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Kai_Mao on 11 May 2017
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Wyrdness said:
Kai_Mao said:

I think its rather interesting for Metroid's case. For being considered one-third of the Nintendo First-Party trinity (along with Mario and Zelda), it has struggled to gain an increasing audience. With 13 titles (including the packaged Prime trilogy compilation), the series has only sold about 18 million all together. Even with most of the main titles gaining high acclaim (and Other M receiving above average reviews), it appears the scores and acclaim weren't enough to gain people's attention. Then, to add insult to injury, in their releases, Super Metroid and Prime 3 were overshadowed by Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Galaxy, respectively, when released within their respective years.

I'm not realy sure why the series has struggled to have even a 4 million seller. I think Nintendo has tried whatever they could to expand the audience or create greater awareness within their budget. I don't know if its commercials or something or the fact that the gameplay and concepts don't necessarily attract the casual or larger audiences. When you have series like Kirby and Animal Crossing finding consistent (or even greater) success and Fire Emblem and Xenoblade gaining new ground and momentum, then something has to be wrong. I guess Dark Souls has something to say about that, in regards to commercial and critical success, but the two series are different in terms of gameplay and such.

Those games are much easier to play through than any Metroid title that's why, as I mentioned earlier Metroid requires a player to have such a specific taste to the point it can be classed as niche. Metroid as it is now will never have a 4m seller unless they do a Fire Emblem style overhaul on it at which point you'll get the situation of long time fans vs new fans over the series.  

I'm not sure if that's been a big deal for Fire Emblem. I've read that even some older fans like the new stuff, though you can take that for what you will. I mean, besides the fan service (which really isn't that big of deal when you actually play the games, or in my case, Awakening since I haven't played Fates yet since my sibling has it) and the over powered pair up mechanic, Awakening and Fates still retain their core gameplay that has evolved from previous entries of the franchise. The weapons triangle, the free roaming overworld map, permadeath, the change of classes, character tropes, special skills, etc. are all in the recent games. And while the waifu thing is prominent in the recent games (which I don't really think is a problem, personally), its not like the support and marriage system isn't new. Its roots were back in Geneology. It also helped that casual mode became a thing back in FE12 (Mystery of the Emblem remake) and was applied in these games to allow new players to play since permadeath can be a factor for new players due to fear of losing units, especially early in the games. So ultimately, the recent games of Fire Emblem didn't really go through that much of an overhaul, they just combined everything from previous games, utilized new art, and allowed the game to be more accessible. You could probably argue the three paths for Fates being new in the series, but I'm not sure if that is considered a big overhaul.

As for Metroid, I would argue it kinda went through that kind of particular treatment with Other M, maybe a little more than Awakening or Fates. Mainly trying to go for a more story focused game with Samus having an actual voice, more focus on her relationship with some of her peers and issues with her past, and mix 3D Prime and 2D traditional Metroid. Unfortunately it didn't pan out due to some problems here and there, mainly the story and characterization of Samus.