Nintendo is disappointing

[the-pi-guy]

I have been a lifelong Nintendo fan.  SNES and N64 were the first systems I ever played.  

I've owned a GameCube, two Wiis, a Wii U, a few Gameboy advances, a few DS.

I never got the 3DS or the Switch, mostly due to changes in my life.  


Nintendo is really good at making certain kinds of games.  But they have always had a view on gameplay that I've generally felt held them back.  They would never be the ones to make an Uncharted game, let alone TLOU.  They have a particular style to their games and if you like that style they are great, if you don't, there just won't be very much that will interest you.  

I always felt that Nintendo had reservations that held them back from being an even better company.  

I had a lot of hope at the start of the gen that they would change.  A big part of that was Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.  Nintendo actually let someone else make a Mario game. Not to mention they published a Bayonetta game.
 I was really hoping to see new kinds of games. I was really hoping to see Nintendo push the boundaries of what they do a bit more.  

It feels like Nintendo is too proud or scared to rock the boat too much.  

And yet today, it also feels like Nintendo bizarrely doesn't want to respect their heritage either.  Who makes a game that is only playable for 6 months?  And who makes a beloved collection with the intention it is going to be temporarily available?  
Leave it to Nintendo to make a game only available during a pandemic and a depression.  


It doesn't help that Nintendo continuously gets rewarded for what they do.  So many of their games are selling 10 million+.  

Maybe this thread is a bit silly.  I know Nintendo still makes great games like Odyssey and Botw.  It's just frustrating because they should be able to do more.  

[the-pi-guy]

This is probably one of my more clumsy threads.  I am disappointed with a lot of Nintendo is doing and what they aren't doing.

[Xevross]

Its not silly at all, Nintendo are very complacent and aren't advancing at all. They still nail games like Zelda and Mario when new ones come out, but they're falling behind in many regards.

They used to have the best first party output with the most games but it seems both PS and Xbox have caught up with them in number of games now and playstation have, arguably, surpassed them in quality. They are much less consistent, for example this year there's really not been much. They're settling and relying too much on ports for Switch but they also keep selling, so from a business perspective its fine.

New IPs aren't frequent enough from them either, they're definitely the worst for milking their long standing franchises and being way too safe. And some of their franchises are now losing out because of their lack of pushing forwards, like Pokemon for example. Sword and Shield aren't received particularly well overall and imo they're the worst mainline pokemon games by far.

I've had Nintendo consoles since Wii but I never got that many games for them. That matched my other systems though, as I didn't really have much money for games. Now I do and on other systems I'm getting way more games but my Switch library is still small, because third parties are subpar and Nintendo's output hasn't really been that great, unless you're into all of their franchises. I've only got 3 Switch games this year, one being a third party (Minecraft Dungeons), one a port (XCDE) and one the only big new game this year (Animal Crossing). I don't see any games that I want to buy later this year either, so that's a really poor year for me.

Anyway, Nintendo are definitely disappointing right now, especially for me personally. I don't care for most of their old ports and I'm not into some of their franchises like Fire Emblem, so there's not much for me right now. Hopefully when BOTW2, Odyssey 2 and others come along it'll start to feel better.

[DerNebel]

Nintendo is pretty much exactly the company that their fanbase deserves. Anytime they pull a shaming move that other companies would be crucified for it's downplayed, defended and ultimately quickly buried to never be brought up again until the time comes to celebrate and circlejerk about how much money Nintendo made because of that precise shaming move from earlier.

Take the 3D Mario Collection for instance. Today people are complaining even though I've also seen a good number of people making excuses for Nintendo or trying to find explanations for why this is actually hinting at something good happening at the end of march 2021, but we all know that in 3 months when that quarterly report comes out, people will be parading those sales numbers for the collection around the internet like they are the achievements of their first born child.

Nintendo can get away with anything and as long as it stays like that, they will continue to take those actions.

[kitler53]

pretty much agree with everyone in this thread.

i think most of you know that i was a massive nintendo fanboy growing up.  while i had a commedore 64 and atari in my house as a kid because my brother was 5.5 years older than me,.. NES was my first console.   and i got every nintendo console after that though wii while skipping playstation 1/2 and xbox.   i was a fanboy through and through.   

something about that wii era really broke me though.  i can completely forgive the wii's shortcomings at launch,.. contextually they were coming off the disaster that was gamecube and taking a big risk on motion controls.   but then they started raking in billions and yet their software output just seemed to get lower and lower effort.   i think the straw that broke my back was when i got wii fit 2 almost exclusively because they added a "playlist" option (which was a ducking ridiculous omission in the 1st one) only to find out that the playlist couldn't even be saved and instead needed to be recreated every play session.

yes nintendo makes an occasional good game.   but even in their good games the attention to the details just doesn't exist.   lowering the effort to maxim the profit is clearly a more important "core nintendo value" than "make a good game".   no other developer would be forgiven the amount of BS nintendo produces.   

nintendo doesn't deserve the success they get.  they get it solely on the nostalgia of nintendo from the era when they were leaders in the industry instead of intentionally a generation or more behind.  behind on technology.  behind on graphics.  behind on online.  behind on the most basic of UiUx quality of life features.  i just refuse to reward nintendo with my money. 

[Xevross]

Nintendo fanbase on places like Era feels like a cult. Constantly wishing for new directs and counting down the clock to possible announcement times. Praising their almightly Nintendo whenever anything is announced no matter how good or bad it is. They're basically completely disconnected from Sony or Xbox fans as they don't compete any more, so they've gone into even more of their own bubble where Nintendo is only compared to Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't have to comply with the standards or expectations of the rest of the industry.

[the-pi-guy]

pretty much agree with everyone in this thread.

i think most of you know that i was a massive nintendo fanboy growing up.  while i had a commedore 64 and atari in my house as a kid because my brother was 5.5 years older than me,.. NES was my first console.   and i got every nintendo console after that though wii while skipping playstation 1/2 and xbox.   i was a fanboy through and through.  

something about that wii era really broke me though.  i can completely forgive the wii's shortcomings at launch,.. contextually they were coming off the disaster that was gamecube and taking a big risk on motion controls.   but then there started raking in billions and yet their software output just seemed to get lower and lower effort.   i think the straw that broke my back was when i got wii fit 2 almost exclusively because they added a "playlist" option (which was a ducking ridiculous omission in the 1st one) only to find out that the playlist couldn't even be saved and instead needed to be recreated every play session.

yes nintendo makes an occasional good game.   but even in their good games the attention to the details just doesn't exist.   lowering the effort to maxim the profit is clearly a more important "core nintendo value" than "make a good game".   no other developer would be forgiven the amount of BS nintendo produces.  

nintendo doesn't deserve the success they get.  they get it solely on the nostalgia of nintendo from the era when they were leaders in the industry instead of intentionally a generation or more behind.  behind on technology.  behind on graphics.  behind on online.  behind on the most basic of UiUx quality of life features.  i just refuse to reward nintendo with my money.  

Reading this, it makes me think the better Nintendo is doing the worse they act.  Wii U did poorly, so they made crazier moves like Splatoon, Bayonetta. Then they really put a good foot forward with Switch at launch.  

When they were doing well with Wii, Switch, they start to back off with the risky moves.  

In contrast to Sony, who is doing crazy well, and is still making all kinds of crazy moves with PS5.  

[DerNebel]

Nintendo fanbase on places like Era feels like a cult. Constantly wishing for new directs and counting down the clock to possible announcement times. Praising their almightly Nintendo whenever anything is announced no matter how good or bad it is. They're basically completely disconnected from Sony or Xbox fans as they don't compete any more, so they've gone into even more of their own bubble where Nintendo is only compared to Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't have to comply with the standards or expectations of the rest of the industry.

Lol, reminds me off that phase recently where Era convinced themselves that Xbox would make online free. That immediately turned into a huge thing about how Sony would, could or should respond and what not. Who was basically not brought up in that entire conversation inspite of also charging for online and basically having the largest fanbase on the site? Nintendo.

Reading this, it makes me think the better Nintendo is doing the worse they act.  Wii U did poorly, so they made crazier moves like Splatoon, Bayonetta. Then they really put a good foot forward with Switch at launch.  

When they were doing well with Wii, Switch, they start to back off with the risky moves.  

In contrast to Sony, who is doing crazy well, and is still making all kinds of crazy moves with PS5.  

I think Sony is very much aware of the constant and growing threat that other competitors and new entrants in the market pose to them.

Nintendo feels that they are essentially not affected by any of that, and at least currently they are not wrong in thinking like that.

[Legend]

Reading this, it makes me think the better Nintendo is doing the worse they act.  Wii U did poorly, so they made crazier moves like Splatoon, Bayonetta. Then they really put a good foot forward with Switch at launch.  

When they were doing well with Wii, Switch, they start to back off with the risky moves.  

In contrast to Sony, who is doing crazy well, and is still making all kinds of crazy moves with PS5.  

This I can agree with.

I love so many Nintendo games, both old and new, but it can be years between them. I'm not their target audience which is fine but it still kinda sucks.


I really hope Metroid Prime 4 is good.

[the-pi-guy]

Nintendo is pretty much exactly the company that their fanbase deserves. Anytime they pull a shaming move that other companies would be crucified for it's downplayed, defended and ultimately quickly buried to never be brought up again until the time comes to celebrate and circlejerk about how much money Nintendo made because of that precise shaming move from earlier.

Take the 3D Mario Collection for instance. Today people are complaining even though I've also seen a good number of people making excuses for Nintendo or trying to find explanations for why this is actually hinting at something good happening at the end of march 2021, but we all know that in 3 months when that quarterly report comes out, people will be parading those sales numbers for the collection around the internet like they are the achievements of their first born child.

Nintendo can get away with anything and as long as it stays like that, they will continue to take those actions.

There are some (at least one) defending it on the basis that it's an anniversary title.  

Like in that case, can we talk about how Nintendo's biggest title this season, is a relatively cheap port that isn't going to be on the market in 7 months?  

[DerNebel]

And the sales circlejerk has started. Honestly Nintendo should find more ways to fudge their consumers over, they deserve it.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/super-mario-3d-all-stars-has-now-outsold-the-2020-sales-of-every-game-on-amazon-except-animal-crossing.281714/

[Xevross]

And the sales circlejerk has started. Honestly Nintendo should find more ways to fudge their consumers over, they deserve it.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/super-mario-3d-all-stars-has-now-outsold-the-2020-sales-of-every-game-on-amazon-except-animal-crossing.281714/

Yep. These sales are nuts but at the same time its kind of expected everyone would pre order ASAP considering its a limited release. Seems like the stock isn't that limited though if its sold that much and still available, makes me think this really is just demand inflation and FOMO exploitation from Nintendo.