Nintendo has said it time and time again: They're all about the games. They want to turn the world of gaming upside down with the Revolution. We all know some of the games to expect on the system: A Mario platformer (the near legendary Mario 128 most likely), a new Zelda game, a Donkey Kong platformer, Super Smash Bros., Mario sports, Metroid Prime 3, and more. The list goes on. Along with titles we already know about, Nintendo has promised some new titles with fresh ideas that have yet to be revealed to us. Few outside of Nintendo really know the extent of these ideas, but we can still wonder what they've got going on. Here you'll find some game ideas for the Revolution that I've thought up, additional thoughts and ideas from fellow GCC staff members will be featured in part two.
Ultimate Mario Party:
Mario Party has become a love-hate relationship for many. Nintendo has Hudson make a new Mario Party every year, as EA does with Madden. While the Mario Party games (now in its seventh incarnation) are still a total blast to play multiplayer with, the games are often criticized for their single player mode. There's no doubt about it that Mario Party is best played with more than one person, but that's not always an option for some. To top it off, the Mario Party games can't go online either. However, despite all of this, Nintendo has created a wealth of things it can use for this big Revolution project: Ultimate Mario Party.
Ideally, the concept of Ultimate Mario Party should have come as the tenth incarnation of the series, but since we're only on Seven and the Revolution launches this year, that won't work. Ultimate Mario Party is a party like no other before it. The game takes all of the playable characters, and best ideas, concepts, game boards, items, modes, mini-games and more and puts them all into one package with upgraded visuals. Not only this, but include many new game boards, characters, mini-games, etc. But wait, there's more still! Not only does this game have tweaked single player game play, it can also include special features of the Revolution controller for the games.
There's only one other thing that can make Ultimate Mario Party just that: Online. I was talking to someone who has been critical of the Mario Party series and how Hudson has been putting out a new one year after year, but after describing my idea, even he was excited at this prospect. Ultimate Mario Party would thrive with online capability. Play with total strangers, add them if you want, leave feedback, play with your friends, you name it. Nintendo could also hold competitions for special prizes, or offer new content for download periodically, such as new mini-games or game boards. I would even go so far as to include a custom game board designer program, just to keep things even more fresh.
After the release of Ultimate Mario Party, Nintendo should slow Hudson down for a little while. This game will be big enough where it won't get stale for a while. Wait a couple of years before releasing a new Mario Party, and then maybe once they do that, release the Mario Party games every two years or so instead of every year. It would do a lot to help the series.
Nintendo World RPG:
I've been dreaming of this particular game for a couple of years now, but knew it could never be done on the GameCube simply because it would probably be multiple discs. The Revolution, along with its extra horsepower, should be more than capable of putting everything onto one game disc.
Played it or not, most everyone should be well familiar with the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts (and its upcoming sequel Kingdom Hearts II). As odd as it sounds to blend Final Fantasy with Disney characters, somehow Square-Enix not only did it, but also did it pretty well at that. Nintendo World RPG (for lack of a better title at the moment) somewhat borrows from this, but is much bigger.
Nintendo World RPG takes the biggest characters from various Nintendo games and incorporates them into an RPG of epic proportions. Characters from Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Earthbound, Star Fox, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, and more star in this RPG extravaganza. One potential story premise is that the villains of the respective game worlds have teamed up to conquer the heroes, with an even more evil force behind them driving the events. To begin the game, you select which character you'd like to be your main character, be it Mario, Samus, or whoever. For an example, let's use Fox McCloud. Fox, throughout the game, will be the main character of your party. You'll journey all over the "Nintendoverse," seeing new game lands and meeting other Nintendo characters, some of whom will join your quest. Some gameplay elements, field abilities, and characters that join your team all depend on what character you choose to start with. So if you begin with Fox, he may not go through a major story involving Donkey Kong, who may also not join his team. However, if the character begins with Mario, he may go through different things than Fox did, and Donkey Kong may join his team.
Choosing the different characters will give lots of variety to playing through the game several times with other characters, as opposed to going through the same exact things and everything becoming stale. While there are still some things to be ironed out in this one, the overall premise of a game similar to this is exciting. Of course, after playing through all of the different stories and characters, one big final story is opened up and ties up all of the loose ends (taking a cue from the 3D Sonic games).
Nintendo Grand Prix:
It occurred to me the other day that as far as Nintendo-tied racing games, there are very few. They basically are Mario Kart, F-Zero, and Kirby Air Ride. Mario Kart takes a lot of characters from the Mario universe and puts them in a racing game, and I thought it was odd that unlike Smash Bros., Nintendo has not put all of its major characters in a racing game. That's where Nintendo Grand Prix comes in.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want the game designed to be a Mario Kart rip-off starring other Nintendo characters. Nintendo Grand Prix should be able to stand on its own two feet. Nintendo could include huge and gorgeous tracks based off various locales in Nintendo games and items from a number of games to be used against your opponents (taking somewhat of a cue from Smash Bros.). Various characters, like in Mario Kart DS, can have several unlockable vehicles to use, as well as the ability to use a vehicle with whatever character you like. For example, Kirby may use a Warp Star vehicle, and Link can use something that looks like its modeled after Epona.
And of course, what would a Revolution racer be without an online mode? So imagine racing as one of numerous Nintendo characters online with your friends over sprawling racetracks, spanning from locales like Onett, Aether, Zebes, the Mushroom Kingdom, Corneria, Sauria (Dinosaur Planet), Hyrule, Termina, Dreamland, and more.
Kirby RPG:
Kirby's so far only had one 3D (well, sort of 2˝D) adventure outing, with a true 3D adventure for GameCube still pending release. Kirby games, which are generally of high-quality, usually involve Kirby stealing his enemies' abilities. With that said, it seems kind of odd that Kirby hasn't starred in his own RPG yet.
At least to me, it makes sense that Kirby's power-copying ability would make a great concept to revolve a turn-based RPG around. As progress is made in the game, Kirby could find friends (old and new) to join his party. To me, Kirby RPG seems like it would fit the Paper Mario style very well (not necessarily graphically, but concerning visible enemies in the field, and swapping partners in battle). At the same time though, having more than Kirby and just one other partner seems like it would also do fine. This game may not be on the massive RPG scale as Nintendo World RPG, but it still has a lot of potential for fun.
3D Yoshi Adventure:
The last time Yoshi starred in his own game, people were pretty critical of it (yes, everyone knows I'm talking about Yoshi's Story). Before that though, Yoshi's Island was pure awesome. I think it's about time Yoshi breaks out into his game again for a big 3D adventure. The closest to this so far is Yoshi as a playable character in Super Mario 64 DS, but he was simply an addition to the SM64 remake. With Yoshi's unique abilities, and the wide variety of colors in the different Yoshis, a 3D adventure could be a whole lot of fun.
Included with this game is a Yoshi simulator. In a mode separate for the main game, you hatch and raise your own Yoshi. Perhaps there could even be a way of using your own raised Yoshi in the main game. Not at your Revolution? No big deal, just connect it to your Nintendo DS and take Yoshi on the go with you. Nintendo could even include an extra online feature, where maybe multiple Yoshis play the main game, or perhaps people can battle their own raised Yoshis.
Mario Sports:
This is a little more of a given than the other titles mentioned, but I can still add a little to it. So far the Mario Sports collection consists of Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Soccer, and soon for the DS, Basketball. Technically Mario Kart fits under this category as well.
The Mario Sports games are usually high quality. Games like Strikers, however, are good, but just lack some needed features. Of what I've read about the game, Strikers is an awesome soccer game and a lot of fun in multiplayer, but single player tends to get a little boring due to lack of more characters to play as and put on your team, as well as lack of options in the game. Likewise, Mario Baseball is a good title, but needs just a little more tweaking before it's actually great.
First and foremost, all Mario Sports from now on should be online on the Revolution. There's no reason not to. All of the games need a vast amount of playable characters and various options and modes. In Soccer, I should have more than just a barely bigger than Mario Kart 64 playable characters option for my team captains, and the rest of the team should be able to be mixed and matched instead of a bunch of generic clones of Toad, Birdo, or what have you.
Now, as I said, Mario Kart is technically in the Mario Sports category. It's no secret that Mario Kart Revolution is in development (as someone from Nintendo all but said it is). First and foremost, I want Nintendo to take Mario Kart Arcade GP, add a few more characters and tracks, upgrade the visuals a little, and add online play. Although this game would be an arcade port (which still looks fantastic), it would be an excellent way to tide over gamers until the release of the Revolution-developed Mario Kart. By this time, Nintendo should know how to make a game online-capable and how to do it well. This could easily eclipse Mario Kart DS. Along with Nintendo Grand Prix, this could also make good use of a Revolution controller steering wheel peripheral.
Golden Sun:
Whether the next-generation RPG that Camelot is working on at the moment is a sequel to Golden Sun or an entirely new game, there's no doubt that a Golden Sun game for the Revolution would be a great idea. One of the distinguishing factors in the Golden Sun games was the use of psynergy (a kind of magic). You could do more than simply use magic in battles, you could take it outside of battles and use it in many places in the world to manipulate objects; pulling them, pushing them, and lifting them, among other things. These actions would obviously prove to be a perfect match for the Revolution controller. You could push objects simply by pushing the Revolution controller in front of you, pull objects by pulling the controller towards you, or lift objects by lifting the controller.
Of course, there could certainly be more elaborate things as well, having to do with the more interesting kinds of psynergy present in the Golden Sun games (such as freezing puddles, and stopping time) as well as whatever innovative, new psynergy the developers would introduce in the Revolution sequel. The possibilities are truly limitless. You could create a whirlwind by spinning the controller, or greatly increase your character's speed by quickly moving the controller around. The idea for a Golden Sun game for the Revolution seems so obvious that it would be surprising if the talented folks over at Camelot hadn't begun to think of the possibilities. The game could truly be something amazing and utilize the controller in more ways than any other game, and come up with some truly inspired and interesting ideas for how to do it. And with the severe lack of RPGs that the last couple of Nintendo consoles have had to deal with, another RPG certainly couldn't hurt (innovative or not). Additionally, I would like to extend a thank you to my friend "Grumblie" for his help and additions to this idea.
These were just some of my ideas, check back later for Part II, where other members of the GCC staff share their thoughts and hopes for future games.
Joe McCollum
