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[Kensuke Tanabe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensuke_Tanabe) has been announced to be the producer for Metroid Prime 4, but this leaves me conflicted, while I know that he’s been the producer for the entire Prime series (co. producer for 1) and other games that I love, I still hesitate for he’s been a part of some truly terrible games, those of which have ruined franchises, and has been cought saying some untrue things.
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# Bad Games & Ruined Franchises
**Paper Mario Series**
The first example is of this is Paper Mario, Tanabe was the producer for Paper Mario Sticker Star, a game widely considered by the fanbase (and myself) to be absolutely garbage, it ditched everything the series was known for and replaced it with shallow gimmicks, while Paper Mario Color Splash (a game he also produced) was considered good by most, however it was also considered to not be anywhere near the quality of any game in the first trilogy. Since Color Splash sold so poorly (especially for a Mario game) it might have put the series on ice, though I doubt this.
**Chibi-Robo**
This next series is a weird one, while Chibi-Robo has been very experimental, it’s never shifted it’s core gameplay, every Chibi-Robo is based around typically menial labor, but when Tanabe took the helm as producer it shifted into an Action Platformer with Chibi-Robo Zip Lash, it’s believed that Chibi-Robo Zip Lash was Chibi-Robo’s last chance before it’d be put on ice by Nintendo, it was the most mediocre Platformer I’ve ever played by Nintendo, and I’m sad to see such a great franchise end like that.
**Mario & Luigi**
Tanabe sure has a thing for ruining the Mario RPG’s doesn’t he? While he was only a supervisor of Mario & Luigi Paper Jam, a lot of the problems that plagued Sticker Star are abundant in it i.e. All friendly characters are Toads, No unique character design, and NSMB level setup such as plains desert forest lava ect.
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# Lies
Tanabe has been caught saying some untrue things, specifically in reference to Paper Mario, here’s some ruff quotes from interviews.
Q: Why is there no unique character design in Color Splash? A: Tanabe: Miyamoto told us to stick to only using characters from Super Mario Bros. 1\2\USA\3 and World, so we didn’t want to make new characters.
Super Mario Odyssey is announced, a game that Miyamoto has been watching like a hawk, it just so happens to have BRAND NEW species and some have UNIQUE CHARACTER DESIGN, it was definitely in development at the same time as Color Splash was, so this makes no sense. To further this, it seems that Tanabe enforces this rule himself as M&L Paper Jam was just like Sticker Star and Color Splash.
Q: Why is Paper Mario not an RPG like it used to be? A: Tanabe: Miyamoto doesn’t want two Mario RPG’s, so we decided to focus on the Paper aspect instead.
Mario+Rabbids Battle Kingdom is a Strategy RPG that MIYAMOTO HIMSELF requested Ubisoft make, a little weird that Miyamoto would be okay with that?
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# Speculation
While most of this was just facts, I thought I’d give some speculation, I want everyone to know in advance that THIS IS NOT CONFIRMED TRUE OR HAS ANY PROOF, okay? This is all just a hunch I have.
So, everything I’ve mentioned has been pushing me to a conclusion, and one I do not like, Tanabe wants to turn certain franchises into money generators, for instance, all the elements that were removed from Sticker Star Color Splash Zip Lash and Paper Jam made them harder and longer to make.
It would be much easier to quickly make something for cash every console gen if it didn’t require unique character design a deep story or deep mechanics, instead strip it bare and sell it.
As much as I’d like to say that isn’t possible, I’ve seen it happen to other Nintendo franchises I’ve enjoyed, Mario Party & Mario Sports specifically.
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# Conclusion
As much as I’m excited for Metroid Prime 4, there’s a part of me that’s worried that Metroid could be his next bad game, all those games were made past Metroid Prime 3, and now I can’t say for sure if I trust Kensuke Tanabe as director of Metroid Prime 4, I guess we’ll know eventually.
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by gameboyzapgbz
15 Comments
I’m not that worried.
Metroid Prime (2002) — Co-Producer
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) — Producer
Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006) — Producer
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) — Producer
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) — Producer
Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) — Producer
Dillon’s Rolling Western (2012) – Producer
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014) — Producer
Tanabe may still be telling the truth though. Mario Odyssey and Color Splash are two DIFFERENT games so Miyamoto could very easily be more strict with one over the other. And IIRC Miyamoto didn’t explicit tell Ubisoft to make a Strategy RPG, just something that hasn’t been done before Mario-wise.
>Mario & Luigi
Hahaha, NO.
This series has not been “ruined”, Paper Jam is a perfectly fine game.
The reason Paper Jam has so many Toads is because Toads are basically the only friendly characters that are a constant between both games. And since the contrast between normal and paper was a big part of the game’s design and theming, they focused on the things that were specific to both series, ie Toads and Bowser’s minions.
Paper Jam isn’t a “ruined game”, it’s just an inverted Super Paper Mario – great gameplay and average story instead of great story and average gameplay.
I’m almost certain that the issues with its genericness have nothing to do with enforcing a “don’t use characters” rule. I could elaborate at length, but suffice to say that I definitely disagree with your conclusions about that game.
Ultimately, you’re being downvoted because it’s far too early to be concerned when we’re a long way out from actually seeing the game.
This is like saying you saw a fish suck at flying so you’re now worried about its ability to swim. He’s consistently done a great job with Metroid
Tanabe produced every Chibi-Robo franchise since original GC one. not only Zip Lash. Also Tanabe produced Super Paper Mario (Wii). one of the first trilogy you said.
Metroid Prime 4 will be great, I don’t have any doubts.
Color Splash and Paper Jam were the shit, no clue as to why some people seem to dislike them. This guy has a great track record so I wish him good luck.
Having a section called “lies” is a little dramatic considering nothing says those statements weren’t actually true at the time. Also paper Mario is a turn based rpg with an incredibly similar battle system to Mario & Luigi, while Mario + rabbids is turn based tactical. Those two genres play very differently so I don’t think you should really compare them
Wow, a lot of people are shitting on OP right now, but I’m honestly in the same boat. I’m really cautious about what’s going to happen with Metroid Prime 4. After Sticker Star, after Color Splash, after Metroid Prime Federation Force, it’s seems Tanabe really doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of *why* people liked earlier games in the series.
Decides that the paper aesthetic is the most important aspect of Paper Mario and throws out pretty much every other likeable trait that made the first three games good. Cohesive world, interesting and varied NPCs, partners to give the combat system depth, etc. SPM was still good because while radically different, it retained the right things. Doesn’t really learn his lesson with Color Splash because Sticker Star sold so well. Federation Force gets shredded by fans for pretty much being the polar opposite of what makes Metroid great and unique, and instead of taking criticism, he uses up time in a Direct to plead with us that the game is good and we should try it. Fast forward to release, it’s exactly as mediocre as everyone thought it would be.
Across his whole career? Yeah, he’s got some smash hits attached to his name, absolutely. Recently? Things don’t look quite as shiny.
>Bad Games & Ruined Franchises
[Ow the edge](http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/652/918/68a.jpg)!!!
What’s surprising about the Internet (and the videogame press) is that they think that things no one outside the circlejerk has heard anything about are absolutely loved by “everyone” and are the Mona Lisa of the holy grail of all masterpieces of the videogame industry (Mother 3 and every minuscle story aspect in gameplay-heavy videogames no one cares about, like Mario Galaxy 1) only because “aaah great storieeeeh”, while things that most people (read: kids) have probably enjoyed are treated like the crap silo in the trash of the biggest garbage ball of Lake Karachay (Sticker Star and Color Splash). Too bad Color Splash ended up in an unfortunate console because that’s the real reason it wasn’t too successful… no one wanted a WiiU when the Switch was coming soon.
Sorry, my message was quite edgy too, but Jesus, Color Splash is actually a good game! If you don’t like it that’s your problem! This doesn’t give this sub a good image! Probably my post doesn’t either though, lol!
>Lies
>M+R-KB strategy RPG
Really depends on how you define RPG. There’s the classic JRPG epitomized by main-series Final Fantasy I-IX, which is what Mario RPG was (and probably what Tanabe was talking about). And then there’s RPG defined more loosely, where all the systems can be whatever but there’s level-based progression and unique skill trees to pursue. If I had to choose between classifying M+R-KB as an RPG or as a strategy game and not as a blend of the two, I’d pick “strategy game” without hesitation. Pretty much everything has some amount of RPG elements to it now, but I wouldn’t consider everything with those elements as an RPG.
> can’t say if I trust Tanabe as *director* of Prime 4
Not a director. He’s a *producer.* Very different roles. Producers manage schedules, marketing, budgets and other project management issues — they don’t make creative decisions.
I’m not worried very much, because of his involvement through the entire Metroid Prime series and the Wii/U Donkey Kong Country games.
How do you know what Miyamoto said to Tanabe re: Colour Splash and Paper Mario? Were you there? Where’s the proof?
While I’m concerned for MP4, that’s based on the games Tanabe has been involved with. Not what might have been said to him by Miyamoto.
I didn’t know John McCain was so into Nintendo games.
Do y’all really have to downvote this well-organized and reasonable post just because you personally disagree with it? I’ve watched one of my favorite series crash and burn and Tanabe has pretty much said in no uncertain terms that he has no interest in appealing to said series’ original fans, the ones who make up the majority of its fanbase. He genuinely thinks that his direction for Paper Mario can be good despite the majority of enthusiasts of the series finding it okay at best (compared to games like Thousand Year Door which are praised as masterpieces for good reason)
I’m not going to pretend to know much about his involvement with Metroid since I don’t really follow that series, but I can say I’ve heard many complaints about recent games in that series. Tell me this, if there was a teaser for “Paper Mario on Switch” with just a tentative logo, how many of us would be delusional enough to think it’s definitely going to be like TTYD after so much evidence pointing towards the producer being vigorously against that idea?
So I can understand the hype around the Metroid Prime 4 logo, however no gameplay was shown, and I don’t want y’all to experience crushing disappointment if it isn’t what you expected. I experienced this with Sticker Star after it was nothing like the first screenshots, it’s not something I’d wish on any fan of any series. Just some stuff to consider.