What's with the extreme Nintendo Hate?

[karma9308]

I can't really be called a nintendo fanboy, hell I haven't owned a Nintendo console since the N64 (which I still have I should note!) and I had the original DS back when it was fat. Yet I still think Nintendo is one of the better companies out there. They put a lot of time and effort into their games and generally don't release pieces of crap. At worst the title may be mediocre. They don't use DRM, DLC, online passes, or always online schemes. They don't blame the customer for any ills in the world, they don't blame critics for low review scores (mostly because they don't get low review scores), and their execs actually take the blame when things blow up in their face.

Sure, I don't like the recent move to motion controls and them getting away from that makes me more positive towards them, but I don't hate Nintendo, far from it. I want them to keep doing good and surely don't want to see them dead. Just so long as they stop using motion controls.

 

[Maxtro]

There isn't any reason for the Wii U to exist. The only thing it's going to be good for is playing Nintendo first party games and those should just be on other consoles.

They make good games, I don't deny that but their home system hardware hasn't been impressive for a while now.

 

[Agayek]

Wherever you see hate, you can usually trace it to fear.

Some of these people, like Yahtzee, for example, have spent years honing their skills on a particular type of controller. And in any video game, your skill with the controller is going to directly impact your skill with the game, regardless of what the game is.

Then Nintendo comes out with these new controllers, and it serves to drive home how all that time they've spent developing that skill-set is, ultimately, worthless. With the Wii, that fear was compounded many times over because the damn thing was sellling so well. So well that the other console developers all came out with their own set of alternative controllers, and in their subconscious, the fear that their expertise, their skill, their ability in this one area in their lives where they could proclaim some element of superiority over the jocks and casuals and all those other people who they fail to measure up to because they've been so busy playing video games would suddenly be worthless. That they would not only be inferior in every other area of their lives, but at gaming as well.

While there is certainly some element of truth to this, I feel I must point out that regardless of that, the Wiimote, and motion controls in general really, is simply an inferior method of interacting with a game. It's substantially more effort for the same results, and is rather immersion breaking quite often, all for little-to-no tangible benefits.

The only upside to motion controls that I've seen is that they're simpler and debatably more intuitive for non-gamers to pick up. That's definitely a good thing, but making that the core of a console? Yea, no, bad idea.

Fortunately, Nintendo seems to have realized this and went back to a less contrived control scheme with the WiiU. It hasn't quite sunk in yet obviously, otherwise there wouldn't be a tablet in it, but baby steps and all that.

 

[waj9876]

There are people screaming about every console, how it needs to die, and they completely ignore facts so they can scream about something. Every console fanbase has these people, screaming about how everything they don't like is awful and should die.

These people are known as the "fucking idiot douchebags that are holding gaming back and are the main reason the world still doesn't take gaming seriously as a medium."

 

[Lightknight]

No one hates nintendo. Just that they live in the past. They bring out a new console and the only things worth playing on it are the same games. Mario, Zelda, Metroid and the many spin offs (looking at you Mario) etc Everything else is worthless crap. This is how i see Ninty consoles - have zero interest in their titles, never have.

Now regardless how awesome there games are, its something i dont know. Though there are millions of Mario etc fans in the world that love him. But its just the same old same old. Ninty thrives on Mario.....without Mario then Ninty would be dead.An they have no interest in giving you new things.

Exactly, you'd think that the company that could come up with Mario, Metroid, Zelda, and such in the 80's would be able to come up with new IPs that are relevant today. It baffles me that they've dropped the ball so thoroughly here. It seems like Sony and Microsoft have no end to the number of established and new IPs in their pockets and like Nintendo isn't even really trying to continue.

Even Nintendo fans should hope that this serves as a wakeup call. Not the death of them, just a clear message that it's time to branch out and take risks on new and good titles before it's not longer within their means to do so.

 

[Palmerama]

I see alot of people bashing on Nintedo for things they don't really do. Example, in this 8 year generation there have beeen 8 Call of Duty games, 5 Asassin Creed Games, but only 2 Zelda games, and 4 Mario games (I'm only going on console games), yet Nintendo are always blamed for constantly churning out re-hashes of their IPs. They only release one Mariokart game per console and the same goes for Smash Bros.

I think alot of people are pissed at them 'cos Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive (even though thats the only way it was going to get made).

I really do hope Nintendo sort themselves out. They had a great head start with the Wii U and they've completely dropped the ball. Here's hoping a slew of games are being announced at E3 & future Nintedo Directs all for this year.

Also at the end of the day people still pathetically cling on to the console of their choice and sing the praises of the types of screws it has if it means they've fully justified their purchase. Its ridiculous. I've got a 360 & was more a SEGA player back in the day but Nintendo's always been there for me. I've still got my NES, SNES, N64 & Gamecube. They've definately got their place and while they make bad decisoins at times, they still have the gamers interest at heart. Which alot of gaming companies have lost.

 

[Sean951]

To answer a previous question, Nintendo is remaking Wind Waker because they were faffing about with old games trying to find an art style they liked for the next Zelda and HD version of Wind Waker looked nice, and since the next Zelda game is at LEAST 1 1/2 years away, likely 2-3, they decided to release the Remake as an apology/money maker. It also might include the unused dungeons, but we won't know for a while.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

The hate that's there is justified on some levels, but it's publicly inflated for the sake of landing impactful comments.

Yes, the House of Mario is relying on gimmicky control schemes and its new foothold in the casual market to justify an underpowered piece of tech. Yes, they've been shelling out Mario This and Mario That to no end. Yes, new IPs feel like something that requires a fit of madness from one of Miyamoto's younger colleagues to come into being. Yes, Nintendo is reacting to its diminishing returns with a troubling nonchalance.

But the 3DS is still doing hella good. It's not what Ninty had planned, for sure, but it's what they've got.

You have to understand that Japanese game development and Western devs aren't alike. We come up with a setting, a basic narrative outline, and things get stapled onto it. Things like gameplay, cinematics - so on and so forth. They start with game mechanics and then wonder just who it is in their pre-established roster that could give this set of gameplay principles a face. In comes Mario.

Nintendo's never been concerned with innovating on narrative or technical grounds; they're concerned with creating solid gameplay experiences with devices and mechanics they cook up in a closed environment. This, in turn, justifies their nostalgic approach with the later Super Mario titles. All they've seen is that there's a demand for 2D scrollers in the HD era, and they're dead-set on milking the shit out of this.

The same goes with Pikmin, what was one of the Gamecube's flagship titles. The reason why we've waited so long for a Pikmin 2 is because they weren't concerned with revisiting this franchise if they couldn't do so with a visually arresting killer app.

Nintendo and Valve have the same outlook, concerning new releases. If you've got a flagship series (Half-Life), you wait until every other tech level precisely because you want that franchise to remain associated with cutting-edge design. Like it or not, Pikmin is the closest Nintendo has come to innovating in the last ten years.

The one difference is Nintendo is assuming that its new hallmark involves surfing on motion gaming trends and touchscreen mechanics. That feels somewhat misguided.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Because they are popular and big, and every other company goes through that when they become that big.

Personally, I'm incredibly indifferent towards Nintendo now. The last console I owned from them was the Gamecube and I was okay with it. The Wii never interested me and I'm not impressed by the WiiU. My 3DS is collecting dust at the moment since I haven't found anything I like on it yet, but not my DS because I love that thing.

I don't care for Mario anymore, and saying Mario as a motive for me to buy something from them doesn't work anymore since I find their games boring now.

Maybe people hate (god damn it bothers me when people say that) Nintendo because they're just being lazy with their first party games. I don't really know since I tend to stay out of the vitriol threads about console companies.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Extreme? As in "Threaten to burn down their homes"?
I'm more disappointed in Nintendo than anything, but they haven't done anything so malicious to warrant any "extreme" hatred.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Let me tell you a short story. When I was a boy I owned a gamecube and it is easily one of my favorite consoles. So many good games for it. Metroid Prime 1 and 2, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Mario Sunshine, AND it had good third party games too like Second Sight and other such games. The Wii came out and I was excited for it. I was 13 and I waited in line at 6am in November and bought it with money I saved up from my paper rout. I played twilight princess, metroid prime 3, super smash brothers brawl, and a handful of other games. Then one magical day, I played fallout 3 on my friend ps3, and it. Was. Fucking. AWESOME! And I realized something else, my Wii would never get this game or any game like. Now I realize something else, Nintendo has decided they didn't want to make games for me anymore. They're too busy "innovating" and making games for children. If I go back and play Metroid Prime 1, I bet I'd still have a hard time beating the last boss. Metroid Prime 3? I beat that game on its hardest difficulty (something I never do). And the Wii remotes? Fucking stupid. I like games with a controller, not a stick on a string.

So what's my problem with Nintendo? They can do better than this. I saw it myself on the Gamecube. At some point they decided their consoles didn't need current hardware and they didn't need normal controller but rather new and exciting devices and control schemes that amounted to wiggling a controller in a direction instead of pressing X (that's all the Wii amounted to. Motion controls are dumb unless encompass a range of motions not just "swing remote up to swing sword up"). They also decided that it was more worthwhile to publish games like Sonic and Mario at the Olympics than games like Red Dead: Redemption and Elder Scrolls Skyrim.

So that's why I don't like Nintendo. They can make a great console for their games and other great games but they don't want to. They're too busy adding touch screen mini games to Deus Ex

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Nintendo has sold its soul to the Gimmick Gods. That's all there is too it. It needs to get out of the console market forever.

*spit*

I'm sorry, this is extremely stupid. Sold itself to the gimmick gods? Even if that were true, why would it deserve to leave? So you don't like the Wii. At least we have something different into the market.

I don't think anyone has ever used dog shit as pizza topping. That doesn't make it a good thing

 

[Hutcher]

My breach with the Big N began in the N64 era, because that generation was when they truly lost the 3rd party developers to Sony and Microsoft by being dictatorial about their hardware. They thought they could take their proprietary cartridge technology (a technology that allegedly doubled developmetn costs and increased manufacturing times nearly tenfold) and jam it down the throats of developpers, who would have no choice but to support the tech unwaveringly. Instead, the 3rd party developpers almost universally ditched Nintendo in favour of the PSX and later the XBOX, systems which were far cheaper and easier to develop for.

At the time, I was still riding the euphoria of the prior generation, which had maybe the best game lineup of any hardware generation to date. I held off on buying the PSX and saved instead for an N64. when the N64 was released, I played the crap out of Mario 64, but when I was finally done with that, it took 8 months for anything new and worth playing to come out, and to be honest, most of those few titles were kinda bad.

After this lesson, I went out and got a PSX. I still remember the N64 fondly thanks to great title like Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, and Mario 64, but I also remember it as the system that killed Nintendo's 3rd party support. that support has never receovered, and probably never will. The Wii was a further step in the wrong direction, and I'm not sold on the idea that the Wii-U is the system that will reverse that trend.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'll tell you what Nintendo don't do...they don't spend so much on making a video game that 4 million sales is viewed as a failure. :|

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I hated Nintendo before Yahtzee made it cool.
I always thought their games were juvenile, repetitive, boring, and overall annoying. And their "innovative" gimmicks were the worst offenders. They keep trying to make kid/family games, which are the most boring games to me, so maybe that's part of it. But in general, Nintendo are just shit - or at best, medicore. The fact that they keep releasing rehashes of the same games doesn't help either.

I take it you don't like Pixar films either then, given that they're also entirely kid/family films? And yet Pixar is possibly the most acclaimed film studio in the world. It's as if entertainment made for families can appeal to both children and adults. And maybe adults, real 'adults', do't have a problem admitting they enjoy stuff that's more family orientated. I mean, that would also explain why Studio Ghibli is one of the other most acclaimed studios in the world...

I take it you also don't like movies like Django which unflinchingly thrusts your face into the kind of abuse and violence that happened against the slaves in pre-civil war America? I'd like to see Pixar's family-friendly take on that

My point, I loved the Incredibles and Up but there's a reason I don't watch Disney Channel

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

The other part of it is that people have a narrative they want to follow. People believe this narrative where Nintendo went mad and flipped the table after the Gamecube, flipped the bird to every core gamer in the land and went and whole-heartedly started sucking off the casual gamers for everything they're worth. It helps fuel the 'Us Vs Them' mentality which 'core' gamers seem to harbour to the dirty casuals, and gives people somthing to moan about.

It doesn't matter that Nintendo was also responsible for uber-hardcore games for the Wii like Sin And Punishment 2, one of the finest and most brutal rail shooters developed in years. It doesn't matter that their own studios were responsible for games like Xenoblade, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Metroid Prime 3, which are nothing but traditional 'core' games with no casual appeal whatsoever. It doesn't matter that even the Nintendo regulars like Mario and Zelda remained traditional 'core' games, just with added motion controls.

You can see this narrative continue with the Wii U. Now, Wii U sales haven't been particularly great. But they also haven't been particularly worse than other consoles at launch. It's sold around 3.45 million units over the 6 months since launch, which isn't far off from what the PS3 or 360 managed. January and February were pretty terrible sales wise, but the November and December prior were far and away above what the HD twins sold. The numbers are just weighted differently, that's all. Admittedly, it's going to be a little dry until June, but then the games start appearing again, and there's no reason it shouldn't start selling even higher.

That does't fit the narrative though. For a lot of people, the Wii U is selling absolutely terribly, and this is karma for Nintendo selling out and abandoning the core gamers. This is what happens when you treat core gamers like shit and release games like Super Mario Galaxy 1&2. This is evidence that Nintendo is going to bomb, that the Wii U is going to sell even less than the Gamecube, and that the company is going to stop making hardware and go third party.

It's all a load of bollocks. And it drives me up the wall.

that pretty much sums it up; people like to perpetuate this idea that making games for anyone other than the "hardcore" demographic is tantamount to suicide...which was proven wrong long, LONG ago. They can't stand that Nintendo does things their own way and as such decide to throw a near-decade-long hissy fit instead of getting the idea that there is more than one method of innovation and advancement

 

[Risingblade]

Not hste, more like boredom. When was the last time they released something good that wasn't Mario,Zelda, etc? Sure you might know the answer but most people won't. The Wii U hasn't offered any games that make the console worth buying. Aside from the 3ds there really isn't much reason to care about Nintendo at the moment.

 

[Terramax]

I wrote this on another thread, but on reflection it works better being posted here?

I dislike Nintendo as a whole lately, partly, as to how they target the ignorant 'X-factor crowd'. Their adverts with celebrities pretending to enjoy their products, or making it out that if they own a Wii, suddenly your typical, disconnected, disfunctional household will become the glamorous picture perfect family every parent dreams about. Seriously, hands up now many think Penelope Cruz plays a DS in her spare time? What drugs do you need to take to make your family as happy as the ones in those adds?

I'm not denying people enjoy Mario, or Nintendo games as a whole. But I know for a fact that many of these people whom buy Nintendo products would have MUCH more fun playing games on other systems. And they're simply buying these games due to Disney-style 'family friendly' marketing campaigns. More families could be enjoying better games on the PS3 or 360, but Nintendo have sold their products so that, if you haven't a clue about video games, you're led to believe Nintendo are the safest option. It sucks because better games out there are not getting the exposure and success they ought to.

Oh, but the games have sold 29million, or whatever, as stated in a previous post.

Well, I'm sure if you marketed just about any non-controversial video game up the bum, so it looked like it turned your household into a god-damn Utopia, with some cheesy mascot slapped on it, that people will buy into simply because they recognise it from many years ago, it'd sell just as well.

There are other reasons why I have have 'resentment', but not 'hate', against Nintendo.

They screwed over European consumers for years, they alienated Gamecube owners with the wii, their business practices in the 80's and 90's were to the point of being malicious, and that spokesperson for Nintendo of America is just an arrogant git.

Perhaps the biggest criticism, however, is that they're capable of creating so many other fantastic, new IPs, but are content in just re-selling the same old crap. They make a dis-service to themselves, and a dis-service to the games industry as a whole because of it.

But, yeah, I haven't got a complete problem with Nintendo. It was only yesterday I booted up the Gamecube again, and it's got some quality titles. But I can't support them if all they're going to do is make rehashes which are just a shadow of games they've made previously.

 

[Lightknight]

I see alot of people bashing on Nintedo for things they don't really do. Example, in this 8 year generation there have beeen 8 Call of Duty games, 5 Asassin Creed Games, but only 2 Zelda games, and 4 Mario games (I'm only going on console games), yet Nintendo are always blamed for constantly churning out re-hashes of their IPs. They only release one Mariokart game per console and the same goes for Smash Bros.

Dude, those are their good games. The third party games are a myriad of nothing and the few (No More Heroes) that stand out are rarer than a hobo with a solid 401k and health insurance. Sure, they exist but are pretty hard to find and often fail to stand out against the others without enough reviews.

The idea isn't being upset that they're making too many of them in recent memory. The idea is that they're not making new IPs and the only games they really put out are the same IP over and over again. They don't just make the heck out of Mario games, they make spin offs of spin offs of Mario games. Heck, Mario himself is a Donkey Kong spin off. Do I have favorable memories of Mario? Yeah, of course. But I and several others like me are tired of him. I've played Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby, and everything else. I've been playing them for 30 years and it's about damn time for some new blood at Nintendo.