I was just reading the back of my friend's Pikmin box when this kinda hit me... A lot of Nintendo games usually have minimal story (Pikmin, Mario) or stories that arn't as fleshed out as they could be (Metroid Prime). 

I dont have a problem with this, I enjoyed most Zeldas, Marios, etc (except Super Paper Mario but that's another rant), but I did kind of notice a sort of double standard.

Now bear with me, this is not scientific, it's just what it kind of seems like to me. I havent combed through reviews, etc to verify this, but...

It seems like Nintendo gets a free pass in the story category, doesn't it? Not considering RPGs, I see action/adventure games here and there get knocked for their lackluster stories. But I dont recall seeing the same happen to a Nintendo game.

Does anyone else notice this? Has Nintendo earned this double standard via great gameplay? Or am I just mistaken and such a double standard doesn't even exist?

most games get a free pass for story. Fighting games, FPS, RTS, etc. Seriously majority of games out there have terrible story telling.
RPGs are the ones that demand a good story however. That genre is completely driven by it.

Stories are for books and epic poems.

 Everyone reading this topic should read this quote at least 5 times.

there's a double standard

most games dont need story, metroid prime 3 got the right balance between story and gameplay i found

Please tell me, have you played Twilight Princess? It had an excellent story, with twists, and character developement and while not RPG standards is great for an Action-Adventure. Then you have Fire Emblem which also has a great story, and I expect nothing less from an Srpg. Metroid also has an ok story, while it lacks character developement in most games it tells you about the worlds and such, and if you played Metroid Prime 3 you did notice some character development in the other Hunters, and Samus herself(ending). Most Nintendo games don't need great stories for example Mario. What kind of story would they put in there? Yeah. I could go on naming some more Nintendo games with great stories(advance wars,golden sun(owned by Nintendo),etc) but I don't need to. Some games are fitting for a great story, while others are not.

in all honesty can we really give Mario much more of a story. Metroid, zelda and the like could use more though, but if you go too far it can be pretentious like Tetris worlds. because when I play Tetris the last thing I want is a tacked on storyline, and if anyone complains about the story in tetris they are dumb.

Well, I guess I'm restricting genre to action/adventure...

I guess i need to back up my argument a little bit. After some digging:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/ratchetclank/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/ryugagotoku/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/timeshift/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review


These are all games who got deducted for story. I've never played any of these, but can they really be worse than "zomg save the world from shadow creatures."

*edit* and yeah I played Twilight Princess, and no I didn't think much of the story. The fact that I dont remember any of it speaks volumes.

I'll agree with you on Mario, though I thought the first 2 paper marios had really charming stories that just carried a certain awesome style to them.

But it's true Metroid and Zelda should have more backbone to them, Zelda particularly. Spanning what I'm guessing is centuries of Hyrule history, they can go soooo deep and make the story so awesome. And this is exactly what I'm talking about, they dont get any deduction for it