Fanboys who won't hear a word against the precious object of their adoration annoy me more than any other, and Nintendo fanboys are among the worst.
Look, I think most of us would agree that Nintendo are good at making games. I have never played a Nintendo game that wasn't fun and reasonably solid from a technical standpoint. I also agree that, going on the basis of sales alone, the Wii was a runaway success.
That being said, they absolutely are over-reliant on their existing IP's, there is simply no reason why we need more than eight instances of Mario Party, or seven Mario Karts; there just isn't. The usual fanboy reaction to this is, 'well no one is forcing you to play them, we enjoy them, so what's it got to do with you?'
Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel an instant shot of joy the minute I play a new Mario game, but here's the thing: I've been on this adventure with Mario so many times now, that the joy I feel is heavily propped up by nostalgia; after a while I completely lose interest in rescuing Peach for the umpteenth time; I lose interest in gathering the Triforce and other relevant macguffins with Link; I lose interest in losing all of Samus' abilities and slowly regaining them.
At no point did these games ever stop being fun or well made --which is what separates Nintendo from companies like Capcom, who just seem determined to run as many of their franchises into the ground as they possibly can-- but I can only do the same thing so many times.
As I stated previously, Nintendo know how to make fun games, but I want to see them use those years of expertise to bring out brand new characters that can stand alongside their most famous IP's. Hell, even taking an old character and putting them in a completely new setting works for me; I enjoyed Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime and, to an extent, Wind Waker because they discarded established conventions and took a tired series/characters in an entirely different direction.
Of course, the fanboys whined at many of those changes: I think the unreserved hatred and bile the cel-shaded Zelda received from the very first screenshots was my first experience of just how entitled and fickle a lot of fanboys are. In a sense, I suppose I should lay more of the blame at their feet than Nintendo themselves for why they never try to really shake things up, anymore.
Nintendo fanboys will dismiss most, if not all, of this and say I just hate on Nintendo because they're an easy target, despite the fact I don't believe I've ever once said I hate Nintendo: I just know what they're capable of and wish they would still challenge themselves instead of resting on their laurels or focusing on new controllers instead of new IP.
