Nintendo's most successful era

[Soundwave]

Wman1996 said:

Soundwave said:

Younger people won't understand, but it's the NES era. Nintendo completely changed popular culture in general and basically popularized a new entertainment medium that would become on par with music and movies with home video games. Before the NES, most households had a TV, a record player or stereo and even home video adoption (VCR) was still maturing at that point and that was it. Having a game console in the house wasn't a common thing. 

To do that from being a no name little Japanese brand that was basically a rag tag operation, and within a span of about 5 years (1985-1990), Nintendo had character properties that were rivaling the Walt Disney corporation, it's incredible. And they had almost like a total market share dominance in the US and Japan in particular.

A lot of people just called all video games "Nintendo" at that point, the brand was so dominant that it just became a descriptor for all video games themselves.

Imagine some tiny South Korean game maker today going from a niche little brand that doesn't even have proper global offices in all major countries to having a near monopoly on a market segment like gaming and having a character property more popular than Disney/Minions whatever and now imagine all that happening largely in a span of basically 4-5 years.

It's the double-edged sword of it could be seen as Nintendo's most successful era because they clawed their way from the bottom into video games but also the other edge is that they had little meaningful competition. That is part due to Nintendo's own ability, but largely due to the state of the market at the time. 

I did vote Switch, but NES and Wii/DS eras are valid for this thread. 

I mean they did have competition, Sega, NEC, Atari, etc. Not only that but they were coming into a market in the US that was hostile towards the idea of games consoles too (period), not just "well the last Nintendo console did poorly". This was "we don't want game systems period, retailers don't even want to stock this thing". 

The NES era is the craziest era by far.

People don't even stop to think prior to Super Mario, most global iconic character properties were largely American or British. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Superman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Batman, Spider-Man, James Bond, Barbie, Bart Simpson, Wonder Woman, etc. etc. 

There some OK successes from Japan like Speed Racer and Astro Boy, but really people need to realize Super Mario becoming like the most popular character with children by 1990 not just regionally in Japan but globally and especially in the United States ... is absurd.

The NES changed the world, it changed the average living room, it began the explosion of Japanese pop culture globally too. To only consider it in gaming terms doesn't even tell you half the story. 

No disrespect to the Switch/Wii/DS, etc. whatever, but we are talking a completely different level of a sea change here, imagine you are Hiroshi Yamauchi and you took a nothing, no name low rent company that was making instant rice and silly cheap little toys in Japan and in about 15 years, you had some how become one of the biggest brands on the planet rivaling Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc. and one of the most iconic Japanese institutions globally ... there's like a home run outside the ball park, the NES/Famicom is like hitting a home run out of the planet's atmosphere. That's a miracle, not a success, success is too small of a word. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 19 July 2024