From A Skeptic: Where Nintendo Should Take The Wii U

[Mr Khan]

Osc89 said:

Soundwave said:

3.) Create (or buy) a flagship "hardcore" character IP -- Mario paves the way for a lot of the mascot/cartoon/license based content that floods Nintendo consoles, but Nintendo really doesn't have a similar beacon for the older audience. You could always let Retro try their hand at a new IP, or go find one to publish. I suggested for risk-averse Nintendo to approach the folkes at Danjaq/EON productions, who own the James Bond license. Bond is cool, Bond is easy to market, if the rights are available, perhaps Nintendo could get them (or perhaps just rights to Bond FPS games). A Bond game with the same effort put into it as a Mario or Zelda would sell an easy 3-4 million and then other developers could look at that and say "oh, I guess there is an audience for something edgier here after all". 

What about Metroid? That's what I think of when "hardcore" Nintento is mentioned. They just need to boost Samus to mascot status (or more than she already is).

1) Welcome to the forums

2) Not really viable. They tried that with Other M (to an extent) and it just ended up pleasing nobody. Metroid works best as a third tier Nintendo franchise (as much as i hate to say that) and should be given attention only after tier 1 games (like Mario Kart, 2D Mario, Pokemon, and Wii _____) and tier 2 games (3D Mario, Kirby, and Zelda)