New Ninty Charachter

mystik

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata mentioned that they are working on a new mascot character, which will replace both Mario and Pokemon in the future. The reason is that both Mario and Pokemons are no longer up-to-date.


Just saw this news clip on a site and wondered what type of character you think Nintendo will come up with.
Hopefully it won't be some fat dude in red dungarees with a mustache...no, wait they already did that.

Balfa

and thr URL of the site that this (in my opinion) rather far fetched rumour originated is...?

public_enemy

i'm pretty sure thats a misquote, nintendo are working on new franchises but they would never remove mario and pokemon, thats just absurd. mario games are the most profitable games series in the world, and nintendo are also currently developing new games of both mario and pokemon.

passive

a crimefighting robot....

with big anime eyes

mystik

it was on the magigbox. - the-magicbox.com

there was also a thread about it on the eurogamer website.

lordsippa

They wouldn't replace Mario. Why would they? I mean that's just ridiculous! He's a household name, and one associated with quality in a manner that nobody else has managed to compete with (Sonic came close with the first 2 games, but sorta went downhill after).

As for Pokemon, again, why would they replace it? Ok, so it's an old fad, but that just means they reinvent it.

But yeah, it's not outside the bounds of reason that they make another flagship character to stand along with them. Only problem being that this hasn't tended to be very successful in the past...

Maybe they're going to make Link their flagship. That'd be... odd tbh. Or maybe they're gonna make a Captain-N game. Mmm... Captain N...

Incidentally, can anyone tell me if Pikmin is any good? It's going cheap and I've got a little money to waste on another game so...

Dont be at yourself

Pikmin is a very good game, well worth it if it's going cheap. Not much of a lifespan, but it's fun while it lasts.

KdjaCL

Adult Link is in Soul Caliber 2 (im not ****ting you) i imagine they gonna make him a nice grown up game.
Seeing as the pic shows him "whooping ass mode"
It would be a natural progression and they could finally make an adult themed game.





kdjac

BLITZ_Molloy

Nintendo are right to try and move on from Mario. If you look at the sales of Mario3 vs Mario 64 vs Mario Sunshine its very apparent that they have to change.

It's a bad idea to make games for the existing Nintendo audience. They should aim at the massmarket. The Ninty fans will buy their games anyway.

Sega are stuck in the same rut. Their making games for themselves and Sega fans. Consequently the audience for their products keeps shrinking.

lordsippa

No... Nintendo shouldn't have an adult orientated mascot. Nintendo flagships have to be cute and family orientated. I mean, that's why they never have had something like GTA or Tomb Raider premier on their machines. And I for one like it that way. It's what makes Nintendo that bit more fun and lovable.

public_enemy

speaking of soul calibur 2, anyone else played it? its pretty good, one of my friends imported it from japan.

BLITZ_Molloy

All of Nintendo's past characters were created by necessity. They were created because thats what the audience wanted. To expect things not to change in 20 years is just silly.

They don't necessarly need a adult mascot with big tits and guns but they need to try and read the market and build games that will appeal. In the 32bit era the trend was survival horror. In the 128bit era it was WW2, gangster and the 80's.

Nintendo need to try and predict what comes next if they want to make a killing instead of trying to buy into the past eras big names, as evidenced by the dissapointing sales of the new Resident Evils.

I'd personally love Miyamoto to be freed up to make more original work. He's been stuck churning out franchises for too long.

Shinji

They're franchises he created. And since he's in charge of all first-party development at Nintendo, it's obvious that he's working on the projects HE wants to do, not being forced into anything.

Personally I'm glad that Nintendo generally sticks to its guns (or lack of same) and continues to turn out "Nintendo Games" rather than trying to follow whatever fad the rest of the industry is going through this week.

It's like fashion. This week baggy combats with strips hanging off them are in, next week butt-hugging tight jeans are in, the week after it's flared cords - and the high street fashion shops will follow like sheep. But a well-cut Armani suit will ALWAYS be in fashion, and Armani will always sell them...

Trebor

I remember reading about it on GamesIndustry.biz

they are not dropping mario and pokemon
they created a new R&D centre to focus on new frachises. and new characters aswell.

Retr0gamer

Frankly I prefer butt-hugging pants myself. And thongs.

If Nintendo keep churning out quality I'll keep buying. It's a shame that a company that brings out games like Zelda and Metroid is getting ignored by average joe muppets.

I think it should be a mad anime Robot that has big flashy pulsating eyes that will give kids fits and make them buy all their products. Just like pokemon did.

Raz

Whatever it is it has to be original. Like Monkeys in balls original (who would have thought of that?)
No going back to the anime style characters. It has to be new and fresh and something we've never seen.
I want to be surprised, amazed and enraptured all at once

Dont be at yourself

On an off-topic note: Nintendo were supposedly going to spend bajillions promoting Kirby as their Next Big Thing a few months ago, yes?

Well, what happened?

Retr0gamer

Kirby is a big ball of muff. Not very exciting

lordsippa

What happened to mega man? Any plans for a new one of those?

And remember when Starfox was gonna be the BIG NEW THING on the snes? Remember? Huh?

Dont be at yourself

Originally posted by Retr0gamer
Kirby is a big ball of muff. Not very exciting

True, but I believe Iwata played a role in creating him, or something.

And since when were italian plumbers exciting, eh?

public_enemy

kirby was never meant to be the next big thing, especially since he's been around for nearly ten years now...
there are two new kirby games coming out, one for gba and one for gamecube

lordsippa

Just wondering but was Mario inspired by Ron Jeromy? It's just there's a striking resemblence and I'm pretty sure Ron's starred as a plumber in PLENTY of films.

Dont be at yourself

I'm not crazy.

Shinji

I have seen the first episode of the Kirby cartoon in Japanese.

I think I may have vomited up my spleen.

(And this is speaking as someone who managed two whole episodes of Sonic X before falling into a coma, and actually liked Pokemon....)

amp

PIKA! PIKA! PIKA!

Retr0gamer

I thought the pokemon cartoons were great. Had to stop watching them when I went to college since I didn't get home in time to see it. I wonder if misty ever end up with ash.