Nintendo absolutely lacks ambition. They are all about quality, but they play it extremely safe. I miss the bold Nintendo of the N64 days.

Production costs?

With the struggling Wii U sales and lack of profit right now, they may return to those days soon enough...

Don't get your point. Skyward Sword has a huge Skyworld you can explore. The smaller areas are on earth. The newest Zelda on the 3DS has a huge world to explore.

Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 3D World are not the same kind of game. I am sure there will be another Mario 3D game thats more like Galaxy or SM64.

The next big "exploring" game from Nintendo will be "X" and that will be huge :)

I'm sorry, but did you actually just type that? You're saying that the Yamauchi was more willing to take risks, and was less conservative than Iwata?

The N64 and Gamecube were incredibly "conservative" in their approach, unless you count odd controller designs. N64 stuck to carts as a way of clinging to the past (which in it's own way brought both positives and negatives). Gamecube embraced a form of CDs, but unfortunately those discs still suffered from less space than the competition enjoyed. The GBC and GBA, while awesome, were both just upgraded versions of traditional Game Boy type gaming.

Iwata took the company in a whole new direction, taking MASSIVE risks with the dual/touch screen approach of DS that many said would fail and wouldn't appeal to anyone before it came out. As well as with the Wiimote/motion control approach of Wii. His approach last gen was far from conservative or conventional, in fact if DS and Wii had failed, Nintendo might be in a lot more trouble now. They took a major risk and it paid off. Even if 3DS and Wii U they've continued that, to a perhaps less drastic degree. Glasses-free 3D display and a touch screen/second screen in a game controller for a home console are still fairly risky and innovative designs.

And regardless, whether you personally think all of those were GOOD or BAD moves is irrelevent. The point is that you're claiming that Yamauchi wasn't conservative in his approach, and that Iwata is more conservative and doesn't take risks. Which I must say is just flat out incorrect on both counts. Yamauchi, may he rest in peace, was a business man who was out to make money and didn't really understand gaming or gamers on a personal level. The only way I could see where you're trying to argue he "tried to compete head on", is if you're talking about console power. But he himself even said that Nintendo couldn't continue to compete head-on forever, and that just upping the console power every generation was not the way to success. He said that, Iwata ran with it. But the point is, Iwata, like it or don't, has been very risky and anything but conservative in his approach. And the fact is, with DS and Wii, it brought the company massive success and tons of $$$$$. 3DS is also a continuing success, and it remains to be seen if Wii U can be transformed into a success or not.

I wonder if you are confusing "bold" for the fact that 3D polygonal games were a new thing in the N64 generation? Was it "bold" of them to jump from 2D to 3D? Sure. But it was also "bold" of them to attempt motion controls, or to try crazy game design ideas like Mario Galaxy or Skyward Sword. Not everything they experiement with is a smashing success. But I don't think Nintendo "lacks ambition". If you're referring to things like their New Super Mario Bros. series, I guess I could see how you're claiming that is "playing it safe" by being a throwback to old games. But honestly they had some of their most daring and risky attempts on Wii, with Galaxy, with Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc.

Call me optimistic, but I think you'll see some "bold" games from Nintendo before all is said and done with Wii U.

I'm talking about software. Metroid Prime was alot more expensive and risky than NSMB. Yamauchi's Nintendo was the one that released cutting edge hardware and cutting edge software. The SNES, N64 and Gamecube all had equal to, or more powerful specs to their competition and featured games with huge budgets. OOT? What PS1 game rivaled something with that scope? It DWARFED every other game in the console market at the time. What Wii or Wii-U game can we say that for? Whatever Galaxy's budget was, it was nothing compared to say, GTA4 or GTA5.

That's what I meant. Yamauchi was a more head on, take no prisioners, victory or death leader where as Iwata isn't.

The "open world" of Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time is an illusion. Majora's Mask is one of the most linear Zelda games of all.

And yet under Yamauchi's approach, N64 and then GC continued to sell lower and lower. NES and SNES ruled their generations. Then Nintendo home consoles, while still awesome, started dwindling a bit compared to the super popular Playstation. At least with the Wii, Nintendo was back on top in a big way for one more generation. Besides that, Iwata was in charge of things, more or less, at Nintendo by the time games like Metroid Prime, Pikmin and Eternal Darkness were being developed. He wasn't Prez yet, but he was running things, after he was hired over from HAL.

Besides, Metroid Prime 3 was far more ambitious than it's previous entries, Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 were far more ambitious titles than Sunshine had been, her oversaw games like The Last Story and Xenoblade being made for Wii, bringing back old franchises like Punch Out, Excite and Kid Icarus, etc.

I get some of what you're trying to say, but I still don't buy the "Iwata plays it safe" bit. Nintendo couldn't afford to continue making super-powerful hardware no matter who was company president, because they have to pay someone else for the hardware development, unlike Sony and MS.

And I still say that we'll be seeing games that are quite "bold" and impressive (even graphically and CPU-use wise), on Wii U. Just look at Mario Kart 8. That's the most advanced "giant leap" for Mario Kart that the franchise has honestly seen since MK64.

" I was smarter as a Brainwashed Christian youth than I am now."
I'm starting to believe atheist on here are aggressively being anti-theist for no reason besides being angery in life. By the way it sounds like you just called yourself a fundismentalist atheist if your no more smarter when you were a fundismentalist christian.

"Zelda comments"

Ocarina of time was as linear as wind waker and the rest. Open doesn't mean filled with content it usually means lots of empty space. Skyward sword had as much content as ocarina.