All twentysomethings grew up with Nintendo and Super Nintendo. I still have my SNES and a friend of mine still plays Battletoads on his NES. Nintendo was the company that dominated the gaming industry in the early 90’s and nothing Sega introduced could top it. The SNES had some classic games that are still played today and hailed as masterpieces. To name a few: Earthbound, Final Fantasy II and III, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire I and II, and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (as you can see, I like my RPGs). Nintendo’s SNES made me very happy in the world of video games when I was a child; there was nothing better than coming home from elementary school, going with my dad to the blockbuster, and picking out a couple of games to play into the wee hours of the morning; Good times. So I became loyal to Nintendo and was looking forward to their next console.
Enter Nintendo 64; everyone had high hopes for it: it was a 64-bit processor, it had more color than the Playstation, and its use of cartridges meant no load times. It seemed like the best system at the time and games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time that accompanied the release gave gamers a good feeling about its longevity. I had an N64 and one thing that was noticeable was the lack of RPGs. I was envious to see my Playstation-owning friends enjoying their copies of Final Fantasy VII, Legend of Dragoon, and Chrono Trigger while I was running around like a midget kid with a lock of hair on Quest 64. The quality of the games dropped massively since the SNES. to the N64 and soon lost all faith in Nintendo.
Since Nintendo had sunk when it came to having compelling and complex games, I could save my money and refrain from buying Nintendo’s next system, the Dolphin, (cough) sorry, GameCube, which was from the home appliance section of Sears. While I was happy with my PS2, the only games I wanted to play on the GameCube were the Zelda games. While I never owned a GameCube, I kept up with all the consoles and there was always a quality that the GameCube lacked that Xbox and PS2 had; it’s hard to explain, but it seemed like the GameCube games were created as an afterthought or to follow the success of another game on a different console. Games like Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles bore the names of famous franchises, but did little to deepen gameplay and character development.
When the Wii came out, I was tired of giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. The graphics were comparable to the Dreamcast and the motion detection capabilities didn’t seem ready to be marketed at the consumer level. And the games, the games still didn’t have the impact that the SNES had. Why does Nintendo insist on turning its back on the people who did it today? I don’t even consider the Wii to be a game console, with games like Cooking Mama and Wii Fit, it has carved out a unique niche catering to seniors and girl scouts. But there’s nothing I can do about the drastic turn Nintendo has taken away from its core demographic, except take comfort in the knowledge that while people are getting “Wiitis” in the form of carpal tunnel, I’m playing a masterpiece like Metal Gear Solid 4. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
