spemanig said:
Tootylicious said:
But is this a phenomenon you would only attest to Nintendo games? What's with other games of similar quality?
I never played the early Sonic games in my youth, but when I play them nowadays I get so much joy from it. I can hum the music like I knew it since 20 years and smile about the various character animations or feel the guilt when i can't reach an air bubble in time.
I know that Nintendo is a profit-oriented company like all others, but I still feel like they put more heart into their games than some other publishers/developers just milking their franchises for profit, especially nowadays. This might be due to Nintendo's history. They once completely ruled the video game market and did not have to worry about their future if the Virtual Boy or the 64DD was a financial failure. They could do what they want and try out what might be fun or not.
SEGA did the same but their customers lost faith in them at some point.
That said, Nintendo still uses lots of nostalgia by keeping their old franchises alive. The new Zelda or Mario game would not sell as well if it would star a new character as the hero.
Smash Bros. is nostalgia to the max. They put in characters from their whole history in there (Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., Villager), add stages and music remixed from old classics and people love it. There's a character for any Nintendo fan in there.
If you've been isolated from Nintendo stuff all your life, chances are you would not care about Smash Bros. at all.
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It absolutely is a phenomenon that only applies to Nintendo, but that doesn't mean that Nintendi is the only publisher to make great or impactful games. Bioshock is one of my favorite games of all time, and I feel something incomparable when ever I play it, and I like it more than many Nintendo games, but it does not have Nintendo's magic. It just doesn't. Similarly, Kill Bill is one of my favorite movies, but it could never have the magic that Disney's The Little Mermaid has, even though I like the former more than the latter.
Saying that Nintendo has magic isn't saying that other games are less compared to them, but there's a special quality to a Nintendo game. It's a very specific thing and it's not explainable. There's a soul to Nintendo games that other games just don't have.
It has nothing to do with nostalgia. You can play a Nintendo game, not knowing it's a Nintendo game, and know for sure after 10 minutes that it's a Nintendo game. You can feel that. It's not about the characters. I felt that way with Dillon's Rolling Western. Many people feel that way about Pikmin. You can already see glimpses of it in Splatoon. Smash Bros is a game built on fanservice. That much is obvious, but it's "magic" doesn't at all come from having Mario and Link duke it out. If you were never raised on Nintendo, there'd obviously be nothing compelling you to buy the newest one, but I guarantee you that if that person sat down and played it with three other friends for an hour, they'd get it. I've seen it happen, and I'm sure you have to. They'd probably be getting their ass kicked, but they'd love every minute of it.
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Well, Bioshock is a more mature title. Kill Bill certainly is more mature than The Little Mermaid as well.
The vast majority of Nintendo characters have a cartoonish look and the tone is light-hearted. The games are made for children just like the Disney movies. This does not mean that adults can't enjoy them, often there are still mature themes hidden in it or the gameplay is just to well-polished. But you won't see blood splattering all over the screen. Instead they concentrate on creating their own world with (mostly) cuddly characters you just have to like.I think the way children lose some of their imagination when they grow up, games or movies directed to this older audience also loses that magic.
Nintendo and (since you brought them up) also Disney manage to make games/movies that still keep this "magic" for the older audience to enjoy.
And I disagree that this is something exclusive to Nintendo. It's just that no other company might have done it as consistently over the years due to business decisions. And most likely not all of Nintendo's titles will have this magic either.
"You can play a Nintendo game, not knowing it's a Nintendo game, and know for sure after 10 minutes that it's a Nintendo game. You can feel that. "
You might know that because you recognise a pattern, certain game mechanics or something that reminds you on other games, but that's about it. Someone not that familiar with Nintendo would only be able to guess it by luck, because Nintendo might be the most likely answer for the kind of game.
So your Smash Bros. example basically explains Nintendo "magic" as fun. Is that it? Plenty of games not made by Nintendo are fun. And I am sure that you can't convert every person to a Nintendo-fan, no matter how long you let him play. If that'd work this easily Nintendo would sell more consoles and games nowadays.
