Nintendo Undoes Four Years Of Alienation In A Single Hour

Nintendo’s E3 was very strange. Watching the parade of titles on show for both new and existing hardware, you’d never have guessed this was the same company that for four years had almost undone twenty years of good work.

I mean that in a very selfish way, of course. With unprecedented sales of both the Nintendo DS and Wii, times have never been better for Nintendo as a company. But I don’t need to beat around the bush when saying Nintendo’s support for “traditional” gamers has fallen away significantly since the launch of Wii. Not if you’re the kind of person who reads this site.

Ever since Nintendo first adopted its “Blue Ocean” strategy over five years ago, many long-time fans of the company have felt increasingly like they’ve been “left behind”. As someone who nearly flunked out of university because of my GameCube collection, I am one of them. The more Nintendo focused on games like Wii Fit and Brain Training, the less they seemed to focus on games like F-Zero and Pikmin.

Which was great for Nintendo! They’re a business, after all, not a service, and businesses are out to make money. If Nintendogs is where the money was, then so be it. But the longer this went on, the sadder I (and many of you) became. Sure, there was the odd game like Mario Galaxy or Punch Out to perk us up, remind us that there were still those inside Nintendo devoted to making games for the “old guard”, but they were an exception, not a rule.

As 2006 rolled on to 2007, and 2007 to 2008, sadness gave way to frustration, and frustration occasionally to anger. Which, when you think about it, was stupid! As I said above, Nintendo was not a service. New games for you, and not your little sister or grandparents, are not a right, something to be demanded.

But it’s hard letting go. Seeing a former loved one go in a new direction, one that doesn’t include you or your tastes and interests. It’s why real-life break-ups can be so hard, as your emotions and common sense often play tug-of-war, the reality of a situation utterly incompatible with the fantasy of what you want from a situation.

By 2010, then, even with the release of the excellent Mario Galaxy 2, many long-time Nintendo fans had simply…lapsed. They’d still buy and enjoy the odd Nintendo game, like MG2, but on the whole, the fervour was gone. The passion that had once led a generation of schoolchildren to bleed Nintendo Red in a war against Sega had been spent. Many people liked Nintendo, and respected them for their past achievements (and present dominance), but they no longer loved them.

What a difference an E3 makes.

Revealing the new 3DS handheld to the world’s press last week, Nintendo did not show family games. Simple games. Games to be enjoyed by senior citizens and your mother. They showed a freaking Kid Icarus title. Pilotwings. Resident Evil. Mario Kart. Heck, they even had a tease for a possible Ocarina of Time remake. Throw in a new Zelda game for the Wii and Nintendo’s E3 lineup reads like a fansite’s wildest wishlist.

https://lastchance.cc/the-definitive-guide-to-the-nintendo-3ds-5563466%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

This was a shot aimed straight at your heart. “Hey, you know how we made all those games you had no interest in for the last four years? Yeah, sorry. Here’s some stuff just for you“. And for all but the most bitter cynic, it worked.