F-Zero hasn’t had a starring role in a Nintendo console game since F-Zero GX on the GameCube close to a decade ago. Shigeru Miyamoto realizes that fans are interested in the series and would love to see a new entry, but he personally struggles over finding an idea “that would really turn it into a great game again.”
According to Miyamoto:
“I certainly understand that people want a new F-Zero game. I think where I struggle is that I don’t really have a good idea for what’s new that we could bring to F-Zero that would really turn it into a great game again. Certainly I can see how people looking at Mario Kart 8 could see, through the anti-gravity, a connection to F-Zero. But I don’t know, at this point, what direction we could go in with a new F-Zero.”
When asked if some franchises such as F-Zero or Wave Race were suited to older generations of Nintendo hardware and didn’t have a place in modern gaming, Miyamoto said:
“It’s tough. We come to the show and we bring a lot of great franchises and everyone says, ‘Oh, well, where’s this game that I want to play? Where’s something new?’ I only have so much capacity. [laughs] Obviously in the past we’ve tried to work with other companies, where we’ve let them develop games for us in franchises like Star Fox and F-Zero, but the more we think about it, the more we prefer to be able to create those games internally, on our own. We’ve obviously, as I mentioned, been working on what we can do to increase our internal staff in a way that will allow us to have more projects going at the same time, so we can create new games and work on additional old IP and still maintain the other primary franchises that people want to see.”
A couple of interesting things here. First, Nintendo likes to create its games internally even though it has allowed outside companies to work on various IPs. Second, Nintendo is looking to increase its staff so that it can work on more titles at once.
In an interview with IGN, Nintendo CEO president Satoru Iwata reiterated Nintendo’s need to re-energize the Wii U in order to gain third-party support. Iwata expressed that he’s “very willing to change the current situation.”
“What we need to do is regain the momentum of the Wii U in the marketplace and establish successful examples of third-party Wii U software. Our focus is, first of all, to regain the momentum of the Wii U towards the end of this year, and then we’ll try to establish successful third-party Wii U software titles. I believe in the importance of third-party support for Nintendo platforms. I’m very willing to change the current situation.”
One of my favorite parts.
This is a survey that requires no signing up, accounts, clicking through ads, or anything. Just answer a required question, answer a non-required question (if you want) and make your voice heard in yet another NintendoEverything reader survey poll thing! Results will be read in the form of our top ten list on the next podcast, and if you opted to answer the written question your answer could be read on the show! So don’t say anything ridiculous.
Thanks very much. As stated above the topic for you guys this week is “What did you think of Nintendo’s E3 this year?”.
Have you realized that females are being more represented in Nintendo’s games as of late? Peach is playable in a mainline Mario game. Pikmin 3 has a playable female character. Dixie is back in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Mario Kart 8 has a selection of female characters such as Peach, Daisy and Toadette. And Bayonetta 2 features a female lead.
With Kotaku having notice the rising prominence of female characters in upcoming Nintendo titles, the site had the following exchange with Shigeru Miyamoto:
At one point, Nintendo was considering a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. The company seemed keen on either pursuing that route, or making a Link to the Past sequel. We all know that Nintendo opted for the latter, but Shigeru Miyamoto hasn’t completely forgotten about breathing new life into its old N64 classic.
Miyamoto said the following when asked if Majora’s Mask fans were out of luck: “Well, they’re still in my memory.”
Maybe Nintendo could revisit the possibility of a Majora’s Mask 3DS remake further on in the handheld’s lifecycle?
