Nintendo wants to know what you want

Thanks to Stephen Totilo’s excellent chain interview series over at Kotaku, something I have wanted to hear come from Nintendo executives for ages was spoken:

In the same vein of Team Ninja working with Nintendo to re-imagine Metroid, what development group would your readers love to see partner and collaborate with Nintendo? And on what franchise?

Here’s a rundown of some of my favorite things from the comments over at Kotaku:

• Treasure (Sin & Punishment, Gunstar Heroes, Wario’s World) and Kirby
• Treasure (see above) and Star Fox
• Square Enix (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest) and Mario for Super Mario RPG 2
• Nippon Ichi Software (Disgaea, Phantom Brave) and Pokemon
• Rockstar Games (Grand Theft Auto) and The Legend of Zelda
• Platinum Games ((MadWorld, Bayonetta; also formerly Clover Studios: Okami, Viewtiful Joe))‚  on Kid Icarus

Those would all be wonderful. Treasure worked on Wario’s World and brought a great franchise to life in a 2.5D format; Kirby deserves the same kind of love, and Treasure would do wonders with his vast array of abilities. Treasure is also a master of on-rails experiences with loads of bullets, so Star Fox is a no-brainer. Super Mario RPG is proof that Super Mario RPG 2 would not be a bad idea. NIS working on Pokemon would be one of the best strategy RPGs I can conceive. The universe and abilities are massive, and adding all of those extra levels and combos to the Pokemon universe would make for quite the experience. Rockstar is the king of the open-world, sandbox environment: putting them in charge of Hyrule–not necessarily in a mature setting, mind you–would be an experiment worth checking out. Platinum Games has shown their ability in the past, so asking them to do a mature Kid Icarus would be great; you could do a lot with that franchise, considering it hasn’t been touched in ages, and doesn’t have that family friendly tag near it.

As for my own picks:

• Factor 5 (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series, Turrican) and Star Fox
• Blue Tongue (de Blob) and Donkey Kong
• Platinum Games (see above) and Legend of Zelda
• Atlus (Tramau Center, Shin Megami Tensei, countless outrageous localizations) and Earthbound
• Frontier Developments (LostWinds) and Kid Icarus
• Treasure (see above) and Legendary Starfy

Factor 5 has closed down its doors, but I keep hoping they will make a comeback in some capacity and get that gig from Nintendo. Blue Tongue did an excellent job creating a lush, vibrant world that was colorful in both its visuals and in its audio–that’s the perfect kind of developer for a Donkey Kong game. Platinum Games made Okami when they were Clover Studios. Okami was essentially a love letter to Zelda style gameplay; want to freshen up Zelda a bit? Combine talents with those who love the series like you do. Atlus has a fantastic sense of humor, and can put together a story. I think this would have a lot of potential to do justice to the Earthbound series, while pleasing two very loyal fanbases. Frontier Developments did a fine job with LostWinds, and I think a 2D platforming Kid Icarus would be a fun thing to see them do. This might be better served on a handheld–everything I have been thinking of is console-centric. As I said before, Treasure did wonders with Wario World back on the GameCube, and I would like to see them make a 2.5D Starfy game for the Wii, along with TOSE who quietly makes the games.

Is there a dream matchup you want to see? Someone I didn’t mention? Let us know what you think.