This year I will be celebrating my fortieth birthday. A child of the 80’s I’ve owned many systems and played a lot of games over the years, but it was one system that really got me hooked on video games: the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Ah, the NES… there was something special about it to me, with its colourful library of games from Mario to Zelda to Megaman. That little box sucked up a lot of time from my childhood in a way that the Atari systems and PCs of that era could not. I couldn’t wait to come home from school to play it, or hurry back to it after being reminded again and again by my parents to do my chores around the house. All my hard-earned cash from delivering newspapers went towards new games, which I eagerly anticipated from reading the monthly gaming magazines. Certainly, they were not all winners, but I still had a good time as my NES game collection grew.
As time went on, Nintendo continued to have a place in our household. The NES made room for the Super Nintendo, but with the popularity of home consoles taking off again, Nintendo found they had more competition than ever. Soon Sega, with the Genesis, had found a place beside the Nintendo systems, sporting games that appealed to me and friends. There was always room for new systems and games in my world and tried to play them all evenly, and tried to keep them in good condition. As I grew up, my taste in games shifted to more mature fare – I remember when Mortal Kombat came out for that generation of consoles. The Sega Genesis touted that their game had blood, whereas in the Super Nintendo version the blood had been recoloured and relabeled as “sweat”. The reason behind this was that the people behind Nintendo still wanted to keep a family-friendly image to the company (despite the fact that these super-human characters were clearly beating each other to death!). I bought the Sega version. This was where I feel that I started to fall away from Nintendo.
With the introduction of disc-based games the systems evolved to the next level. Sony’s original Playstation, Sega’s Dreamcast, and even the ill-fated 3DO filled my entertainment unit, yet I still had the N64 despite Nintendo deciding to stick with cartridge-based games. I honestly feel this hurt Nintendo. Don’t get me wrong – the N64 still had some great games but it seemed everyone knew that the higher capacity offered by discs was the way of the future. By this time I started to notice a pattern coming from Nintendo’s line up with each new system. We could always count on the same familiar “safe” titles – a new Mario game, a new Zelda one, and perhaps the odd “second-tier” IP they had lying around. Nintendo was finally starting to feel a little stale to me.
Let’s jump ahead to the launch of the Wii console so I don’t sound like a broken record. The launch of the Wii was supposed to introduce people to a new world of gaming, the likes of which we had never seen before. It was a sales juggernaut. But what we got was an interesting control scheme that never really worked as advertised, with frustrating controls and a library of games that seemed to be populated with far too many mini-game collections. Nintendo did release some of its heavy hitters for the system, but I had grown tired of the same basic game being released over and over again. Sure, we bought them, but that could be partially attributed to the limited amount of strong games for the system – even though they were “old standards”, they were better than many other titles available. Our poor Wii was lucky to get powered up more than once a month. So there it sat collecting dust between our Xbox 360 and PS3, the Wiimotes stripped of their batteries to be used elsewhere. Now I know some of you are probably screaming at me about the Virtual Console by this point, but I didn’t see much need to purchase games I already owned. If I wanted to play them I would just dig out and hook up the proper system and play it. I suppose I could have sought out and paid for other classic games I may have missed out on, but the appeal of this was limited, particularly in light of being able to emulate games by other means.
I could have ventured into Nintendo’s handheld market but I never went that route. We have a 3DS somewhere that was picked up on sale but rarely got used – we have smartphones for some gaming “on the go”, and although I miss having actual buttons to control them, I rarely have much chance to play a game for too long when not at home – and when I’m at home, I’d rather play a game at my entertainment centre! However, the 3DS is a good example of how I feel Nintendo lost focus somewhat – I feel the whole “3D gaming” aspect of the device was a waste of time – I know a good percentage of gamers out there play it with the 3D turned off. Instead it felt like an unnecessary gimmick rather than something that truly improved gameplay. I remember when I first saw it at PAX East on the show floor, and demoed it, and boy did it give me a headache after only a few minutes of play. I know Nintendo’s handheld division is doing quite well, and I hope they keep it up, because I feel at times that this is the only thing keeping them afloat.
This brings us to the Wii U. Right now, we don’t own a Wii U, and we don’t see ourselves buying one any time soon – and I’ll tell you why. I feel Nintendo has gotten way too gimmicky, and the overall feel of the system simply feels “childish”, with its user interface and “Miis”. The lack of games is not helping either. The idea of having a tablet to work with the system was an interesting one to be sure but it doesn’t seem to work well for me. Despite the best of intentions there’s no denying the GamePad feels a bit unwieldy in the hands (and drains battery quickly). By contrast, Microsoft’s SmartGlass works well for me as a second screen I can reference – or on Sony’s platform, the smaller, lighter Vita feels better to me. The Wii U’s motion controllers are still not that accurate, and I still feel like a fool waving them around in the air. It feels like Nintendo hasn’t grown up with its contemporaries – their current system feels like it should have a Fisher Price stamp on its side. It doesn’t compare to the Xbox One or PS4 in terms of power, and Nintendo continues to put out games that – while good – don’t seem to have evolved much either. There are a few bright spots on the horizon (notably, Bayonetta 2), but little from Nintendo itself that excites me currently.
Perhaps if Nintendo had released the Wii U instead of the Wii back then, I think we would be on better terms with them. Instead, it feels to me as though they are now set in their ways, making games for Nintendo fans from their stock catalog, playing it safe. Developers are starting to avoid making games for their system, some even started canceling planned DLC for games already out. They need to change if they are going to survive.
Drop all the motion controlled nonsense and get back to making good, original games with new IPs, instead of constantly dipping into the same well. I can see Nintendo eventually going the way of Sega – getting out of the hardware business and instead mainly focus on software. Could you imagine playing Mario on your Sony or Microsoft systems? I feel it could happen if Nintendo doesn’t reinvent themselves, fast. Just looking at their recently-revamped sales projections shows the seriousness of their situation.
So Nintendo, please come back from all the gimmicks and childish endeavors. No more motion controls that end up frustrating people instead of enjoying themselves. Stay away from so-called “games” like Wii Music. Stop slogging through the same worn-out IP’s and come up with something new. Honour the past, but also evolve. I have fond memories of Nintendo from my youth – I want to have those feelings for the Nintendo of today.