IMO, it's Nintendo EAD. I mean, just look at that track record!
- 1985 - Super Mario Bros
- 1986 - The Legend of Zelda
- 1987 - Doki Doki Panic and Zelda 2
- 1988 - Super Mario Bros 3
- 1990 - Super Mario World, F-Zero
- 1991 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- 1992 - Super Mario Kart
- 1993 - Super Mario All-Stars, Star Fox, Link's Awakening
- 1995 - Yoshi's Island
- 1996 - Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64
- 1997 - Star Fox 64
- 1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- 2000 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
- 2001 - Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Animal Crossing
- 2002 - Super Mario Sunshine
- 2003 - The Legend of Zelda: The WInd Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash
- 2004 - Pikmin 2, Super Mario 64 DS
- 2005 - Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World
- 2006 - New Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports
- 2007 - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Super Mario Galaxy
- 2008 - Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit
- 2009 - Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros Wii
- 2010 - Super Mario Galaxy 2
- 2011 - Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- 2012 - Animal Crossing: New Leaf
- 2013 - Pikmin 3, Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Looking at the list above, you'll find a huge variety of series, genres, and masterpieces, with something big about once every year. In the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th generations, Nintendo EAD made major titles that were extremely popular, highly influential, critically aclaimed, or some combination of those three factors. If you want to make a list of the top 10 or 20 games of all time and you took half of your entries from Nintendo EAD games, nobody would notice anything unusual. And the games mentioned above aren't even HALF of what they''ve made.
These were the guys whse games gave new life to the industry and paved new roads with Super Mario Bros and Zelda. These were the guys who refined existing formulas to perfection as early as Super Mario Bros 3 and World, A Link to the Past, and Yoshi's Island. These were pioneers in 3D gaming, from Star Fox and F-Zero on the SNES to Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time on the N64. These were the guys who, even in Nintendo's darkest hours of the early 2000's, made new and exciting things like Pikmin and Animal Crossing, among the best representations of their genres on consoles. These were the guys who made touchscreens and motion controls not just a possible control scheme, but a viable one with games like Nintendogs and Phantom Horuglass for the DS and Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. And even since 2010, as Nintendo has been fading again to an extent, few will deny that EAD made some of the best games of the past three years.
I have plenty of praise for other developers, like Valve, Capcom, Squaresoft, etc. But if these devs stand tall, then EAD is a colossus.
Love and tolerate.
