Great article, I've thought the same!  However, I hope the NES ambassador games don't hint at the future.  (At least those from the black-box early NES variety)

Seeing all these titles in one group (again) really reminds one of the superlative level that Nintendo achieved with their GBA titles. But I don't think the selection was any more deliberate than picking the highlights of their published library and placating fans. What I do expect is that Nintendo will milk their franchies dry with the Wii U generation in a combination Hail Mary and tribute to save or honor (they'll project the former but know - deep inside - it's about the later) a dying model of game development and distribution. This explosive transformation will also be the grand, and parting, salute to their icon, Miyamoto.

On the Metroid Series if they did go downloadable I really wish they do something with the Bounty Hunter side of Samus.  Lets face it for most of the series she really is more of a gun for hire lone wolf.  I think a series of losely interconnected bounty game for Metroid would be interesting.  Especially if the back tracking Full fans love could cross episodes.

Think about it like this, You buy Episode 1 you notice some areas you can't get to, note for designer you may also not know how they get through it while making episode 1, you buy Episode 2 it not only introduces a new area/mission/etc explicitily but it adds content to Episode 1.  Preferable progressing the area and allowing you to stretch you new abilities.  Int typical Metroid fashion it won't tell you about it.  You have to go back and find it for yourself.

Please, no. I hate the whole idea of episodic games. When I buy a game, I expect to get a whole game. It's like buying a movie and finding out you only get the first 1/4 of it and you have to keep buying to get the whole movie.

I would want to make something that felt more like a good American TV Episode.  Where it could stand on its own if all the other episodes didn't exist, but you could get more out of it from the existance of the other episodes.

That is something I would be OK with. Each entry is stand alone and you don't feel like you are missing anything.

Great article Neal! I am personally one of the 2D Metroid Loving fanatics out there who would be enthralled by a new entry into the series. As said before Other M really wasn't what I was hoping for, even though its structure was similar to Fusion - a game I love - it just didn't do it for me. I think that Nintendo would do well to release a downloadable Metroid title, or even a more fully fledged 2.5D sidescroller that takes advantage of  the 3D in the same way that something like Mutant Mudds did (having multiple layers etc...)

It's been almost nine years since F-Zero GX

Come on Nintendo. Don't let me down again this year.

I don't think there will ever come a time when I am satisfied with the amount of 2D Metroid games. I'll always want more, and I'll buy them in whatever form Nintendo decides to sell them to me.

I definitely agree with this sentiment. Also, Mario.

I dunno. Retro handling Zelda, especially this soon after Skywad Sword, just seems so unlikely to me. However, with the Zelda tech demo last year beign a massive tease for an HD Zelda offering, Nintendo better get on getting an HD Zelda out there soon. Because that demo looked GLORIOUS.

Well if Nintendo's getting out another Zelda game anytime soon it most likely has to come from outside the usual Zelda team, since they were busy up until 6-8 months ago with Skyward Sword, meaning their next game realistically wouldn't be out until at least 2014. Looking outside that team, we'd be talking another EAD team, which seems unlikely, Intelligent Systems, which doesn't really have the experience for this kind of game, or Retro, unless they were going outside Nintendo or creating a new team specifically for it. Of those options, I think Retro makes the most sense. I'd personally rather see them do something else, but I can see the argument.

Miyamoto (I think, maybe it was Aonuma) also said that the next Zelda game will not take as long as the last one to come out (5 years after the previous Zelda). So it makes sense that the next one would be in development already.

Retro hasn't really done anything publicaly since developing the retro tracks in Mario Kart 7, and it's doubtful the entire studio was needed for that. I think they have probably been secretly working on the next Zelda for the last 1 1/2 years, and Nintendo will unveil it at E3 with a 2013 release date.

It'd make a lot of sense if Retro was working on something that got moved from the Wii to the Wii U. Zelda makes sense because that game would take a lot of time. F-Zero (or maybe Star Fox) probably wouldn't take as much unless it got bumped up.

We keep talking about how Retro Studios handling Zelda (which would be awesome) but what if a completely different team within Nintendo is working on the next Zelda and has been since before Skyward Sword launched? We all kind of expect Zelda to come from Aonuma's Software Development Group 3. There's really nothing stopping Nintendo from handing the series to another team realizing, "Well, shit, we could really use a new Zelda title ASAP." Apparently, EAD Tokyo Development Group 1 co-produced Ocarina of Time 3D and Four Swords Anniversary with Grezzo. It could be them. Maybe Retro Studios is working on Zelda Wii U and EAD Tokyo/Grezzo are working on Zelda 3DS with Aonuma's team working on a sequel down the road. I'll take my tin foil hat off now.

I know there's been plenty of hints at Retro making a Zelda game, but I don't think it's a Wii U game.  Rather, I believe Retro is the studio taking up the Flagship mantle and making 3DS Zelda.


With Skyward Sword only being half a year old at this point (it happened yesterday, incidentally) and the promise that the next game for 3DS will be new, it seems a much more likely setting in my mind than Wii U.  Too, a console Zelda isn't the kind of thing I see Nintendo outsourcing.  Though Retro could maybe help with part of it like they did in MK7, in that case Nintendo needed assistance to get the game out by the end of the year.  A console Zelda typically takes years of development, and as SS proved they're willing to push up the release date if necessary rather than do whatever it takes to get it out of the gate by a date.