How Nintendo Can Win the Indie Crowd

So the PS3 and the XBox 360 had their share of indie hits as well as their large-budget hits. There's Castle Crashers, Journey, Explosion Man, Shadow Complex, and then we have those that have become mainstream like your Candy Crush and Angry Birds. These small hits are a mix of cheaper prices, bite-sized entertainment, and every once in a while branch out and experiment with the limits of what you can do with video games.

Nintendo, like in most categories seemingly nowadays, is a little bit behind this trend. They haven't really gotten many (if any) indie games they can claim for themselves. This only adds to the notion that third-party and Nintendo may never get along ever again.

But there is still one thing Nintendo has that the competitors don't have that can give the Japanese giant its first true advantage and step up on the others: dozens of franchises sitting on the shelf.



For example, since the early 2000s we have not seen the likes of: Wario Land, Puzzle League, StarTropics, Ice Climber, Earthbound, Nintendo Wars (Advance Wars), 2-D Metroid, Mario Tennis and Mario Golf (The RPG versions), Mole Mania, Brain Age, Super Mario Land (trust me, these games play faaaar different from the other 2-D Mario games) and many more. I point these out specifically because these franchises don't really require the larger budgets and larger teams like Zelda, 3-D Metroid, and Mario (Although one can argue indie companies can have the resources to make Mario games).

So, what if Nintendo decides to lend some of these on-the-shelf franchises to indie companies and see what they can pull off? Even better, what if Nintendo took some of the heavier-hitting franchises like Mario, Kirby, perhaps even Pokemon and see what results may occur? The reason why the Disney/Pixar connection works is because Disney merely provides the money and resources, while letting Pixar do its own magic. The result is (up until recently) amazing animated movies that sometimes veers towards an indie flavor because of a lack of a corporate interruption. You really think Dreamworks would have given films like Wall-E, Up, and Ratatouille a chance?

Nintendo may not have the money of Sony or Microsoft, but they have dozens of usable ideas that can be given to new hands and they can be molded into something special. There are dozens of small companies waiting for its chance to shine. Nintendo can benefit from this by reviving one of their fallen and/or forgotten franchises while at the same time provide the confidence and care towards small-small game companies that others would love to see.

Perhaps the road to a better third-party relationship starts with the really little guys. I would love to see a world in which it contains an Indie Nintendo division full of small companies making smaller games for the WiiU and 3DS.

Nintendo, you have a chance to improve your online gaming community. With your abundance of franchises and a willingness to cater to the indie gaming crowd/industry, an improvement can start.

But Nintendo, it all starts with you.