• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Furukawa Speaks! We discuss the announcement of the Nintendo Switch Successor and our June Direct Predictions on the new episode of the Famiboards Discussion Club! Check it out here!

Discussion These are Nintendo's big eight franchises. Thoughts?

Aurc said:
If the criteria is purely sales, then sure, but if I'm not mistaken, Super Metroid and Metroid Prime still remain the only games in Nintendo's history that stand alongside the best of Mario and Zelda, in terms of both influence, and critical acclaim. It makes sense that the series would be mentioned among the others.
Click to expand...
If that's the case then pikmin/splatoon shouldn't be there. Pikmin falls short regardless
 
0
These are the top 6 IMO at this time, and I don't think it is close.
  • Mario
  • Donkey Kong
  • The Legend of Zelda
  • Pokemon
  • Animal Crossing
  • Splatoon
That leaves Metroid and Pikmin from Nintendo's list. I can see why Pikmin would make the list since there is the mobile game and Pikmin are generally in a lot of promotional videos/other marketing events. That leaves Metroid in the eighth spot.

I feel like you could make a strong case that Kirby and Fire Emblem are bigger franchises for Nintendo. Both have had much more recent and long-term success across multiple platforms. Dread is a success and if rumors are true then Metroid has a pretty healthy future going forward on Switch and beyond, so Nintendo seems to be fully behind the bounty hunter again.

The only other character/franchise that probably belongs in the conversation is Star Fox and my boy seems to be on life support these days.
 
I think the list is reasonable in that the appeal of the series transcends the appeal of the individual games. One way on what I meant is that people may have liked the characters even if they don't necessarily play their games. In the Nintendo Tokyo Store, five of the IPs are represented, though only four of the are noticed (the Pikmin are small that it's easy to miss them). Personally speaking, I think Kirby could really fit on the list given how the characters are basically honorary members like showing up in the store. I've also seen Fire Emblem being brought up, which too is a valid suggestion due to how essential it is for Nintendo's fortunes (its mobile game is the most profitable Nintendo mobile game).

I know it's probably a bit personal and so may not be shared by everyone, but I think the Miis are another essential component for Nintendo even though they are reticent to utilise them.

Thank you for reading.
 
0
ILikeFeet said:
IMO, only Super Metroid really has that much influence. you don't really see too many games like Metroid Prime
Click to expand...
Eh. Its complicated. You could say the games that take some degree of inspiration from super arent half as big as the fewer games that took a degree of inspiration from prime, such as the batman arkham games, star wars by respawn. Perhaps even Bioshock Inquisition
 
I get the pushback on Pikmin, but it has broken outside of the videogame sphere a couple of times in Japan. Pikmin shorts were used in TOHO cinemas and the song from the commercials Strawberry Flower was a #2 hit single. Miyamoto clearly believes in it and has pushed for Pikmin to become more prominent, like those great CG cartoons that came out post Pikmin 3, which were made apparently for no other reason than to show off the appeal of the characters and the world.

The big question is where is Pikmin 4? And will that push the series into greater prominence? Merch! Anime! Come on. It hasn't been a sales beast, I'm not sure the franchise has broken 10M yet. But I think everyone can see the potential there.
 
Kirby Forgotten Land is on track to sell 4-5 million copies (at minimum).

Pikmin hasn't even remotely come close to those numbers.

If Pikmin was that big then us fans wouldn't have to be solely living off from a crappu 3DS game and a port of a Wii U game for the past 10 years.

Though sales of the Switch port are extremely promising. If Pikmin 4 actually goddamn comes out I can see it being a big hit.
 
Josh5890 said:
These are the top 6 IMO at this time, and I don't think it is close.
  • Mario
  • Donkey Kong
  • The Legend of Zelda
  • Pokemon
  • Animal Crossing
  • Splatoon
That leaves Metroid and Pikmin from Nintendo's list. I can see why Pikmin would make the list since there is the mobile game and Pikmin are generally in a lot of promotional videos/other marketing events. That leaves Metroid in the eighth spot.

I feel like you could make a strong case that Kirby and Fire Emblem are bigger franchises for Nintendo. Both have had much more recent and long-term success across multiple platforms. Dread is a success and if rumors are true then Metroid has a pretty healthy future going forward on Switch and beyond, so Nintendo seems to be fully behind the bounty hunter again.

The only other character/franchise that probably belongs in the conversation is Star Fox and my boy seems to be on life support these days.
Click to expand...

Everyone in this thread seems to be forgetting a little IP about a super group of brothers smashing each other...
 
Kirby is interesting where its sales has never been huge but the character itself has alays been popular, ive met people who arent even into Nintendo much but know Kirby
 
Pikmin feels out of place on the list, and Metroid is not that big sales-wise.

I'd say that currently Fire Emblem, Kirby and Smash Brothers are far bigger Nintendo IPs. And as others said, Xenoblade is getting big on the Switch era.

But hey, if the list means that Nintendo considers Pikmin a priority and that they are working hard on a new entry, sure consider Pikmin a top 3 if needed, the 3 previous mainline games are simply superb.
 
0
Wow, people are clueless over here. It's pretty clear to see that all these franchises are prestige/AAA slash always gets a bigger budget than Kirby, Fire Emblem, etc...
Smash, Mario Kart and others like it are clearly spin off or all stars game.
 
I love Metroid but Kirby is absolutely bigger than it. Swap Pikmin for Fire Emblem especially since Fire Emblem Heroes is a huge money-maker for them on mobile.
 
0
I feel like everyone in this thread is undervaluing Metroid. I guarantee if you did a poll of random people and asked what the top Nintendo franchises are, Metroid would absolutely be in the Top 8, maybe even the Top 5. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the NES/SNES era, but Metroid was huge when I was a kid, especially around 1994 when Super came out. Yeah it had a dip in quality/popularity for a good 10 years there, but with the critical/commercial success of Dread and the impending release of P4, it’s not a shock that Nintendo sees it as one of their most important franchises.
 
xV_twist said:
Wow, people are clueless over here. It's pretty clear to see that all these franchises are prestige/AAA slash always gets a bigger budget than Kirby, Fire Emblem, etc...
Smash, Mario Kart and others like it are clearly spin off or all stars game.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that AAA Pikmin budget. What are you talking about?

And what is an "all stars game"? Yes Mario Kart falls under the Mario umbrella, but your seriously nonsensical "all stars games don't count" take is really bad.
 
Sturmgeist said:
I feel like everyone in this thread is undervaluing Metroid. I guarantee if you did a poll of random people and asked what the top Nintendo franchises are, Metroid would absolutely be in the Top 8, maybe even the Top 5. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the NES/SNES era, but Metroid was huge when I was a kid, especially around 1994 when Super came out. Yeah it had a dip in quality/popularity for a good 10 years there, but with the critical/commercial success of Dread and the impending release of P4, it’s not a shock that Nintendo sees it as one of their most important franchises.
Click to expand...

I think we are all judging the "big franchises" based on sales numbers. Which to honest, before Metroid Dread the series would barely break the top 8 and has been underperforming for quite a while going back to the mid 2000s.
 
Schlubotipelto said:
Yeah, that AAA Pikmin budget. What are you talking about?

And what is an "all stars game"? Yes Mario Kart falls under the Mario umbrella, but your seriously nonsensical "all stars games don't count" take is really bad.
Click to expand...
Wtf, I never said "all stars game don't count". It's Nintendo's list, not mine.
And yes all Pikmin games have looked great on their respective console and clearly higher budget than Fire Emblem, kirby, etc...
There's no debate here, Pikmin on gamecube was Luigi's Mansion, Starfox Adventure tier. I never had Wii U but I heard everybody say Pikmin 3 looked amazing on it too.
 
xV_twist said:
Wtf, I never said "all stars game don't count". It's Nintendo's list, not mine.
And yes all Pikmin games have looked great on their respective console and clearly higher budget than Fire Emblem, kirby, etc...
There's no debate here, Pikmin on gamecube was Luigi's Mansion, Starfox Adventure tier. I never had Wii U but I heard everybody say Pikmin 3 looked amazing on it too.
Click to expand...

You were saying Smash doesn't count as it's own franchise to be counted towards the Top 8 because it's an all stars game. Which is nonsense.

And I don't think you realize how budgets work. Good graphics don't equal AAA budget.
 
Kongo B said:
Everyone in this thread seems to be forgetting a little IP about a super group of brothers smashing each other...
Click to expand...
Counter-point: Nintendo doesn't see it as a separate franchise, hence why they didn't include it in their Top 8. I think Nintendo is referencing specific IP's instead of spin offs.

I agree that Mario Kart and Smash are easily top 5 franchises for Nintendo, but not in this context.
 
Lord Azrael said:
What a timeline we live in, where Sonic will probably have better movies than Mario
Click to expand...
Not really a surprise, sonic is much more fit for that than mario
Schlubotipelto said:
I think we are all judging the "big franchises" based on sales numbers. Which to honest, before Metroid Dread the series would barely break the top 8 and has been underperforming for quite a while going back to the mid 2000s.
Click to expand...
I think we should judge a franchise based on its last game. Which really puts metroid above pikmin, xeno,starfox, and fire emblem (soon to be). Not just sales but also critical acclaim.
 
Mr Doggo said:
Not really a surprise, sonic is much more fit for that than mario

I think we should judge a franchise based on its last game. Which really puts metroid above pikmin, xeno,starfox, and fire emblem (soon to be). Not just sales but also critical acclaim.
Click to expand...
Fire Emblem Three Houses sold more than Metroid Dread and Fire Emblem Heroes made more money than any Metroid or Pikmin game.
 
Schlubotipelto said:
You were saying Smash doesn't count as it's own franchise to be counted towards the Top 8 because it's an all stars game. Which is nonsense.

And I don't think you realize how budgets work. Good graphics don't equal AAA budget.
Click to expand...
I never said that. Go quote me. I know what i said better than u. What's with Warios tryna argue nonsense with me this morning. The list doesn't have any spin off, all stars games or anything like that is all i said. Smash clearly is different from the franchises listed.

And I know how budget works and that graphics doesn't equal higher budget all the time. That's why I called those games "Prestige" first. It doesn't matter tho, you just argueing for the sake of argueing. If you aren't happy with the list is not my fault. The list made sense to Nintendo and to me it makes sense too.
 
xV_twist said:
I never said that. Go quote me. I know what i said better than u. What's with Warios tryna argue nonsense with me this morning. The list doesn't have any spin off, all stars games or anything like that is all i said. Smash clearly is different from the franchises listed.

And I know how budget works and that graphics doesn't equal higher budget all the time. That's why I called those games "Prestige" first. It doesn't matter tho, you just argueing for the sake of argueing. If you aren't happy with the list is not my fault. The list made sense to Nintendo and to me it makes sense too.
Click to expand...

But...you literally said it? Literally in the quote I quoted?

Maybe don't be so hostile in your approach. You literally started by calling us all "clueless." Maybe tone it down a notch.
 
Abzeronow said:
Fire Emblem Three Houses sold more than Metroid Dread and Fire Emblem Heroes made more money than any Metroid or Pikmin game.
Click to expand...
Dread sold like 92% of 3h in less than 3 months, just saying. Most likely surpassed it by now. Yes, if we consider mobile fe is the strongest franchise nintendo has tho lol, although it didnt translate to game sales
 
0
Schlubotipelto said:
But...you literally said it? Literally in the quote I quoted?

Maybe don't be so hostile in your approach. You literally started by calling us all "clueless." Maybe tone it down a notch.
Click to expand...
Again telling me I said something I never said. Why don't you quote where I said it? I just told u what I said. Idc what's on the list or what's not on the list. I just made an observation and added that Smash and MK are spin off or all stars games and clearly are different from other franchise listed here.

Like I said I don't really care, go re-read if u want cuz there's no point of argueing with me that you know better than me what I said. Im sorry for the hostility btw, idk something about these Wario's avatars seems to have triggered me in some ways. Idk, but yeah again. I never said that.

Sorry if I still sound kinda hostile here but just wanted to make this clear that I'm not tryna argue. It's just seems weird and silly what just happened.
 
0
Yeah gang, calm down a bit.

This is the list of IP Nintendo view as most important, and it's not as if we have a complete context for that. That won't just come down to their historic sales - it perhaps ties into Nintendo's newer view of leveraging their IP in multiple ways to grow their gaming audience.
 
Oh my goodness, I severely misread the OP

yeah, this is what Nintendo is highlighting, so it's a very different discussion

this bodes pretty well for Pikmin, honestly
 
I don't think this list means much honestly. It's a bunch of IP with various success and strong identity. Also some of Nintendo biggest IP like the Fit or Sports games are not very recognisable : no specific mascots, games can be very different from one another etc. Actually I wonder if sportsmates were created to have a more recognisable mascot type characters for the Sports brand.
 
Derachi said:
Nintendo doesn’t wholly own Kirby, they share it with HAL. Same kinda situation with Pokemon.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I think Nintendo has had their hand on Pokémon games quite a few times. I know Miyamoto directly mentored Tajishi while Red & Green were being made, for example.

I've never had that impression with Kirby, which I feel has always been 100% HAL (save for the occasional code assisting). Same for Fire Emblem and Xenoblade.
 
Last edited:
Aurc said:
If the criteria is purely sales, then sure, but if I'm not mistaken, Super Metroid and Metroid Prime still remain the only games in Nintendo's history that stand alongside the best of Mario and Zelda, in terms of both influence, and critical acclaim. It makes sense that the series would be mentioned among the others.
Click to expand...
Good luck, I’ve been fighting this fight for a while!😭
 
I wanna be in the room where this list was decided. I'm imagining Miyamoto stepping up and locking the doors forcing everyone to add Pikmin if they want to go home.
 
Kaka said:
I don't think this list means much honestly. It's a bunch of IP with various success and strong identity. Also some of Nintendo biggest IP like the Fit or Sports games are not very recognisable : no specific mascots, games can be very different from one another etc. Actually I wonder if sportsmates were created to have a more recognisable mascot type characters for the Sports brand.
Click to expand...

If you asked any Nintendo fan to name eight of Nintendo's biggest/most recognizable franchises, Pikmin would certainly not be in that list. These are the franchises Nintendo plans to focus their efforts on in the future. I'm sure they'll still have the occasional surprise revival or experiment here and there like RingFit or Labo, but these franchises seem to be the pillars of the company currently. Given Star Fox has had a cancelled game and Zero hasn't been ported over to Switch, it's safe to say that series is dormant. Same with F-Zero.

Good point about the Sportsmates, I'm sure they'll continue developing Sports titles so having a dedicated mascot seems fair.
 
Last edited:
0
KCannon said:
Yeah, but I think Nintendo has had their hand on Pokémon games quite a few times. I know Miyamoto directly mentored Tajishi while Red & Green were being made, for example.

I've never had that impression with Kirby, which I feel has always been 100% HAL (save for the occasional code assisting). Same for Fire Emblem and Xenoblade.
Click to expand...
Maybe at the beginning, but for the most part GameFreak has pretty much total control of development of the franchise. But since Pokemon is included in the list, this may also indicate Nintendo having a bigger role in the development of future games, possibly due to poor reception of recent releases.
 
There's been a fairly large focus in here on sales numbers, which doesn't necessarily equate with the idea of a "household name," and also on just what we feel should be included, which will be informed in no small part by our immersion in the video game realm.

It might be worth considering that these are all brands that are eminently recognizable, with style, characters, and/or iconography that easily makes the origin known, even if someone lacks the knowledge of what the series is called. Someone might even still refer to Link as Zelda, but still recognize what the series is (or the also obvious example of Metroid, who has historically been challenged in the crawling department). "Household name" might not carry the full understanding of what the list is going for.

Without some sort of methodology to track how these IP were selected for the list, we might assume there's some amount of arbitrary reasoning directing some of it -- especially given the "franchises that have become household names worldwide, including [...]" verbiage, which could indicate the list isn't meant to be all-encompassing --, but the list generally makes sense.

Completely anecdotally, but I've known people who weren't particularly big into games who still knew Pikmin, and the little plant buggers do keep popping up in various locations and circumstances.

Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are big with some segments of the dedicated gaming populace, but they won't yet have supplanted these brands as far as the general populace is concerned, if they ever will -- and it seems likely that people who know of these will also know other franchises here, such as Metroid or, yes, Pikmin. And, while these do have some iconography and recurring characters of their own, this hasn't permeated to the same extent where the same general populace will immediately recognize it. These other series are just more inherently recognizable at a glance. Is it being suggested that, if one were to poll the general populace and show them Metroid, Pikmin, Fire Emblem, and Xenoblade, participants would be more likely to recognize the latter two than the former?

This is also why the lack of Smash Bros. makes sense. It's massive, yes, but not inherently recognizable on its own. So much of its iconography, so many of its characters and locations, so much belongs to the franchises that meet up within it. The logo is the most recognizable aspect that is its own, but it's overshadowed by one of the series' great strengths: the clashing of various other franchises within. It isn't lesser for this.

Lord Azrael said:
One of these is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong
Can you tell me which thing is not like the others
Click to expand...
It's Pokémon.
While, yes, a household name, where most people will probably recognize at least Pikachu, it's the only non-internal franchise on the list and singlehandedly unexplains Kirby's absence.

Kirby is eminently recognizable and well-known. If the lack of anything here surprises me, it's this.


Now, what might be interesting is the franchises that fall below these upper echelons. Series like Star Fox and Kid Icarus seem poised to break through if ever given the proper chance and handling.

Uprising focused in a lot on characters and greatly expanded the cast, which seems a way to draw and maintain interest, and even provides a stronger identity on which the series could hang different gameplay types. This could readily be built up around its own clear identity.

Star Fox has a distinct aesthetic and cast of characters, much the same sort of core that is developing in Kid Icarus, but has fallen somewhat to the wayside. I do think it too could be built back up.


MisterSpo said:
Pikmin talk: I downloaded Pikmin Bloom a couple of weeks ago and the urge to get Pikmin 3 DX ever since has been so very strong
Click to expand...
I haven't downloaded Pikmin Bloom, or, really, anything else of that ilk, but I got Pikmin 3 DX ages ago, long before having a Switch itself.

It's definitely on the list of things to get to in the near future.

Now bring the other games over.


Also, shoutout to MondoMega for some good posts earlier in the thread.
 
LukasManak22 said:
It's so crazy how big Splatoon has gotten, it will be just 7 years old in a month. Nogami and his team are amazing.
Click to expand...
Agreed. It was a very successful story on the Wii U, specially in Japan where it sold great and manage to sell hardware there.
 
0
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom