An artcle we linked to a few days ago whoely complemented gaming god Shigeru Miyamoto and his legacy but also claimed that he may be hindering Nintendo, keeping them in the past. So is Mayamoto keeeping Nintendo in the past, or is he the way forward? We posed the question to our staff.

Is Miyamoto keeping Nintendo stuck in the past, or can he leading the way forward?

GamecubeGod: I wouldn't say that the new Zelda is 'stuck in the past', would you? In English, Miyamoto must surely mean innovation. Although he sticks with the same franchises, he always manages to implement something completely different that sets his games apart from the crowd. I'd very much like to see what he's doing with Donkey Kong, and I'd also like to see what future projects he's working on, because he apparently has a 'whole new franchise' in the making.

Miyamoto is the forefront of Nintendo, and it is his leadership that consitently produces great games. I'm not particularly looking forward to his retirement.....

Blackbird: He's the 'Spielberg of Gaming', doesn't that say enough?

Okay, innovation, but more or less on sequels (Zelda, Mario and now even Pikmin). He has proven he has got some great idea's for gaming purpose, but maybe he needs some new games to put these idea's to work.

Franklin: Well people could say he is stuck in the past cause of all the Mario and Zelda sequels that come out but in reality compared to other francises Mario and Zelda don't see new installments for years between games.

And he always tries something new to make each new one that bit different from the last. Look at Mario not one game is like the previous and it's always gold. Same with Zelda, hell just look at The Wind Waker, how many producers would take a step in a direction no body expected (Cell shading) not care about people complaining about they want more realistic titles but looking for something new to keep himself and gamers not wanting things to repeatative interested.

I'm sure he has tons of ideas in that great head of his, and prolly just happens that a fair few suit current francises better than a brand new game. Hell with this "megaton" thing coming soon maybe we'll see the birth of totally brand new characters and worlds from Shigerus mind.

Link: I wouldn't say that Miyamoto is really keeping Nintendo in the past. He does have a lot of influence on issues such as keeping ROM disks for the N64 and by not supporting Nintendo-run servers for online gaming (yet), but he is always setting new standards for video-games. With Mario 64 he made the standaed to what a platformer should be. With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time he set the standard for adventure games. With Pikmin...well...I guess he didn't set any standards with that except for originality, but it is in this creative originality that comes the future of gaming.

Without creative minds like Shegeru Miyamoto all we would have are copies of copies of copies...of copies of games. Sure the future may be online, but what good is an online game if it's like all other online games. If there is one defining online game you'll be sure that it will be from a Nintendo team headed by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto.

Omar: Well i would rather say Shigheru Miyamoto is very considerate about his franchises. His ability to expand them and to make them last as long as mario, Zelda etc. Have is fantastic. When you look at Sonic and that franchise. You can't really say SEGA made it last as long as Mario has. It just didn't appeal in 3D as people had hoped (Besides SEGA's consoles being failures ).

But Mario and Zelda survived the 3D 'leap', Zelda : Ocarnia of time and Mario 64 are one of the best games designed ever. Miyamoto knows that he has many fans out their and one of the key elements to Nintendo's popularity and success is its franchises. Besides, the need for new ideas I think Nintendo's ability to make a franchise last so long is unmatched and I think they are going the right away about things . So no personally I don't think that Miyamoto is stuck in the past.

Ash: Miyamoto is a bit of both. While he may be sticking with updating old franchises and using old methods (and who can complain, the games are great) he is also introducing new things. With The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker out this week it introduces many new elements in a game to us. The first obvious is the toon-shading which I won't go into, but other things such as wind. That little breeze we all complain about is a crucial part in this game, it decides where we go and what happens. This is something not done before, and a lot of Miyamoto's Gamecube games have been like this. Whether it be Mario's backpack or Luigi's Vacuum it's not been done before and it's a refreshing change.

I'm sure Miyamoto has many ideas flying around in his head and he just hasn't been able to do them yet. He will think of a new big 'thing' that the videogame world will admire (and Sony and Microsoft will copy). It's been done before with the likes of the rumble pack and such forth. I do not mind if he is 'stuck in the past' as long as he keeps producing games I will keep buying them.

Conor: Quite an interesting question really.

What exactly is Miyamoto doing that is keeping Nintendo in the past? Oh yeah, that's right, making 'childish' games? Really, it's just an euphanism for good games.

People that complain Miyamoto is stuck in the past fail to realise what was in the past; f***ing great games! These people want Nintendo to start doing friggin' Grand Theft Autos. Nintendo does not follow mainstream trends, Nintendo follows what it has always done, and that's make brilliant, envelope-pushing games. Hell, if it wasn't for Miyamoto-san, they wouldn't have had GTA. He came up with free-roaming environments and proper 3-dimensional games. That's what Miyamoto does, he comes up with concepts that change the face of gaming and then every Tom, Dick and Party in the place rips it off and leaves people complaning about him.

Let's take, for example, the new Zelda. Narrow-mined gamers call this 'childish', setting it as an example of how Nintendo refuse to 'get with the times'. Well, you know what, from what I have heard Zelda: Wind Waker is the game of this generation. So all those GTA-loving, alien-bashing action junkies can kiss my ass. They're the ones stuck on reheated microwave games, while we're having the latest delacasee from that 'barmy old chef' that refuse to serve burgers and chips.

Granted, Nintendo are attempting to 'modernise' slightly with games like Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime. And while their determination to stick with their roots may leave the wallets a little thinner than usual at least they stay true to the things that sets gaming apart from every other medium of entertainment out there, that tingly feeeling you get journeying through the magic of games like Zelda.

So, yes, you could say Miyamoto is keeping Nintendo in the past somewhat. And you know what I think about that? Thank bloody God.