The Fall of Nintendo

I see Nintendo as one of the pioneers of the gaming industry. Nintendo was one of the first companies to make a video game console, and definitely the first to make handheld games. The Game & Watch was pretty influential, and, like many of their other inventions and innovations, has shaped the battlefield of the gaming industry. Letting consumers play their games anywhere has opened up a whole new market, and a world of possibilities...

At the moment, it seems that Nintendo will only release a new system if it's a considerable innovation, very different from its past generation and from everyone else. The Wii, for example, was a really neat idea when it was first released, but after a few years on the market most of the games available are the same nondescript party games, sports games, that general idea. Their platformers are okay, but there's really not enough diversity in Nintendo's games. Sure, the party games are fun the first time around, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

It's not that there's absolutely nothing to be played except party games and pony-petting simulators - there is the occasional flight simulator or fps. The problem is that anyone that's interested in those genres have another game system. Online play is near impossible.

The "Diversity" section of IGN's Console Showdown article puts it nicely - the only things the Wii does better than other consoles are platformers and fitness games.


And with the Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move on the market, I think we can expect Nintendo to lose the latter genre, too. Maybe it's just my set, because I haven't heard anyone else complain about this, but the Wii remotes often fail to sense your movement. In boxing in Wii Sports, my character only actually punches about half the time you tell it to.

Nintendo came up with an idea, let it sit for a few years, and then everyone else did it better.


They generally try to keep the majority of their games family-friendly. Their target audience is significantly younger than that of the other consoles. That's okay, but there's only so many new ideas within the boundaries that they've given themselves, and it looks like they've just about run out. Maybe they could take a good look at what else the industry has to offer. Broadening your horizons doesn't need to include blood and gore. Broadening your horizons doesn't need to include drugs and sex. There are very good strategy games out there. Not all first-person-shooters are gory wrecks. I mean, I'm really surprised that Endwar isn't available on the Wii. It's really an excellent game.


It's really time for Nintendo to step back and look at the future instead of the past.


Maybe Nintendo is too conservative. Maybe they're thinking, "If platformers worked a couple decades ago, they've got to work now". That's partly true; platformers are definitely still worth playing, but sometime soon they're going to have to look into broadening their selection. If they don't, I'm afraid what was once a great video game company will be no more.