By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Pineapple on 01 February 2013
Edit Thread
Soundwave said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:
Jumpin said:
Veknoid_Outcast said:
Jumpin said:
 

If we're looking at 10 years, 3 games and a port is still almost equally as dismal. I am not sure where this mysterious fourth game is coming in, there haven't been any new Retro developed games announced in years. There's not really a guarantee that they'll even announce anything this year, let alone release anything this year (and that would be completely consistent with what we have received from Retro most years they have existed as a studio). At the rate they develop games, it'll probably be 2014 or 2015 before we see any new game from Retro. Consider that it took them over three and a half years to develop a 2D platformer on the Wii; and now they're working with a more complex console that requires more dev time.

It's a balancing act, and not all about volume. A studio doesn't need to pop out a ton of games to be considered great. Team ICO gave us, in 12 years, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. For those I consider the studio great. Greater than, say, Infinity Ward, which gave us five games in 10 years.

Now, if you consider Retro games to be garbage, I completely understand your distaste for the company. But I don't think it's fair to fault them for taking extra time with their software projects, especially at a time when so many developers are rushing their products to market.


I don't think they're garbage, the games are definitely on the good side; but I don't think Retro as a studio are as great as people claim. I think they are among the most overrated studios of all time. Thanks for bringing up Team Ico, I almost forgot about them, but the difference between them and Retro is that Retro gets WAAAY more praise and posts about them.

When I think of great studios, I am thinking Rare (from NES to N64), Square (on SNES, PSX, and PS2), Sega on Mega Drive, Nintendo EAD on all systems, etc...

Fair enough. Retro is not in the same tier as Rare, Square, Nintendo EAD, etc.


Again, stupid comparision.

You're comparing a 1 team studio to 5-6 teams.

You do realize "EAD" is like 7-8 different groups right? So you'd have to compare Retro to say 1 of the EAD groups, lets say Aonuma's Zelda group.

Then it's

Metroid Prime (2002)

Metroid Prime 2 (2004)

Metroid Prime 3 (2007)

Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010)

Mario Kart 7 (2011)

vs.

Zelda: Wind Waker (2003)

Zelda: Twlight Princess (2006)

Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007)

Zelda: Spirit Tracks (2009)

Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)

That's not really the best comparison, though, as there have been complains (and Iwata even brought it up) about the Zelda games taking too long to develop. Skyward Sword was - in terms of development time - a bit of a disaster. I absolutely adored the game, but it took too long to make.

They're nearly putting out as many games as a studio that has a problem with putting out too few games. Additionally, Nintendo EAD 2 also made Four Swords Adventures (2004) and Link's Crossbow Training (2009), unless I'm mistaken.

 

Intelligent Systems is a good example of a studio that puts out lots of games. They made 3 games on the Gamecube (Paper Mario and the thousand year doll, Fire Emblem 9 and co-developed a Wario-ware game. Meanwhile, they put out 7 games on the GBA (Fire Emblem 6, 7, 8. Advance Wars 1 & 2, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and a Wario-ware game.

Then, they made 3 Wii games (Fire Emblem 10, Super Paper Mario and a Wario-ware game), while also making 9 DS games (Fire Emblem 11&12, Advance Wars 3&4, 3 Wario-ware games, Planet Puzzle League and Dragon Quest Wars.

That's not counting the Japan-only games (except for the two Fire Emblems which weren't released internationally), their two Wiiware games and a lot of DSi shop games.

 

For the 8th gen, they've already released two 3DS games (Paper Mario Sticker Star, Fire Emblem 13) and announced two Wii U games (A Wario Ware game and co-work on Fire Emblem X Shin Megami)

 

The output difference is just ridiculous for two studios that are (roughly) the same size. If you count co-works and compilations, Retro Studios has made 6 games in the 6th, 7th and 8th gen. Intelligent Systems has made 24, and that's even excluding some less-known ones.