>That's kind of redundant, that's like saying "Nobody but Mario fans care about Mario" or "Nobody but Zelda fans care about Zelda."
>You kind of have to be a fan of a franchise to care about it.
No, this is not true.
Back in 1998 Ocarina of Time was a worldwide phenomenon. It was an unique game who couldn't be compared against nothing else, it had no competitors. It came from nowhere, and it took little time to top the lists of best games of all time. Back then, anybody who called herself a mainstream gamer was basically
forced to play OoT, along with FFVII, MGS1 and Mario 64 (and Gran Turismo for some reason). Quite a lot of people who enjoyed the game were Zelda fans, some people never played a Zelda game before and fell in love with the franchise, some others never played another Zelda game in their lifes. Majora's Mask, along woth Sunshine, along with MGS2, along with FFVIII, were one of the most anticipated games ever, such hype cannot be sustained regardless of the quality of the sequel.
And Metroid Prime was also a huge event. It never reached OoT's levels of popularity, because Metroid has always sold less copies than Zelda. But Metroid Prime was also a game that came from nowhere. Nobody believed Metroid could be turned in 3D by taking some elements from first person shooters. Nobody could predict Metroid Prime's reliance on lore and scanning. It was a game that everybody
needed to play.
No Zelda and Metroid game since has ever achieved such love and passion, because
Metroid and Zelda have been completely irrelevant for the last 10 years. Anybody who thinks otherwise is deluding herself. Zelda and Metroid resides in their own microuniverse, isolated from the rest of the industry, unable to evolve and reach new horizons, afraid of taking dangerous paths unlike Mario is still doing today. They still bring news, but as relics of early years, like Squeenix's Final Fantasy games.
I have seen people defending and enjoying Fusion, I have seen people calling Corruption the best Meteoid game ever. I have even seen Metroid fans speaking in good terms about Other M. Yet among the videogame litersture, among the different editorials and articles and personal blogs that are among the Internet, nobody talks about Corruption. Or even Echoes. Yet there are thousands of articles about Prime's narrative merits. When people talks about Prime, Super Metroid always pops up, but as an equal, as another beast, as an huge influence to Prime yet still another different experience. As a mentor against his pupil who now is a mentor too. When people talk about Corruption, Prime always pops up, as the mother who gave everything to Corruption, because Corruption is derivative by nature, is unable to bring anything new to the table. That there's no general consensus among hardcore Metroid fans over whether Prime is better than Super or not, that the speedrunnign community has destroyed Super Metroid, and that Prime is still talked about after so many years, is a testament of the love those games still recieve. Echoes, Corruption, Other M and Metroid Soccer will never achieve such love. Nobody cares about Echoes.
And the same can be said about Zelda. A game like Three Swords, or ALBW, would have been uniminaginable just a mere ten years ago. No one, from Yamauchi to Miyamoto, would have approved it. But here I need to use Mike Scully's words when asked about The Simpsons' downfall: "lower your standards, then you can run forever". Zelda treated itself seriously, it knew it was one of the most important franchises ever, and Nintendo workers always give everything they could to make enjoyable, ever lasting experiences. Whether they succeeded or not, that's debatable, but the comparisons among classic and modern Zelda is painful. Now it seems the portable Zelda experience is inferior to the big ones, the home console games. But that idea would have been rejected in early 1990. Link's Awakening wasn't another Zelda game, it was as epic and misterious as his big brother ALttP. That game is still talked about, more that twenty years later. And many other Zelda classics are constantly revisited and reimaginized. Majora's Mask was panned by many critics back in 2000. Five years later, it was still very hard to see people publictly saying on the Internet that Majora's Mask was better than OoT. Yet now is 2015 and it's a relatively common opinion you can see anywhere. The early Zeldas have influenced a lot, A LOT of games and designers, not because they are strictly speaking Zelda fans (they may be, they may be not), but because Zelda was fresh, and full of vitality, and had a lot of thing to say. Nobody is going yo say that SS changed the way they looked at games. There are still people talking about Majora's Mask's side characters, about Sheik's cutscenes, about Marin, about OoT's landscape, about WW's sea and magic. Who the fuck is going to talk about Ilia, or Ezlo, or Hilda, or Lorule?
And Mario is the exception. Mario is still loved as ever. Mario didn't took Zelda's extreme conservadurism, it never poorly took new priorities when jumping from 2D to 3D like Zelda did (puzzles over exploration and survival). It didn't devolved by adding unnecesary cutscenes and dialogues like Fusion and Corruption did. Mario took its flexible formula and expanded and changed at will. No Mario game (except the terrible New line and direct sequels like Galaxy 2) plays as any other Mario game. Galaxy 2's use of gravity is unsurparsed. SMW is the game of excellence for those who enjoys mixing exploration with Mario. Nearly every platform-basdd game (honorable exception: VVVVVV) took lessons from SMB1's air and ground physics and jumping mechanisms. Mario 64 (a game I dislike) popularized collect-a-ton, open world gameplay. When Galaxy was released, many people seriously believed (and still believe today) Mario 64 was dethroned as the queen (king?) of videogames. When Galaxy 2 was released, Galaxy 1 was treated as an inferior experience, a mere prelude to Galaxy 2's greatness. 3D Land and 3D Worls have been treated as lessen experiences, yet they still were well received. Sunshine (an underrated game) received the most hateful and polarizing reviews, yet its hate is superfluous conpared with the rage and distate Skyward Sword and Other M gets among some circles.
But as I said, lower your standards and you can run forever. Hyrule Warriors got a lot of love from some Zelda fans because it's a Dinasty Warriors game but with a Zelda skin and references. Those people, who would have never, ever, touched a Warriors game, are now buying any DLC as soon as it's released becaude they can play as their favourite character. That's Lorule Warriors's only value as a product and as a game, it relies on nostalgia and fanservice because the game itself has no value. But Lorule Warriors didn't came from nowhere, it came after the craptacular Twilight Princess and the DS games, after Wind Waker's serious flaws and OoT's over-emphasis on puzzlefication (dungeons, battle system, sidequest) over raw survival. And the same can be said about Metroid Soccer. We already had Other M. Do you blame Other M's linearity and terrible story? Those roots can be found as early as Super Metroid.
Three Swords and Metroid Soccer should be the final proof Zelda and Metroid are dead. Sorry, not dead, because that would imply they could rest in peace.
They're in zombie mode. But believe whatever you want.
Edited by Maleboocado, 17 June 2015 - 02:16 PM.
The PS4 is the best thing since sliced bread, I love this console so much :3
Of course I want games, and I am a bit saddened that we don't have more that was announced. The problem is that at this point, people should realize that Nintendo is practically the sole person manning this ship. It sucks, I wish it weren't that way, but it's the way it is. And, given that's the way things are, people should have reasonable expectations. Nintendo, a single company, can only do so much at one time. Sure, Nintendo is a massive game making company, but it has its limits. Expecting all those different games at one time is just foolish.
