@bolded: That I'll agree with. It's just that after Prime 2's tedious dark world, Prime 3 was refreshing to me personally... as long as we ignore the voice acting...

What impressed me most about Prime 3 was how flawlessly smooth it ran, and coupled with the beautiful implementation of the pointer controls (on the expert settings anyway) the game set the standard for first person games controlling like a dream on Wii.

I don't know about Retro, but Naughty Dog is even more important to World Wide Studios (and Sony) than most people think. ICE Team created a lot of the tools and code used by first- and third-party developers. They've been essential in helping get games running on the PS3 and I can't help but think they'll be just as important with the PS4.

I think Naughty Dog is honestly overrated. Uncharted 2 was excellent no doubt, but 3 was not, and now they are just reusing that same "cinematic" game style with the last of us. I'm not overly fond of it. Thus far, Naughty Dog has shown that they can push a system, and make good setpieces, but the game play in their games is lacking in any sort of depth.

Retro made my favorite game of all time in Metroid Prime 2, Prime 1 is in my top 5, and DKCR is my favorite 2D plat. Prime 3 was pretty weak, but their talent is just pretty crazy to me. They made Metroid relevant again, with Prime which is considered to be one of the best games of all time. Whatever they're working on is going to be amazing.

Love both of them!

Metroid Prime was the first person game of the generation for me on the GC/PS2/XB.

Absolutely loved Uncharted this generation. I think this generation Naughty Dog have really hit their stride. They were good in the PS1/2 days but I think they really managed to become a truly great company with Uncharted 2.

I don't know how anyone could knock either of them! Donkey Kong was great on the Wii too. No it might not have "pushed the hardware" as someone commented earlier, but damn it looks amazing! Art Direct > Technical accomplishment anyday. That's also why Uncharted looks so great!

Retro is great but they are nothing compared to what Rare meant to Nintendo in its hey-day. Naughty Dog has been pumping out hits for Sony since the mid-late 90's.

A game doesn't have to push the hardware to be good... DKCR was an exceptional good platformer and probably the second best after Mario Galaxy this generation.

Uncharted 2 was great but Naughty Dog only focusses on cinematic experiences now. A good developer should bring a variety of games. Metroid Prime and DKCR are two completely different genres they never had experience with earlier and they both turned out superb. Let Naughty Dog make a fantasy adventure game or something.

That's true, of all the shooters I played on the Wii, Prime 3 used the controller best. Retro always nail the controls with their games. Prime 3 was definitely well polished, but I just found it a bit derivitive.

I can see what you mean about Prime 3 being refreshing after Prime 2 though; I found the second game a little tedious too, but I'm not sure why! It felt the most like a Metroid game out of the whole trilogy to me; Metroid should be hostile, mysterious, dark and atmospheric, which the game was, but it never really hooked me. Maybe there were too many light/dark world games released around that time.

I wouldn't say that they are similar in most respects, but yes, their work compliments the efforts of internal first-party developers.

...

OK so I have my final exam ever on Tuesday and after that I'm going to be upbeat and hype about everything, promise.

Also I have to correct green_sky. I try to criticise everything uniformly whether I like it or not.

Just two great companies making great games from the start, this will not change