LOL man I was actually thinking of Sega while producing this video and the exact same thought came to my mind. Would be depressing to work through if I ever did it
@@Legend-of-Kai Besides Sonic they only have Yakuza, Puyo Puyo, Super Monkey Ball, and Phantasy Star. Skies or Arcadia - dead, Space Channel 5 - dead, Billy Hatcher - dead, Nights into Dreams - dead, Jet Set Radio - dead, Toejam & Earl - dead, Panzer Dragoon - dead, Ristar - dead... heck, even the Allstar game, the only game series where we could see all of the old characters, is dead...
@@Nonjola So sad man...Would you consider Atlus franchises like Persona/Shin Megami part of Sega? I believe Sega owns Atlus now or are they just Atlus exclusive franchises
@@Legend-of-Kai Since they bought Atlus, Persona is now also a franchise of SEGA. I always forget that. But at least SEGA has some franchises left. Rare is really dead. They only have Sea of Thieves. If a franchise comes back, it needs to go to another developer.
Mario Kart and Smash need to be flagships because people will literally buy a Nintendo console for those games. There’s nothing more flagship than that.
Franchises like Mario Kart, splatoon and Kirby should definitely be in flagships. They're some of the most recognisable nintendo franchises and sell pretty well everytime.
@@created3612 for now maybe not but since it's getting new amiibos for the game instead of having them just cuz of smash so it could maybe be considered that
Yeah it's actually crazy the amount of games Kirby has. And the sales on the latest are good. Could probably become a flagship very soon if it keeps this up
Yeah, Kirby had a low period, but it's consistently been at its highest point ever since Planet Robobot in 2015. At this point, Nintendo would feel like it's missing something if the Kirby franchise disappeared. And the fact that it has so many games across so many consoles shows how much support it has from both Nintendo and fans...
I feel like Kirby *is* a flagship franchise. Besides the aforementioned fact that it has plenty of games on a bunch of different Nintendo consoles, there’s the amount of merch the series has(plushes, figurines, clothing, accessories, kitchenware, various toys, etc), multiple different mangas and light novels (including essentially a steampunk AU), live events that have been held(Pupupu Train and Kirby Music Fest come to mind), and expansion beyond the usual media in the form of the Kirby Café. Kirby was even one of the originals of the Smash roster, and routinely wins the Nintendo character popularity poll. There’s also the fact that the franchise has also regularly been tied to others through more than just Smash Bros. in the form of various Easter Eggs and cameos from various characters(or a cameo of Kirby in a Zelda game in one instance); in fact it’s actually impossible to get the good ending in Kirby’s Dreamland 3 without seeing Samus and ROB. No I am totally not biased or anything why would anyone think that
It's sooo refreshing to see Metroid in as good of a spot as it is now. After Dread and especially Prime Remastered doing better than expected, there's a nonzero chance that Prime 4 could really blow the gates open. Here's hoping!
Definitely, Metroid is only going up at this point. Also super excited to see where it goes after Prime 4 is released. Maybe one day we'll have the whole prime trilogy remastered as well
@@killerzillavolt2655 Hey! I'll see what I can do, only problem was the list wasn't made on tiermaker like usual as I couldn't get the logos all the same size to fit. I'll see if I can grab a link somehow somewhere
I feel like if it's a big system seller, it deserves a spot as a flagship, and it can't be understated the amount of people that buy consoles just to play smash. Especially considering the success of Ultimate, it really should be a flagship by now
I agree that Mario Kart moving up would be the one change I'd make. But this was an absolutely fantastic and thorough video, dude. Great job! I stayed through the whole video and gave it a like even though I only accidentally clicked on it in the first place lol
@@PeterParker-ff7ub The Mario Kart franchise on its own has sold more than pretty much every other franchise on this entire list. Again, Mario Kart games alone have sold over 150 million copies, without adding any other mainline or other Mario Spin off to its sales. The only franchises that are in the same league in sales is mainline Mario, Pokémon, and the Legend of Zelda.
@@lukers9819 Haha I appreciate you watching it through even if it was by accident! Much love. Also does the Rs in your name stand for Runescape by any chance? Was a pretty hardcore player even just a few years back
Pokemon is more popular than both of them in sales but they're not flagship material. I'm down with smash which represents Nintendo as a whole to be a flagship though.
I think Fire Emblem made the biggest leaps ever, from pushing itself into being published in the west via Smash to the Awakening clapback. Awakening was supposed to be a love letter to the series in a similar vein to Final Fantasy, a send off to such a long living series, and then it sold so much that Nintendo started scrambling to make another and ride the wave, Fates, then the Warriors spinoff appeared, Echoes and Three Houses being such bangers, and Heroes being THE Nintendo mobile game that rakes in the big numbers, the lucky hits just started coming in one after the other and they still haven't stopped, there are rumors of another Fire Emblem game being announced soon, that's just how big it became xD There are even sub franchises to this, the original creator Shozou Kaga went off after FE5 to make his own games similar to it, Tearring Saga: Utna Heroes Saga and Tearring Saga: Berwick Saga being published on the Playstation and Playstation 2, never getting out of japan but fan translations are easily available online, and then Vestaria Saga: War of Scions and Vestaria Saga: The Sacred Sword being officially translated and published on Steam, along with inspiring other games by other people like Dark Deity, for a fan, Fire Emblem now feels larger than life Brings a tear to your eye doesn't it
Definitely a series that deserves all its recent love. And as someone who first learnt of marth Roy from melee I'm so glad it was enough to bring the series over to the west. Goated games
The Mario & Luigi spinoffs are a really interesting case since relevancy-wise I totally agree with its placement, however the main company that produced the games Alphadream went bankrupt after the latest M&L release in 2019, making it more realistically in one of the bottom tiers unless Nintendo decided to revive the franchise on its own, which currently shows no signs of happening 😭 RIP Alphadream and (most likely) the M&L games
Yeah it's sad, currently if you just looked at the most recent gamed you'd consider it in an alright state, but it's future definitely leaves more to be desired. I'm always hopeful though, please nintendo let someone else work on the franchise 😅
Me too even though I only got into Splatoon very recently (I thought 2 wasn't worth it since the last fest had already happened when I bought my Switch, so instead I decided to wait until 3 came out)
This was a fun video to watch, but you definitely missed some franchises: -Famicom Detective Club: This was Nintendo’s premier visual novel adventure game released back in 1988. It was hugely influential on the adventure game genre, and without it there wouldn’t be games like Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, or Danganronpa. It had a sequel called The Girl Who Stands Behind in 1989, and a Satellaview came called BS Famicom Detective Club: Lost Memories in the snow was released on the SNES in 1997. That game was so popular Nintendo remade The Girl Who Stands Behind for the SNES in 1998. The first two games in the series recently got remakes on the Switch in 2021 by Mages, the developers of Steins;Gate. While it’s great (play it now!) Mages declared bankruptcy so the series is on life support. -Another Code: This was also a mystery adventure series made by the same developers as Hotel Dusk. It had a sequel on the Wii called Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories. It’s a charming adventure game with a lot of heart and unique puzzles, but with the developer Cing’s bankruptcy it’s dead. -Baten Kaitos: This was an RPG on the GameCube in 2003 by MonolithSoft, who later made Xenoblade. It revolves around cards in combat and it’s quite unique. It was owned by Namco but it got a prequel in 2006 fully owned by Nintendo called Baten Kaitos Origins, which was the second to last Nintendo made game published on the GC. Both games are getting a remaster later this year, so depending on how that goes and if MonolithSoft wants to make a sequel, It Exists for now. -Custom Robo: Fun mecha combat games. Four in total, but only the latest two released overseas. The latest release was in 2007 for the DS, so the series is Dead. -Kururin: A series of games where Kururin the penguin must navigate his helicopter the Helirin through a maze without bumping the sides of the maze. The first game came out in Europe and Japan for the GBA but we’re Japan only for the next two. The last game was Kururin Squash for the GameCube in 2004. It’s safe to say the series is dead. -Magical Vacation: A series of two RPGs by Brownie Brown (now 1-Up Studios) that came out on the GBA and DS, the latter of which released in 2006. The series is Dead. -Starfy: A series of platformers for Nintendo’s handhelds. We only got the last game in the series on the DS in 2009. The series is dead. -Takt of Magic: An RTS RPG developed by Taito, Nintendo published and owns the rights to the sequel, but it was never released outside Japan. The series is dead at this point. -Art Academy: A series of drawing applications to teach you how to make art. The last releases were for the WiiU and 3DS in 2016, and since they require the touchpad the series is definitely on life support. -Fatal Frame: A legendary horror series by Koei Tecmo, Nintendo co-developed the latest two games in the series as well as a 3DS spinoff. However those last two games were recently released on all platforms in 2021 and this year. So the series is up in the air on the rights issues and on life support. -Tomodachi/Mii games: Tomodachi Collection, Tomodachi Life, and Miitopia. All games that use Miis. Miitopia was rereleased in 2021, sot the franchise exists. -Dillon’s Rolling Western: A series of tower defense/action games by Vanpool. It has three games on the 3DS with the latest whining releases in 2018. It exists but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not it’ll continue. -Culdcept: This is a series of strategy games that’s a mix between Monopoly and Magic the Gathering. Nintendo doesn’t own the franchise but they funded and own the latest two entries in the series, both of which were on the 3DS. The latest release was Culdcept Revolt in 2017, so the fate of the series is probably “It exists” for now. Looking forward to the next videos you make.
Wow! Thanks for taking the time out to write all this out. Super interesting. Some of those I did come across during my research, but there's definitely a few I didn't even see. Problem is a lot of these lists online are very incomplete and trying to piece together a bunch of different ones resulted in me missing quite a few it seems. But cool of you to follow up on all of them and even rank them where you'd think they'd place! I appreciate you.
Balloon fight, Excitebike and Mach Rider too. Balloon fight’s last game came out for gba, excitebike on Wii, and Mach Rider hasn’t had a game since NES/Arcade.
@@line4169 Because smash has been 'concluded' at least somewhat. I couldn't put it in flagships due to the franchise seemingly being finished. Although I'm sure Nintendo won't let it die out.
@@markellhawthorne2921 I'm pretty sure Nintendo is best selling of every genre they're involved with. Mario kart is the best selling racing game, Mario is the best selling platformer, Pokemon is the best selling RPG, Zelda is the best selling action adventure game (maybe).
I think perhaps an 'emerging flagship' might have been handy for series like splatoon/animal crossing/metroid that are massive within the nintendo community but not as widely known throughout the gaming community like zelda/pokemon/mario.
I'd argue that Kirby is a flagship. Sure it's not as big as Mario and Zelda. However, it's got a pretty good following and Kirby fans have been eating good these last 5+ years.
@@alexandersveryown4760 Popularity as a brand, maybe, but sales? Absolutely not. I love Kirby, it’s my favorite video game series, but let’s not pretend it’s bigger than it is. FWIW, I do think it’s Nintendo’s biggest mainstay.
@@alexandersveryown4760 The best-selling Kirby game has sold about 6 million units. Nothing to sneeze at, but Zelda and Animal Crossing beat that four times over.
Xeno is definitely mainstay. It has gotten consistent releases every couple years. The biggest gap was 2010-2015 but if you count U.S. release only, then 2012-2015 isn't bad. And since 2015 onward there has been a either new mainline entries, remakes, or side games on average every 2 years. With sales higher than some mainstay franchises.
Series is basically considered complete though just like Earthbound despite 3 still being Japan exclusive. Heard that Monolithsoft is working on a new series. Can't wait to see what they make next.
Alright Alright, this video is blowing up a lot more than I ever expected. I'm struggling to get to all comments in all honesty. Yes there's things I screwed up and certain placements make no sense (Mario Kart/Smash/Kirby/FE/Splatoon could all be possible flagships) (Xeno/DK/Yoshi could all be mainstays) (F-Zero swaps with Mother) just to list some of the stronger vocal choices in the comments. I appreciate all the comments but if you have some criticism on how to make these types of videos better in the future feel free to reply to this comment. Or if you just want to roast me for some stuff can also do that as well. It will be easier to reply or take in your comments that way as I don't get notifications for every single comment. Thanks everyone, love you all.
@YadamanTV definitely just wanted to be able to reply to people easier haha. Currently overwhelmed with all the scrolling through so thought it would be easier this way.
Not sure if it counts but Style Dreamer, a game revealed in a Direct and coming out this year, is made by the same people behind Style Savvy (Syn Sophia) and many consider it the 5th entry to the series even if under a different name. The name change seems to be cause it’s been acquired by Marvelous so though I don’t believe it counts as a Nintendo franchise anymore the series still falls in “it exits” imo.
You also forgot to mention Famicom Detective Club and from my point of view Wario Land (on life-support) and WarioWare (exists) are two separate franchises. Still a cool video, though.^^
EarthBound/Mother should have its own tier It's not dead It's complete Even though it stopped at Mother 3, the trilogy still lives on and already grew from a cult classic to a retro masterpiece. It helps when the EarthBound/Mother community is both passionate and honestly one of the rare places where it's very chill and wholesome to hang around in. To say it's on life support or dead is pretty insulting, especially it ain't something like F-Zero where literally it just stopped at F-Zero GX without any clear explanation as to why whereas the EarthBound/Mother trilogy is considered to be complete and understandably, making a new EarthBound/Mother game isn't like making a new Mario or Pokemon game.
You could view it in various ways. Many of these franchises still have a majority of fans. When he says "Dead" he simply means that Nintendo just isn't focusing on it anymore, which is the truth. So yeah if the franchise is finished then It's dead (to Nintendo at least), simple as that. It's definitely not dead to fans though.
Xenoblade had 4* games released - counting Torna and DE - from 17 to 23, and they already sell as well as Fire Emblem games do despite being a much younger franchise. Deserves to be mainstay given they’ve confirmed more games are coming.
Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in getting this video out. I severely underestimated how long it would take but I hope you guys enjoy regardless! Please do consider subscribing if you enjoyed the video, it would mean a lot to me. Time Stamps for each franchise are down below in this comment. There's a ton...you've been warned! Time Stamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:24 - Donkey Kong 2:22 - Super Mario 3:43 - NES Sports 4:01 - Punch - Out!! 4:36 - ExciteBike 5:09 - Legend of Zelda 5:38 - Metroid 6:20 - Kid Icarus 7:28 - Advance Wars (Nintendo Wars) 8:05 - Mother/Earthbound 9:00 - Fire Emblem 9:59 - Play Action Football 10:24 - Startropics 10:53 - F-ZERO 11:37 - Pilotwings 12:05 - Dr Mario 12:35 - Yoshi 13:00 - Kirby 13:35 - Mario Kart 14:35 - Battleclash 14:58 - Wave Race 15:37 - Star Fox 16:37 - Wario 17:52 - Picross 18:35 - Puzzle League/Panel de Pon 19:03 - Mario Sports Games (Tennis/Baseball/Strikers/Golf) 20:27 - Pokemon 21:20 - Pokemon Sub-Series (Mystery Dungeon/Snap/Stadium/Ranger/Pokken Tourney) 22:05 - 1080 Snowboarding 22:50 - Mario Party 23:38 - Super Smash Bros. 24:34 - Paper Mario 25:12 - Sin & Punishment 26:03 - Animal Crossing 26:53 - Luigi 27:36 - Golden Sun 28:32 - Pikmin 29:13 - Mario & Luigi 29:57 - Nintendogs 30:42 - Clubhouse Games 31:16 - Chibi-robo 32:07 - Wii Sports 32:54 - Rhythm Heaven 33:57 - Brain Age 34:30 - Mario & Sonic 34:52 - Endless Ocean 35:28 - Hotel Dusk 35:59 - Style Savvy 36:38 - Fossil Fighters 37:17 - Xenoblade Chronicles 38:05 - Fluidity 38:36 - Steel Diver 39:17 - Pushmo 39:43 - Bayonetta 40:40 - BoxBoy 41:34 - Splatoon 41:42 - Final List 42:55 - Outro (Pls Sub ^-^)
The Pokemon Stadium sub-series did get successors in the GCN with Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness and Wii with Battle Revolution, but either way it is dead now that GameFreak can do mainline console games (even if they should be better)
All they need to do is give us star fox 64-2. It's so simple. Instead they keep trying to innovate the franchise. All I've ever wanted from star fox is an Action packed on rails shooter with fun levels, campy one liners and a fast pace story. Sometimes games don't need innovation. They just need to keep the formula going.
@@thatguy-dh1qh The good news is that there are indie companies that love making short games. I recommend Exzodiac and Fur Squadron are based on the original Starfox.
I think there should be another category for franchises that have concluded. Not every series needs to have dozens of sequels, Mother/Earthbound being a good example as 3 concludes the trilogy and Itoi has stated he doesn't intend to make a fourth.
@@killatobot2306 I recommend Eastward, Boot Hill Heroes and Bounties. They are Earthbound inspired. If you like games on Steam there is Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass and Weirdlands, which also have a Earthbound/Mother 3 feel.
@@thatguy-dh1qh The problem is that Camelot was able to make sports games and RPGs, back then. However they don't have enough people to due both in HD.
Kirby has never had problems with long game droughts, is consistently used in Nintendo marketing, and sells pretty well. I'd personally put it as a flagship
Yeah, especially with how much the Bowser's Inside Story remake bombed. That was the worst-performing Mario game (predictably, considering it was a 3DS remake of a DS game that was already playable on the 3DS. Plus, it was released when the Switch was well into its lifespan)
The last time they we got an entry, it was a crossover with Paper Mario (called Paper Jam) I believe. Maybe Nintendo will give the series to the Paper Mario dev hopefully for the better.
I would personally say there's only a 0.00000001% chance of AlphaDream ever coming back, as companies that have gone bankrupt have never recovered (unless there's even one exception I'm forgetting). And even if they could come back, they probably won't be the same we once knew.
I feel like Xenoblade should be in Mainstays, since it sells pretty well, is well known, and is even considered a big franchise by Nintendo deserving the "one more thing" spot in Nintendo’s E3 directs.
I'd say Kirby, Smash, and Mario Kart should be flagships And Dr. Mario was definitely made to cash-in on the Tetris puzzle style but it's still very different and very fun.
@@PeterParker-ff7ub watch the video. He separated Mario and Mario Kart. And plus, it alone has sold more than most of the franchises in this video he considered flagship.
Small correction: Paper Mario is actually the spiritual successor of Super Mario RPG and was initially called Super Mario RPG 2 during development. The Mario & Luigi series is kind of an offshoot of RPG as well.
@@stevenedwards8353 Yeah, I didn't say it was a proper sequel but a spiritual successor. It went in its own direction while retaining or taking inspiration from some elements of RPG. Same goes for Mario & Luigi.
Funfact : Splatoon has been considered among nintendo's top 4 franchises since 2016 by nintendo themselves back then the order they put it was Mario > Splatoon > Zelda > Animal Crossing but with the release of BOTW and TotK splatoon might be 3rd
A slight criticism. I think it is important for some of the franchises to talk about the development teams when considering their current state like you did with Starfox. Like i would argue mario and luigi is on life support because of the Death of Alpha dream. Or Xenoblade being Mainstay, because their developer, Monolith Soft is a major 1st party studio that mainly does Xenoblade and shows no signs of stopping.
A decade ago, if you told me that Fire Emblem would be a Nintendo mainstay I wouldn’t have believed you. Fire Emblem was always a “it exists” Nintendo franchise, before Awakening the series was on a decline and Awakening was almost the last FE game. Then Awakening sold like hotcakes, very much helped by the fact that it released in other counties, and now the series is selling millions per game. It has very much become the big franchise it always deserved to be, and the fact that people are now paying attention to a consistently high-quality series is amazing.
It's scary to think If awakenings never took off we may never have seen the fire emblem franchise as it is today. You're right though, fire emblem deserves all the recent love. It's a great series of games.
The series may be “Dead” by the rules set by this video, but words cannot express how happy I was to see Endless Ocean mentioned here. Game defined my early childhood, and it’s only being older have I realized how blessed I truly was to have not one, but TWO extremely high quality games about the ocean and sea creatures (if my profile picture is anything to go by, lol)
That pain I felt when you said that Dr. Mario was just a tetris ripoff, especially with how massively different the series' are from each other. They basically match only being puzzle games.
A little addendum to one of your entries: While the Style Savvy name is on life support / dead, the developers are releasing a spiritual successor called Fashion Dreamer this year. Given the new name and the fact Nintendo isn't publishing it, we can safely assume Nintendo owns the name Style Savvy and didn't want to do anything with it.
Someone else did mention this as well. I was unaware that it had been kind of rebranded. Whole Style Savvy in name might be dead, it's successor could fair better.
I didn't realize Fashion Dreamer was being developed by Syn Sophia! Dang, okay, I'm excited for it now. Bizarre that Nintendo doesn't seem to believe in the Style Savvy brand anymore, but I'll take what I can get.
As a huge Panel de Pon fan, I think that series should be in the life support tier. While it hasn't had a full new game since the DS game, Panel de Pon is making a slight comeback in recent years, with Animal Crossing New Leaf getting an entire Panel de Pon minigame that you can play with the in-game 3DS item, and for progressing in that minigame you'll actually get mailed pieces to Lip's outfit that you can wear! And Lip had a mii costume in Smash Ultimate, a costume you have by default no less. And most recently, the actual original Japanese Panel de Pon (not the Yoshi reskinned Tetris Attack!) was releases outside of Japan for the first time on Switch Online!! Although it sucks that they didn't translate it at all, but it does show that between that and the Lip costumes in Smash and Animal Crossing that Nintendo is still thinking of the series and becoming more and more willingly to show the original fairy characters to western audiences, which increases the chances the series has of being revived at a lot. Removing the fairy characters is what lead to the series's downfall in the first place, especially for the GBA and DS games where there was just no characters at all and it was just a generic puzzle game. While I still very much love the gameplay and mechanics, it's going to be hard to get others to feel the same with the generic lifeless presentation of "Puzzle League" with it's generic backgrounds and music (At least the GBA version had remixes of the SNES Panel de Pon themes, but without any characters to associate them with they don't really have the same impact. Lip's theme is still an amazing song though)
I think Pikmin and Xenoblade belongs to mainstays, simply because I would assume that Nintendo considers those games as mainstays for themselfes. That fact is very obvious if you consider how those games are treated in Nintendo Directs, as they are always shown as the directs highlights. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was also the last game to be shown, and the spot is meant to be the Highlight of the Direct. As Nintendo considers those "franchises" as Highlights, its fair to assume that they think of those games as mainstays for sure.
Pikmin has gotten a ton of new attention by Nintendo recently because of its Smash Ultimate appearance, 1 2 and 3's Switch releases, Pikmin Bloom(AKA the one my dad plays), and arguably most importantly Pikmin 4 But all is Pikmin fans who have been since 3 released all know how dead it was before that, all too well
While the Mother series commercially is dead I think it is so culturally influential that it deserves a category of its own. Mother 3 and especially Earthbound pretty much shaped most of what is the modern indie gaming scene. It is a shame that the series is stuck in a grey area due to legal issues and the creators moving unto other because I think it is the one series that I could see rival Zelda in critical acclaim had it continued
"The Zelda franchise is here to stay forever" I actually remember a time when I feared for the future of my favorite video game series, right around pre-skyward sword. I wanted the series to last forever, and I was legitimately scared for a time that all of it would come to an end someday, that Zelda just wouldn't last as long as the mario franchise, if the og devs die or retire, or if Nintendo just moved on to another franchise. It wasn't because the games were any less great then, but because Zelda was still seriously underrated. That was such a different time. This series has grown a lot since then, with botw bringing in swaths of new fans. I'm so proud of what it's become, and it's still incredible to think that this series will likely last forever, that more new games will be unveiled for years to come. My only fear now is that my body won't be able to keep up with the newest Zelda game 40 years from now, I want to play them all forever
I have been a big fan of Zelda since OoT and am so happy the franchise is healthy as it should be. I hope more people try the other games such as Link's Awakening that are so close to my heart and more games get available in the switch for people to enjoy (looking at you WW and TP)
I'm not a fan of the new games (botw & totk) and to me it kinda feels like the Zelda franchise is dead. The new games are so different that they just dont feel like Zelda to me
EarthBound Beginnings was ultimately released on the Wii U Virtual Console and for the Switch Online NES service. And seeing as how Shigesato Itoi has said that Mother is completed, I don't think there's going to be a Mother 4.
@OsRa Ironic. If you want to get meta-textual, the story itself exists as a critique of the idea of playing things safe and being afriad to move forward. I don't remember where I heard this, but supposedly Takahashi himself said he wants to move away from Perfect Works, and Xenoblade 3 is a goodbye to his old ideas. Unless you just mean on a gameplay level, in which case Xenoblade 3 doesn't really break new ground, just refines and reworks a bunch of stuff.
@@jacobmonks3722 I guess “safe” was the wrong word, I more meant straightforward. While I really enjoyed 3 for everything it did (gameplay and story), a lot of the discourse I’ve had with friends and other Xenoblade fans was that the story wasn’t really bold as a standalone story compared to 1 and 2. 1 was pretty straightforward too, but it has the “first game” excuse. Ig what I’m saying is that there weren’t any super big moments within the story that completely shocked me or gave me chills like 2 did (I still loved the story), and I think the lack of Z’s presence throughout the story really hurt it for me. I love the idea of “The Endless Now” though as I thought it provided great commentary on the idea of wanting things to remain the same.
Metroid being a mainstay again with Dread and Prime remastered is a good sign for other games and itself as it definitely deserves all the love it needs, let’s hope that Shiggy looks at his forgotten vulpine son and give him another chance to shine.
Metroid is dead. Prime was succeeded by dead space long ago, and symphony of the night succeeded classic Metroid, metroidvanias have become much better since then, while Metroid just doesn't want to evolve at all.
The only criticism I can offer this channel, is that there isn’t more content available. Well done Kai. I got notifications on and I’m eagerly awaiting the next drop.
Had me in the first half ngl! But even if you did have criticism I'd welcome it always looking to improve and get better. But thanks for the comment! And glad you enjoy the videos.
Calling Mother a dead franchise wouldn’t be quite true if you consider all the recent merch that has been dropping for it. And the reason why its not getting any new mainline games is because Shigesato Itoi (its creator) said that the series is complete and doesn’t need to get milked (thats how I understood it). Though its placement on the list would probably still be the same.
Yeah i feel folks always forget that part with Mother. People doomsday speak about it like it's some failure of a franchise with an abysmal reputation or that Nintendo themselves hate it and refuse to touch it when all is is that the guy who made the thing simply said "I told the stories and made the experiences I wanted to, I'm content at leaving it here" and I gotta give Nintendo props for not pushing for more without Itoi because it ain't Mother without that man.
I think the reason Punch-Out was put on pause was because of Next Level Games’ other projects. After Punch-Out Wii, Next Level went on to develop Metroid Federation Force, two Luigi’s Mansion games, and Strikers Battle League all a few years apart. No clue what their next game could be, but I hope it’s Punch-Out because the last one was amazing.
Either xenoblade goes in mainstay or splatoon goes in it exists. They have a similar recent history and they both have 2 games on switch after starting on wii.
@@AndroidHarris What? Both games had their third release come out last year with plenty of support and DLC on the way come this year. No way they aren't both mainstays.
@@AndroidHarrisSplatoon 2&3 both sold over 10 Million copies while the first game almost sold 5 mil on “failure” of a system. If anything, that’s borderlining Flagship. Now I do agree that Xenoblade should be considered a Mainstay right now tho.
I'd argue Mario & Luigi as Life Support or Dead since the main developers have gone under. The franchise might get picked up by another studio but I don't think Nintendo cares too much about it
I’d label Mother as dead, simply because they’re not gonna do another one without Itoi and he both sees the series as complete and isn’t even in game development. At most you might get a remake but that’s it.
The fact that F-Zero is constantly brought up by Nintendo through cameos in other games (like the two tracks in Mario Kart 8) and it always getting games included in these digital formats (like the Switch Online service) I would say it is on life support. Especially since Miyamoto has been asked that question numerous times over the years and him saying they need to find something unique to do with it means someone at Nintendo has to be keeping it in mind.
Miyamoto was saying thay during the wii U era, where his "we need to do something new" schtick ruined star fox's return Really they could just remaster f-zero GX-A to gauge fan expectations, it very well could revive the AG racer genre in a way redout couldnt
i deadass think the horrible hardware performance of the switch would make f zero either extremely ugly or unplayable, game needs 60fps minimum to play like f zero
@@vanillafella4893 understand your point but if it worked so well on SNES, N64 & Gamecube, I'm pretty sure they could figure it out on Switch if they had to but it doesn't seem a priority
As Kai has already commented, a few disagreements: - Smash is definitely flagship - Mario Kart is definitely flagship - Yoshi is mainstay - I'd merge the Mario Sports games together and put them in mainstay - Xeno should be mainstay - Luigi's Mansion maybe creeps into mainstay, although I'm biased because I loved 3 so much - I'd put Mario and Luigi in life support, because the studio that made all the games is dead I agree with Kai having Kirby, FE and Splatoon as mainstays rather than flagships. FE is a niche franchise in the West; it's growing but still niche. Nintendo is obsessed with making Kirby games for some reason but none of them sell amazingly well so I think it deserves mainstay. Splatoon definitely has potential to become flagship but I don't think it's 'earned' its place among the others in flagship just based on how recent it is. DK *should* be mainstay or even flagship, but Nintendo have completely neglected the franchise so I think 'it exists' is sadly appropriate.
Good changes! Xeno I'd love to move up to mainstay as well. Luigi's mansion just misses out for me as its game releases are slightly too infrequent for me. Although 3 did do really well and another game like that could easily move it up.
@@Legend-of-Kai yeah Mario kart sells more copies but I’d say smash probably sells more systems tbh. Both are flagships. To clarify Mario Kart sells more copies but people dont buy consoles to play the game, they get the game because they already have the console (generally). On the other hand, people buy consoles specifically for smash bros even though the games sell less copies
Great video. I also agree with almost everything on this list. The only things I would change are: -Move Kirby up to Flagship -Move Exitebike, Earthbound and Golden Sun to Dead -Move Pikmin, Picross and Xenoblade to Mainstay.
Actually dude, I just wanted to say that Duck Hunter was HUGELY popular when it was released in arcades and went on to sell 28 million units on the NES worldwide. Nintendo didn't continue with the series because of the concept of killing animals with a gun. Not because it was one hit wonder or that it was an unpopular franchise.
I did read about that. I'm sure they could have switched the concept up somehow if they really wanted to. But I guess back then the creative freedom wasn't quite where it is today. Who knows maybe it'll come back in the future.
It is unbearable that more than 5 years can go by without Nintendo throwing out a Donkey Kong game They really seem to not grasp the love and anticipation DK generates among its fanbase
Think the problem is that there is so much overlap with Mario platformers hurts the sales. Same thing with F Zero being the only flight franchise and mario Kart racing franchise left.
I think Mario Kart, Smash bros, and now Splatoon belong in a special class of flagship multiplayer games. It appears that going forward, each console release will probably get one game from each franchise. Nintendo doesn’t release as many games in these series as their other flagships, but they are system sellers.
Unironically, Picross 3D for the DS was one of my most played DS games and the only reason I didn't beat it 100% is because my cart stopped working. I actually bought another one, but I'd already completed like 75% of the puzzles on my original and lost interest after not being able to pick up where I left off
I'm personally offended by his picross ranking tbh. It's been around since forever and is successful enough to get multiple games per year. It's 100% a mainstay, even if it's not one of their Marketable Mascot Franchises.
@@sRtAoIrNm I agree, but it'd really only work the same in handheld mode. I think if they could get the motion controls to work well docked it'd be playable, but then you have to have controllers with gyroscopes to play a puzzle game on your TV
@@marioizthebest yeah, figuring out controls would be the toughest part. The Switch’s touch screen is very underutilized and I fear it wouldn’t even be used at all! My best thought would be right stick for rotating and perhaps the shoulder buttons could make fixed 90 degree turns horizontally and vertically.
“The mother series may just be seen as dead at this point” bro not only did itoi say he did not want to make any more mother games, but the fan community is still flourishing. There’s been entire fan made mother directs to market all of the creativity the fans are creating. Not only that but mother merchandise continues to be strong well into our current day.
Fair points you bring up. I was aware they did not want to make further Mother games but it still would be considered 'dead' maybe not the right word but I wasn't going to make another category and it obviously can't sit with the others that are still releasing to this day. The fan and community side of things you could definitely argue bump it up though and the merch side of things I was unaware of but I'm glad it seems to be taking off, don't get me wrong I loved Earthbound and me placing it wherever isn't me trying to shit on it and say its dead it was just a placing based on criteria and comparisons to the other franchises.
Good idea for a video.Nintendo has managed to keep so many of its old IPs alive, its kind of insane. Most companies kill off new IPs after like 5 years, while nintendo fans get to enjoy all these sequels like its normal... If Rare was still with nintendo, we could have Banjo and Perfect Dark as "Mainstays"
Perfect dark, KI, Battletoads flopped under Nintendo. Banjo not getting another game until 2008 was rares choice. Luckily, we did get a amazing KI reboot, and perfect dark coming back. I don’t know about banjo though
Personally I really loved Fossil Fighters. Sure it was a “Pokémon clone” but it certainly had a charm to it and digging fossils was a blast, never knowing what you’re going to find
I think the reason Rhythm Heaven hasn’t gotten a switch game is because during Megamix’s development, the most influential person on the team, Tsunku, lost his voice.
I would honestly consider Luigi's Mansion a mainstay. It's almost as recognizable a series as Mario himself, and I have a feeling Nintendo is putting Next Level in charge of the franchise. I expect to get a Luigi's Mansion 4 before the decade's over
Man, I love Endless Ocean. It has so much potential, and Endless Ocean 2 especially was an incredible game. Probably Nintendo's best "sit back and relax" franchise. Please Nintendo, take the Devs off of your online battle royale stuff and let them make Endless Ocean 3!
what amazes me is how the majority of these games started of on the nes 8 bit system and evolved with technology almost 40 years later. One could even argue that the new mario bros series on the switch still play exactly like they did on their 8 bit counterpart which proves that if something isn't broken don't try to fix it
That's the beauty of it, and why even to this day so many old Nintendo games hold up so well. Because apart form the graphics the core gameplay that makes it so ingenious and fun still remains.
honestly i think kirby has a strong contention to be a flagship at this point, it doesnt sell as well as zelda or god forbid mario but kirby releases new games with a scary consistency, i think last year we got like 4 kirby games and in 2023 alone we have gotten 2 releases already, its definetly far more consistent than metroid or fire emblem kirby fans eat good
For how consistent the release schedule is it's just shocking how almost all of them are absolutely fantastic!! Just goes to show how passionate the devs are!! Seriously Forgotten Land and RTDLDX are absolutely fantastic!
Loved the video and idea, but I think Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros should be put in flagship due to how iconic and successful they are. Both of them are the top-selling franchises in their genres and for their consoles.
While it pains me to see Metroid as not quite a flagship, I think I agree with it being a mainstay. The only placement I actually disagree with is the placement of Mariokart, and I think Xenoblade Chronicles could be considered a mainstay. The Mariokart franchise is absolutely a flagship though, as Mariokart games often sell more than mainline Mario games, and we get at least one per console, sometimes two. I think Mariokart 8 deluxe is even the best selling Mario game ever.
That's a good point. Mario Kart was one of those ones where I wasn't exactly sure where to place it. Off sales a lone it beats out most of flagships so it definitely deserves a spot up there. Xenoblade as much as I love I thought was still too young or didn't have enough games to warrant a mainstay status. But I definitely think you could make a good argument especially after the success of 2 and 3
Smash Bros should also be a flagship at this point. It's always among the top best selling games of each console and was the best-selling game on the Gamecube.
Thank you for including the subfranchises like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. That game has a special place in so many people's hearts and imo it not only is criminally underrated but also, like other subfranchises, seems to be all too often left out entirely by content creators talking about the Pokemon franchise. To anyone reading this comment, I recommend giving it a play. If you give it a chance, and play to the end, you will cry guaranteed. …multiple times.
Another dead franchise off of the Pokemom Spin-off games would be PokePark on the Wii. Personally, I thought those games were adorable, with it only having 2 in the series. It holds such a dear place in my heart and I never heard anyone mention anything about it ever 😭
I did a poll recently that included pokepark and there were a fair few that wanted a new game. I've actually never had the chance to play the 2 games so I'd love to jump into the series with a fresh perspective myself
To answer your question in the video, Sega is the IP/Franchise owner of Bayonetta, I think Nintendo only owns some of the rights to Bayo 2 and 3 but Sega is the overall owner, even on Bayo orgins with it being a spinoff you still see segas logo on the case.
That Picross player is me. I’ve been playing them since I was a kid and have all the Switch releases. Something about them is so meditative and calming.
All in all an amazing video, great work! But I don't quite get the distinction of "mainstay" and "it exists". Like, I get that "Flagship" is a category where overall popularity plays a big part, but shouldn't "mainstay" just be about the franchise still "securely and somewhat regularly" receiving games - meaning that Picross, Mario Tennis and some of the other Golf titles certainly belong in there?
I appreciate the optimistic placement of Golden Sun in life support. I don't have faith it will get another entry, but we can hope. Overall great list, while I disagree with some placements, nothing is off by more than 1 category from where I would place it which is about all I could hope for in this sort of video.
I always have hope my friend. And thanks! These kinds of videos/lists are always going to draw a lot of differing opinions. But cool to see ours somewhat align even if not perfectly haha
Just for the record, Ice Climber and Duck Hunt were actually big successes, both selling over 1,000,000 units during the 80s. Ice Climber was so popular that they managed to make a sequel in the arcade.
I definitely wouldn't consider Dr. Mario a Tetris ripoff. They are very different gameplay wise. The only thing they have in common is they are falling block puzzle games.
Fair point, I can tell with each game it became less and less like Tetris and got its own identity. From what I can remember all those years ago when I played the first Dr Mario I just remember thinking is this just Tetris lmao probably why I mentioned it
Definitely one of the more underrated series. The music is absolutely fantastic and I can't help but dance to it. I may have spent a good 20mins listening to it while procrastinating working on this video LOL
@@Legend-of-Kai i do the same thing with my homework lmao. Im glad the bayonetta series has been growing in reach though, more people definitely need to give these games a shot, the characters are lovable, the music is incredible, the interactions between characters is always so fun to watch, the combat is incredible. I could just keep gushing on and on about these games
