Retro

Prime 1

Prime 2

Prime 3

Prime Trilogy

Metroid Prime Hunters

Half of Mario Kart 7

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Naughty Dog

Keef the Thief

Rings of Power

Way of the Warrior

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Crash Team Racing

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Jak II

Jak 3

Jak X: Combat Racing

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Jak and Daxter Collection

The Last of Us

Lets start with Retro.

Yes, they have only made 7 (6.5 really) games that made it to stores. Every single one of those 7 mentioned above are top notch games. They all look well, play well and sell well (considering the console/fanbase of dk/metroid/kart). That is what i mean when i say 'everything retros touches turns to gold.' As for Naughty Dog, they are NOT a shit company that makes shit games. I have tremendous respect for their games (especially TLoU) because 8 out of 10 times they pump out incredible games...but they HAVE made some pretty bad ones. Retro hasnt YET and thats why i think they are the better company at making games. This isnt really a big deal imo.

Just a small heads-up; Retro had nothing to do with MP Hunters, NST made that game.

Also, the Prime Trilogy wasn't really much of a new game, just a compilation with new controls and some very minor tweaks. They did not do 'half of Mario Kart 7' either, but merely designed a few tracks for it. So I'd say they made 4 very solid, great games (Prime 1-3, plus DKCR). And then did some extra stuff on the side.

I double checked MPH and yeah you are right, Retro didnt work on that. My mess up.

They did everything DK related and did the retro stages in MK7 (i am pretty sure there is an "iwata asks" on it). That is  half the game, dude.

If they just put prime 1/2/3 on a disc and shipped it, i wouldnt have included it. But they did more than that, obviously. They did the motion controls for prime 1/2 on the Trilogy because Nintendo felt they did Prime 3 right. They also improved some of the shading/lighting. iirc, ign did a side by side comparison of the 3 games vs the trilogy and there were some clear differences.

As for MK7, like I said, they designed some tracks for it. Designing tracks is far from creating half of a game, as development of a game encompasses much, much more; creating the engine, coding, sounds, music, controls... well you get the point. Level design is only one of many factors involved in developing a game. Besides that, like you said, they did the retro levels, meaning the better part of those already existed and they only had to update them for the new game. Far less work than creating completely new levels, that's for sure. The work Retro's done on MK7 is a far, far cry from half of the game.

As for MP Trilogy, like I said, and you confirmed; it was a compilation of old, existing games, with different controls (not new, as they already had them up and running from Prime 3), plus some minor tweaks. Improving some lighting, screen ratio, etc. cannot in any way be considered major changes. There were tweaks and changes, but they were minor.

Lets's be honest and fair here.

But the 4 full games Retro did develop are all marvelous!

A philatelist is a much more specific lable than a gamer.

This is why the "core" and "casual" mindset fails. It tries to separate into a binary dichotomy what is actually countless shades and nuances. Gamers aren't neatly divided into into two categories, then no hard line between the "core" and the "casual".

Those who proudly describe themselves as "hardcore gamers" are the ones who are becoming less relevant because as new audiences flock to gaming, most of them don't care about some pissing contest over who's the most "hardcore" and therefore don't join this group.

It's very telling that the games the self-described "hardcore" actively hate, (Mario, Call of Duty) are massive, massive sellers despite this group not liking them. The self-described hardcore like to believe that the gaming world revolves around them, but the cold hard truth is that it doesn't.

But we're getting way off track; back to Retro and Naughty Dog.

If we leave aside the fact that core games are still the ones that's keeping the industry alive and get back on topic, I think The Last of Us sealed it for Naughty Dogs if Crash, Jak and Drake didn't do it already.

That's not a fact. Anyway, I'd say Metroid Prime 1 and 3 put Retro on par with ND.

I don't think 2 games from 1 franchise that they didn't create can compete with 4 franchises (franchises created by Naughty Dogs themselves).

None of that affects the  quality of the games, and Retro's best can easily match ND's best.

It does matter. The ability to create great new IPs would put one studio over another. Even better when one studio has quality, quantity and variety.