Club Nintendo

[curl-6]

Been thinking about that intangible "Nintendo magic" that makes me love their games so much, and I think a big part of it comes down to the way they emulate literal child's play.

As children we learn by interacting and experimenting with our environment. We find wondrous joy in the simple things; our very backyards become fantastical kingdoms of adventure.
Nintendo's best games feel like they encapsulate this wonder, be it the gravity antics and toybox worlds of Mario Galaxy, the endless experimental of Breath of the Wild, or the sheer joy of making a mess in Splatoon.

In addition, they put a strong focus on making their games feel satisfying to control, in the same tactile way as clicking together Lego bricks or playing with playdough.
Children also learn and grow through playing with others, and Nintendo's approach to gaming echoes that with their focus on local multplayer and bringing people together.

Of course, they qualities are not exclusive to Nintendo, but I feel that they lie at the very core of their design philosophy.

Those who label Nintendo as "childish" are not necessarily incorrect, they just completely miss the point; amidst the stresses of adult life, staying in touch with our inner child is in fact very healthy and beneficial.

To quote C S Lewis: "Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”