Brain Training!

@ OP

Nintendo are one of the most criticised companies on the planet. They get criticised if they bring out new IP because they are abandoning their old franchises and they get criticised if they bring out old franchises. If you want to live in your own little bubble world and think that Nintendo get even 10% of the praise they deserve, then go for it. But don't try to push this fantasy on others.

Last year they announced NSMB:Wii, SMG2, Metroid: Other M, Golden Sun and were accused of having nothing to show the core

This year they have Zelda, Kirby, Kid Icarus, all the 3DS games and get accused of 'throwing in the white towel'

When Nintendo bring out motion controls they are criticised, when MS did they were praised

As for 1 analogue stick on the 3ds - it has a touchscreen and motion controls, what possible use could you have for a 2nd analogue stick?

Oh, and Miyamoto IS the unquestioned God of gaming

Huge in its own right, but hardly anything compared to those two. People who would never think about a video game will know Mario and Pokemon. This is not generally true of Brain Training.

The first Brain Training alone is going to hit 20 million copies in a year or so. That's more than the last main installment of Pokemon.

@Rol:

Yes.

I think Gnizmo's point is that even people who don't buy Mario/Pokemon games at least still know who Mario and Pikachu are, whereas apart from the 20 million owners, and us forum dwellers of course, relatively few know about brain training

Mario and Pokemon have had TV series, movies, and over 150 million games sold in their respective franchises. Brain Training is not close to it.

@Scottie
Yes, exactly that!

Its strange to read some of these responses, I'm sure most of you won't believe it but back in the n64/ GC era I would probably have fit the description of nintendo fanboy pretty well. It wasn't until this generation I started to enjoy sony over nintendo. Of course, before any of this it was me and my genesis against the world. But all of this is besides the point. My point in this thread was to question why nintendo can get a free pass on their mistakes. There is unjustified criticism of all game developers, and nintendo has gotten its fair share- some would say more than its fair share. I wasn't trying to sweep that under the rug or in a bubble oblivious to it, I brought it up in my opening post. The difference is, when sony or MS or any one else is criticized - and the criticism is justified- most people agree they made a mistake. For example, sony announces ps3 for 599 usd. Obviously too expensive. Besides a few people who might say that it has a blu-ray player or something along those lines to justify it, most people will come to consensus that sony screwed up, sony fans included. But when a justifiied criticism of nintendo comes up, their poor third party relations for instance, its not their fault. Its the third parties, its money hatting from sony and MS. People refuse to accept that nintendo brought a lot of those problems on itself with its restrictions and harsh regulating of third parties in the N64 and GC era. Thats where I take issue. Thats why I made this thread. 

Anyone remember Wii bingo? There was so much criticism of the Wii and Nintendo that we made a game of it. It's completely assinine to say that Nintendo hasn't received a lot of criticism.

I think everyone is missing the bigger point here.

One of the biggest reasons (at least I think so) that people do this with Nintendo is they have less room to maneuver than either MS or Sony.  

Nintendo is a GAMING company, nothing more nothing less.  That is what they are, that is what they have to be and this is what they have to do to remain successful.  And as such, they will polarize both types of responses (placing them on a pedestal and unbridled hate) more than either of the other two.  This might also lead the media and some of us gamers to just plain expect more out of Nintendo.

If Sony's or MS's gaming business completely dies, will the companies die?  Absolutely not, they will just have to restructure (it will definitely hurt them both tho).  What about if Nintendo's gaming business dies?  They are lights out as a cohesive unit, falling into the role of probably #1 third party developer (sort of like Sega did, but much bigger)

Did you read my last post?