Over the years I feel like I have been burned by Nintendo not once, not twice, but thrice. However, the big N is starting to win back my love bit by bit.(remember when those mattered?)
For me the love I once had for Nintendo starting dying after the runaway success of the Wii. I mean the thing pretty much printed money for Nintendo, their stocks went up, and there were a lot of third party games. However my Wii, like many others, sat and collected dust. The system was just overrun with hundreds of gimmicky games that were cash grabs in my opinion. Then the 3DS was announced. I strolled into a local FYE on launch day and picked one up along with a copy of Rayman and while the 3D was cool, it’s novelty wore off quick, especially on such a small screen. I still had my handheld when Super Mario 3D Land was released after an eight month drought of any game that interested me other than Ocarina of Time (which says a lot for their software lineup at the time). To be honest I didn’t really miss it and had no intention of owning one again, however, things changed when my girlfriend took a job in New York and the commute took about two+ hours from Philadelphia. I wanted something to game on because my iPad is not my gaming device of choice so I went to my local GameStop and saw the 3DS XL with a demo of New Super Mario Bros 2 and was sold instantly. The screen was large and beautiful and Nintendo’s modern update to it’s classic formula sucked me in. Super Mario Bros was a genre defining title in the 8-bit era and still has some of the best platforming I’ve ever experienced along with Rayman Origins. Since then I’ve played through New Super Mario Bros 2, Super Mario 3D Land, and am currently finishing Luigi’s Mansion Dark of the Moon. In fact, I loved Luigi’s Mansion so much I bought a GameCube to discover the original along with a few other gems. Here’s to hoping this year Nintendo can turn things around for the Wii U which-you guessed it-is the third reason I felt burned. I was in NY and waited over eight hours in line on launch night for a system I currently only play Mario Bros and NintendoLand on since both Rayman and Pikmin 3 were delayed. I still love Nintendo and still want them to succeed. I love Mario,Luigi, Yoshi, and Link and want my kids I’ll have one day to share in that love. And I feel like the company is slowly making the right moves with Nintendo Direct, their strong future lineup, and corporate restructuring,-even if marketing the Wii U has been an uphill struggle mainly due to it’s name that I called way back when it was announced. Come on…..Wii…..and Wii U….what did they think would happen? image credit http://www.kriesi.at/
