I remember a strange night, live, blogging the worst birthday party ever. You know him, Sonic fans! But it wasn’t all bad; I didn’t know it at the time, as the widely leaked Switch hadn’t even been officially revealed as the NX at the time, but Nintendo fans weren’t far from playing the best Sonic game out there. decades, Sonic Mania.
As a game, it was a commercial success, with initial sales encouraging SEGA to sanction retail editions and Sonic Mania Plus; it’s still an input game on my Switch. It was also when you really think about it, a bold thing SEGA can do. As IP – especially its 2D platform roots – lost its popularity, SEGA effectively acknowledged that it had failed to do so and recruited a team of star Indie developers who had huge amounts of talent. Among them were those who had produced remarkable mobile ports, fan games and more, and it felt like SEGA said “Okay, okay, make the Sonic game everyone wants”. And they did.
© NintendoThis is Nintendo Life, you’ve read the title, so it’s obvious where this is headed. However, it is important, before the forces are sharpened, to recognize that Nintendo had its moments to embrace the talent that can be found outside its own studios. Quick title Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda it was a case where Nintendo saw a top indie game, agreed that it would be fun to bring the concept into the Zelda franchise and it happened. It was eye-opening, simply because Nintendo was often quite cautious about letting others play with their toys.
Cadence of Hyrule opened his eyes, simply because Nintendo was often quite cautious about letting others play with their toys.
We also saw that Nintendo allows third-party development teams to produce favorite games for fans. You can go back to titles like that Metroid: Samus Returns from MercurySteam, or indeed Metroid Prime trilogy when Retro Studios “joined the family” and studios like Next Level Games before their acquisition. Let’s not forget We Pokémon Snap being developed by Bandai Namco, a company that has also been prominent in bringing us Super Smash Bros. last.
That being said, with this idea we mean smaller teams, the space with insufficient resources, but passionate about super fans, who also happen to be talented artists and developers.
Of course, what we often see from these individuals and small groups are products for fans, a recent example being the amazing 2D Prime. As is well known, Nintendo is sometimes so diligent in protecting its copyright that such projects are in a permanent state of danger; so far that someone has survived.
Whatever you think about Nintendo’s methods of enforcing copyright, it’s not here. I only dream of the day when Nintendo embraces some of these talents, gives them the finances and resources they need, and it works. with them to make a really special game. Oh, I wish Nintendo had the Sonic Mania moment!
Realistically, it would be surprising if Nintendo did this with something like Mario or The Legend of Zelda. Yes, we have Cadence of Hyrule, but it seems that Legend of Zelda has a wonderful marriage with the Crypt of the Necrodancer format. In fact, allowing an indie team to create a game that evolves into Nintendo’s core titles, such as the many impressive fan efforts that appear each year, is something else entirely.
However, there are latent franchises that Nintendo could sanction, pleasing vocal fans, while keeping the scope and budget relatively low. Also F-Zero, Child Icarus, Star Fox and more in addition; there are indie titles that are inspired by titles like these and show fantastic; imagine one that has Nintendo support. Our Push Square fans meditated on a similar topic from Sony’s perspective.
I feel unlikely, but who knows – Nintendo is often full of surprises. The arrival of small-scale games in latent franchises, produced by talented super-fans, would definitely excite me.
Do you like this idea or do you think they are good? Have your say in the comments.