Mario: New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island 2 are indeed high points as of late. Super Mario Galaxy hopefully does a better job with the 3D platformer than Sunshine did. The platforming Mario games have always been the best of Mario. They really need to cut back on the spin off series, Mario Sports in particular. There were far too many Mario spin off franchises on the Cube. It has deluted the integrity of the character.

Metriod: I feel Metriod Prime is by far the best game in the Metriod series, and the best Gamecube game of all time. Having played the Metriod series from it's inception, I was really surprised at how well they managed to keep the Metriod gameplay intact in a 3D environment. Like Mario 64 and Orcarina of Time, Prime was a triumph for Nintendo. I do feel that the 3D iterations of the game are best left to consoles, while 2D games of the series should continue on the DS. Metriod Prime 3 will be a solid entry to a great series.

Donkey Kong: Ever since the Donkey Kong Country games, this franchise has been in serious trouble. During Rare's tenure on the N64, they created two DK games: "Diddy Kong Racing" and "Donkey Kong 64" that brought nothing new in terms of gameplay elements or design. Copycat games of the Mario franchise, the integrity of the Donkey Kong brand was comprimised, in my opinion. Seeing Donkey Kong attached to the bongo controller technology during the Cube's lifespan was the result of not being able to move a regular 3D plaformer with the license attached to it. I think Nintendo needs to look back at 1994's Gameboy Donkey Kong release as to see where to go with the franchise in the future.

Starfox: Although I enjoyed Adventures and Assult, they are definately lesser games than the almighty Starfox 64. The biggest problem with this series is that Nintendo themselves hadn't touched it since Starfox 64. Starfox Adventures was a Rare game originally called Dinosaur Planet being developed for the N64 which was moved to Gamecube and had the Starfox universe shoe-horned into the game. It was to buy time with a familiar franchise until Mario, Metriod and Zelda could be released. A pleasent Zelda clone after the first few boring hours of the game. The problem with Assult is that it was handed to Namco and was originally going to be a multiplayer only game, but took on a life of it's own and tried to be an all-in-one of all elements seen in the Starfox universe thus far, including Adventures. Nintendo needs to reel this franchise back in, put an internal dev team to work under the direction of Shigeru Miyamoto in order for it to evolve.

Zelda: Three generations of gamers hold three different Zelda games as the greatest games of all time. Old school NES dudes swear by the 1986 original, others believe in was 1993's A Link to the Past that was the pinnicle of the series. I, like many others, hold 1998's Orcarina of Time as the greatest game of all time. That's the main problem the Zelda series faces: astronomically ridiculous expectations. The jump from 2D to 3D is probably the biggest evolution the series will ever have. I think ever since 1998's Orcarina of Time, all fans wanted was a sequel with slight upgrades. Now, almost nine years later, we're getting one. This is the main problem with Twilight Princess. Forget the fact that the Wii controller has been shoe-horned into a Gamecube game; the reality is that this is a sequel to an eight-year-old game with only graphical and small gameplay enhancements. Since this is a sequel to one of the greatest games ever created, is that a bad thing? No, but it's a far cry from the legendary upgrades the sreies has seen over the previous 21 years. The next console Zelda game needs to be built ground up for the Wii, to take every possible advantage of that controller. It also needs production values never seen before in a Zelda game or any Nintendo game for that matter. I think Shigeru Miyamota should once again be directly involved with the next Zelda.

Pokemon: Put simply, needs to be a console MMORPG. By the very nature of the concept of Pokemon, this is the direction the series needs to head. Everything that made the original groundbreaking: the collection aspect, the player between player trading and the player vs player battles screams for this evolution. Anything else is a waste of time. I lost interest in the Pokemon series a long time ago, due to stagnation of the franchise.

Kirby: Is doing quite well in his little niche. It's too bad the GC game never came out, but this series continues to do what it has always done best: be completely accessable and fun.