NINTENDO
What can we say? The creator of Mario, Zelda, Metroid and more, Nintendo is without doubt the most important surviving figure in the gaming industry today, now nearly two decades old.
Upsetting memories of over-priced carts and shocking delays between game launches around the world have been replaced by the superb Nintendo DS and the brave - if, still, yet unproven - brilliance of Wii. Roll out the next revolution, Big N!
PUBLISHER SCORE: 90%
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development| Original studio
Headed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself, Nintendo's EAD studio is actually split into five separate parts, though Miyamoto acts as producer for all games developed under the EAD banner. Animal Crossing, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Nintendogs - all these franchises come from EAD.
Studio score: 94%
Intelligent Systems| Established 1986
A splinter studio within Nintendo, formed by hardware developers looking to create games, instead of lumps of silicon that communicate only in 1s and 0s. Intelligent Systems has brought us Metroid, WarioWare, Paper Mario and Fire Emblem.
Studio score: 82%
Retro Studios| Acquired 2001
Metroid's advance into3D is down to the inspired work of this studio, which was handed the space-exploration series by Nintendo, and created the brilliant Metroid Prime on GameCube. Retro recently moved the Prime series into motion-sensitive territory with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Studio score: 93%
