ひげ
Where does Nintendo go from here? Honestly, other than just getting more powerful hardware, what happens now? After Metroid Prime 4 and maybe Mario Odyssey 2, how can they possibly expand on their franchises without just porting the games with a little bit of new content (which is something they were already doing to begin with)? All of Nintendo's games are so massive right now that I can't actually imagine them making games that are more grandiose. How do you follow up something like Smash Ultimate or Tears of the Kingdom?
I'd love to see the next Zelda and the next Smash take a step back (maybe another old Zelda remake or some 3DS remake ports, and then a Smash game with less characters but totally revamped movesets) while something else that's at least relatively fresh makes its way into the limelight. Whether that's a new IP or a game like Star Fox or F-Zero, or hell maybe even Kid Icarus or Ice Climbers getting a new, modern game.
I think that would be much easier for them to pull off than trying to make something bigger than Tears of the Kingdom... Unless it takes them 10+ years I just don't see how it is feasible. The game is insane. Smash Ultimate has, what, 90 characters? Porting it and adding more is something I'm sure Sakurai doesn't even want to do. Mario Kart 8 will basically have that problem when its expansions are all released as well.
Oh, I guess another Kirby game in the style of Forgotten Land is a definite.
@beardalaxy At this point, Sakurai would probably kill himself, if he was asked to make another Smash game. You can clearly tell that each entry has been more stressful than the last, yet he doesn't trust anyone else to direct the series. I mean, he could just make an enhanced port for the next system, but he seems to be a perfectionist. Honestly, his new YouTube series is just a sign that he's unofficially semi-retired, even though the YouTube series is just a hobby.
As for Zelda, I don't know how they are going to make consistent releases if they keep going the open-world route. They could scale back, but how much? Fallout and The Elder Scrolls seem to have ~10 year gaps between releases. Zelda, on the other hand, tends to have 2 releases per console/handheld. Maybe they can release traditional Zelda games in-between. I would like them to use the engine for the Link's Awakening remake and make a few 2D games because I think 2D Zelda has some charm that is missing in the 3D games.
Star Fox and F-Zero, while beloved franchises were (let's face it) merely tech-demos. They were made to show off the power of the SNES and Super-FX chip, which can explain why Nintendo has serious writer's block with them. However, given the recent interviews with people like Giles Goddard and ex-Retro Studios employees, one can hope than some random gamedev with some connection to Nintendo can actually pitch an idea and have it greenlit.
Kid Icarus was created by some no-name Nintendo employee (he doesn't seem to have a Wikipedia article and I don't know if he works for the company anymore). It had one GameBoy sequel and was later picked up by Sakurai.
Ice Climbers only had one game. It's only remembered because of Smash. Otherwise, it's up there (or down there) with Balloon Fight, Gyromite, Stack-Up, Urban Champion, all the NES sports games, and all the other early NES/Famicom games, back when developers were throwing shit at the wall just to see what sticks, basically what Atari was doing before them.
