Haha

Nintendo's Direction

That was unintentional.

Anyway, to start this section off, I'll say that I'm a Nintendo fan and have most of Nintendo's home consoles and some Nintendo handhelds. Their games are very fun and stuff too.

But lately, they've been making a lot of 2D platformers.

New Super Mario Bros.? Check.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Check.
More New Super Mario Bros.? Check.
Donkey Kong Country Returns? Check.

As you can see, this has been going on for a while. Don't get me wrong, 2D platformers can be fun and stuff, but to me, 3D platformers are much more fun.

However, even Nintendo's 3D platformers lately have gone more linear, such as Super Mario Galaxy 2. Super Mario Galaxy was less linear than its sequel as far as the hub world went, but it didn't have a lot of exploration required in its missions.

3DS games have taken that route as well, although Nintendo says it's because the linear style works better for handheld gaming.

But it has been some time since Nintendo has made a game with an open hub world and stuff. I've played Donkey Kong 64 quite a bit lately and it's pretty awesome. It's actually quite impressive for a Nintendo 64 game.

A lot of gamers weren't fans of so much collecting, but if there is a set goal point in levels, it would tend to be more linear like Super Mario 3D Land. I really don't mind collecting stuff. It's really enjoyable to explore an area and search for something.

3D platformers of this nature and similar to it seem to be found mostly on Nintendo 64 (obviously, since that's when they became possible) and Gamecube. But if you look at a lot of the first-party adventure games on Wii, you'll probably notice a lot of them are either 2D or linear 3D, like Metroid: Other M or Skyward Sword. I personally haven't played Skyward Sword, so that's just from what I've read though.

Again, it's not that I don't like 2D platformers. I really enjoyed Donkey Kong Country Returns and it's probably one of the best Wii games in existence. But it'd be awesome if Wii U would get some cool first-party 3D platformers that are more open and involve more exploration.