...either first- or third-party, who would you pick for each? Mikey's Retro on Mario Kart U talk got me thinking.

To make it interesting, let's say that you CAN'T assign a team to a franchise that they have worked on. And try not to assign more to a dev than they can actually handle. Dream projects (like a galaxy-hopping Star Fox action game or a Captain Falcon third-person shooter) are eligible. I'll staaaart (and maybe even finish!).


Mario Kart (console) - Retro (w/ Sakurai consulting on features)

Star Fox - Platinum Games (either a traditional game or a fun, furry action game)

2D Star Fox - Treasure

2D Kid Icarus - WayForward

F-Zero - AV doesn't exist anymore, so... Criterion or the remains of Sony Liverpool or Bizarre Creations? I dunno. Monster doesn't seem like the best fit for F-Zero, somehow. And I'm not quite as enamored of Sumo Digital as everyone else.

Clu Clu Land - Paon

Balloon Fight - NST

Excitebike (3D) - Delphine (do they still exist?)

Urban Champion - Treasure

Punch Out! - Epic Games kidding!

Animal Crossing - ... Good Feel?

Mario Party - ...Hmm, most other party games stink.

Smash Brothers - ... uh. I guess it would be interesting to see a 3D, Power Stone-esque take from... I dunno, Eighting? Platinum Games?

Wario Ware - ...gah!

Paper Mario - Alphadream

Mario & Luigi - Intelligent Systems

StarTroid - Capcom?

Eternal Darkness - Some Indie Horror Dev (2D?)

Donkey Kong: Championship Edition - ... The Wario Ware team?

3D Metroid - EAD Tokyo (cel-shaded)

3D Zelda - EAD... Tokyo? Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Retro give it a shot. On third thought, I'll say MonolithSoft, if they got some help on the action stuff.

3D Mario - ... this is super-tough. Shin'en?


Which would free up EAD to work on original stuff!

There are waaaay more franchises to cover, but my brain is tired.

And, now that I've thought about it more, it might be more interesting to just assign every franchise, without any limitations (except for the workload one). So feel free to do it that way, too.

URL to share (right click and copy)

This was tough, and some I probably should have just skipped over. But, I honestly would like to see some of these happen...

Animal Crossing - Skip Ltd. (and maybe Chunsoft (Homeland))
Donkey Kong - Ganbarion
F-Zero - Treasure Co., Ltd.
Fire Emblem - AlphaDream
Kirby - Intelligent Systems
Mario (2D) - WayForward
Mario (3D) - HAL Laboratory
Mario & Luigi - Tose & Eighting
Mario Kart - Camelot Software Planning
Mario Party - Game Freak
Metroid - Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.
Mother/EarthBound - EAD Group (but only with Itoi should another game be made)
Paper Mario - 1-UP Studio
Pikmin - Creatures Inc.
Pokemon - Square Enix
Smash Brothers - EAD Tokyo (with Sora Ltd.)
Star Fox - Monolith Soft
Super Princess Peach - Good-Feel (hand drawn, and better music than their norm)
Zelda - Retro

Wow, I had a massive analysis and then accidentally pressed backspace when I meant to press enter.

I kind of wonder if there's a subtext to this thread, that people think the current developers of these series and franchises aren't doing a good enough job... but I'm probably thinking too much into it.

Really, rather than assign a new developer, my dream would be to allow devs to have as much time as they need to make the game as great as it can be. Most games are missing something, be it simply more content or as big as an unrealised potential in a gameplay aspect, and so it'd be nice if they had all the time in the world to make their games. I know this is impossible due to the business side of things, such as deadlines and profits and yada yada yada, hence why it'd be my dream developer... or something.

@Mop it up
Oh please no. I doubt Shiggy would ever release a game again if that would be the case!!

@NoName

Animal Crossing New Leaf looks good, but I like the idea of a Skip-developed Animal Crossing game. Besides that, what was the last game that Skip made? I'm hoping that they have something in the works for the 3DS or Wii U.

Camelot for Mario Kart sounds like a match with potential too. At the very least, they would put Waluigi in the game!

@Octorockin

They made all the Art Style games, but I suppose it's been a while even since those came out.

Intelligent Systems should get to work on a Kirby RPG.

NoName said:

This was tough, and some I probably should have just skipped over. But, I honestly would like to see some of these happen...

Animal Crossing - Skip Ltd. (and maybe Chunsoft (Homeland)) no comment
Donkey Kong - Ganbarion I'm familiar with JUMP ultimate Stars, but that's about it. I don't know much about this studio, although I wouldn't oppose
F-Zero - Treasure Co., Ltd. I don't think Treasure will do well with the actual racing aspect. It might be worse than Mario Karts rubber band AI
Fire Emblem - AlphaDream no comment
Kirby - Intelligent Systems weird choice, this would be like wanting Game Freak to handle Pikmin
Mario (2D) - WayForward This studio is way overrated by some, they are a B-team, at most. They shouldn't go near a triple-A Mario, as bland as it has been lately
Mario (3D) - HAL Laboratory Now you're just trolling, HAL has never made a decent 3D Kirby game, what makes you think they could handle a 3D Mario?
Mario & Luigi - Tose & Eighting no comment
Mario Kart - Camelot Software Planning see Kirby
Mario Party - Game Freak see Mario Kart
Metroid - Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. No, just no. While I admit that Suda has his moments, I wouldn't want to "objectify" Samus even if it is in an "ironic way".Furthermore, I want to play polished games, not the messes Suda usually comes up with that is excused behind the "satire" flag by many. I'm tired of Suda, really.
Mother/EarthBound - EAD Group (but only with Itoi should another game be made) decent choide
Paper Mario - 1-UP Studio no comment
Pikmin - Creatures Inc. no comment
Pokemon - Square Enix I could actually see this working if they use the FFXIII battle system good choice.
Smash Brothers - EAD Tokyo (with Sora Ltd.)
Star Fox - Monolith Soft This will just be another StarFox adventure game. Might as well just make a new IP because there is no way this could work unless they marry dogfights with foot missions. Although Monolith X looks like it might be doing something similar. I would have given this to Treasure. Although it might end up as a SHMUP now that I think about it.
Super Princess Peach - Good-Feel (hand drawn, and better music than their norm) no comment
Zelda - Retro I would rather see Retro do their own thing. And frankly, I think people should give Zelda a rest. There, I said it.

In conclusion, you need to expand your horizons my friend.

@Tranquilo

The point of many of my choices, you dear sweet man, was to give what I deem quality developers the chance to expand their horizons and create something outside of their norm. To challenge them, as opposed to suffocating them with staleness, should only spark creativity and excitement - at least one would hope. I can only imagine what it would be like to create the same type of game over and over again, with no end in sight, and no chance to spread one's wings. I feel all developers should be given the chance to show what else they are capable of. Now, would I like every quality developer to ditch their respective sequel entries in place of something new and fresh for once? You betcha! But the question at hand, you see, was to assign known developers to known franchises. I could explain my choices, but I fear there'd simply be no point

@NoName

That reasoning makes sense, but the execution is flawed. Many developers you listed have tried to makes something different. Specially in the case of HAL Laboratories and their known ineptitude at making any sort of 3D games. Some studios are more versatile, and others cannot really do something as different as you have listed there. Lighting may strike and you get a good game, but most likely than not, something bad will happen unless they (developers) outsource. This mostly applies to Japanese devs because traditionally, they are the most obstinate.

And furthermore, if you want something new and exciting to happen you shouldn't assign established (or at least well-known) franchises to devs. Have them make something new from the ground up. And Nintendo should let some of these games stay as non-Kirby (that game starting prince Fluff) for example.

What you could have done is list devs doing something in the same vein but not necessarily the same genre like Square doing Pokemon. (Kind of a bad example since it's pretty much the same genre) Still, they are different enough franchises. Something to take you out of the norm, while not necessarily giving you a headache because you have no idea how to tackle it.

I am not going to reassign every franchise but you know what I would do?

Square Enix to work on a sequel to Super Mario RPG. However, it would be Legend of Zelda RPG. That could turn out fantastically.

Today's Square Enix!?

Boy, you're optimistic.

@Guillaume

Hmmm. I cannot remember Square Enix game I played now that I think about it. Very well, I would instead give it a competent developer who can make a good RPG.

@Octorockin

Hey... You're back in action here!

I have seen your posts over on Starmen (I'm kind of a lurker there, too), and see that you've been busy buying bunches of Fangamer stuff. Me too! I just ordered the Snow Wood hooded jacked in the new teal color and am having it tailored now to put in thumb holes and have it properly fitted. It looks awesome. Did you get the new pixelated EarthBound posters? They are really quite something.

Anyway, yes, I think Skip, Ltd. could do well with the Animal Crossing series. I always wanted to play Giftpia and have a great deal of respect for them due to their work on the Art Style games, and of course, Chibi Robo.

I also like your mentioning Ice Climbers and your selection of a primo developer to take the helm. I really grew to like Popo and Nana due to Brawl (much more so than Melee for some reason), and would very much enjoy a fully fleshed out game featuring this über charming duo.

@Mop it up
Nah, not really a subtext. But certain franchises could definitely do with a shake-up.

@Tranquilo
Not all WayForward games receive the same amount of care, but they are certainly capable of excellence (Shantae: Risky's Revenge & Contra IV).

@Anand

I didn't play Shantae: Risky's Revenge, but Contra 4 was plagued with issues that made the game borderline unplayable. Bullets came at you from all sides (sometimes even the huge gap between the screens) and stealth killed you. Speaking of which, player sprites were too big relative to the screen which made the aforementioned problem worse. Lastly, that gap between the screen often made it difficult to judge distances when platforming.

I also played A Boy and His blob, decent game but only a B level title. I know they don't have the budget for more but I haven't been particularly impressed with any of the games I've played from them so far. With that said, given the recent slew of bland Mario games, I don't think they will do much worse so why not? Maybe with Miyamoto's direction or someone else's influence they could make something worthwhile.

Borderline unplayable? I dunno, I could see the bullets. Usually. I just sucked at not getting hit by them.

@Tranquilo
Almost all of your issues have to do with the DS hardware!

Dual-screen action games have their quirks for sure, but I totally miss them. In a world of endless portage, those games were really designed around the DS hardware. No compromises. Plus, it was just cool. I drool at the thought of a dual-screen vertical scroller, like a new Kid Icarus (by WayForward!).