17 replies to this topic

[rtacow]

I don't think nitendo has ever made an open world game before and it would be cool to see Mario just to run all around toad town or Peachs castle

[rosemary654321]

Yes it would be cool but I think if there would be one that it should with Yoshi as the main character because it would have lots of secrets and cute characters.

[mandm7527]

You know what be really cool would have to be mario 64 2 which sounds stupid but the original was kind of open world but in number 2 add a town inwhich you could obtain sidequests like “oh i was walking on an icy mountian when peguins came and picked him up and ran away” You could get worthless items like a luigi hat you could parade around with or coins you could spend on stuff like mini mushrooms you could use in levels or have to use to complete. and in some levels you could collect puzzle pieces that would create new pictures. also there sould be random character sights like zelda and if you got all the caracter photos you would unlock a mirrored gammeplay mode. but the last caracter would be found at the credits after betting the last boss. if all caracters unlocked in mirror mode you would unlok the ultimate prize. the crown hat that when worn would bring you to the real final boss.

[Auzzie Wingman]

Firstly, I want to post this.
A fellow member gave an idea, which is basically a Nintendo version of Playstation Home on the Playstation 3. Credits to Ponkotsu.
http://thewiiu.com/t...81-miitropolis/

I've had a few ideas about an open world like game. Although not really the kind of thing I think everyone is talking about, I did have this one idea where you raise Yoshi's, in a similar way to games like Creatures, Black and White and Spore. At any given point, you can connect your world of Yoshi's to creations that other players have made. Essentially a life simulator with internet functions. Knowing me, I'd give it a bogus name like "Yoshi Planets" or something. I'm sure if I was a super nerdy programmer, I'd do that just for Feld0.

But enough about a life simulation idea.

In my ideal open world scenario, I'd like a game where while the themes that surround you come from Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Starfox, Kirby etc., you aren't actually placed in the times of the characters that make it great. Like, you wouldn't run into Mario, but you will run into lots of Toads, Koopas, Goombas etc. You wouldn't run into Ganondorf, but you would walk into a Moblin trap. You wouldn't run into the G.F.S Valhalla, but you would get cornered by a lousy bunch of Space Pirates. Essentially, it would be like SSBB, but without the brawlers and key characters, and instead of a platform fighting game, you'd end up with this amazing World of Warcraft-like amalgamation of Nintendo franchises.

Fighting a Mogenar? To much of a colossus for your Ice Missiles? Fire Flower? Dragonite? Megiddo Flame Psynergy? No worries, because we've got a Warp Star that takes care of that!

Climb Icy Mountains. Blast your way through Skyworld. Take down the Airship Battalion with one Missile Raid from your Gunship. It's all there, and more, waiting for you in <insert really cool Nintendo Crossover enticing game name here>.

[rtacow]

Ya that sounds like a really good idea thanks

[Narcidius]

I do very much enjoy some open world games (Red Dead Redemption being foremost in my mind)... but I think that it definitely needs to be the right kind of game. I think that a Monster-Hunter-esque dragon-slaying epic in a fantasy setting would really suit Nintendo well, and would make for a great open world game.

I liked some of the suggestions above as well... though many of them seemed more like what I would consider "sandbox" games or even RPGs, rather than open world games. I do think that Nintendo needs a good open world game, in any case... and any new IP would excite me!

[Eskimo_sam]

A brand new mascot to take nintendo to the mature aged gamers

[Jabob]

I think just a huge Mushroom Kingdom exploring game, using all the Mario Characters (a lot of them playable) maybe have some other things or quests in some form.

[Caius Casshern Sins]

I think Nintendo should make a new IP or a revival of a old game for an open world game.

[Auzzie Wingman]

Also, Wonder Boy.

Must have Wonder Boy open world game.

[bloop2424]

A brand new mascot to take nintendo to the mature aged gamers

Mature gamers used to be kids.. and they played Mario, Zelda, and all that crap.

SEEWUTIDIDTHAR?

[Auzzie Wingman]

I think he meant Mature rated games.

[Ponkotsu]

I've given some thought to open-world Nintendo games myself. It might be a little challenging to get the mass market to latch onto a number of concepts for them within traditional franchises, but it's certainly not impossible - though hard to say if Nintendo would go for such a design at some point. But we have actually seen some open-world games from them as is.

The entire Legend of Zelda series is pretty much built on huge open worlds to explore, with lots of sidequests, collectibles, and so forth, and elements like atmosphere, day/night cycles, weather, and so on playing larger roles in more recent installments of the series. They're less sandbox titles than just full open-world action adventures, though, with plenty of side content.

Fantasy titles in a vein not dissimilar to Yakuza, which itself is basically a modern day brawler adventure/RPG franchise set in a fictionalized take on Shinjuku with tons of side activities and quests to distract yourself with when not working on the main story - a bit of a tighter experience by design in terms of focus than its older sibling, Shenmue, which is more outright open-world adventure, exploring and conversing to advance the plot with lots of side activities to do. Given that Sega has a history of seeing their games not sell so well outside of Nintendo platforms post-Dreamcast (And especially this generation), it would make sense for them to bring Yakuza over to Nintendo platforms (Considering that it's hard to justify continually backing the PS3 with that series when it hasn't made money there all generation and stopped after the PS2, even the PSP Yakuza game getting quickly drowned out on charts since it dropped around the same time in Japan as Pokemon Black and White.), and to at least port over the first two Shenmue games and give Yu Suzuki a decent budget (As they certainly could on something like the 3DS or Wii U) to viably make a third and final installment to complete that series.

Mega Man Legends 3's cancellation was made all the more tragic by that it was an open-world title as well that, like previous games, would have had plenty of things to explore, see, and do on the side before its cancellation. The franchise was largely rejected by the PSX audience back in the day, where alternative takes on Mega Man were not widely accepted, but in more recent years, the Mega Man fanbase pretty much consolidated on Nintendo portables with GBA and DS Mega Man releases routinely doing well. Legends 3 could have potentially outdone its predecessors, made money, and opened the door for remakes of the first two games and the Misadventures of Tron Bonne, but unfortunately, it's looking like Capcom's trying to simply put Mega Man behind them now.

Word has been that Retro Studios was interested in making a sort of open-world Metroid game as well, based less around the usual simple, straightforward approach to the franchise, but more on letting you actually be more of a bounty hunter with Samus, going to outposts, taking jobs, then flying to different worlds and so on to track down your quarries and defeat them for payment. In a sense, almost like a sci-fi Monster Hunter. (In line with Narcidius's Monster Hunter-esque dragon slaying idea on the previous page. Nintendo even had something not dissimilar in terms of content on the Wii in Zangeki no Reginleiv, which had you battling it out with, giants, dragons, and other monsters across huge Dynasty/Samurai Warriors style maps, over-the-top fantasy arcade brawler style. Sadly, where Sandlot's Earth Defense Force games made it west despite dismal sales in all regions, Zangeki was kept in Japan after it sold poorly there too, as Sandlot's niche, awesome arcade games sadly have a history of. I'm still hoping Nintendo will give some of their titles a shot in the west yet in the future, on the 3DS or Wii U, after their first party Nintendo-published Wii and DS games stayed in Japan.) Unfortunately, Sakamoto shut that idea down, as he didn't want to see Samus portrayed that way, despite her entire history of essentially being this silent, deadly bounty hunter character. Of course, we saw what his thinking led to with her controversial portrayal in Other M.

Skip's Chibi-Robo games - especially the first one on the Gamecube - have been open-world surreal adventure games too, with a small amount of lightweight action, but after the first game and its park-restoration sim DS sequel largely went ignored in the west, the third adventure game on the DS stayed in Japan. The Wii's Captain Rainbow and Gamecube's Giftpia were in similar veins, too, and also stayed in Japan in the end, despite early plans to localize Giftpia that fell through. There are some elements of that in their release of last year's Snowpack Park on WiiWare, though that game's primary focus is still on penguin collection through a variety of little games.

As RPGs go, Opoona on the Wii also thrived on a beautifully designed, ridiculously indepth original world that made you want to explore every nook and cranny and rather wish you could set foot in the whimsical, lovingly crafted vast setting yourself, for reasons not dissimilar to how inviting Animal Crossing's world is, despite how unambitious the scales of towns and the city have been in that series so far, with no game in the series even having surpassed the animal population limits of the original N64/Gamecube game yet, when you'd think they'd want us to have larger towns with more animal neighbors, more interaction depth, and much more to see and do with each successive sequel - in the least, it's looking like the 3DS game is going to get that series back on a less conservative track, and hopefully the inevitable Wii U Animal Crossing will be even more ambitious. As for Opoona, Koei didn't back the game in any region, so its sales were fairly lackluster despite its brilliance, so at this point, I'm just hoping ArtePiazza will get additional shots at making more RPGs in its vein, with similar amounts of effort, love, and brilliant scale of design and imagination. Hopefully with more atmospheric and memorable Hitoshi Sakimoto soundtracks. I'd definitely buy spiritual successors or anything like that from them on the 3DS or Wii U - it'd be a shame to see them vanish back into making little more than scattered download titles and Dragon Quest remakes. Especially considering that while their Dragon Quest remakes are top quality, we've seen nearly every title in the series remade now, and they've proven their brilliance when they make their own RPGs already. It'd be a shame to waste that talent and potential when they could be establishing their own identity, much like Level-5 has.

As Wii open-world games go, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is a deeply underrated title, too, with a relatively short and straightforward central plot allowing the game to be sped through - not unlike Opoona - with a ridiculous number of things to explore, see, and do with hundreds of medals to earn on the side. The game doesn't achieve its full potential as a sort of a Crystal Chronicles steampunk take on the likes of GTA and so on, but I'd love to see that style of gameplay continue in the Crystal Chronicles universe alongside the multiplayer-oriented action RPGs, since like a fantasy Mega Man Legends, it's already brilliant and has the potential to become even greater with more time, effort, budget, and ambition.

I've commented before, too, that after seeing how good they managed to make the Urban Champion 3D Classics update look, I'd love to see Nintendo reimagine the franchise - much like they have with Kid Icarus, and would be wonderful to see with StarTropics, perhaps turning that into a new successor to the Mother/EarthBound series - as an answer of sorts to the likes of Yakuza, roaming a big open world city and battling it out with various thugs to try to restore peace to the city, not unlike Streets of Rage as well. Even a sort of brawler or brawler RPG spinoff of F-Zero where you explore the huge sci-fi city or cities showcased in the series' sci-fi universe as Captain Falcon and hunt down criminals could be a lot of fun. And we've seen a number of impressive urban city settings in various Mario Kart games - and there's a big city in Wario's own universe, as showcased in the WarioWare series - but we've never gotten to explore these sides of the Mushroom Kingdom or anything else outside of these franchises. It'd be interesting to get to. As it stands, the only open world brawler RPG take on anything we've got coming for a new Nintendo platform now is the remade of the original Kunio/River City NES/arcade game, Renegade, which is now 3DS bound, with a new updated take on the main story mode to infuse the RPG style elements of River City Ransom - which in turn inspired the likes of Kenka Bancho and Yakuza, which would be wonderful to see on Nintendo platforms, and getting western releases - in addition to the classic full arcade-style run through the game. With any luck, that will follow the usual trend we've seen in recent years and it'll get a quiet western release from the likes of Aksys, though it doesn't exactly push the 3DS's hardware capabilities, using basic 3D backgrounds for the environments and the 8-bit style 2D sprites like paper cutouts for all of the characters, maintaining the old school Kunio/River City vibe.

Level-5's upcoming Time Travelers on the 3DS is apparently going to be an extremely ambitious title too, with massive open environments to explore confirmed, potentially at least some of which will be in a modern Tokyo-esque setting from the looks of things, as well as potentially in the devastated future. It's unclear what the game's exact setting framing will be like at this point, but a western release is a lock since Level-5's made clear that they want the game to be a huge million-plus selling hit and are investing heavily in that, and we should be seeing a new full trailer and fuller reveal for the game very soon, with Level-5 World coming up in Japan next month. Their seemingly Animal Crossing-esque Fantasy Life seems to have a rather open world setting too (Not unlike its predecessor, the London Life RPG in Professor Layton 4 on the DS, which comes out soon), and their soon-to-be-released-in-Japan Girls' RPG: Cinderelife seems to have an at least partial open world with a cute, modern urban setting. The kind of setting that could be neat to see explored in any other RPGs or adventure games from them on the 3DS or Wii U in the future, perhaps with a less gender-exclusive design focus. As it stands, with all of their excellent first-wave 3DS games to be released in the coming 6-8 months or so, aside from the already confirmed Professor Layton 6 for the 3DS, hopefully we'll see them at least announce their second wave of 3DS games at the event next month with some more big, ambitious titles, considering their already excellent support for the system and strong investment so far - which has already visibly paid off, with Professor Layton 5 being one of the biggest 3DS hits to date in Japan, and that'll be coming west next year, no doubt.

Auzzie Wingman's already mentioned my own Mii-based social networking concept in Miitropolis, of course, so I don't really need to say anything in that regard that hasn't already been said.

And finally, as a comical response to the likes of GTA, Nintendo's invested directly in Travellers' Tales and we've got Lego City Stories due out as a Wii U launch title and another strong 3DS title to look forward to in the platform's second year of life as a complete Nintendo exclusive - which makes plenty of sense, considering that much like Disney games, Sega games, and quite a few other properties this generation, the Lego franchise hasn't really sold well outside of Nintendo platforms this gen and doesn't have a profitable audience elsewhere - so I'm really looking forward to seeing how both versions of that game turn out, as they look to be Nintendo's biggest direct investment in a non-Zelda open world property to date. I'm curious to see whether they'll try to get any GTA titles - I'm not a big Rockstar fan myself, though I'm interested in trying the Wii version of Bully, and certainly recognize that getting their support would be a major western support gain - in the future, or if Nintendo will try to find their own responses. In general, I've always liked the idea of big, ambitious open-world gaming, having grown up playing old school PC RPGs of crazy-huge scale like Ultima and enjoyed many RPGs and adventure games in the past with massive settings to explore and immerse yourself in. I'd love to see Nintendo and third parties backing Nintendo continue to explore that sort of game design and build even more of an audience for it - even Xenoblade, which will hopefully see North American release yet, has one of the largest and most ambitious settings for any game this generation - while still ensuring that there's no lack of tighter and more focused experiences for everyone not interested in open-world gaming. It'd be great to see Nintendo explore that kind of game design beyond Zelda more frequently. And I've been playing the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter game as of late, and while the game itself is a fairly mixed bag, even it serves as a solid example of the kind of intrigue a well-designed open world is capable of with its huge Hogwarts for you to run through and explore rather thoroughly, with a major focus being on hunting down huge numbers of secrets all throughout the massive school.

I would like to see third parties finally start to take Nintendo's mass market audience more seriously - the much stronger 3DS support over that for the visibly extremely troubled Vita is a positive sign, and we're getting a lot of good lip service for the Wii U so far, which just needs more followthrough after too many companies treated the Wii's routinely profitable mass market audience like 'inferior,' second-class gamers compared to the routinely very unprofitable PS3/360 audience - and bring more ambitious open-world games to both the Wii U and 3DS. And I'd like to see more of the open-world game design focus explored as a concept with adventure games, RPGs, brawlers, and more rather than just focusing on rehashing the Rockstar formula of primarily focusing on crime-based somewhat tongue-in-cheek game design. While GTA has made the significant mark on gaming - and open-world gaming in particular - that it has, there's no reason we shouldn't be seeing much more done with ambitious open-world concepts than merely following in GTA's footsteps. And with the lighthearted and undoubtedly solidly designed comical spoof it looks to be, Lego City Stories seems to be a step in the right direction in terms of overall response.

[BazzDropperz]

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Edited by BazzDropperz, 14 July 2014 - 12:05 AM.

[Ponkotsu]

A giant wall of text... What are you, an RPG? :3
Good read though

I just might be!
Professional writer, actually, so coming up with lots of long, winding posts full of neverending thoughts is pretty much second nature to me, haha. Glad you enjoyed, at any rate - I try to make my posts worth reading.

[Anomandaris]

I'm not even going to quote that thing, it will take up to much space, but WOW!! . I liked the metroid sci-fi monster hunter thing, that would be awesome, blasting space pirates and being a real bounty hunter.you sir are awesome !makes me happy to be a nintendo fanboy, and have all these awesome games!

[dagwood dang]

A new IP would be welcome, mature rated or otherwise,

but I think something as simple as an MMO animal crossing (world) with a little more action would be cool. Also, some sort of MMO Monster Hunter game.

[Ace]

I don't think nitendo has ever made an open world game before

*CoughZeldaCough*

Edited by Ace, 30 September 2011 - 04:53 AM.