apana said:
Since people are talking about Metroid let me just say that Wii 2 is a good chance to revive the series. I think the best bet would be a complete reboot. Scrap the whole story and start over from the very beggining.
Because a strong story focus to establish an entirely new universe is exactly what the Metroid fanbase is looking for right now... I don't think so.
In any case, I think the entire franchise is just in a dead end of sorts market-wise. Its exploration based play style, but centered only on hostile environments, is at odds with most mainstream games which are based on direct action in hostile environnments.
Making a title based on action pushes away Metroid's own fanbase though and generally gets negative reactions from reviewers. Pushing the exploratory aspect forward and including cities and many characters would make it approach Zelda's territory too much though, and would also displease Metroid's fanbase.
So, there's a ceiling for Metroid's success. If we're looking at it from a sales point of view, what they need is a new brand for a true action series, but one which is directly tied to Metroid somehow, in order to still get brand recognition.