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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - What Nintendo titles are AAA?

Megaoverlord12 on 04 July 2017

These I find inarguable:
3D and 2D Mario
3D and 2D Zelda
Splatoon (now)
Pokemon
Mario Kart
Super Smash Bros.
Animal Crossing
Luigi's Mansion (Dark Moon sold over 5mil, if they make another one, it'll be a big deal)
Donkey Kong

So close, but not quite:
Kirby
Fire Emblem

Other interesting cases
Brain Age used to be, the 3DS entries underperformed
Nintendogs, see above
Metroid and Star Fox have passionate fanbases, and I feel like they could be AAA, but need better treatment from Nintendo, which Metroid seems to be getting.

 

EDIT: Xenoblade is another interesting case as they all always have the massive scope traditionally associated with many AAA games, but I feel lack the budget, marketing, and/or sales potential to be AAA. Will be interesting to see how Xenoblade 2 pans out. ARMS could be if Nintendo supports it like Splatoon.



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Megaoverlord12 on 04 July 2017
KrspaceT said:

Thought this would be an interesting question. 

 

Would you mind if I did a similar thread (with credit given of course), and structured it like a poll of sorts? Like giving a list of franchises and hving people vote for the ones they consider 'AAA'.



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Currently own PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Switch, and 3DS

CGcarmineCG on 04 July 2017

The legend of Zelda and Mario (at least the majorities of the serie's entry such as 3D Mario and Mario Kart, not the 8 deluxe obv) are the AAA projects, the others didn't feel like games with huge ivestments. Maybe Pokémon but isn't a Nintendo franchise, so i think only the first 2.



JRPGfan on 04 July 2017
collint0101 said:
Depends on your definition of AAA. In my opinion it's really just 3d mario, Mario kart, smash, Pokemon, 3d Zelda, 3d metroid, and smash bros. Not knocking their other series and for the most part I prefer Nintendo's AA and A stuff over Mario and Zelda but I have a hard time saying something like fire emblem, pikmin, or fatal frame is in the same league as Mario, fallout, or assassin's Creed when it comes to production values or scale

^ this.



Spindel on 04 July 2017

What the hell is a AAA game?

It's a term I first heard in the gaming community in the Wii/PS3/X360 generation and ever since that I still can't figure out what it means since it encompas both horrible games and good games.

Nintendo does games, that are fun to play.



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Lonely_Dolphin on 04 July 2017
CGcarmineCG said:

Maybe Pokémon but isn't a Nintendo franchise

lol whut? It's certainly not a Sony, Microsoft, or 3rd party series.

@OP: I really couldn't care less, budget =/= quality, but it's pretty clear that series like Kirby n Animal Crossing don't cost nearly as much to make as series like Mario n Zelda. Metroid's cost is likely the main reason why we don't see regular releases for it, and it makes me wonder if Prime 4 is really gonna be as bombastic as everyone thinks.

-Lonely_Dolphin



UltimateGamer1982 on 04 July 2017

Spoiler alert: All of them!



Nogamez on 04 July 2017

Well I would day 3d mario, 3d Zelda, 3d metroid, Mario kart, Smash bros all fit into AAA.



Wyrdness on 04 July 2017

What exactly is your definition of AAA?



freebs2 on 04 July 2017

Considering AAA is determined by development budget.

Compared to western AAA standards, I'd say the only AAA series made by Nintendo are Zelda and Super Smash Bros. Even Retro Studios games and 3D Mario I would consider middle ground between AA and AAA.