Yes because when you keep using the same franchise every gen eventually it because fatigued. It's been 30 years of Zelda. It doesn't matter if there's been 7 CODs in 7 years because people have been playing them for 7 years. People have played Zelda games all their lifetimes. That's the difference.
Zelda doesn't need to die, but it can't be the only big, triple A Nintendo game in terms of production values. It is not wrong to expect something new from them that is on the level of their traditionally "big" franchises. As it is, any new IPs they launch are B-tier games with B-tier aspirations.
There's several things wrong with that. Releasing a rehash COD title every year
consecutively isn't worse than releasing ONE Zelda title per console over the span of 30 years? Aside from Twilight Princess, which was cross-generational, this seems like some messed up logic. I wonder what you'd say if Nintendo took a relatively new IP and released a sequel year on end?
Second, production values isn't everything, that's the fallacy of Western developers that has seen so many fall recently, but even then, Nintendo has some examples of ambitious new IPs(or resurrected, as the case may be). Kid Icarus Uprising was incredibly ambitions, but owait, handheld, doesn't count. The new game by Monolith? Don't know enough yet, fair enough, but it
appears to be ambitious. But hey, let's ignore Xenoblade Chronicles. Pikmin was meant to be a pillar franchise, and it only did reasonably well, so it's been scaled appropriately. Animal Crossing really only started with the Gamecube, and that's been a success....but not a huge one in the West, so again, let's not count it.
I'm not going to argue in the defense of Zelda or Mario Kart's innovation, since they lost their appeal to me after I played a game from each series, but I DO see why people would find it appealing to get a new one. New console, updated graphical experience, and in the case of Zelda, new art style, new atmosphere. The big thing about these series is that you ONLY ever see one per console, with few exceptions. Off the top of my head, none for Mario Kart, and Twilight Princess and early NES Zelda/DS Zelda games.
But to say that Nintendo doesn't make new IPs or innovate, is a blatant lie. People have already posted the list. If you're going to argue that Nintendo doesn't make AAA titles on a regular basis, there's a reason for that; it's not their style, and they don't have to nor want to, and most of Nintendo's fanbase isn't interested in games with overly inflated budgets and failed attempts at maturity.
Nintendo's angle has always been a fun experience, not to wow your socks of with graphics. I personally hate the Wii U, hardware-wise. I don't like the screen. I don't really like many Zelda games outside of Wind Waker, and Mario Sunshine is my favorite 3D Mario game, and don't care all that much for Mario 64 or Galaxy. I'm not a typical Nintendo fan, and I'm not exclusively a Nintendo fan, but I know Nintendo's angle, and I'm not expecting them to break it to appease naysayers.
EDIT: inb4 avatar quote
