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The Nintendo franchises that changed most between generations are Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, and Metroid. Their identities remain recognizable, but each moved into a substantially different combination of player role, world structure, mechanics, or hardware context.
Mario shifted from fixed 2D courses to 3D sandboxes and player-created levels. Zelda replaced much of its traditional item-gated sequence with an open-ended physics playground. Pokémon kept its collection-and-battle foundation while expanding from a handheld RPG into a connected, cross-platform pillar. Animal Crossing turned the player from a resident into the principal designer of the environment. Metroid translated solitary maze exploration into first-person 3D navigation and portable formats.
How the five franchises compare
| Franchise | Earlier identity | Major generational change | Change in player role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario | 2D, course-based precision platforming | Analog 3D exploration, sandbox movement and level creation | From completing authored routes to experimenting in spaces and building courses |
| The Legend of Zelda | Structured overworlds, dungeons and item-gated progression | Open wilderness, physics systems and self-directed progression | From following a designed sequence to choosing routes and solutions |
| Pokémon | Handheld role-playing game with local link play | Broader hardware reach, connectivity and media ecosystem | Core training loop stays familiar while the surrounding platform expands |
| Animal Crossing | Life in a prepared town governed by a calendar | Crafting, construction and extensive island customization | From resident and participant to planner and builder |
| Metroid | Side-scrolling exploration and maze-like platforming | First-person 3D Prime exploration and handheld adaptations | From reading a 2D map to scanning and navigating an immersive 3D space |
1. Super Mario: from fixed courses to player-authored 3D play
The 2D foundation
Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Super Mario World (1991) established a clear contract: move through side-scrolling courses, read hazards quickly and master precise jumps. Levels were authored sequences, and the camera showed the route the designer wanted you to take.
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The move into 3D space
Super Mario 64 (1996) changed the movement model itself. An analog-controlled Mario could run in any direction, circle objects and explore a 3D course rather than simply advance from left to right. Super Mario Sunshine (2002) layered a water-powered tool onto that movement, while Super Mario Galaxy (2007) built stages around gravity and spherical worlds.
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Later games deliberately varied the size and structure of those spaces. Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World used compact 3D courses that retained a stronger sense of route and timing. Super Mario Maker moved the series another step by giving players tools to design and share their own courses.
Why the change matters
Mario did not abandon precision; it expanded what precision could mean. The challenge moved from reading a single horizontal path to mastering camera control, momentum, spatial positioning, gravity and combinations of movement abilities. In a 2017 TIME interview, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé described Super Mario Odyssey as a new sandbox approach and said Nintendo wanted players to think, “Wow, I’ve never done that before with a Mario game.” The series therefore progressed from completing designer-authored courses to exploring systems and, eventually, authoring courses yourself.
2. The Legend of Zelda: from dungeon sequence to systemic wilderness
The traditional Zelda structure
Earlier Zelda games generally combined an overworld with dungeons, recurring tools and a progression in which acquiring an item opened the next area or solved a specific class of obstacle. The series changed its setting and era repeatedly while retaining Link, Zelda, Hyrule and its mythic roles.
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Breath of the Wild’s break with convention
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild made progression itself more flexible. Nintendo’s description of the game centers on a vast landscape where players can climb, gather ingredients, cook, discover more than 100 shrines and use more than 180 weapons that eventually wear out. Encounters can be approached through combinations of terrain, physics, equipment and improvised combat rather than one prescribed solution.
The opening premise also changes the usual order of operations. Players can head toward the final confrontation immediately, climb instead of following roads and decide which regions, shrines and fights to tackle first. Reggie Fils-Aimé called it “a dramatic departure from the conventions of a Zelda game.”
A layered sequel world
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom kept the known Hyrule map so that familiar geography could support unfamiliar play. Nintendo’s developer interview describes the addition of sky and underground regions, creating a layered world rather than simply replacing the previous one. That choice shows how far the series had moved from a sequence of contained dungeons: the map itself became a platform for experimentation.
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3. Pokémon: the stable loop with an expanding ecosystem
What stayed recognizable
Pokémon changed less dramatically in its central promise than Mario or Zelda. Catching creatures, training them, battling with type-based teams and trading remain the recognizable spine of the mainline role-playing games. The available material supports continuity more strongly than a claim that every generation radically reinvented battle mechanics.
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What expanded between platforms
The major transformation was structural. Pokémon began as a handheld Nintendo RPG and spread across Game Boy, Nintendo 64, DS, 3DS and later systems. Local link-cable exchanges became broader forms of connectivity, while the franchise grew beyond games into an organized commercial and media ecosystem.
The Pokémon Company’s official history traces the organization’s development from its 1990s origins, including the establishment of Pokémon Center in 1998 and The Pokémon Company in 2000. Those milestones help explain why Pokémon’s generational change is best measured by reach and integration: the same collection-and-battle identity now supports more hardware contexts, network interaction and related products than the original handheld format.
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The right way to describe Pokémon’s change
Pokémon is not the strongest example of a total mechanical reset. It is the strongest example of a franchise preserving a dependable core while changing its interfaces, connectivity, presentation and surrounding universe. That stability is itself a design strategy: new generations can add systems and creatures without making the basic player fantasy unrecognizable.
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Earlier games made the player a resident
Animal Crossing: Wild World became a major Nintendo DS title, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf placed the player in the role of a town mayor on Nintendo 3DS. In both cases, the town already existed as a social environment. The player shaped routines, relationships and personal spaces, but the broader layout was largely prepared.
New Horizons makes construction the headline activity
Animal Crossing: New Horizons relocates the premise to a deserted island and foregrounds crafting, decorating, collecting, community building and visits to other players’ islands. The player is no longer merely adapting to a town plan; they decide where facilities go, how paths and landscapes are arranged and what kind of settlement develops.
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Why this is a change in agency
The calendar, social encounters and collecting that define Animal Crossing remain important, but the central verb changes from inhabiting to authoring. Earlier games ask how you will live within a designed town. New Horizons asks what the town should become, then gives you tools to construct and display that answer. Shared island visits also turn personal layout choices into a social form of expression.
5. Metroid: from 2D maze platforming to first-person 3D exploration
The original exploration language
The early Metroid formula used side-scrolling movement, isolated environments, upgrades and a map that gradually opened as new abilities were found. Progress depended on remembering blocked passages and recognizing where a newly acquired power could be used.
Prime changes the viewpoint
The Metroid Prime games re-expressed that exploration through first-person 3D navigation. Instead of reading a primarily horizontal maze through a side-on character, players move through spatial environments, scan surroundings and interpret architecture and hazards from inside the world. Exploration, upgrades and isolation remain central, but the camera and information available to the player are fundamentally different.
Home and handheld hardware
Nintendo’s release history shows the series crossing generations and formats, including the original home-console lineage, Metroid Prime Hunters on Nintendo DS and Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. Those milestones illustrate a second kind of transformation: Metroid’s defining atmosphere and exploration were adapted not only from 2D to 3D, but also from dedicated home systems to portable play.
What these changes reveal about Nintendo’s generational design
These franchises did not all change in the same way. Mario changed the scale and authorship of movement; Zelda changed the rules of progression; Pokémon expanded the platform and media system around a stable loop; Animal Crossing transferred control of the environment to the player; and Metroid changed viewpoint while preserving exploration and isolation.
The common thread is selective reinvention. Nintendo repeatedly keeps a recognizable fantasy—jumping as Mario, exploring as Link, collecting Pokémon, building a home, investigating an alien world—then changes the systems that determine how that fantasy is experienced on newer hardware. That is why these five series feel both continuous and, in their most important generations, almost like new games.
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