Today, it was announced that Shigeru Miyamoto, while being interviewed by Famitsu Magazine, will be personally working on a brand new franchise that will be exclusive to the Wii U. Miyamoto was quoted as saying, “With Mario Kart 8 coming out spring of next year, we will have a good selection of games, so I was thinking isn’t it time we introduce a new franchise.” This is not to say that we will have a new cast of characters or new worlds to explore. Super Smash Bros., though having familiar characters, is still considered a new franchise in the Nintendo gaming ecosystem. Could this announcement be just that? Or should we start getting excited at the possibility of having a brand new hero with a new mission to accomplish?
Why bother making a new franchise?
Recently, Nintendo has not had very good luck with its new system, the Wii U. With that in mind, now is the best time to tease something new and exciting for Nintendo fans that have started feeling disappointing with the lack of gaming and the loss of all the beloved characters that the system is missing. The announcements of Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros., and Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze have started the engines going once again. The grand finale would of course have to be the intro of a new character that Nintendo can use to revitalize the Wii U. This franchise has to bring heavy focus to the gamepad as no game has used it to its full potential minus Nintendoland.
Where is F-Zero, Wave Race, and Yoshi’s Story?
Announcing this new franchise has also brought up the question as to why older franchises have not been brought back to light? With so many games in Nintendo’s arsenal, why have games with such fanfare been ignored? Kid Icarus was re-introduced on March 23, 2012 to above average reviews and has since been put back on the back burner. The main reason games go back into the darkness of the companies vault is because they have so many to pull out when they please. This is the true success story for Nintendo. Even if one of their consoles doesn’t do so well, they will always be able to fall back on the portfolio of successful franchises they have created.
If you could choose a game for the big N to bring back out to the wild, which would it be? Leave your answers in the comments below.
