PixlBit

Actually, all of those are Nintendo franchises. Not all of them were developed in house, but Nintendo owns every single one of those IPs. They can contract the same companies to develop them again or not, but one way or another, they own them. Much like Eternal Darkness, which Nintendo also fails to do anything with all of these years later...

That's my whole point though - people have no awareness that Nintendo has ownership of this stuff. They don't promote the games, they don't try to develop the franchises, and they continue to only let the original teams who made them work on them. There's some amazing stuff in there that just goes to waste. I didn't even get into all of the other weird Japanese stuff they produce that never has come here. No no no Puzzle Chai-rian was one of the best GBA games, but you'll never see anything that weird come here - there's no audience.

I think Nintendo really gets a bum rap on the new IP thing too. They actually make tons of new series and franchises, most of them just aren't as high profile so they're largely overlooked. Here's a quick list I put together of some of the more recent stuff off the top of my head - Starfy, Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan, Golden Sun, Hotel Dusk, Another Code, Rhythm Heaven, Battalion Wars, Endless Ocean, Excitebots, Sin & Punishment, Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora's Tower, Art Style, Fluidity, Maboshi, Bonsai Barber, Steel Diver, Pushmo, Sakura Samurai, Dillon's Rolling Western, Line Attack Heroes, Snowpack Park, Eco Shooter, Magnetica, Polarium, Chibi Robo, Custom Robo, Kururin, ThruSpace.

I'm sure there are ways they can shake up some of the mainstays, but I don't think I'd want that for most of them. Many of the Mario spin-offs could definitely use some fresh talent, but the mainline games of the major franchises are all so great, I can't imagine someone else taking the helm for any reason when they could be working on something they've already proven they can do well. I'd rather see Nintendo divert some of their major talents towards creating a high profile game that people are excited about. So many of the franchises Nintendo creates go to waste, it would be great to see some of them resurrected by talented teams. 

Nintendo's issues are for a whole different set of reasons, not related to game performance, but their near dropping of Wii support, a botched 3DS launch, and the weak dollar to yen conversion. That's neither here nor there - their games are still highly rated and that's really the focus of the discussion - the games.

In any event, only a small portion of my response discussed the dark tone stuff. Like I said, I was trying to get at the root of the issue, which I'm not sure you guys ever arrived at. Seemed like there were a smattering of ideas, but no final conclusion on what the disconnect was. There's clearly one there and even in a two hour podcast, it's hard to cover the absolute enormous breadth of the situation. I just wanted to pinpoint one of my personal observations.

I like how a guy with the last name "Fourkiller" is proposing a violent video game tax law.

This comment = win.

Seems fundamentally at odds with Nintendo's entire mantra. I feel the comparison of Nintendo to Pixar was apt. If they were to approach any of these big franchises with a darker tone, it just wouldn't be them anymore.

Not sure what that has to do, fundamentally, with the issues in Japanese games and their appeal to western audiences. These games sell gangbusters despite not taking on a dark tone. Clearly Nintendo is doing it right. They sell games with universal appeal that garner huge sales.

Those not doing it right are the ones half in and half out. Nintendo may catch a lot of "internet crap" over their style of game design, but people still buy these games, so I don't think the crap talk counts for much. The ones really in danger are the ones that are catching crap and not garnering sales.

If we want to look at a great example, take Shadows of the Damned. The game sold like crap. Why? I thought it was fantastic - one of my favorite titles in 2011 - but it seemingly didn't connect with western audiences. It has dark overtones, but it's completely over the top. I think that clear disconnect from reality is where western audiences are lost. If you contrast this to a game like Skyrim, while it features magic and dragons, it all fits neatly into historical lore. Most western games, while somewhat fantastical in design, are typically rooted firmly in reality. That departure, I think, is what's most offputting to western audiences with Japanese games.

Story always takes a backseat too, which I think is a huge problem as well. Sometimes Japanese games nail it, but I'd say more often than not, they take that for granted. This is totally fine with me, but I love Japanese games and typically have a hard time connecting with the more story-based and darkly toned western games.

I think Japan and America are just very different places culturally and now that western games are becoming more prolific, it's becoming easier and easier for Americans to pass on Japanese games. I'm cool with Japan doing what they're doing and I can do without much change. If anything the only thing that needs some love is the JRPG. They need to start shaking that genre up because it's been the same fundamental experience for many years at this point. Final Fantasy XIII did some amazing stuff for combat and I'm hoping XIII-2 really meshes the combat with the open world gameplay we expect, setting the mold for future experiences.

I agree, there are plenty of games that have taken a riff off of the Zelda formula to do something darker. Plus no one mentioned Twilight Princess, which is a significantly darker tale of the Zelda universe. Much more so than Ocarina, Wind Waker, or Skyward Sword.

Let's not kid ourselves people, THQ is dead. They might get scooped up by someone else at this point just for their IPs.

Yup, that's really the whole problem with this game. The walking is just miserable. It would've been so much better with a controller with the mini-games being controlled by Kinect.

Pretty lame rewards this month. Kind of upset to see the selection drop down from 4 to 2 this month. It would be nice if there was any indication of the quality of games that would be offered, then I'd know how to spend some of the coins I have. I nearly pulled the trigger last month on Majora's Mask, but I don't think I need that game a third time over.