Is Nintendo recycling their ideas too much?

[Oly J]

I wouldn't say so no, ok Mario sometimes seems a little lacking on the new ideas front recently but there is a very fine line between recycling ideas and following a formula, example:

I love the Zelda series, it's my favorite Nintendo franchise, yes essentially the goal in each game is the same and the player character is always a mute elf dressed like Peter Pan, and somewhere along the way Zelda will appear but be of little to no use throughout the story, there'll be a few dungeons and boss fights and probably an annoying sidekick or two, that's true of every game, but I wouldn't say they're recycling the ideas, that's the entire point of a series, they're supposed to be similair to previous games, for me it's all about presentation, just sighting Zelda as an example I'd be happy to stick to the same basic quest each time as long as it's presented in a new and interesting way,

 

[Lazy]

They've made a few too many Mario games of late. I'm not going to suggest they kill off the franchise or anything, as that's obviously not going to happen, but at least give the guy a rest for a little while.

How about making some new (preferably good) Metroid games instead?

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Their ideas are fresh and new compared to few other big name companies.

 

[Woodsey]

I feel that recently Nintendo's entire business model has been reusing their old IPs and preying on their fans nostalgia.

Heh, "recently". But yes, they're built on it. And they get away with it because they meddled with you all as kids!

 

[jollybarracuda]

I'd say they mix up their formulas enough to justify them coming out with new iterations of old franchises. Mario Galaxy was great and Skyward Sword i've yet to play, but it did at least implement its apparently pretty fun motion control combat. However, Nintendo then releases New Super Mario Bros. for the millionth time and thats when the problems occur. But in general i'd say they innovate just enough to get away with it; though they do walk a very fine line.

 

[TJC]

New IP =/= innovation. Conversely, old IP =/= not innovative. I'm kind of tired of people saying that game series aren't innovative because they're based on an old IP. Just because they are taking characters and settings that have been around for a long time doesn't mean they're not innovative in mechanics. It's not just Nintendo, it applies to other old series too. The reverse is true as well. There's plenty of new IPs popping up that don't innovate. They may invent new characters and a new world, but they're often just trying to imitate the formula of so many other games before it.

Pretty much this.
Why abandon well-established, liked characters when there is a huge lore to discover and novel gameplay mechanics to experiment with? Would you people be happier if Skyward Sword was called The Myth of Adlez and took place in Eluryh? Of course not because everyone would see through this paperthin bullshit. Personally, I'm completely fine that they have a franchise for each genre they want to dabble in.

Seriously, Nintendo does try to shake up things once in a while and the only thing I really do blame them for is the whole New Super Mario Bros abomination (and Super Mario 3D land) where New needs to have a massive asterisk which explains that new actually means ANCIENT!

In regards to Nintendo Land... I think that's a pretty damn smart game. It's a casual game that introduces core IPs to casual players. Somewhere down the road at least some casual or very new gamers will walk down the isle, see a new game of a certain franchise and think "oh yea, I remember that one from Nintendo Land, let's give it a try." plus the mini-games do look like a LOT of fun so I don't see anything wrong with the game.

 

[McMarbles]

I feel that recently Nintendo's entire business model has been reusing their old IPs and preying on their fans nostalgia.

If you think back to 2006, the Wii launched with Wii Sports, setting the tone of innovation for the console. But the Wii U is launching with Nintendoland, a collection of mini-games based on games created in the 80s. Is this setting the tone of uninspired remakes?

The big N has been releasing a lot of remakes or rehashes of old games lately and I feel they're stagnating rather quickly. In a period of gaming where everything is moving forward rapidly, I'm afraid they'll be left in the dust (Or maybe they already have been). What do you think?

Nobody has EVER made this observation before.

You're the first.

 

[RandV80]

Considering that Mario, Metroid, and Zelda have been milked successfully for ~ 25 years now and people want EVEN MORE of them I'd say that they aren't being recycled enough.

What many often overlook, especially those that don't like Nintendo, is that a segment of the gaming population keep wanting EVEN MORE is because there isn't a lot else like it available. While other AAA titles for Sony/Microsoft may be fresher IP's that are no more than 10 years old, if you like one there's usually a dozen different titles that offer a similar experience to choose from. So how many other shooters are out there that are comparable to Metroid Prime? When you have to wait several years between installments, compared to most other popular games that have something similar come out every month or two, who cares if the games coming from the same 25 year old franchise?

This applies more to Metroid and Zelda than it does Mario.

 

[distortedreality]

I feel that recently Nintendo's entire business model has been reusing their old IPs and preying on their fans nostalgia.

If you think back to 2006, the Wii launched with Wii Sports, setting the tone of innovation for the console. But the Wii U is launching with Nintendoland, a collection of mini-games based on games created in the 80s. Is this setting the tone of uninspired remakes?

The big N has been releasing a lot of remakes or rehashes of old games lately and I feel they're stagnating rather quickly. In a period of gaming where everything is moving forward rapidly, I'm afraid they'll be left in the dust (Or maybe they already have been). What do you think?

Nobody has EVER made this observation before.

You're the first.

I chuckled.

A little.


....ok, I really didn't at all.

But I did smile.

 

[DarthSka]

Well, they certainly use many of their IP's over and over, but I don't think it's always recycling. They tend include new mechanics/graphical style/style of play etc. And in the end, I have always found that Nintendo games are the games that I have the most fun with, so I'm good with regardless.

 

[144_v1legacy]

Nintendo does do a lot of recycling and rehashing, but if people keep eating it up, more power to them. And Nintendo is good at it too, so I don't even mind. Keep churning out awesome Pokemon games that aren't vastly different from previous entries and I promise I will keep buying them. And most of the Mario games have been really fun, even if it's a lot of the same over and over again.

Specifically, if you've played SMB3, it's startlingly similar to NSMW (which was kind of the point, it was in their demo and speeches and everything).

I wouldn't say that there's more similarity between iterations in the NSM series than in any other well-known franchise. It's a bit stagnant, but only for 1 or 2 iterations and it's not getting worse. I don't think that constitutes bitching and moaning.

And Yahtzee's recent motivation is looking for boundary-pushing, among other things, so don't use him as a reference.

You may have quoted the wrong person.

Shit. I did.

Oh well, I think you know who I meant.