be a good idea.....are Nintendo.

Strange.

Or seemingly Starfox, Metroid Waverace, Pilotwings........

That is odd, they are all great franchises that could do with a re-boot and I think could do really well. Maybe they are concentrating on the core Mario/ Zelda franchises a little too much?

I was so disappointed with their E3 effort, and thinking exactly that. I still have hope they may be surprising us later in the year, God I hope so. They need some announcements before the PS4/XB1 launch IMO

[Matt_B]

I think people have completely unrealistic expectations from Nintendo here. They might have made a lot of good games over the years, but it's not like they're capable of churning out AAA titles at the drop of a hat. Realistically, they can put out about a dozen major games a year from their in-house studios and subsidiaries, and that's barely enough to keep games in their successful franchises coming out at something like regular intervals. They simply don't have the development resources to be resurrecting ones that died a commercial death a decade ago; at least not on a regular basis.

What you saw at E3 is pretty much all we'll get for the rest of the year from them. And probably most of what we'll get next year too.

[pratty]

I think people have completely unrealistic expectations from Nintendo here. They might have made a lot of good games over the years, but it's not like they're capable of churning out AAA titles at the drop of a hat. Realistically, they can put out about a dozen major games a year from their in-house studios and subsidiaries, and that's barely enough to keep games in their successful franchises coming out at a regular basis. They simply don't have the development resources to be resurrecting ones that died a commercial death a decade ago; at least not on a regular basis.

What you saw at E3 is pretty much all we'll get for the rest of the year from them. And probably most of what we'll get next year too.

I agree. There's only so much they can do and while they do make a lot of games, the really good ones take time, and of course their efforts are split across two platforms.

Plus they made loses recently so will want to steady the ship with proven successes before they take a few leaps of faith on less commercially bankable franchises. People have to realise that a jet ski game like Waverace isn't exactly going to set the market alight no matter how good it is.

I think we will likely see a new Metroid at some point, but both the 3Ds and Wii-U have potentially 5-6 more years of lifespan left so what's the rush? But everybody expects all these epic AAA titles right now.

I think if Miamoto had just finished a new F-Zero game instead of Pikmin 3, people would probably be saying "That's all well and good, but where's Pikmin?" Same goes for Mario Kart and Smash Bros if Metroid and Starfox were made at their expense. I bet even if Nintendo brought out all those above franchises, plus a new 1080, Wave Race, Punch Out, Kid icarus, Mario Party, Zelda, Wario etc all by the end of the year, people would still be moaning about no new IPs.

The (albeit reserved) backlash against Mario 3D World is a bit disappointing. I think it will be excellent. People have critiscised 3D World for being too similar to 3D Land, but wouldn't Mario Galaxy 3 (which a lot of people wanted) be too similar to the previous Galaxy games? I'd be happy with either personally.

Besides 3D World is the first of it's kind on the Wii-U, not eveyone will have played 3D Land on the 3DS. It will be a shame if Mario 3D World is marked down by reviewers for being what it isn't rather than what it is.

[Antiriad2097]

F-Zero would be a good alternative to Mario Kart, requiring many of the same talents from the coders and designers, since its all in the track design and weapons. We didn't get an F-Zero on Wii, so it'd be a good time for it to resurface. I've had my fill of Mario Kart across Wii & DS in recent years.

[Matt_B]

F-Zero would be a good alternative to Mario Kart, requiring many of the same talents from the coders and designers, since its all in the track design and weapons. We didn't get an F-Zero on Wii, so it'd be a good time for it to resurface. I've had my fill of Mario Kart across Wii & DS in recent years.

Although I'm sure the team that makes Mario Kart probably could make a decent F-Zero, don't you think it'd be utterly nonsensical to abandon what's been their strongest franchise of recent years at a time when the Wii U really needs solid hits? It's like expecting Activision to put CoD on hiatus for three years and go back to making Pitfall games. No matter how much you might want it to happen, it's just not going to.

If F-Zero is to make a comeback, it'd most likely need to be made by a third party studio under their direction.

[Antiriad2097]

Nonsensical to market another game at the same demographic, so they buy 2 Nintendo racing games instead of just one? No, not really.

Marketed well, the similarities would be obvious.

[Fightersmegamix]

I don't see why they couldn't just let SEGA make another one under a bit of supervision. Concentrating on games that sell in big numbers is short sighted, as a first party company nintendo's priority is to sell consoles. Games that might not sell in big numbers might persuade more people to buy a wii u, where as another platformer will sell well but is pandering to your already small customer base.

[Joey]

I think people have completely unrealistic expectations from Nintendo here.

Sorry mate I just dont agree. If an F-Zero/StarFox console game had come out in the last few years and massively flopped then you'd be onto something.

However... 10 years and 2 consoles on (in the case of F-Zero) and 15 years and 3 consoles on (in the case of Star Fox) I don't think at all anyone can say its unrealistic to expect that now is the time, more than any, to have a good crack at this IP, break the cycle and take a f-ing chance!

[Matt_B]

Nonsensical to market another game at the same demographic, so they buy 2 Nintendo racing games instead of just one? No, not really.

Marketed well, the similarities would be obvious.

Except that, as I pointed out, they don't have the resources to make both games. It takes 2-3 years to make a Mario Kart game and if they leave it that long until the next one, the Wii U will probably have already bombed terminally. For many of the people who want it, having to wait until next year is bad enough.

[Matt_B]

I think people have completely unrealistic expectations from Nintendo here.

Sorry mate I just dont agree. If an F-Zero/StarFox console game had come out in the last few years and massively flopped then you'd be onto something.

However... 10 years and 2 consoles on (in the case of F-Zero) and 15 years and 3 consoles on (in the case of Star Fox) I don't think at all anyone can say its unrealistic to expect that now is the time, more than any, to have a good crack at this IP, break the cycle and take a f-ing chance!

I can forgive you for missing it, but a Star Fox game did come out for the 3DS a couple of years back and sold a whopping 720,000 copies. OK, it was a re-make of an older game, but even so those numbers aren't exactly encouraging, are they? at least not compared to the multi-million figures of Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing and the like. And there were two Cube and a DS game in the past decade too, none of which sold that well either; it's perhaps not quite so moribund as F-Zero, but it's not like Nintendo are letting a golden opportunity for a follow-up hit passing them by here.

Anyway, if you want to be truly realistic about this, I'd like you to suggest which of Nintendo's currently successful franchises they should be sticking on the back burner to make a sequel to either game instead of. And before you suggest things like Nintendogs and Wii Fit, stop to consider how much better they've sold than any F-Zero or Star Fox games.

[r0jaws]

I don't know, if they are selling the game at £20 a go 720'000 games is still £14'400'000 in revenue (unless I have ballsed up my maths here). I would have thought that was a worthwhile return, but I don't really know the production costs involved.

[ALK]

The more I think about the last GBA game's title, the more I think it really was meant to be final (It was called F Zero Climax after all, and unreleased outside of Japan....).

[Matt_B]

I don't know, if they are selling the game at £20 a go 720'000 games is still £14'400'000 in revenue (unless I have ballsed up my maths here). I would have thought that was a worthwhile return, but I don't really know the production costs involved.

I'd think that it possibly turned a small profit. However, Nintendo would have still lost out significantly in terms of opportunity cost, as the studio involved could possibly have worked on a game in a much more popular franchise, so to that extent I doubt they're regarding it as a success.

Still, you never know with Nintendo, as they've never really given the impression that the bean counters are running the show entirely, and they always seem to produce a couple of games a year that seemingly defy all commercial considerations. It's just that you may have a very long wait before one of those coincides with Star Fox or F-Zero, that's all.