Nintendo always put gameplay first and sacrifice storyline and such?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

morenoingrato said:
Twilight Princess says no

There's your biggest example.  Twilight Princess was Nintendo catering to all those people who wanted graphic, character focused storyline and cinematics over gameplay.

In hignsight, Nintendo doesn't put gameplay over storyline.  They are one of the better companies to balance gameplay with plot and cenematics.  Just look at games like Ocarina of Time, Mario Galaxy, Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros Brawl, etc.  Even the latest games they've released like New Super Mario Bros Wii and Zelda: Spirit Tracks have featured far more cenematics than some of their past games on the N64 or SNES.  But they are still balanced nicely with the gameplay and you never find yourself getting frustrated with them.