Negative employee reviews suggest Retro Studios could be in serious trouble

[Jumpin]

Wyrdness said:

Jumpin said:

Actually, the statement is valid because it's factually what happened.

DKC and DKC2 topped the sales charts at #1 for the year, but DKC Returns didn't make top 20. Those are the facts.
The reason being, Donkey Kong Country was a silky smooth graphically mind blowing game featuring 24-bit colour on a 16-bit console. It was state of the art, the most exciting game of 1994, and the sequel was the most exciting game of 1995, and while DKC3 didn't fare as well in 1996 due to sales picking up on the later generation of consoles, it was still one of the most exciting games of the year.

All you're arguing is that the facts aren't fair because Donkey Kong Country Returns was not as exciting in 2010 as the DKC trilogy was in 94-96. That's my point. DKC Returns DIDN'T advance with the rest of the industry into a worthy successor for the DKC series; if it were, it would have been more exciting and better than CoDs and GTAs, because that's the relative level the original DKC trilogy was at in its own time.

In 1994, Donkey Kong Country was the second most exciting release in the history of video gaming, only after Super Mario Bros. 3 - which released 3.5 years earlier. One of the big things that Sonic had over the Mario games in the early 90's was how smoothly you could run and jump through the levels at high speeds - it felt really good - and DKC did it even better than Sonic; and consequently demolished Sonic 3 on the sales charts. But not only was DKC incredibly designed, but the graphics were mind-blowing; it was enough to take peoples' attention away from the hype of the launch of the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation.

We didn't get DKC's Super Mario Galaxy/Breath of the Wild, instead we got its New Super Mario Bros/Phantom Hourglass.

They're moot points though because Returns is a different era for a start you're comparing the 2D era to the 3D era where 2D's upfront selling power is vastly reduced as the industry operates on a different dynamic to back this is why the argument is flawed. 2D games when Returns was released are mostly filler titles in today's industry no matter how good they are only certain fighting games tend to buck this trend in SF and Smash, the original DKC trilogy were ground breaking because they were 2D games built for the 2D era while Returns and TF are 2D platformer games long into the 3D era they were never going to generate the same buzz no matter how they turned out TF is even considered by many to be better than any other 2D platformer but still had a subdued reception on reveal because everyone wanted Prime a 3D game as many don't consider 2D games ambitious no matter how much work goes into them.

To bring up sales in a selected period as a way to push your point as result isn't really putting forward a balanced argument because one is releasing in a year where the are games like Red Dead Redemption, COD, AC, FF, KH as well as the blue ocean titles (Wii Fit plus etc...) the other is only contending with games that are on the same playing field and this is highlighted in your own point when you say the third game in the original Trilogy didn't do as well because of the next gen platforms as that's when the 3D jump occured and also I disagree it wasn't one of the most exciting games of the year in the way you're trying to put it was heavily overshadowed in 96, Mario 64, FFVII, Resident Evil, Crash Bandicoot, Pilot Wings, Duke Nukem 3d etc... Even on the non 3d front the most exciting game that year was Pokemon. Another factor you don't take into account the were only two major competitive hardware platforms back with DKC compared to 3 plus PC now.

This is why total sales is more reflective of reception as Returns still became the second biggest seller in the franchise.

Must have missed this one.

Making the argument that it's not fair to compare the two games in their contemporary settings proves my point. DKC Returns is not an adequate follow-up to the DKC trilogy, it's a throwback. If it were, it would be DKC's Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Galaxy.