Is Nintendo even able or willing to surprise anymore?

[Mr Khan]

Chrizum said:

To clarify, I'm not talking about console innovations, about mature or gritty content or about unexpected things just for the element of surprise. I'm talking about the difference between Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros. About the difference between Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past "remake".

Nintendo, for me, was about striving for the next level, striving to making the gaming community shake on its feet. New directions that changed gaming forever. 3D games were changed forever after Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. But lately, there have been announced more remakes than awe-inspiring, clever new games.

Nintendo is still about quality. This Link to the Past remake? Polished, fun, quality game. No doubt. But does it wow anyone? Frankly it bores me if nothing else. And there are countless of Nintendo IPs that seem to be stuck in time (2D Mario and Animal Crossing also come to mind).

My question is, is Nintendo deliberately taking this direction, or is the creative juice not flowing as rich as it once used to?

It's the first EAD developed 2D Zelda since Link's Awakening (or Link's Awakening DX if you want to get super-technical). That's a pretty worthy thing.

Oddly, Nintendo's push for retro-styled games is quite groundbreaking when you consider the competition would be offering games like DKCR or NSMBU as $10 sideshow attractions.

Plus, i'd say Skyward Sword was pretty groundbreaking.