Indie Developers Are Keeping Classic Nintendo Games Alive

thegamer.com:

Nintendo will never make another StarTropics. I know that this hurts to hear, but it just won’t. Why would it when anything with Mario or Luigi’s name is guaranteed to sell when it can rake in the cash or remastering an old Zelda game once a year until the sequel to Breath of The Wild is ready? Unlike many companies that would bring back any series with the slightest bit of name recognition (looking at you Prey),

Nintendo is more interested in trying to start new massive series rather than bring back old ones. Sometimes this works, and we get Ring Fit Adventure selling out across the early months of the pandemic or Splatoon taking the world by storm. Other times, less so, and we end up with Labo and Game Builder Garage.

We’re unlikely to see a new Ice-Climbers, Wave Race or Star Fox any time soon. But what if we were getting the next best thing already? What if there was an alternative that may be even better than Nintendo bringing back these classics itself?

Related: The Best SNES Games On Nintendo Switch Online

Retro throwbacks are nothing new, especially ones that seek to fill the void of a beloved series. The modern Metroidvania revival was born from indie developers wishing to create something like the long dormant Castlevania or Metroid games in the early 2010s. More recently, there has been a wave of 2D Zelda-inspired games like Eastward and Garden Story.

However, over the last couple of years I’ve noticed a growing number of games that aren’t just inspired by the games of the developer’s youth. These are games that, for all intents and purposes, try to be unofficial sequels to series that have been left behind. Some embrace modern technology and sensibilities in their gameplay and artstyle, while others could