Creating New Franchises vs. Reinventing Old Franchises

[The Dark Knight]

Is it better to start a new franchise or bring back an old one?

The posts on the topic from the all xbox opinions here. (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39666) thread:

Originally posted by Matt Wilson
But once in a while it'd be nice to see Nintendo start a NEW franchise. A new likeable character with his own quirks and play mechanics. Why do they fall back so much?

Originally posted by BADBATZ
To play devil's advocate for a minute, one of the reasons they do is because a lot of their newer attempts have sorta dead-ended it seems. Most of the Rareware games (and let's be honest, during the days of the n64 Rare was part of Nintendo) were really great, but outside of Banjo-Kazooie, didn't do too hot in sales. In fact, the only newer franchise that has done any business for them was Pokemon. Another reason is that from 1984 to 1993 (coincidentally enough, the lifespan of the Famicom/NES) they developed a TON of characters intended for long-lasting franchises. And some of those haven't even gotten a chance to regain popularity (Kid Icarus and the Earthbound/Mother gang) or gain success in the states* (Doshin the Giant and Custom Robo). The way I see it they could make a platformer starring the Duck Hunt dog, a Shenmue parody starring one of the guys from Urban Champion, and a Cannon Fodder/Gangsters ripoff with the gangsters from Hogan's Alley. With their goldmine, who needs new characters for a while? All I'd want them to do is to take advantage of it.

*I did say Fire Emblem too but on second thought, the play is so archaic that it would never get popular in the states until they update the engine.

[Chris Sanders MSX]

Well thing about Nintendo is THEY DON'T JUST FALL BACK. It's just that people's memories are short and they forget all the new franchises that the N64 Era brought in. With each new system Nintendo creates new franchises,and Characters while they continue with older ones.

And that's a good formula. I mean come on, most people who get GC's go... I'm getting a GC for the Mario Game and the exclusive franchises they love that no other system can deliver.


N64 Brought in Jona Dark,Sheik,Conker,Pokemon Stadium, Mario Party,Smash Bros. ....etc. (I'm not listing the Japanese Exclusives although I should)

I don't have to go through what SNES I brought in.

While GC already has some in the works such as Doshin and Kameo ... We know Nintendo's quality motto so give them some time before saying that theya lways fall back on thes ame old same old, most of the new things I listed for the N64 Era didn't come into much later in it's life.

[Squall]

Why can't you do both?

It's not an either/or situation. Video game companies can, and do, both with striking regularity! And I love it! :)

I love seeing my old favorites reinvented on new, more powerful consoles (Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, and Madden NFL always comes to mind right away when I ponder this subject). Good game ideas never really get old, they just update with the technology available.

I also love seeing new, fresh ideas. Recent new ideas that have really sparked my interest include Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Reqium and Mr. Mosquito.

I also think that there's nothing wrong with franchises and sequels, both in movies, TV, and in video games. It would seem many people out there agree with me, though franchises and sequels always seem to get a bad wrap...

[Floydian Slip]

here's my opinion (examples of games will be in here)
unfortunately we are gonna get a ton of re made games, which can be good (maximo) or bad (the new frogger, pitfall advanced)
so i guess we will have to just wait and judge it by each game. In my opinion, (wow, i typed it out) there are jsut to damn many sequals today. Most the games at your local shop, or best buy, have a number after them. It's really bad when a great game gets a sub-par sequal (re3) it turns many fans away.
i think that sequals should stay to football games and fighting games. THPS does not need a sequall every year, maybe one every other year. toy comander however, does need a sequal. It was a launch game that has almost a cult following to die hard DC fans. I don't see why they cn't make a bigger and better sequal for ps2 or X-Box.
I'm a huge pac man fan. and what do i think about the new games? they are just fine. Sure the origonal game was amazing, and few games can beat the time i've spent playing it (damn near over 100,000 hours on that damn game. from online versions, to the arcade, to my pocket versions of it for gbc). Namco could have just put any other character in it's game but it chose pacman to bring in more people who are just looking for nastalgia. I hate it when games are like that (the new frogger)
PC gamers have it the best. We can get upgrades off the internet and add-oins. which couldn't be done on consoles, untill recently (doa3 for the box) Look at half life. 10 million ad ons and fan created mods, yet no sequel. this game has been here for 5 years! this shows that sequels aren't needed. go siera.
Now for the toughest one: racing games.
raceing games need to be good to be a franchise (rush, GT, Need For Speed) but even the crap get's it's own Franchise (Test Drive). Raceing games are a thing that need's to have ad ons, unless it's some futoristic racing game. Games like nascar need their yearly driver and track updates. And other raceing games need new cars.
And the final order of buisness for all those still reading: RPG's
Should all Rpg's have sequels? NO! Do 99% of them get them? YES! It sucks. Sure it's enjoyable going along with the story for a good 100 hours. but do you realy want to do that over 15 games, where the evil dragon magically survives each time by somehow transporting to a remote mountain? RPG's are a story made into a game. Sotry's need endings. and more stories need the bad guy to prevail. there are just too many good guy ending games today.
ok, i'll shutup now and kindly take your anger twards me, and all your thinking that i am wrong.

[Gyro]

I agree with Squall 100 percent. Remaking older games is good, and making new ones is also good. So why not do both and make everyone happy? Nintendo has a ton of great francises as it is, there's no need to rush anything.

[randomguy]

Well, I kind of agree with Matt. Although I deeply love Nintendo's classic franchises, I would like to see them do more new, innovative characters, particularly ones that might appeal more to a teen or older audience. Eternal Darkness is one hell of a good step in the right direction, but more would be nice. I don't want the classic franchises to go away, but seeing Nintendo make some charming new characters/game designs would be very refreshing.

That being said, there's so many characters that haven't been touched by Nintendo for so long that reinventing them would feel like a fresh franchise altogether. Metroid is a good example: it's been so long since we've seen one that the series doesn't feel in the least bit stale. Other franchises that could be brought to the Cube for freshness' sake are Earthbound and Kid Icarus.

[Chris Sanders MSX]

Originally posted by randomguy
Well, I kind of agree with Matt. Although I deeply love Nintendo's classic franchises, I would like to see them do more new, innovative characters, particularly ones that might appeal more to a teen or older audience. Eternal Darkness is one hell of a good step in the right direction, but more would be nice. I don't want the classic franchises to go away, but seeing Nintendo make some charming new characters/game designs would be very refreshing.

*Cough PerfectDark *Cough Conker *Cough Metroid

[JetMaster5]

Originally posted by Chris Sanders MSX


*Cough PerfectDark *Cough Conker *Cough Metroid

Yea, bring back Conker. I missed that loudmouth, drinking, chick magnet, Matrix-like kind of a squirrel. Adding some sex and insults and Nintendo has gotten a happy customer once more. ;)

[Andrew T. Hingson]

As they say in the biz, all things old are new again...

I would love to see a new Kid Icarus, Ice Climber, Mach Rider, Urban Champion, and a new Duck Hunt would be neat but it would never top the original. If some of these old francises could get a GCN game or even a GBA game.

[randomguy]

*Cough PerfectDark *Cough Conker *

Yes, except those are created by Rare and will likely be going multi-console... so I hardly consider them Nintendo characters.

[Chris Sanders MSX]

I doubt it, but until I see them on other systems I think they count as Nintendo Mascots, just as much as Crash was for Sony back in the PSX days.

[BlackCat]

I agree with Hyper Luigi and would love to another Duck Hunt on GCN. Imagine the possibilities! :D