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What's next for Nintendo's best?

Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox and Pokemon need drastic changes. Here they are

Words: Brett Elston, GamesRadar US

Star Fox has such great potential, yet at times it looks like Nintendo doesn't know what to do with it. After two excellent shooters, it turned into a third-person adventure, then a mostly-on-foot action game that barely acknowledged the Arwings that made the first two memorable. Years later it morphed again, now into a stylus-driven, semi-tactical outing on DS. Based on sales and review scores, it's clear this series' greatest strength lies in vehicular combat, not character-driven missions. Makes sense then to ditch the single player and go for an all-out 64-player battlefield that catapults Wii to the top of the online multiplayer heap.

This one's fairly easy to sell: take Star Fox 64's excellent four-player mode, complete with Arwings, Landmaster tanks and rocket-launching soldiers, and supercharge the hell out of it. People in the sky coordinating attacks on rows of player-controlled hover tanks while foot soldiers plant mines and lay out midair nets to yank buzzing Arwings out of the sky... oh yes, we would play that forever. Add in character classes (Fox-type commando, Falco-type speedy assassin, Slippy-type engineer) and a host of new animals-in-armor and this simply screams "make me."

And that's really it. Ignore the on-rails single-player stuff for a while. Nintendo should show us it understands just how epic the Star Fox universe can be. Sure it's tough to take talking frogs seriously, but the characters will be secondary - this one's all about flying, driving and shooting. Hell they could even call it Lylat Wars and it'd make sense for once.

 
15 Comments
mars1993 - 3 months 2 days ago
I like the idea for a new Star Fox title. It has alot of similarities with Warhawk, so a bunch of people could get into it real easy Plus, Warhawk is friggin fun.
ilovefireemblem - 2 months 26 days ago
O.k. I'm going to comment on the fact that you said Twilight Princess was the best Zelda game.

I loved Twilight Princess. I thought it was a great game. But to say it bested Wind Waker...no way! Wind Waker had a huge world to explore, and I liked the Cel-shaded Link. And in that game, Link had an instrument. Twilight Princess was great, but not as good as Wind Waker.
ilovethe90s15 - 2 months 14 days ago
the pokemon mmo would be awesome.
NelosAngelos - 2 months 9 days ago
Metriod Dread...HELL YES!! And a Star Fox massive online war game, double HELL YES!! You have the potential for greatness, Nintendo, the people have spoken, so get to making!
Knucklesfan - 2 months 4 days ago
finally some one else with the idea of having a Pokemon RPG. My friends often wondered why Nintendo never had Gamefreak make a game for the home consoles. To think if they did that, how much money would they earn? We should probably write to them and see if they will take our advice.
enuru999 - 28 days 1 hour ago
pussy
TheKitchenSink - 22 days 21 hours ago
Cool ideas.

Future Zelda will never happen, and kind of looked stupid. There was something about the hoax trailer that caught my eye, though...the juxtaposition of the future without being stupid "LOL TRON" crap, rather still being the same zelda-ish gameplay and plot, only now it's a different sort of setting I dunno. It looked really cool, if it were done right.

Metroid Dread is a big NO. The biggest problem I have in gaming is that I'm a complete wuss, so I can't play games like RE4 or Dead Space. Playing BioShock was a huge stretch for me. I HATE scary. Sure, make your games that focus on scare and nothing else. But when you mix that with a really cool plot/gameplay/etc, then I get annoyed because I want to play but I sort of can't.

The last two ideas are pure win. I loved Starfox: Assault, especial its multiplayer. If they brought that online, with lots of people, and RPG-ish elements, I'd have a field day. I mean, I LOVED being able to actually stand on the Arwing. I hadn't really thought of that, I'd only really thought of how good Assault would have been online, eight players sort of thing, no screen-looking and all that.

Pokemon MMO however, I think everyone's thought of, and it would be AWESOME. DO WANT. If it were properly implemented, I would buy that in a goddamn second.
Phyc0kill3r - 7 days 4 hours ago
i can c it now.......world of pokecraft :P
metroid2099400 - 6 days 23 hours ago
i think that these suggestions are excellent, but i'd have to disagree with the Zelda alteration. i feel that zelda's formula calls for a medievil setting, just as Metroid and Star Fox call for futuristic settings. changing that up would be too drastic a change for my liking.
FierceDeity - 6 days 13 hours ago
all these ideas are win
nadrewod999 - 6 days 13 hours ago
I totally agree about the Zelda thing, but the way they should do it is either have Ganondorf discover a power that he can use to transport himself through time (where Link would pass by him if he followed) or have their most recent clash (that would either be shown during the opening cinematic or be part of the tutorial level) become so powerful that a hole is ripped in the space-time continum (and not like Majora's mask). In the fight version, Ganondorf would be knocked closer to the present than Link because, when he is stunned by the space-time continum, you knock him out, at which point he falls into the future. In both versions, when Link finally gets into real time, Ganondorf had already discovered technology that allows someone to know when a ripple has occured (like Timecop, yes), at which point he would send troops with new weapons to take out Link when he couldn't. You then take control of Link just after his master sword breaks (it has to break if we want more powerful enemies and/or a lightsaber), at which point you have to run away from the enemies, and if you get far enough, they surround you just in time for the future rebels to find you and save you, at which point they take you to their HQ and tell you how all this has happened, as well as give you a new sword (lightsaber) as well as a gun (to replace the bow and arrow). Finally, the concept art doesn't know about copyrights since if a ring was featured in the sky, Halo would sue and if that ship was used, Mass Effect would sue, so probably only one world to explore, but a lot less limits on that would be the way to go.
sharker - 4 days 23 hours ago
yeah the star fox idea sounds great, i mean i would play that forever, although it is a on the wii and we isn't very good for shooters, BUT i would still play it.
katwood92 - 4 days 47 minutes ago
Most long-runing series need to shake it up. Gamemakers shouldn't just be content to use the same cookiecutter mold for every game in the series. They should take risks, be willing to experiment with different types of gameplay. All of the ideas in this article. Maybe GamesRadar could even do a sequel article.
Btw
@ TheKitchenSink
If you like some aspect of the game, but are too much of a wuss to play it, that's your own fault. Don't diss the idea because you're a coward.
Monkeylink - 2 days 3 hours ago
MAKE A NEW MARIO like "mole Mario outside the pipe"or A good racing Sonic like" sonic speedsters" or something and make pokemon serious or something
BlueBoboDoo100 - 23 hours 5 minutes ago
Wow. The first two ideas are total crap. No matter how much good things you can say to back it up, a futuristic Zelda would not go well with the people. Zelda needs to be mideival. That fake vid was completely stupid and easily spotted as made up. A horror metroid? Nah, that would just end up as frustrated and come off as silly. Hunters went towards the right direction, but a co-op needs to be added. The second two ideas own face. I especially loved the StarFox one, being a hardcore StarFox fan who actually thought the 3rd person games were fun. Pokemon MMO: brilliant, but everyone's already thought of it. I'm sure Nintendo has, too, they're just too scared to make any changes like this.
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