So what are your thoughts on Nintendo?

[Wolf Kanno]

Are they passed their prime? Feel the the best has yet to come? Don't care? What are your thoughts on one of the oldest and most influential companies on the market?

[Agent Proto]

I believe they still have a lot of juice left in their game. Even though they may be well past their prime, their engine is still running strong. As long as they can continue to do what they've been doing, I believe they can still strive in the gaming industry.

[Colonel Angus]

I think Nintendo's biggest flaw has been their hard-line control of any game that comes to the system, whether it be the forcing of exclusive licenses in the 80s or the ridiculous censorship. They've also had a long standing policy on making things complicated for 3rd parties to make games for their system, whether it's due to the technology they use or the bizarre controllers.

Nintendo also misses the irony of trying to make their systems "for everybody" by not allowing games that target more Mature audiences. You can have both family friendly games on a system & games that 20 somethings might be drawn to.

That being said, they are still one of the best first party game makers out there. They could probably get out of the console business & not miss a step, even though they don't really need to.

I think they'll do fine. As long as they give us Zelda, Mario & Pokemon, people will knock down their decrepit grandmothers to get them. They also rule the handheld world, which I don't see being taken over by mobile gaming for quite some time.

[Ayen]

What CA said.

Leeching onto other people's posts ftw.

[NeoCracker]

I'm not really sure Nintendo were against Mature titles, hell look at things like No More Heroes and Conkers bad Fur Day. Also the releases of SMT games on their handhelds.

Anyway, I love Nintendo. If we look at their current MO, they have done a lot to keep a more niche gaming stuff alive. Saving Bayonetta 2 and acquiring Monolith Soft for example. Even when it misteps, they've probably done more with their Mario IP then any other company has done with it's main franchise.

Even Zelda, while holding on to it's core, has had some pretty great thematic changes from game to game. Mechanics may largely stay the same, they they always do things to change it up enough to keep it feeling fun. Not as much as has been done with Mario, mind you, but they do a good job with it.

Fanboy asside, they do have some issues. Like at times thinking their audiences are idiots and dumbing shit down for.... some reason? Like if you suck to much at a couple of their games it beats the level for you. Why? So you don't miss out on the engrossing story of that there mario game? I think at times they have an issue mixing up simplicity with easy.

They also have an erratic relationship with keeping up to date. For example, their E3 show this year was fantastic. Why? Because they broke the E3 mold with their Nintendo Direct (Much improved from last year), and started giving us gameplay and actual game information. They used more of their main time to promote more then their mainline titles that were going to be researched and promoted to death anyway, giving people a big reason to want a Wii U now.

...Yet then there was them wanting to Monetize Let's plays on youtube of their games, and pulling the Smash Bro's streams from Evo.

And how long it took them to realize the relevence of online gaming features in the market today. (Though I'm happy they still have a lot of strong focus on single player games.)

I think a lot of the good and bad thiings they do when compared to XBox and Sony are actually their understanding of old school production mentalities. A lot of those things they really do a great job at integrating in the current market, where in other ways their views hold them back.

There is my rambling on the matter. :p

[Slothy]

Nintendo is the dad that doesn't understand smart phones or the interwebs, but has to use them all the time anyway for work. They're the grand parent that can't find the start menu on the PC.

They're out of touch, don't have a clue where modern gaming is actually going, and are desperately trying to hold onto the old trends that made them money because they don't understand that the market changed since 2005. But like any grand parent, you love them anyway and just laugh it off when they demonstrate how out of touch they are with some casual racism or homophobia because you know it's probably too late for them to change.

[Dat Matt]

They are behind the times on pretty much everything. Hardware, Policies, Online functionality etc. Despite this, they still make damn good games, which us what really matters

I wouldn't shell out £400 to buy a console to play the next Call of Duty, or Madden or whatever because it's probably going to come to the PC which I can now use. I will pay £200 to play the next Smash, Mario Kart and Zelda games.




For those with a PS4 or XB1, which games are the must have for the consoles that are unavailable to another other platform?

[Old Manus]

They'll be around as long as people keep buying the same Mario/Metroid/Zelda game over and over.

[Psychotic]

I doubt I am going to buy another Nintendo game again. If they go third party I might, but I don't think that's going to happen. They have nothing I would want to get a whole console for.

[Slothy]

I agree with Manus. Whether or not the games they make are still great is debatable. Actually I'd probably disagree with Manus to some degree because series like Mario Kart have steadily declined since the N64 (haven't played the new one but the Wii version was the worst in the series by far).

As for the PS4 and Xbone, I'll let you know if any of their titles starts looking interesting (okay, to be fair, I do like the look of Silent Hills which has yet to he announced for anything but the PS4 to my knowledge. And FFXV might turn out okay).

[Sephex]

I still have fun with the consoles and handhelds. I enjoy first party Nintendo titles, and I think most people exaggerate or flat out refuse to see that their long running series still manage to innovate, even if they use nostalgia as a crutch

Mario 3D World, for example, introduced new concepts all the time and had brilliant level design. The bonus levels were legitimately challenging, but not overly cheap with artificial difficultly.

A Link Between Worlds did what many fans of Zelda wished Nintendo would have done for years: Make a game more like the original Zelda and not have the game hand hold the player to each dungeon in a specific order. Aside from the beginning of the game and another part, you can tackle the game however you like. While I didn't have heaps of trouble with the game, the difficultly was higher than basically all other Zelda games in recent years.

Both those games, which are long running series and obviously have the nostalgia factor, still managed to bring something fresh to the table. Trust me, I wish that Nintendo would try to release new IPs or at least try their hand again at a series they haven't touched in awhile. But I can't deny that I still have fun with Nintendo products to this day.

[Colonel Angus]

I doubt I am going to buy another Nintendo game again. If they go third party I might, but I don't think that's going to happen. They have nothing I would want to get a whole console for.
http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread.php/159673-Move-over-Mario

http://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Maker

[chionos]

Well, since the SNES was their prime, they've been past their prime for a long time. And by prime I mean an era of selling the best games in existence. All the same, Nintendo's not going anywhere. A drop in sales doesn't mean they're doomed. They might be backwards on some things, but they keep selling and people keep buying. They may be out of touch with some things, but one thing they've always understood is fun. Dumb pointless fun perhaps, but dumb pointless fun is always in style. It's why we still play those old games, Super Mario Bro's 3, The Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid. It's why Nintendo games typically have much higher lasting power than other games. Cutting edge games typically become untouchable when the edge moves again. Nintendo has always seemed to be a company that works more toward timelessness than freshness.

[Bolivar]

I do think Nintendo has stagnated and it started with the DS - the best games I played on the system were hands down the remakes. The straw that broke the camels back was when Pokemon B&W came out; not only were they a shade of the Gen 2 remakes I was playing, they didn't even have as good stylus integration as those games which released months earlier. I've supported different console manufacturers over the years but when it comes to handhelds, I've always been a Nintendo guy. Nevertheless, I bought a PSP in its waning years and the contrast was striking. Not only could I still play remakes of JRPG classics, I could also have new IPs, a variety of genres, a robust digital library, cross-play with my PS3, and online multiplayer tied to my PSN account.

I made the same mistake this generation, buying a 3DS first and while my games looked and sounded delightful, the charm inevitably wore of on every one if them, leaving me with a boring slog that borrows everything from its forebears except their ingenuity. The Vita proved a familiar transition except now PS+ gives me 3-5 new games for it every month, many of which I've never even heard of. Not only are they surprising, new, and diverse, they're pound-for-pound better video games.

That said, I think it's foolish when people call for them to leave the hardware space. Their expertise is not just in their creativity but how they get their creations to natively look and sound on that hardware. And when I played Nintendo Land, it justified the concept of the Wii U gamepad as well as Nintendo ' place as the undisputed masters of gameplay. They need to put Mario aside and make new franchises and gameplay concepts they showed they're still capable of delivering on.

[Freya]

Honestly, They will be around for a while regardless if htey are a bit behind or slower than the other consoles.

Why?

Well in the past year I have gravitated to more 3DS games than Xbox or Playstation games. I have access to all the consoles, besides the new ps4, wiiU, and xbone, and I keep playing the Nintendo games as I have more fun with them. I've become more casual in my playing as I have less time these days and so when I pick something up, I pick up nintendo. And i'm sure there are many people like me.

[Pumpkin]

Honestly what I like Nintendo for most is the less serious, more fluff games. Like Girls Fashion Shoot and Family Feud and Animal Crossing. I play so many RPG's that its nice to just have some less serious games to play and when I want fluff games, Nintendo is always where I look