Has Monolith surpassed Retro Studio as new Nintendo elite studio?

[Nuvendil]

curl-6 said:

MTZehvor said:

curl-6 said:

That's what I mean though; people are now worried that they'll be disappointed yet again. Retro are not longer considered a studio that can do no wrong.

I'm not sure that being assigned a project that wasn't as ambitious makes people feel worse about Retro; if anything, it seemed to direct hatred towards Nintendo for overhyping a game that probably didn't deserve it. Releasing one less than amibitous game doesn't qualify as a major stain on a company, though; if it did, Monoloth would have been abandoned long ago. Rare as well, if you'll recall the collective "meh" response to DKC3 (ignoring what happened to them post Microsoft acquisition).

I wouldn't call it so much of a stain on their record, more that it has diminished people's excitement for their future projects because there's no longer the assurance that whatever they do will push boundaries.

I think that hits the nail on the head.  Its not at all that their game-making chops are in question.  Just like the EAD teams, who also do a lot of experiment with directions and scale and style.  But Retro didn't build themselves on that, their rep is built on Metroid Prime, on building big games that are ambitious and polished and, most importantly, can go blow-for-blow with the big boys of the AAA 3rd parties and rival consoles' exclusives.  As such, the DKCR series comes off as out of place and a misuse of resources, not cause they're bad but because Retro can do much more. And this undercuts expectations. Now, Monolith Soft is doing the Retro thing of building massive and ambitious games that can stand up to rivals from the rest of the industry.