Has nintendo lost touch in making games?

[Artwark]

I don't think Nintendo has lost much in terms of their touch, it's just that the times have changed and Nintendo is struggling to keep up to the point where they have to make a Mario game or two and reusing assets or engines or even remaking games. They probably love to go back to the SNES/N64/Gamecube eras for creativity but are worried that it is not safe financially to do it.

Take Miyamoto for example, he is a wonderful game designer and many views that he made throughout the years are highly agreeable (e.g. delaying games can turn out good, games are like rock and roll as in that there are people who love it and people who hate it so much that they want it banned, games should be enjoyed) however I feel that he is burnt out in terms of making games. After all his last few games have been flops e.g. Wii Music and his advice has harmed Paper Mario: Sticker Star since when he designed games back in the 80s, they were even lucky to even have an ending but now a lot of games put story first or story and graphics first so to many it felt like a step backwards. Also I feel that Miyamoto does get jealous like he hated Donkey Kong Country for years just because it sold better than Yoshi's Island and probably it is me talking I think he is jealous of Sega handling F-Zero GX making excuses on why there are no more F-Zero games [all Nintendo have to do is look at other racing games to get a couple of ideas or even expand on their existing ideas e.g. the Track Editor could become a Track Creator to share tracks on Miiverse]. Well that and the series apparently isn't a high seller plus the fact apart from Nintendo themselves and Polyphony, there aren't any Japanese developers left making racing games so that's another reason.

The main problem is that Nintendo interfere too much whether it is 1987 or 2013, even though their games are usually very high quality. Would Paper Mario: Sticker Star is better if it wasn't interfered? Probably. However would Metroid Prime be better if it was just Retro Studios without any help from Nintendo? No it wouldn't. Plus the fact Nintendo has annoyed other publishers/developers in the past to the point of ignoring them due to various policies and they are stubborn. Capcom, Konami, Namco [even way back in the late 80s], more recently EA all who supported Nintendo heavily and later pulled out or mostly pulled out with a bit of lip service. With Square-Enix, it is mostly the handheld side that are still in, they only made a few console titles after Final Fantasy VI. SNK left for the Neo Geo but came back for the Wii (under SNK Playmore) just for compliations/re-releases, Taito and Tecmo didn't really support them much after the 16 bit era. Nintendo's other help have all gone e.g. Acclaim, Midway (now Warner Bros. who do support Nintendo a bit), THQ and the various other studios. How long will it be until Nintendo annoy Sega, Platinum Games and Ubisoft?

So you're saying that Zelda games should have that hint system that destroys all the joys of exploration and searching for solutions? I don't understand what would happen if they make games like how they used to. To make them fun and memorable. Right now the only good 3ds game I've played is Super mario 3d land and Ocarina of time. But the're not as memorable as Super mario 64 or Phantom hourglass to me. Why? Because there wasn't a guy that gives you hints nor there were exploration limitations. Both the Mario galaxy games had the exploration limitations that Mario 64 didn't because in mario 64 you could get any star you wanted.

Also Sega was partly responsible for bringing out the Playstation series mainly because they were one of the first companies to make games on cd. If Sony didn't show up, Nintendo would have dominated the industry again because no one cares much about what Microsoft will do seeing that their next console is leading to skepticalism.

[BumblebeeCody*]

Nintendo were a top notch software and hardware. For me, Nintendo went downhill when the Wii came out. I've never felt so disappointed with a Nintendo console. There's to many problems with the Wii for me to go back to it. I feel Nintendo has a stubborn attitude to game design and no where is this more evident than their recent games like Skyward Sword of Mario games.

Nintendo are guilty of rehashing the same series formula while adding new features that are annoying than good. I'm mainly talking about these "help guides" they keep adding to their games. Sheikah stones, video playthroughs and in some cases, huge onscreen hints that're forced at the player like Fi. Nothing about the Wii U is impressive and all of the games are solid, but nothing special. They haven't lost their way in making games, but they're seriously stuck in the 90's catering to hardcore Nintendo fantards.
I'm hoping Nintendo flip the table and go all out on the new Zelda to really bring it to a modern era of game that is closer to games like The Witcher 2 while still retaining the Zelda atmosphere. If The Lost Woods looked like this (Xbox 360)...
...damn would that be awesome.

Otherwise we'll end up with another mehfest that was Skyward Sword which added nothing to the series other than a decent(ish) story and some of the best Link-Zelda character interaction.

[Lazlo Falconi]

Also if games like Dark moon were a bit disappointing, why are reviews and sales positive?

This is because the reviewers have to review the game as it is. They can't say it's a disappointment because they loved the first one. They go over the story, gameplay, mechanics, everything really.

Sales on the other hand are usually good because it's a game people haven't seen and want. Think about it, if a new F-Zero came out on the 3DS do you know how well that would sell?

Judging by the way Maximum Velocity and GP Legend sold? Nobody would buy it.

[CosmykTheDolfyn]

Also if games like Dark moon were a bit disappointing, why are reviews and sales positive?

This is because the reviewers have to review the game as it is. They can't say it's a disappointment because they loved the first one. They go over the story, gameplay, mechanics, everything really.

Sales on the other hand are usually good because it's a game people haven't seen and want. Think about it, if a new F-Zero came out on the 3DS do you know how well that would sell?

Judging by the way Maximum Velocity and GP Legend sold? Nobody would buy it.

Considering that they had very little press attention, were hard to find, and were handheld racing games, of course they didn't sell near as well the console games.

[Dutchtica*]

I didn't even know they came out. This is the first time I heard of them.

[Arjahn]

Fire Emblem.

[Lazlo Falconi]

Also if games like Dark moon were a bit disappointing, why are reviews and sales positive?

This is because the reviewers have to review the game as it is. They can't say it's a disappointment because they loved the first one. They go over the story, gameplay, mechanics, everything really.

Sales on the other hand are usually good because it's a game people haven't seen and want. Think about it, if a new F-Zero came out on the 3DS do you know how well that would sell?

Judging by the way Maximum Velocity and GP Legend sold? Nobody would buy it.

Considering that they had very little press attention, were hard to find, and were handheld racing games, of course they didn't sell near as well the console games.

At least in Maximum Velocity's case, this was a good thing. Also how would GP Legend be considered hard to find? Sure it wasn't advertised a whole lot, but it ran concurrently with the F-Zero Saturday morning cartoon show. Since there are no F-Zero toys (Unfortunately), this was a vehicle solely for selling the game, which was actually very fun and was extremely easy.

Truth be told, I'm just very bitter at Nintendo when it comes to F-Zero, which is probably one of it's coolest franchises, but is constantly bogged down by developers who don't care about story continuity, and like to add new characters every time--despite keeping the 30 racer limit, and, as you said, lack of advertising. At all. The first time I ever heard of F-Zero was from Smash Bros (Who is this Captain Falcon guy?) And then they didn't even release Climax in the US, which was quite honestly the best handheld F-Zero game ever.