I Hope You Weren't Wanting A New F-Zero....

[Solkia]

I could be wrong, but didn't Nintendo push GX on the GameCube with an anime series, ads, and slapping Captain Falcon on the cover to draw in fans of him from Melee? I remember hearing a lot about it when it came out, I just never bought it because I never got into F-Zero.

 

No. That was F-Zero GP legend.

 

It was dubbed by 4kids. And it sucked. It sucked Hard.

 

They introduced this douchebag that no one liked. The plot was boring as shit, and, well, it was dubbed by 4kids.

 

I wouldn't even call it marketing. It was more like "Please don't buy this game"

 

As for the ADs, most of them were in magazines, and the ones that were on TV were just like "Yeah! Here's a game! Uh... buy it!

Edited June 20, 2013 by Solkia

[Patticus]

Three of the biggest games out there right now are Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansions 2 and Injustice. Let's not try and pretend that an F-Zero game couldn't sell to this generation. Nonsense.

[Conando]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say there, since F-Zero is not nearly as popular as any of those games are nor is it in a genre that's nearly as popular as those are.

[Sean]

All this discussion is making me glad I bought that new copy of F-Zero GX when I did. It's my favorite racing game of all time even if it has some serious flaws. Story mode can go fuck itself, but the grand prix is good fun as long as you're not playing on the more insane difficulties. The soundtrack is also some of the best to come out of Sega.

A part of why I love GX is because I feel like it's the game that Sonic Riders should have been. Sega AV being the developer caused me to draw a few parallels between the two and while I think the Riders games nailed down the techno music and futuristic settings pretty damn well, everything else feels like such a bust. F-Zero has devastatingly high speeds that actually feels like an integral part of the experience, which is an aspect I feel that other Sonic racing games ironically lack. The game may be hard, but the controls are an absolute dream.

[TrueBlue]

All this discussion is making me glad I bought that new copy of F-Zero GX when I did. It's my favorite racing game of all time even if it has some serious flaws. Story mode can go fuck itself, but the grand prix is good fun as long as you're not playing on the more insane difficulties. The soundtrack is also some of the best to come out of Sega.

A part of why I love GX is because I feel like it's the game that Sonic Riders should have been. Sega AV being the developer caused me to draw a few parallels between the two and while I think the Riders games nailed down the techno music and futuristic settings pretty damn well, everything else feels like such a bust. F-Zero has devastatingly high speeds that actually feels like an integral part of the experience, which is an aspect I feel that other Sonic racing games ironically lack. The game may be hard, but the controls are an absolute dream.

 

I always felt that if another F-Zero game were to be made, that Sonic should be playable guess racer. On foot. I think it'd fit quite well.

[Solid SOAP]

I don't disagree, but a lot of people would say that most those sequels simply do not do enough to innovate.

Well let's see. I mean, I never got into Fire Emblem before, but it seemed to have a completely new art style, characters, and tone than the other games, with the game's new features being the marriage and partner system, streamlining the battle system, adding in a casual mode, etc. It's funny, because my friend and I were playing the GameCube FE game the other night, and he said he would probably love it if the features I just described were in it, to which I explained to him that Awakening fixes the monotony that previous games in the series had. Clearly Awakening was made with both hardcore and casuals in mind, as that alone got a sale from my friend.

 

Kid Icarus Uprising is practically a completely new IP. It takes characters and locales from the original NES game, and completely changes the gameplay to be something extremely fresh and unique. I don't know exactly how well it sold, but I heard it broke a million which seems pretty solid to me, but nothing to scoff at. Regardless, they made an original and unique game that expands upon a universe that was never really touched or tainted to begin with, creating one of my favorite Nintendo games of all time.

 

Donkey Kong Country Returns at base value is simply a new DKC game, but not only has there not been one since, well, the SNES, it's easily the best one yet. I've even said it's the best DK game in general, I absolutely love it. That said, the game itself borrows elements of the original game (Basically just the music, level tropes, collecting K-O-N-G letters and its titular character), adds/improves features such as simultaneous cooperative play, and the rest of it is just a fantastic 2D platformer made by Retro. To me, it's in a completely different league than the original Country games, it's its own series.

 

Pikmin 3 looks great, and from the Developer Directs it seems that Miyamoto is pretty passionate about making this game. The way I see it, if the developers aren't passionate about making something, then they shouldn't touch it. F-Zero is a series that just seems like very, VERY few people want more of, and no one at Nintendo are particularly interested in touching. Why continue trying to bring this franchise into the mainstream if it keeps failing? They have absolutely tried before, and it just never seemed to work, and would be even riskier in this day and age, at this point in time, when the Wii U is failing and Nintendo don't quite know what their userbase is.

[Patticus]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say there, since F-Zero is not nearly as popular as any of those games are nor is it in a genre that's nearly as popular as those are.

 

You wouldn't know how popular F-Zero could actually be today, given that the last sales figures you can quote me are probably almost a decade old by now, and the market has quite clearly changed in big ways since then; as has Nintendo's own reputation. It's like, say, if you told me that, based on decade-old sales figures, tablets aren't viable today because they sold like shit back then. And then the iPad comes out and proves everyone wrong.

 

Don't go basing assumptions on out-of-date data.

[Conando]

Is the Arcade Racing genre popular in homes today? Not to my knowledge. Yet, it still doesn't explain how any of those games have anything to do with how F-Zero could be a seller these days. Animal Crossing has been around for over a decade, Injustice has DC comic book characters in it, and Luigi's Mansion...has Luigi in it. Come on, man.

[TrueBlue]

Well let's see. I mean, I never got into Fire Emblem before, but it seemed to have a completely new art style, characters, and tone than the other games, with the game's new features being the marriage and partner system, streamlining the battle system, adding in a casual mode, etc. It's funny, because my friend and I were playing the GameCube FE game the other night, and he said he would probably love it if the features I just described were in it, to which I explained to him that Awakening fixes the monotony that previous games in the series had. Clearly Awakening was made with both hardcore and casuals in mind, as that alone got a sale from my friend.

 

Kid Icarus Uprising is practically a completely new IP. It takes characters and locales from the original NES game, and completely changes the gameplay to be something extremely fresh and unique. I don't know exactly how well it sold, but I heard it broke a million which seems pretty solid to me, but nothing to scoff at. Regardless, they made an original and unique game that expands upon a universe that was never really touched or tainted to begin with, creating one of my favorite Nintendo games of all time.

 

Donkey Kong Country Returns at base value is simply a new DKC game, but not only has there not been one since, well, the SNES, it's easily the best one yet. I've even said it's the best DK game in general, I absolutely love it. That said, the game itself borrows elements of the original game (Basically just the music, level tropes, collecting K-O-N-G letters and its titular character), adds/improves features such as simultaneous cooperative play, and the rest of it is just a fantastic 2D platformer made by Retro. To me, it's in a completely different league than the original Country games, it's its own series.

 

Pikmin 3 looks great, and from the Developer Directs it seems that Miyamoto is pretty passionate about making this game. The way I see it, if the developers aren't passionate about making something, then they shouldn't touch it. F-Zero is a series that just seems like very, VERY few people want more of, and no one at Nintendo are particularly interested in touching. Why continue trying to bring this franchise into the mainstream if it keeps failing? They have absolutely tried before, and it just never seemed to work, and would be even riskier in this day and age, at this point in time, when the Wii U is failing and Nintendo don't quite know what their userbase is.

 

Again, I agree. But a lot of people don't. and they are among the ones who have an issue with what Miyamoto is saying.

[Patticus]

Is the Arcade Racing genre popular in homes today? Not to my knowledge. Yet, it still doesn't explain how any of those games have anything to do with how F-Zero could be a seller these days. Animal Crossing has been around for over a decade, Injustice has DC comic book characters in it, and Luigi's Mansion...has Luigi in it. Come on, man.

 

F-Zero has comicbook-style characters galore in it, and if in a new entry an easier, fairer story mode (and off/online multiplayer) was the focus, with the arcade mode secondary to that, with cut-scenes done in a very comic bookish style, and maybe have the vehicles be the co-stars, Knightrider-style... it could appeal to the same people who like LM2 for its cartoony, comicbookishness, and Injustice for its superheroes. Also, comic book-esque Starfox-style radio transmissions from other pilots during story mode races.

[Conando]

People bought Luigi's Mansion 2 because Luigi was in it. :|

 

As for the rest, the aesthetics only go so far when people don't actually care about the GENRE. Which they DON'T.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Super Mario

[Chooch]

Third party developers have more or less all jumped ship from the Wii U. Nintendo has been forced to rely on their own IPs to bulk up the console's library and entice people to buy it.

 

Why not use everything you have at your disposal? Why not use some of your IPs that could bring in more than just the early adopters and people primarily interested in Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong?

Edited June 21, 2013 by Chooch

[Sean]

So much effort being put into explaining why a new F-Zero wouldn't be a good thing to have.

[Conando]

Just because it wouldn't be a good idea doesn't mean it's not a good thing to have.

[Chooch]

What reason do you have to believe it isn't a good idea here and now in the middle of 2013?

 

All this is just baseless conjecture used as a means to justify Miyamoto being full of shit.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Chooch

[Sarah Jane Smith]

I don't even like F-Zero, but I still think Miyamoto's excuse is shitty. "We can't innovate"; did that stop you from making 5 NSMBs???

 

Besides, everyone knows Nintendo's idea of "innovation" these days is reusing the same ideas, but with a new, weirder control scheme. "You can play the original Zelda but with waggle! Isn't that innovative?"

[Sean]

Here's the thing. No one knows for certain the outcome of a new F-Zero. People in this topic are drawing assumptions about why it's so dead certain that a new F-Zero game is a bad idea when trends can be changed and there's the chance that a smash-hit or a flop is waiting to be delivered to our doorstep. There also clearly is enough demand from devoted fans to have Miyamoto personally address the issue not once, but twice now. So I seriously would not say that very few people give a shit about F-Zero if the man himself is talking about it.

[Conando]

I don't know how the interviewer asking him the question means the series has a bunch of fans, but ok.

[Cortez]

I think F-Zero has gained more popularity over the years thanks to the Internet and Captain Falcon's Smash Bros. appearances.

I do think that if they released another F-Zero nowadays then it'll sell a lot better than previous titles on that basis alone.

[EuroMIX]

Besides, everyone knows Nintendo's idea of "innovation" these days is reusing the same ideas, but with a new, weirder control scheme. "You can play the original Zelda but with waggle! Isn't that innovative?"

 

I'm sorry, but the only two games I know of to even use it are TP and SS. One is fairly harmless, though tacked on, and the other had the game built around it and was decent. Your stereotype seems to label the latter as "waggle" which is highly ignorant given how it actually works. At least Nintendo tried something new, which is exactly what most people seem to be begging them to do.

 

 

Regardless, if Nintendo don't feel creative enough to do something decent with F Zero then why on Earth would anyone want them to attempt to force out some new uncreative title which would probably have little to no heart or focus in it and might risk plunging the series into further obscurity as a failure.

 

The fact that the series appeared in Nintendoland suggests that Nintendo haven't forgottn about it, but simply aren't sure what to do with it right now. Perhaps after the Wii U picks up, they might have time to give series like F Zero another look, but until then it's just too much of a risk.

Edited June 21, 2013 by EuroMIX

[Tornado]

Pikmin 3 looks great, and from the Developer Directs it seems that Miyamoto is pretty passionate about making this game. The way I see it, if the developers aren't passionate about making something, then they shouldn't touch it. F-Zero is a series that just seems like very, VERY few people want more of, and no one at Nintendo are particularly interested in touching. Why continue trying to bring this franchise into the mainstream if it keeps failing? They have absolutely tried before, and it just never seemed to work, and would be even riskier in this day and age, at this point in time, when the Wii U is failing and Nintendo don't quite know what their userbase is.

 

You know, I understand that you don't care for the series, but that doesn't justify ignoring responses to your assertions in order to just repeat the assertions again.

 

Is the Arcade Racing genre popular in homes today? Not to my knowledge.

 

Need for Speed games still sell millions of copies each go around, and Codemasters has found more success with the GRID titles than they ever did with the TOCA games. If anything the GRID titles prove that taking a solid gameplay base and absolutely loading it with spectacle is a licence to print money in the genre.

 

 

I'm sorry, but the only two games I know of to even use it are TP and SS. One is fairly harmless, though tacked on, and the other had the game built around it and was decent. Your stereotype seems to label the latter as "waggle" which is highly ignorant given how it actually works. At least Nintendo tried something new, which is exactly what most people seem to be begging them to do.

 

Motion controls stopped being "something new" long before SS came out, regardless of how well the game was built around them. His point was that Nintendo taking existing game concepts and putting Wiimote functionality isn't really being innovative, and when I compare how Nintendo utilized the DS to how Nintendo utilized the Wii I'm not inclined to disagree.

[turbojet]

With the Wipeout series all but dead on the Playstation, Nintendo can and should push F-Zero hard as the only alternative out there to that reasonably popular series.

 

 

 

Hasn't Nintendo largely bypassed that fad?

Apparently not if they are reluctant to sell something that sold 600,000 units. You can make gold out of anything as it only a matter of how much you put in. F-Zero selling a margin like that might be a good thing as due to lack of advertising, one can expect that the people buying the product are hardcore fans of the franchise. All they have to do is minimize the production cost of making the game and then expect a exceedingly low return for it. It would probably get a year of development, but it doesn't necessary mean that it would be a bad game. Fact is that 500,000+ should not be considered failing miserably and is ass backwards since you are seemingly just overworking your goal. It is like making the greatest piece of Classical styled artwork of this generation in an era where classical art is not nearly as high in demand as it would be. Reduce your return expectations and bam: profit.

[EuroMIX]

Motion controls stopped being "something new" long before SS came out, regardless of how well the game was built around them.

 

However, them being integrated into Zelda was something new and it did change a lot of the sword-based combat in the series challenging the previous status quo.

 

I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but i think that people can't seem to make up their minds. Nintendo tries something new and it's "they changed it and now it sucks", but if they keep things the same then it's "milking" successful franchises.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

I'm sorry, but the only two games I know of to even use it are TP and SS. One is fairly harmless, though tacked on, and the other had the game built around it and was decent. Your stereotype seems to label the latter as "waggle" which is highly ignorant given how it actually works. At least Nintendo tried something new, which is exactly what most people seem to be begging them to do.

Zelda was just a random example, and I wasn't even talking about Skyward Sword. They DID delay TP just so they could have it on the Wii with motion controls.

 

Then there's Donkey Kong Country Returns, where rolling, instead of being mapped to a 100% accurate button like in every other game, is mapped to inaccurate waggle for literally no reason.

[JezMM]

I've never been a huge F-Zero fan so I couldn't care that much either way, but I do respect it and agree a new game should be made.

 

I just wanna just say though, you guys need to stop ragging on Shigsy for making NSMB and Mario Kart as if he was deeply involved in those games.

 

When he says innovative idea, he's talking on the level of stuff like the penguin suit and propellor suit and 4P co-op in Wii, Coin Rush and the Gold Flower in 2, and the Squirrel Suit and challenge mode in U.

 

Shigsy has like... how much involvement in F-Zero exactly?  I never got the impression very much.  He's been busy focusing on Pikmin 3 lately, if someone comes out of nowhere and says "WHY AREN'T YOU MAKING ME F-ZERO SHIGSY" he doesn't have the knowledge to give a real concrete answer and has probably never even thought about what unique new twist could be put on the F-Zero series, and he sure as hell doesn't have the power or permission to admit something like "it doesn't sell very well to be honest".

 

Give the guy a fucking break.