Ah, Nintendo the name alone conjures up so many memories. So many great games that just thinking about it makes you want to reinstall your Super Nintendo and just go to a happier time when gaming was fun. Nintendo back in those days was really into their work, you can just think of 10 great games from any of the early generations of gaming and you better believe Nintendo had a hand in at least half of them. It was a time when Nintendo wanted you to not only buy their system but play great quality games, and they made sure of it by paying for most of them to be developed. So what happen? Where did that Nintendo go? Why wait for the generation in which you are the selling console like hotcakes? I miss that company and I feel betrayed as a gamer.

I know that this generation a lot of core gamers have wondered what happened to the company I grew up loving. I’m also sure that your sick of hearing people complain about Nintendo this generation, but I’m wondering, Do they think they deserve to take it easy? Because if they do, the fans won’t be so will willing to accept them in the future. The Wii is by far the best selling console of this generation and the DS is on pace to outsell the PS2. With all the success for the sales of their consoles you’ll think Nintendo should be releasing games left and right, unfortunately that’s not the case. Nintendo is rolling in dollars, euros, and yens and not really pumping anything into what made them the money to begin with. The core gamers who waited in lines, went store to store trying to find that oh so elusive Wii for the last three years are left wondering if it was really worth the headache. The PS3 and the Xbox 360 have moved gaming into a new generation of gaming with incredible looking games and stories to match, and the main companies working the hardest are Sony and Microsoft themselves. Invests millions upon millions back into their software to keep their fans happy and coming back for more.

I just don’t understand how a company that used pump games out by the truckloads has all of a sudden an issue making games. I understand game development is extremely expensive these days, but Nintendo has more money than ever and they are sitting on it. 2007 was a huge year for Nintendo they gave fans everything they could want. We had Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Warioware, and Metroid Prime 3 and that’s after the tail of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii fans where on cloud 9 and the Wii seemed like it was making up for its lack graphical prowess with an amazing software line up. Then came the next two years in which the only big titles from Nintendo were Punch Out, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros Wii, and Super Smash Bros Brawl. To make matters worse Wii fans were bombarded with tons of shovel ware and just crap from no named studios filling store shelves. At this time the company that was missing in action was Nintendo themselves, and when they made a rare appearance it was met with questions and disappointment. Animal Crossing was a lackluster attempt at a new game, and any other new attempt at a new IP was either a simple casual game or a pack in for some type of peripheral. It really seems like Nintendo stopped caring, towards the end of 2009 Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros Wii and Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted saying there was no room for online multiplayer on the disc but if you were to actually break down the data on the disc the game takes up a whopping 350mb of the 4.7gb disc. How can you claim that you have no room on the disc for a feature that would have been great for this style of game when the whole game is less than 20% of the available space.

Which brings me back to my original question, Does Nintendo still care? Looking forward to 2010 we have quite a nice line up from Nintendo. Metroid: Other M, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and finally a Zelda game made for the Wii. Metroid is being made by a third party, Shigeru Miyamoto pointed out that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is pretty much Super Mario Galaxy 1.5, and so far we know very little about the new Zelda title. I’m finding it hard to be excited about any of these games just because of Nintendo’s recent track record. Nintendo’s recent releases have been disappointing for core gamers but it’s making them a ton of money in the casual market. So do they care? About gaming, yes, but core gamers, no. In 2010 Sony and Microsoft are introducing their own motion controls and moving into Nintendo’s field and once again it seems like Nintendo doesn’t care. They have said they have no plans for Wii HD, but of course they could just be keeping their next system under wraps, it could be too little too late. They let the success of the Wii and DS distract them from what made them who they are and who got them there, and I feel in the long run it will bite them.