Which Nintendo series has been handled the worst

I used to love a good snowboarding game. Cool Boarders 2 and 3 on PS1, SSX Tricky on PS2, Amped 1 and 2 on Xbox, 1080 on GameCube...

The bottom just completely fell out of the entire niche and extreme sports game market from around the middle of the Xbox 360's life onwards. It's starting to come back a little now but it's still nowhere near where it was in the 90s/00s.

You could make one of these games back then and have it be cutting edge, whereas now it'd probably cost too much and have limited appeal to recoup development costs.

I think I was the only one who liked SSX Blur on the Wii. Genuinely had loads of fun with it.

Whatever happened to Leftfield?

Didn't they make some of this stuff for Nintendo.

Captain Kinopio wrote:I think I was the only one who liked SSX Blur on the Wii. Genuinely had loads of fun with it.

Whatever happened to Leftfield?

Didn't they make some of this stuff for Nintendo.

Closed a decade ago I think.

They made NBA Courtside and Excitevbike on the N64 I think. Nintendo part owned them during that period but sold their share in the GC era.

KK wrote:I used to love a good snowboarding game. Cool Boarders 2 and 3 on PS1, SSX Tricky on PS2, Amped 1 and 2 on Xbox, 1080 on GameCube...

The bottom just completely fell out of the entire niche and extreme sports game market from around the middle of the Xbox 360's life onwards. It's starting to come back a little now but it's still nowhere near where it was in the 90s/00s.

You could make one of these games back then and have it be cutting edge, whereas now it'd probably cost too much and have limited appeal to recoup development costs.

I used to be desperate to own a copy of Cool Boarders 3, but I could never find a copy. Probably plays like gash now.

There used to be so many extreme sports games, it was crazy. They feel like those mid-tier games that you don't really get that many of these days. Funny to look back and remember trends like that.

KK wrote:I used to love a good snowboarding game. Cool Boarders 2 and 3 on PS1, SSX Tricky on PS2, Amped 1 and 2 on Xbox, 1080 on GameCube...

The bottom just completely fell out of the entire niche and extreme sports game market from around the middle of the Xbox 360's life onwards. It's starting to come back a little now but it's still nowhere near where it was in the 90s/00s.

You could make one of these games back then and have it be cutting edge, whereas now it'd probably cost too much and have limited appeal to recoup development costs.

It might be more Mario Kart then proper extreme sports game, but I would Love a Snowboard Kids revival on Switch!

I think its stuff like Snowboard Kidz which is probably more likely to work than fairly drab offerings like Steep.

I remember being off school for a week when i was 14 or so and just playing Snowboard Kidz all day with friends, was awesome.

I would love a Snowboard Kids revival as long as it was in style of the originals and not the absolutely horrible looking DS reboot!

I'm very into snowboarding games in general. Absolutely love Steep on PS4 and was gutted when the Switch port got quietly cancelled. Go Vacation is at least actually lots of fun although snowboarding/skiing is obviously not the sole focus. I also have "Snowboarding The Next Phase" which isn't awful but feels very mobile derivative in how simple it is.

Sticking with downhill extreme sports Lonely Mountains Downhill is brilliant. Descenders is currently on sale on Switch and I will probably pick it up (this post has been a good reminder!) as that looks good too and has the procgen angle going for it.

I think of the franchises listed I would pick Paper Mario, which has continued to see new entries but of quite inconsistent quality. I was not a fan of the latest Origami King entry which I thought was drawn out and repetitive, largely due to the battle system.

I would also be tempted to highlight the sports titles, particularly Tennis which hasn't hit the highs of say the Gameboy Colour version which had a decent story mode and content. Since then they increasingly seem to rely on gimmicks and lack content. Then there are other franchises like Strikers which seem to have been abandoned. Hopefully the new Golf iteration on Switch will buck the trend.

Star Fox and Metroid easily.

Star Fox, they just didn't have a clue after 64 and then kept trying to recapture the 64 success and failed with Zero.

As for Metroid, they leave the series for years then bring it back with a so-so spin-off and then finally announce a much anticipated return with Prime 4, with no new games for Switch to build up an audience.

I voted Metroid because it's the only one of these series that I actually care about, but also because it has been terribly handled.

Prime 3 was 14 years ago, since then we've had two crap games and a decent remake of a GameBoy game from 1991, for what is (in my view) one of the main 'tent-pole' franchises I think of when I consider what makes Nintendo stand out that's an awful decade and a half.

I'm not sure a space marine shooting aliens is what makes Nintendo stand out in the world of videogames

Uh I think you'll find that she is a space bounty hunter which is practically unique. :roll:

I vote Starfox because its so frustrating to watch happen!

What you need to do with that game is not make Lylat Wars. Make any other genre and it would be strawberry floating brilliant.

Imagine Starfox RPG, travelling from planet to planet, hiring wingmen, losing pilots on missions, upgrading your ship, deciding which planet to fly to, branching storylines...hell an ACTUAL storyline.

Kyle Bosman got stuck into Miyamoto ruining Starfox once and its utterly perfect. Just absolutely slating the lack of character in characters like Kat Monroe beyond 'I'm pink a woman and a massive dicktease'. Miyamoto needs to allow the franchise to have a story and stop worrying about peripherals. It's the single biggest untapped franchise in gaming and honestly it upsets me how gooseberry fool the games became. Starfox Zero has got to be up there with my most disappointing games ever, and thats a top five already inhabited by Starfox Adventures!

Apparently the problem with a lot of Nintendo franchises is that, if a member of a team wants to make a new game in the series they have to get permission from the series creator, which sounds so backwards, it must be true.

DML wrote:Imagine Starfox RPG, travelling from planet to planet, hiring wingmen, losing pilots on missions, upgrading your ship, deciding which planet to fly to, branching storylines...hell an ACTUAL storyline

Starlink is pretty good!

Remember those Star Fox Racing rumours? :lol:

Jenuall wrote:I voted Metroid because it's the only one of these series that I actually care about, but also because it has been terribly handled.

Prime 3 was 14 years ago, since then we've had two crap games and a decent remake of a GameBoy game from 1991, for what is (in my view) one of the main 'tent-pole' franchises I think of when I consider what makes Nintendo stand out that's an awful decade and a half.

Holy crap Prime 3 is 13 years old. Good lord. I think I need to lie down :dread:

DML wrote:Kyle Bosman got stuck into Miyamoto ruining Starfox once and its utterly perfect. Just absolutely slating the lack of character in characters like Kat Monroe beyond 'I'm pink a woman and a massive dicktease'. Miyamoto needs to allow the franchise to have a story...

I think it’s well established that Miyamoto is bobbins with story. He waded into the Paper Mario series and, while destroying almost everything that made it good, one of the things he ‘suggested’ was to give the game that eventually became Sticker Star less of a story focus. I love the man but he shouldn’t be anywhere near anything that was initially successful based on its story, characters, or world-building.

Other M has to be candidate for most underrated game ever. Not because it doesn't have flaws (the story and depiction of Samus) but because it's positive aspects, especially how it feels to play as Samus (Aggressive, Fast, Athletic, Exciting) are entirely overlooked whenever it is brought up.

Captain Kinopio wrote:Other M has to be candidate for most underrated game ever. Not because it doesn't have flaws (the story and depiction of Samus) but because it's positive aspects, especially how it feels to play as Samus (Aggressive, Fast, Athletic, Exciting) are entirely overlooked whenever it is brought up.

I'd agree with this.

But I think it's a symptom of internet discussion regarding just about everything to be honest. Everything is either amazing, 10/10 or "THE WORST THING EVER!".

There's no room for nuance or scale with things.

Other M is most certainly the "worst" game in the series and it has severe problems with it's story and way it contextualises progression, as well as Samus herself. But it's a technically competent, mostly fun 3rd person action game. It's the definition of a 6 or 7/10 game.

They way some people talk about it you'd think it was a war crime.

Which Nintendo series has been handled the worst

Which Nintendo series has been handled the worst

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