Nintendo is often criticized for relying on their established stable of franchises rather than investing in new IP, but as long as they manage to make each new game as good as the last, I’m not going to complain about more Zelda or Smash Bros. sequels. One Nintendo franchise that might not get a sequel anytime soon is F-Zero, as Nintendo’s top designer Shigeru Miyamoto admitted to IGN that he’s out of ideas for that franchise.
“I certainly understand that people want a new F-Zero game,” Miyamoto said when asked about the possibility of a new game in the beloved racing series. “”I think where I struggle is that I don’t really have a good idea for what’s new that we could bring to F-Zero that would really turn it into a great game again. Certainly I can see how people looking at Mario Kart 8 could see, through the anti-gravity, a connection to F-Zero. But I don’t know, at this point, what direction we could go in with a new F-Zero.”
The last two F-Zero games, the excellent F-Zero GX for the Gamecube and F-Zero AX for arcades, were developed by Sega, not by Nintendo. Miyamoto says Nintendo would prefer to develop the next F-Zero game internally, but he admits he’s unsure what they could possibly add for the sequel. Strangely, while Miyamoto says Nintendo now wants to develop their games themselves instead of licensing them out to third parties, he seems to forget that the upcoming new Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS is being co-developed at Namco Bandai with members of the Tales Of and Soulcalibur teams.
Miyamoto also mentioned that Nintendo is increasing the size of their internal development staff, so that they can develop new IP while at the same time delivering on all the sequels that people have come to expect from the company. You can read IGN’s full interview with Miyamoto here.
This is sad news for F-Zero fans, but I suppose you could take some solace in knowing that while Captain Falcon hasn’t been confirmed for the new Smash Bros. yet, I’m pretty sure Nintendo wouldn’t leave him out, given his popularity.
