Retro Studios is the New Rare

[Salnax]

It's not big enough to be the new Rare.

Rare made 11 games for the N64 alone, in a period of just 5 or so years. Of these, about 2/3 were among the best-selling and/or most critically acclaimed games for the platform. And you've also got half a dozen or so handheld games in the same timeframe.

Retro has so far made four games over the course of two platforms. Even if you discount Rare's "minor" games like Mickey Speedway USA and handheld titles, that's only a fraction of the output.

The Nintendo-affiliated Rare of 1994 to 2001 is something that might be impossible to replicate. The closest Nintendo can do to recreating something like Rare is developing strong bonds with a number of Western studios. Fortunately, Retro is not the only one they're working with. Studios like Monster Games, the creators of Pilotwings Resort and the 3DS version of DKCR, and Next Level Games, who made the Punch-Out reboot and Luigi's Mansion 2, also have contributed heavily to Nintendo's successes in recent years.

Between these three North American studios, the only thing that Nintendo is sorely lacking is a solid shooter studio that could replicate the success of the N64 FPS's Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. Perhaps Nintendo needs to create a new internal team, staffed by the makers of previous FPS games. Even if the result is no Halo, it can at least be a Killzone.