There was a time when Nintendo pushed gaming forward. They were always on the cutting edge of new technology and ideas. They had a simple system: take tried and true gaming franchises and use the characters in new/interesting ways.
For example, transferring traditional 2D side-scrollers to 3D gave us the wondrous "Super Mario 64", "Metroid Prime", and "Ocarina of Time". They're the company that allows their major characters to go karting or to engage in continuity breaking brawls for no reason other than "its fun". They weren't afraid to throw their characters into strange, new situations ("Hey, let's take that character who started as a 2P pallet swap and lets base an entire game around how he became a ghost buster!" "Hey! Let's turn our major side-scrolling franchise into an RPG that looks like a pop-up story book!")
Even when retreading old ground, they never let their franchises turn stale. When an "Ocarina of Time" knock off was made for the Game Cube, they took a risk with a uniquely lighthearted art design that bordered on a western animation/anime crossover and packed the game with humor and personality hitherto unseen in the Zelda franchise. And of course, they added some water and sailing. The result was the absolutely amazing "The Wind Waker" (which is still one of my favorite games, 10 years after it was released. And no, this isn't nostalgia, I did a full play through for the first time just last summer.)
And lets not forget that they've been THE major player in the mobile market for the longest time. The Game Boy is a staple of many childhoods and the DS, while it seems dumb on paper, works surprisingly well for a system built around a couple of gimmicks (largely because the gimmicks add something that wasn't there before and they are entirely optional). Run into any public space and shout "I wanna be the very best!" and see what happens.
However, somewhere along the line they tripped. Their recent foray into technological innovation resulted in a system built entirely around horrible motion controls and rather obnoxious controllers (not to mention being severely behind the competition in system power). Now they have a system with the most obtusely conceived controller that only takes away from the gaming experience.
In fact, much of their recent work seems to be subtraction. They keep removing stuff from their franchises and systems, hoping to "return to basics" and find that sweet feeling that made Mario so wonderful in the first place. But they are forgetting that Nintendo has always been equal parts familiarity and freshness. Right now, they are spinning their wheels in familiar territory while their franchises rot and stagnate around them.
"Metroid: Other M" turned the cornerstone of strong female protagonists into a mewling baby. "LoZ: Skyward Sword" forgot to add anything unique to its game and the result was forgettable characters and an underwhelming adventure (which seems like the wrong word for "a hero completes needlessly complicated tasks to swat a guy back into his hole multiple times"). Mario's recent forays ("SM Galaxy 2" and whatever "New Super Mario Brothers" is on ) have fared better, but they both amounted to expansion packs more than actual games. That eclectic attitude that brought us "Wario Ware", "Luigi's Mansion", and "Paper Mario" seems to have reigned itself in.
Nintendo hasn't produced anything of substance in a long while. Now, I don't hate them and I don't want them to fail, but I do want them to get a little scared. They've been phoning it in for an entire console generation and it needs to stop.
