Anyone who's watched football (the round ball kind) has seen this. The ball is played across the box towards the star striker. The keeper is beat, the goal is gaping in front of the striker. There is only one outcome. Yet somehow, inexplicably, the striker manages to miss this open goal. Maybe he misses the ball entirely, or he hits the post, or blazes it over the bar. Whatever the case is, somehow the ball is not in the back of the net. What I have never seen is a striker routinely miss these chances, time after time. But watching Nintendo throughout 2015 has changed all of that, with last night's investor meeting being the final straw.

1) Delaying The Legend of Zelda Wii U - Do you remember when 2015 looked like a really promising year for Nintendo? The 3DS had a great line-up in the first few months which Nintendo did deliver on. Then in the latter half of the year it would be the Wii U's turn to shine. The crown jewel was going to be The Legend of Zelda Wii U. Oh dear. Taking away this game really emphasised the weaknesses in Nintendo's line-up.

People were really turning their heads at this game after that video last year. Wii U's would have been moved on this game alone. Alas, it wasn't to be, and it won't be either because by the time The Legend of Zelda Wii U comes around the NX will be very much coming and no one will want to invest in a soon-to-be obsolete console. In that sense they almost have to release this game on NX, but maybe that'll be an open goal they miss too. The delay may have been the best thing for this game, which did look a little bare bones last year, but it certainly hurt Nintendo's bottom line.

2) New Nintendo 3DS - So many things they did wrong with this. The two crucial ones though are the name, and the fact they only released one exclusive game for it. Xenoblade Chronicles is a great game, but they really could have done with putting a game with broader appeal on this thing, just to really give New 3DS sales a shove. They didn't, and at this stage, it looks like they won't. And thusly, New 3DS did not sell as well as it could have or should have. The ball blazed into the stands.

3) No Animal Crossing Wii U - If there was one thing everyone thought was guaranteed to be announced this E3, it was a real Animal Crossing game for Wii U. There was a big gap in the Wii U's line-up for it, and Animal Crossing was very much due its next iteration. Animal Crossing is currently one of Nintendo's super-dependable series. It sells great worldwide and phenomenal in Japan. Units would have been shifted.

Now this probably wasn't an open goal missed this year, but rather last year or even the year before, when they should have started developing this incredibly obvious game. Instead we got two spin-offs. The 3DS Happy Home Designer was decent enough, but the Wii U party game looks distinctly sub-par and I imagine will have sub-par sales to match. It was totally brainless of Nintendo, who could have made a lot of easy money from a Wii U Animal Crossing.

4) The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes - Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. What happened here Nintendo? First you make a Zelda game that just doesn't look anywhere near inspired enough to be part of such a well-respected series, and then you seemingly forget to market it. The outcome is plain to see, as this game is selling very poorly indeed for a Zelda game. So what's the open goal missed here? They should have just not released the game at all. Zelda did not need a stop-gap game, the series has got plenty of love in the past few years. The outstanding Majora's Mask 3D was all Zelda needed this year. Instead the series needed a break. Games like this only serve to hurt the reputation of the series.

5) Metroid Prime: Federation Force - Oops! The striker kicks the ball straight into his own face!

6) Delaying Star Fox - Oh for the love of God. You take a mediocre holiday line-up and you take out the one saving grace. I love that Nintendo values quality over everything else. However, this is a game that they've been working on probably for years, and they need to learn how to make a deadline - especially when that deadline falls in the most important time of the year for them.

7) Delaying their mobile offerings - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Some are questioning who is responsible for this, DeNa or Nintendo? Without knowing anything, I know the answer to that question. Which of these two companies has a terrible record for meeting deadlines and being forced to delay their games? Hmm, I wonder. On Christmas Day, millions of kids around the world will receive something quite special from Father Christmas. Smartphones and iPads will be in abundance. They should have been playing Mario, if Nintendo could meet a deadline. Speaking of Mario on smartphones...

8) Miitomo? Seriously? Where is Mario! - Now it's just starting to get sad. My granny could have scored this one. When Nintendo enter the field of smartphones, they need to make a splash. There is one character they have in their arsenal that we know would be best for that. The true superstar of gaming. That's right, it's the Mii! Wait, what?

In 2016 Miis will be celebrating their 10th anniversary. That's great, it's great to remember the early days of the Wii and how literally everyone had a Mii. However, we'll also be celebrating the 6th or 7th anniversary of their total irrelevance in popular culture. What a terrible way to enter smartphone gaming. Hell, Miitomo doesn't seem to even be a game.

Look, this app might be something quite nice for us Nintendo fans depending on how they implement it, but isn't the point of entering into smartphone gaming to attract new people to Nintendo. Miitomo looks like a niche app which will not deliver on that objective.

9) And the rest of Nintendo's smartphone offerings will be paid - I thought the point of bringing DeNa in for this partnership was that they could provide some expertise about the mobile market. And everyone knows that to make the most money in this market, you have to go with free-to-play, not to mention the superior brand advertising that that would give. Don't get me wrong, I far prefer the concept of paying up-front rather than free-to-play games, but for once, I wish Nintendo would ignore its better instincts. The smartphone gaming business is about making easy money and advertising your brands. Save your real quality and better ethics for your real games!

Concluding Thoughts

I wish that was all Nintendo had done wrong this year, but alas there has been more - plenty more. These were just the major decisions they have made which I think were undisputably and obviously bad. If anyone else has any suggestions for what other creative ways Nintendo have found to miss an open goal this year, of course I'd love to hear them. I'd also love to hear people try and defend Nintendo's record in 2015. I know someone will, despite everything I've said here! Did they have successes? Yes, of course they did, with Splatoon and Super Mario Maker being the standouts. The thing is, don't you think these few successes were vastly outweighed by everything I mentioned above?

My last point is that Nintendo's woeful form this year should inform us going forward. Next year, the NX is being revealed and possibly released. There is a lot of excitement and hype around these parts about it. Yet Nintendo keep missing open goals time and time again. Lower your expectations. The day I'll believe that Nintendo can get anything right at the moment will be the day I see them do it.

Whining about absolutely everything is really the offcial hobby of too many gamers this days. Half of those complains doesn´t even make sense to beggin with.

It's not so much winning everything as much as it is winning something.

Splatoon seems to literally be the only success Nintendo has had this year for the wii u, and monster hunter/majora's mask is the only major victory they've had for 3ds.

With regards to the wii u, third party is gone, first party got delayed, the games that are coming aren't exactly blockbusters like the third party that left.

The 3ds isn't failing, nor is it dissappointing, but it is on a downward trend, and nothing is on the horizon to stop it (maybe FE fates, but FE can only do so much).

Nintendo's mobile efforts are still basically non-existent and have yet to really take off, as seen by the investors meeting

I agree with all of this. Nintendo dun fucked up good XD The delays are awful. On a side note I got a New 3DS today with Xenoblade!

Nintendo should consider porting some 3DS games to the WiiU to ease the pain. :P

All the games I want for Wii U have been delayed or disappeared for a very long time and then randomly showed up (Yoshi's Wooly World/SMTxFE). XCX, Mario Maker, Zelda U, Star Fox, among others have all been delayed. Out of those, the only one that has come out is Mario Maker, which is fine. But that's only one game I'm interested in. I got the system originally for XCX which was delayed like twice and is now finally coming out. Nintendo has taught me to never buy their systems until they can start putting out games when they say they'll come out.

I'm still going to wait on the NX (if its a home console). They'll probably be slow for the initial years of that system, but [probably] better than their situation now. But I'm going to see how they push the system and titles they offer are. Another thing, which is unrelated to Nintendo's delays, is that NoA is atrocious. NoJ/NoE are light years better in comparison. I really REALLY hope Kimishima can do something about NoA in the near future

Delaying Zelda U and Starfox were more like passing the puck to an open winger when you're being double covered.

This isn't about my expectations though. I don't expect Nintendo to cater to my personal whims. What I do expect (or did expect), is that when there's an obvious stack of cash sitting there waiting for Nintendo to claim it, that they will do just that. For example, Animal Crossing Wii U. You comment that they never announced it so I should lower my expectations. You're quite right, they never did announce it, and that was never my point. My point was that it was a no-brainer to make that game and release it this year, and that they have thrown money away by not doing that and instead opting to make a disappointing spin-off, which will sell less, and honestly damage the good name of the series. Of course I don't know 100% for sure that Amiibo Festival won't be good, but I think we're all capable of reading the signs and guessing. It's not looking good for that game.

Speaking of damaging the good name of a series, there's your point on Triforce Heroes. Just because I said Nintendo didn't release enough games this year (they didn't) doesn't mean I think they should just shovel anything out there. I've made my case for why Triforce Heroes should never have been made, and I'll add that yes, they certainly should have made something else (non-Zelda) to fill the gap left by that game.

There are other points of yours I could answer, but I'll leave it because otherwise I'll be here all day! The final thing I'll say is that if it turns out that the selection of Nintendo games on offer this year has been so dire because they're giving the NX a stunning launch line-up, then maybe in the end that will be a good call. It still doesn't forgive Nintendo the rookie mistakes they're making in the mobile market.

But what if you only have a second or two left to score and tie the game?! Shoot dammit!