I will need to paraphrase my thoughts on Miyamoto and the whole Nintendo situation.
Yes, Miyamoto is involved with the Metroid series as he has been involved with many other Nintendo series (I am well aware of that and aware of him having a hand in many Nintendo projects). Miyamoto “letting Retro Studios handle things” does not mean he is not involved at all, it means whenever he gives ideas or anything to work with, he lets them go about their business as he does with his; when they cooperate together, Miyamoto will give the creative staffs do’s and dont’s and he gives them his input as well as certain ideas that the creative staff can take, run with, and sprout with. Many Nintendo games I grew up with mean a lot to me (Super Mario 64, TLOZ:Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, etc) and these were impactful in special thanks to Miyamoto’s involvement.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ghoulyboy/status/638761578582536192?lang=en
When Miyamoto was cooperating with Rareware, he gave them the idea that Donkey Kong could wear a tie (kudos to him for that concept); Rareware went with his idea when they redesigned DK back before the original DKC game released.
A portion of Nintendo’s consumers are also fans of franchises such as Star Fox, F-ZERO, Earthbound, and the Paper Mario series. Some of these fans feel that their beloved series has been left by the wayside by Nintendo (whether fans should feel that way or not is debatable). This is not solely the fault of Miyamoto (some may exaggerate whatever faults he is at), but rather it collectively falls on Nintendo. Think of the game creators developers in the same vein as you would think of a sports team; Miyamoto can coach these guys up (he has the knowledge of gaming, wisdom, and experience to do so) as well as giving his influence and input, when they succeed together they deserve praise for it and if they ever fall short of expectations then consumers will respectfully let them know about it (this is ideally how I think fans should be, but unfortunately there will always be fans that can get subjective and have knee-jerk reactionary type of thoughts in the social programs they post in).
The collective credit goes not only to Miyamoto for the success of the Metroid series, but also Retro Studios. Same with the early Star Fox Games, not only does collective credit go to Miyamoto, but also Argonaut studios.
Any criticism of Miyamoto or any human mistakes he makes does not detract all of his contributions to the video game industry and the status he has achieved. It is not outrageous for fans to give an honest critique on what Miyamoto can improve on unless they take their criticism too far like some of those toxic bloggers do.
I said that Miyamoto “shouldn’t be too involved with some series,” but that doesn’t mean I don’t want him involved with the projects at all. He has been good for Nintendo since the NES days and is still good for Nintendo today (this contrasts with some of the toxic bloggers thinking he is useless now). Developers could use his leadership and wisdom when they work on any new projects for Nintendo today. Not being “too involved” with a series or development team means that he must not be too restrictive on a creative staff’s do’s and dont’s, instead give them a chance to sprout as a creative staff; Rare grew as a creative staff because back when they were making games for Nintendo, Miyamoto gave Rareware not only his ideas to use, but also the chance for Rareware to sprout on their own and this lead to Rareware having their games for Nintendo be among the most memorable to this day (DK series and Banjo-Kazooie for example).
I felt that Miyamoto may “not have the same touch as he used to” but that’s not to say he is all of a sudden bad as a game creator, of course he’s still good. I feel that even though he may not be as active as a developer with projects as he used to overall (though he will still give an input to some games such as the Luigi’s Mansion series), he can still step in (I hold high regards for his abilities) and help do more to make Nintendo franchises like Star Fox, F-ZERO, Earthbound, and Paper Mario relevant again (this falls into the category of giving game creators an honest critique on what they can improve on for their consumers). He did allow Ubisoft to work with the Star Fox series so we will see how that goes from there. He has done a great job being involved with Retro Studios over the years (even though he may not be as involved right now with Retro Studios as he was back around the time Metroid Prime released, he over the years has done well entrusting Retro Studios with his ideas while at the same time not being too restrictive and letting the creative staff sprout whenever he is involved with the process as they cooperate). Here’s where he can also step in as it relates to what I said of “certain situations in Nintendo have happened”; Mario Kart Tour is considered as a game that pickpockets one’s wallet if the player is not careful; those are the type of tactics I expect from EA, not from Nintendo. These type of games are not something Nintendo should continue to do in the future, it wouldn’t bode well for their reputation (I will reiterate that a game like Mario Kart Tour isn’t solely the fault of one person, rather this falls on Nintendo collectively as I give them an honest critique about the flaws of this type of game and how they can improve from it). Even though Miyamoto today may not be as involved with projects now overall, he can still step in and prevent Nintendo from spiraling down this path. Perhaps I had set my expactations too high for to Nintendo to fix these type of issues as the gaming industry in general seems to be trending towards a different direction (microtransactions) and some things have transpired over the years, such as Konami’s treatment and ousting of Kojima as a gaming director.
One of the things I respect most about Miyamoto is his value for gameplay (how fun the experience can be as well as the overall quality) whereas some other companies outside of Nintendo are too focused on other things like the cinematic elements of a video game.
On a final note, here’s a Miyamoto quote for the toxic bloggers out there to consider when it comes to his value for the quality of video games:
“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”
