Should Retro Studios Make A Zelda Game?

In the short space of no time at all, Retro Studios, Inc. had risen from a small, aspiring second-party game development company in Austin, Texas to the world-renowned studio that had brought one of the strongest games to the Nintendo GameCube platform, Metroid Prime. It was this technical marvel which had garnered Retro Studios with the commendable praise they deserve, and as a result of this success, the studio wasadopted directly by Nintendo as a first-party developer. From then on out, it was a sure thing that the company had become one of Nintendo's most valuable assets - a development team comprised mostly of Americans, Nintendo had left it to Retro to cater for the Western audiences with the rest of the Prime trilogy. 

The studio had done just that, and before long the first Prime game and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes werepioneering the 'Cube for hardcore gamers - some would argue they even put up a worthy fight against Master Chief's UNSC fleet on the Xbox, at least for a time. Retro had worked on the Metroid series for so long that they eventually became directly associated with it, taking it all the way to the Wii with Prime 3: Corruption. Wishing to pursue other interests, the company came out with a revamp of the Donkey Kong franchise with Country Returns on the Wii in 2010, and had in turn successfully reinstated Nintendo fans' faith in the true King of the Jungle. Currently, they're co-developing Mario Kart 7, to be released for the Nintendo 3DS later this year. 

There's no denying it, Retro Studios make some great games. But could they handle a franchise as huge, expansive and utterly precious as The Legend of Zelda? It's a big question. In the series' twenty-five-year life-span, there have been so very few developers of whom Nintendo has actually trusted with the intellectual property rights of the franchise, to develop a fully-fledged entry in the legendary series. Philips was the first company to obtain these rights, to which they assigned two (too-often-considered) incompetent software companies, Animation Magic and Viridis, to develop three entries in the Hyrule fantasy: Wand of Gamelon,Faces of Evil and Zelda's Adventure. And, well, you know how the story goes, they just couldn't wait to bomb some Dodongos, and they ended up dropping an oversized turd on the franchise, which Nintendo had to ultimately clean up, by giving Philips and the CD-i console, the boot. We in the Zelda fan community make every attempt not to recall these absolutely horrid and embarrassing games. 



Undoubtedly, the most notable software developer to make a contribution to the Zelda frachise would be Capcom - specifically, a division within the company, known as Flagship. To further expand the series in the handheld market, Nintendo had assigned Flagship to develop a series of immense, linked Game Boy Colour games not unlike Game Freak's Pokémon games, to which they came out with the fan-favourites, Oracle of Ages andSeasons. Continuing with the "linking" mechanic known to handheld games in those days, Flagship went on to produce the multi-player experience Four Swords (which is to be re-released as a 3DS download this year) and an A Link to the Past remake on the Game Boy Advance, and later, the brilliant Minish Cap, a 2D adventure that mimicked the 3D games in terms of scale, plot, cinematics and design (and contrary to popular belief, Flagship did not develop Four Swords Adventures). The Flagship company eventually closed in 2007, never to produce another Zelda title, an outcome many dedicated Zelda fans deem as highly unfortunate. 

Which might be just as well, because, in the video games industry, the word "Zelda" carries a lot of weight, and the entire industry - comprising of designers, journalists, advertisers andgamers - know this. As soon as publications and advertising agenciesstart comparing new third-person action-adventure games with Nintendo's classic series, there's a good chancegamers will swarm to that product in a strong density. Would Ōkami have been quite as successful, critically-acclaimed and adored if Clover Studio hadn't developed it with Zelda in the back of their heads? Or if IGN hadn't campaigned it as such? What about Darksiders? Or Shadow of the Colossus? Some of you may remember Ubisoft's 2004 multi-platform hit Beyond Good & Evil, which had also strongly incorporated gameplay elements from the Zelda series. It's actually interesting to note that the agency which had designed one of the box arts for the game had made the conscious decision to use the word Zelda on the back of the game's box, quoting an IGN reviewer in proclaiming, "it's Zelda for grown-ups". I'm digressing, but the point that I'm trying to make here is that having the power to control what the word "Zelda" means for the video games industry is an extremely big deal, and Nintendo is very aware of this. 

This is why not every game developer and his dog can just get ahold of the intellectual property rights for theZelda franchise. Background checks need to be conducted - an assurance of quality is absolutely pivotal. There needs to be a promise of thorough communication between the developers. Especially with The Legend of Zelda, where the game's designs and engine structures are so refined, and the details of the universe are so intricate, it is crucial that there is an ongoing supervision by key members of the Zelda staff - whether that's Eiji Aonuma, Koji Kondo or Shigeru Miyamoto. Zelda's image is everything, and any action to disrupt Nintendo's intentions for the series can harm the overall future of the franchise in the long run. Last, and most important, Nintendo needs to actually want another developer to gear and steer the series, even for a limited time. This is true within the first-party divisions of Nintendo, as well. If EAD Group 3 are outputting Zelda games at a stable rate of time, and at the same, great quality, then it is unlikely that Nintendo will seek another game-developing company to produce a title. As it is, the development period for Zelda games has been known to reach up to half a decade on multiple occasions, which may explain why Nintendo had recently signed the intellectual property rights to Grezzo; albeit, only to remake Ocarina of Time and hopefully Majora's Mask too. So, new companies taking on the Zelda series, while uncommon, are not entirely unheard of. 

So then, why should Retro Studios be the next developer Nintendo should look to, to bring to life their own imagining of Hyrule? That one's easy - because Retro Studios have been around for a while now and they've proved themselves to be capable of producing some great games. Every one of their projects has delivered in content, size and quality. Given, they've only created four games in the last decade, but their work shows evidence of much fine-tuning, and tweaking to the point of near perfection - in all aspects of game design, especially visuals (Metroid Prime is often regarded as being one of the best-looking games of the sixth generation). The many levels on which Retro deliver, in my humble opinion, are what set them apart from other game developers in today's market. What I mean is, Retro Studios excel wholesomely and creatively at what can be considered the core of game design: they're very attentive to detail in their games. 

In the same way that Ocarina of Time was a perfect 3D translation of the Zelda series from A Link to the Past,Metroid Prime took its magic from Super Metroid and weaved a new-generation spin on it (and yes, that sentence did contain four very awesome games). Super Metroid's gameplay was legendary, incomparable to all other games at the time and up to the release of Prime - and this is because Retro Studios had studied Super Metroidvery thoroughly. How did players progress through that game? What made the exploration so plentiful and fun? What was the game's structure? Its atmosphere? What was the feeling of satisfaction players had after achieving something in-game and how can we recreate this feeling? Anyone who's played both Super Metroid and Primewould agree that Retro exceeded expectations in their translation of the way the series "feels" in 2D, with its 3D debut. The company achieved the same goal with the entire Donkey Kong Country trilogy and Country Returns, which is, in my opinion, one of the best platformers of this generation - Retro had stolen the "this-is-friggin-awesome" feeling of finding Rambi the rhino inside a crate in the olden days, and shoved it straight into this new game - altogether with a seamless translation, as if this is the true Donkey Kong Country 4, complete with all-new gameplay mechanics too. 

Retro Studios' catalogue to date exemplifies thorough game design and quality; each project shows traces of heavy research into the "retro" games that had made their respective genre and series work well in the past. It's of my firm belief that if Retro Studios had had the opportunity to develop a Zelda game, that these design techniques would be adopted in the development, to create something that ultimately feels nostalgic, traditional, refreshing and new. They might look to A Link to the Past for inspiration, or perhaps even the NESLegend of Zelda with its focus on pure adventure, exploration and secrets. Maybe Nintendo should assign Retro to develop the rumoured A Link to the Past remake that Miyamoto was interested in seeing come to light - the possibilities are endless, and whether you're for or against the idea, you can't deny how fascinating it would be to see the Zelda series interpreted from a fresh, new, and Westernised perspective. A Zelda game developed from the ground up on American soil would be a very unique one, perhaps a more cinematic one, and it would definitely be somewhat difficult for long-time fans to swallow. Rest assured, Retro Studios would do the series justice and make one hell of a game. 

Would Nintendo allow it? Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't - I think we can all agree that they are very unpredictable as a company, and, in my respects, they are known for their left-field decisions. I know Nintendo like to keep all of their eggs close to home, in their own basket. But I think this is one egg that Nintendo can let loose, to hatch and roam free in a fresh, new environment and under the guidance of developers who haven't been with the franchise for so many years.