[Let’s Talk] What are you playing? – February 2018

Right now we’re in the heart of February. Since we entered a new month a couple of weeks ago, we want to know what you’ve been playing.

Have you started up something entirely new for the month? Are you playing Bayonetta 1 / 2 on Switch or possibly Dragon Quest Builders? Perhaps one of the many new indie games that continue to release, such as Owlboy? Whatever the case, let us know in the comments below!

Highlights from last week’s topic: Retro Studios’ next game

Mark

To me, really, there’s only two potential options.

A: They’re working on a new western-focused ‘mature’ game that either revives an old franchise, like Eternal Darkness or Geist, or competes with existing Western franchises like Destiny, COD, Halo, Anthem, etc. This is a market that Nintendo typically hasn’t had a foothold in, and Retro has experience in that area AND interest in making that sort of game. Because it’s been so long since they’ve announced anything, but they’re clearly still working and haven’t laid people off, it would signify that there’s something big they’ve been working on, and Nintendo expects their investment will pay off big. If Nintendo realizes that they need to appeal to the 18-25 year old market and have games in their IP which grab the attention of those people, there’s not many better teams in their wheelhouse that they can choose than Retro to do it.

B: They had been working on something, but it was scrapped, and they’ve since had to start from the drawing board. This is a little harder to believe, but definitely possible. Everyone produces stinkers at some point; just look at Wii Music. Nintendo has shelved a ton of games in the past. Their next game could be literally anything, but whatever it is won’t reflect the hard work of four years: rather, it’ll be maybe a year and a half in development.

Auragar

I don’t know what they are working on but I REALLY hope it isn’t just more Donkey Kong Country Returns. They are also not working on Metroid Prime 4 so yeah… either it is a new IP or a forgotten/not used IP. I don’t think we will be seeing it this year, if we do it will be a minor and I mean MINOR tease.

Locky Mavo

One of my favourite Nintendo studios, I love the work they’ve done so far, so I’d like to see an original IP from them, though something action/adventure-like or a maybe a shooter, not particularly interested in a new DKC, especially with Tropical Freeze being ported. But if they were working on another Nintendo IP, I’d like it them revive something obscure or a re-imagining, similar to what happened with Kid Icarus Uprising or even Star Fox Adventures, maybe a re-imagining of Mysterious Murasame Castle would be good (though funny enough, I rather see Platinum’s take on those particular games). I sure whatever they’re doing will be good, but it feels like it’s been a while since their last game, but it’s only been 4 years! The silence from them is what’s painful, I’d be disappointed if we went another year without even a peep from them.

Luke WalkingMoonTree

This begun as sort of a joke a few years ago but I think there’s a chance Retro is working on Mother 4. It’d be fitting to release a new entry in the series close to the release of the long awaiter Mother 3 and it’s the kind of RPG that could shift development team to a western studio very smoothly given the setting of the games. Itoi stated that he’s ok with there being new entries in the series, he just doesn’t want to be involved with it. Retro’s trackrecord also backs this up since they are used to bringing back old IPs that didn’t get much attention in the last few years. Also Mother fits in a section of the market that no other Nintendo game covers. Plus I feel like the Mother series has a lot of potential sales-wise: if they get the artstyle right I think it might appeal to many Pokémon fans (and we already know Pokémon and Mother share various similarities).

That being said I still think a new IP is the most likely guess: after Splatoon I get the sense that Nintendo gave a one-shot opportunity to most of their development teams to make something similar, and that ended up creating ARMS and Labo thus far. As to what kind of IP they would make, I feel like a third person horror/exploration game could fit on the Switch library and, while most of the staff who made Prime left Retro, they still have a pretty good idea how to give a sense of atmosphere in a game