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Why I’ve Retired from Nintendo

Written by on Mar 29, 2011

Picture of Nintendo Retirement Castle
I’ve retired from Nintendo the way people retire from careers. I still possess the knowledge and skills from years of experience, but I may revisit that job field as a guest or part-time consultant if my interest is piqued in a certain project. This “moving on” has has been happening over the past few years, but with the recent release of the 3DS and the announcement of Skyward Sword, I realized I’ve lost faith in the brand. The fact that neither of those rather “big” releases hold any interest for me is like someone deciding the next big change in the job field is one too many. I won’t throw the games or systems away but merely put them on a shelf where I put other video games of which I merely have a passing interest. I’ll hold on to my classics, but it will never be the same.

The thing is, I’m not sure why this happened. Did Nintendo change too much or did I? I’d like to believe they left me. I loved my NES and SNES with all the games I could afford. When I was in high school, I lived off of the N64 and defended it against the invading Playstation with a zealot’s passion. I owned all the classics and went through at least a dozen controllers with worn-out joysticks. We were in sync. We were in love. We had a child named Game Boy Color with whom I played countless hours of Pokemon on bus rides. Then the Gamecube came out, and the haters started hatin’, even then I stood by Nintendo as a faithful fanboy should. Although I was older, I still enjoyed the “Cube” thoroughly. Then came the Wii, bringing with it motion controls and a desperate need to appeal to non-gamers (casual gamers). Where did that come from? It felt like they went from servicing rabid fanboys to making crappy games for little kids overnight.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the straw that broke my camel’s back was Mario Kart Wii. I forced myself to like it, but I had too many reservations to ignore. I’d had enough of the buddy codes, hated the motorcycles, the new items were blech, and some of the unlockable characters were just beyond the skill that I was willing to develop online. Furthermore, the fact that I hated using the wheel shouldn’t have made me less of a gamer, but using the wheel online gave people the “I’m better than you” golden wheel, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Dr. Seuss wrote The Sneetches. Every Nintendo game I’ve purchased since then has only been enjoyed with much forgiveness on my part.

But as I said, did they change or did I? Nintendo catered to me as I grew up, but now that I’m more mature, are the games all that different? Should they still appeal to me? From what I’ve seen, they still appeal quite a bit to the younger demographic while I enjoy mature games that didn’t seem all that interesting when I was a youth. Is Nintendo at fault for not changing in order to continue appealing to me? The sales numbers constantly astonish me, but they don’t lie; people love Nintendo. I could get into economic theory about why, but that’s a different subject.

In the end, I’m still unsure if the new “classics” are as poor as they seem or if they are just different for a different generation. I want to say they suck and that, “Kids nowadays don’t know how good they’ve got it. I used to have to jump cliff in Ninja Gaiden, in the snow, that would play both ways by Level 2!” I feel like making games that focus on gimmicks like two screens, motion controls, and 3D are the opposite of what I want… which is lasting, memorable experiences that are timeless like Super Metroid. I want something new that isn’t just a rehash of something another game has already done, like Super Mario World. Don’t get me wrong, great games come out all the time, and I’m playing and loving them (PixelJunk Shooter, anyone?), but Nintendo isn’t bringing it home for me anymore.

9 Comments
Responses to Why I’ve Retired from Nintendo
  1. avatar
    Clark on Mar 31, 2011

    Every gamer over the age of 20 probably shares this same sentiment. Nintendo has changed, but not in the right direction. They don’t care about the “core” gamer anymore, because they’ve realized gimmicks and hand-holding gameplay are an easy sell to clueless non-gamers. The reason why kids today still enjoy Nintendo games is that kids have a higher tolerance for crap. They’ll play anything! Give your kids an Xbox and a Wii, though, and I bet the Wii starts getting used less and less.

  2. avatar
    Ned on Apr 2, 2011

    I started with Atari, then moved briefly to the NES. My brother then bought me a Sega Geneses and I loved it, plus all my friends had the same console. The first system I had a real preference for was the PSone. It just had more impressive titles to me. I played N64 with my friends all the time though. The next convenient platform was the PS2. Working as a manager of a game store it was obvious that it had the best and most diverse titles for my taste. I then bought a 360 and a Wii, but didn’t like the current games, so when the PS3 came out I sold them for a backwards compatible PS3 for my enormous PSone and PS2 collection. I even had enough for a PSP to play franchises that I had grown to love on the PS2 and PSone. The 3DS looks cool to me now, and carries on some of my favorite franchises, so you might see me getting into some Nintendo action soon.

  3. avatar
    Clark on Apr 6, 2011

    If you didn’t like the Wii, I don’t see you liking the 3DS, either. It’s going to be a continuation of Nintendo’s push for gimmicky, casual games. At its peak, the DS was the best gaming device ever made, but those days are gone. The 3DS will kill the DS just like the DS killed the GBA, even though they were supposed to coexist peacefully.

  4. avatar
    Todd on Apr 6, 2011

    The 3DS seems slightly less gimmicky to me than the Wii though. While it changes the way you see your games, it doesn’t change the way you play your games; you still only have a D-pad and a couple of buttons, the way God intended.

    I’ll admit, however, that the touch screen has been used for great evil. It has also been used quite intuitively though, such as when used to make menu selections in RPGs less time-consuming. That’s in the hands of the developer.

  5. avatar
    Clark on Apr 6, 2011

    I liked DS games that used the stylus, but only when the game was 100% stylus-driven. It was a pain having to switch between stylus and buttons, especially for me since I’m left-handed.

  6. avatar
    I am a Christian on Jun 7, 2011

    I like Nintendo more than any other gaming company, I must say. All of their systems have been pretty good, although I do prefer the PS2 over the Wii, due to most of the Wii games requiring no or very little skill whatsoever to play. I had a DS Lite for about four years, and played it until I felt replacement was a good idea. I then got a 3DS (seven days after release in the U.S.), and I really like it. The 3DS games that released with the system, though, sucked! No Mario, no Sonic, no Metroid… I mean, comon! Those are Nintendo icons, not Street Fighter, Splinter Cell, or Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon (what I steeled for). All in all, I would rather play any type of DS over any PlayStation or Xbox. 10/10 to Nintendo DS’s, 9/10 to Microsoft Xbox 360s, and 7/10 to Sony for the remake of the PS2, the PS3.

    - God bless -

  7. avatar
    Clark on Jun 8, 2011

    Nintendo showed some cool stuff for the 3DS at E3, so I’m still willing to give the system a chance. The Wii U, on the other hand… can someone else write the editorial for that one?

  8. avatar
    Joe on Jun 8, 2011

    I have a problem with the DS. It’s very small and I feel like a 8-12 year-old when I play it. My hands would get cramped after playing it much and since I’m either at work, where I’d never bring a DS, or at home I have found I personally don’t have much use for portable gaming. I rarely take my PSP more than 5 ft from my nightstand. The games are fun and it is a great system, but I hardly wanted to drop more money on the sightly bigger version of the handheld that I already have.

    As far as Nintendo’s strategies go in the console market, handheld and household, I’m not too thrilled. It doesn’t matter what Nintendo does with regards to it’s systems if they don’t make their first party games worth playing. The rehashing and remaking and rejuvenating and rereleasing and re-rereleasing and rebullshitting that they are doing to every decent and good game that they have ever made worth playing more than once has worn me out. To put it simply I want to play a Metroid game that I don’t have to make apologies for. I want a Zelda game that pulls me in enough to want to collect everything because it is fun, not because of my OCD to get 100%.

    Here’s the thing: If Nintendo can provide me some great exclusive IP games without making me shake, waggle, and roll my eyes, I’m sure I’ll be an early adopter of the stupidly named Wii U. Otherwise I’ll hold up one of my Wii-motes in the middle slightly higher than the rest and continue to say forget U.

    How’s that for an editorial?

  9. avatar
    Clark on Jun 17, 2011

    The DS was a lifesaver during my worldwide travels. Unfortunately, I haven’t gone on any long vacations in a while, so the system’s done nothing but collect dust for the past year. The Wii just always collects dust. I’m not even going to bother with the Wii U, because it’ll suffer the same fate.

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