What Makes Nintendo Special? (to Me)
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- Опубліковано 10 чер 2024
- I spent my 40th birthday recovering from pneumonia which wasn't the grand celebration I had planned, instead of visiting the Gold Coast and catching up with friends, I spent the week in hospital and bed. I was feeling a bit defeated, scrapped my 40th Birthday video I was hoping to make, and spent my weekend playing Paper Mario. Despite my best intentions to be miserable, I found myself smiling while playing The Thousand-Year Door. Sure, the bright and colourful world, and perhaps the witty and humorous dialogue played a part in lifting my spirits, but I also think there's something a bit special about the Nintendo Legacy that also contributed. It got me thinking about my past 40 years on this planet, and how influential Nintendo was to me as a brand growing up. So let's take a look at some of the franchises I grew up on, and how they have evolved in the past 40 years, as well as some memories I have throughout this time.
- Ігри
Nintendo made the right move years ago focusing on experiences rather than specs and graphics. The other two competitors set themselves up for failure in an economic downturn with high production costs and hardware sold at losses. Sony and Microsoft run projects on debt so a flop is devastating as they gotta pay interest on that debt. Nintendo holds little to no debt with 12 billion in cash allowing to fund projects outright and carry through failures. When times were rough during wiiu, they didn't cut staff or studios instead the ceos took pay cuts. As a kid i collected Nintendo toys. As an adult i collect Nintendo stocks and dividends. When i pass away my collection will bring my children joy and my Nintendo shares a potential future.
This is a great take and it's really cool to have your insight as an investor. I'm only a consumer, but I do agree that the experiences beat bells and whistles!
🖤
What a fun video idea - and happy 40th! I'm just a few years older than you, so have similar early experiences. When I was super young, we had two game systems in the house: an "educational" game system called Socrates, and the NES. Socrates was surprisingly fun, but I'll never forget the excitement of getting that NES. My family moved nearly every year, so I quickly became the designated "game system setter upper," along with learning how to reconnect other electronics (like the good old VHS, haha).
Like you, my family skipped the Super Nintendo, so I kept myself engaged playing Super Mario, Duck Hunter, and Punch Out on the NES over and over again. I also nabbed a Game Boy when it released, and whiled away the hours in my bedroom and on long road trips playing Tetris - a game I still play to this day.
Then came the N64. Oh man. That was a Christmas gift, alongside Mario 64 and Pilot Wings. I played both of those games to death, and it took a long, long time for the wonder of playing in "real 3D" to wear off. Heck, just playing around with Mario's elastic face on the start screen of Mario 64 was fun, lol. A bit later, I discovered the magic of Ocarina of Time, and it completely changed the way I thought about games. The sense of freedom, character growth, riding a horse (!)... all of it just blew my mind, and is one of the reasons I love open world games (like Skyrim) so much today. I also enjoyed Mario Kart, Star Fox, and Goldeneye (all popular at family gatherings with cousins), and fell in love with "Cruis'n USA" (which fully cemented my desire to someday own a Jeep).
After this, I took a break from gaming. I began to feel more pressure to "grow up" and put "childish" things behind me. I largely ignored gaming for a few years, until the DS drew me back. As a dog lover unable to have a dog of my own at the time, I simply couldn't resist the draw of Nintendogs. But I still felt embarrassed about playing "children's" games. I remember my relief when the DSi came out and I was able to pick up a more "mature" looking version with a matte black design. I used it to play music and take notes, so I could tell myself it served a "grown up" purpose. But really I just wanted to play games, lol.
Then I got married, and my spouse also had a lifelong love of gaming. That brought me back to my senses, and I fully embraced the Wii when it came out. I played the heck out of Wii Sports, Endless Ocean, and other games for that system. My spouse introduced me to the incredible depth of Monster Hunter, and the Goldeneye remake was *amazing.* I finally realized it was possible to be a functional adult *and* play games in my down time. No idea why it took me so long to figure that out, but oh well, lol.
Like most people, I skipped the Wii U, but have thousands of hours of gameplay on my Switch. Nintendo is so special to me - and clearly to many others, too. It's the company that brought me memories of gaming with my younger brother, cousins, and friends. The company that constantly pushed the boundaries, causing excitement over each new innovation they released. From the general idea of mass gaming with the NES, to the portability of the Game Boy, the "3D" graphics of the N64, the attachable rumble pack on the N64 controller, the motion controls of the Wii, the popout visuals of the 3DS, the dual handheld/docked nature of the Switch... Nintendo is amazing.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I hope whatever comes next brings the same excitement and enjoyment for you as the things that came before. Game on, brother.
Love all of this story, and that you're a Monster Hunter fan! I'm reviewing Stories 1 remake today which is a great spin off. Also, I completely forgot about Cruising USA! What a game! Thank you for taking the time to share your memories of Nintendo!
Happy 40th, bud. 🍻 🎈
Thank you!
Happy birthday & speedy recovery!
Thank you!
This was a great and wholesome story and you are fully recovered and happy 40th birthday.
Thank you! I had a great 40th despite being unwell. Was great going back to some of the games in the video to get footage too!
2:43 - the Mike Tyson license didn't last forever, so after it expired Nintendo could only sell the game without him in it. They resold it simply as Punch-Out and replaced Mike Tyson with a generic boxer named Mr. Dream.
Thank you! I thought I was going crazy hahaha. I really appreciate it!
Next Nintendo console will probably be the last console I ever buy. In the current state of gaming, Nintendo so far has been the only ones to really do fans right at the end of the day. Now, that could all very well change in the future, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Lol
I was a huge fan of Xbox alongside Nintendo, but I'm really disappointed that they fired a bunch of devs after acquiring them. I know they have reasons but it left a sour taste in my mouth. Reading Iwata Asks makes me feel Nintendo try to do right. May not always get it right
@@whatsitlikeau A big issue I see is more and more big ports coming which will bring a lot of the bad business practices going on now over there. This could POTENTIALLY be an eye opener to Nintendo in a bad way, not that Nintendo isn’t guilty of their fair share of idiotic moves. I hope the best for Nintendo and Nintendo fans.
@xcrack6364 as in 3rd party AAA ports? There's been a lot of sloppy ones lately which really show the age of the system. Now Nintendo have purchased that new studio, I wonder if the Switch 2 will have better quality 3rd part ports with them assisting?