Nintendo, Sell Me the Metroid Franchise!

[This is a slightly edited repost from my blog, www.podsix.com]

Nintendo, I love you. You’ve given me some of the best gaming years of my life. And even though I took the NES I got for my birthday in 1990 back to exchange it for a Sega Master System my formative gaming years were equally shaped by countless hours at friends houses playing your amazing first party titles.

But lets be honest here. You’ll never produce a cutting edge hardware platform again. This is fine for the hordes of party games that have currently sprung up around your console. They’re raking in the cash for you in licensing fees and have become the bread and butter of the Wii platform. The problem is that you’ve corraled 3 of the best gaming franchises in the industry to the least powerful hardware, tethered to a platform that can never truly let them shine. I’m speaking here of Super Mario Bros. Zelda and Metroid. Because of this I will never see a Samus Aran with more polygons in her character model than in an entire level in Metroid Prime melt my television with an HD Charge Beam.

I know you want to keep these games to yourself, who wouldn’t, they’re awesome brands and you’ve spent a lot of time and money making them that way. But lets face it, you don’t need them to sell consoles anymore. Hell your consoles practically sell themselves! Isn’t it time to let Zelda and Metroid off the leash to become the industry giants they once were? Theres nothing to be gained by chaining Samus and Link to underpowered (but yet still totally awesome!) hardware. Develop them for the PS3 or 360, slap your big ol’ NINTENDO logo on the startup screen, and let your fans have the mind-blowing Zelda and Metroid experience they’ve been craving since the days when the SNES was king! Go ahead and keep SMB Wii only. Its your oldest baby and no-one will begrudge you that. I promise I’ll keep buying Nintendo hardware as long as you keep making SMB games for it. But please PLEASE let Metroid and Zelda run free, free to become the triple A titles they deserve to be!

If you search your soul you’ll know I’m right, but if you can’t find the strength to do what needs to be done, sell me the franchise. I promise I’ll take as good care of it as you do. I’ll even let you come visit any time you like.