Thanks for playing: Nintendo's 2014 rise

Well I already covered that I thought this was a great year for gaming. Unfortunately its not a point many agree on. Even for those that do agree on it, they're saying it from the perspective of the Wii U and still ignoring lots of amazing titles. However they're still right to praise the Wii U and hold that up as the iconic mark of this year's golden chance at having some fun. Nintendo hit hard with a lot of big titles. Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, Bayonetta 2, and plenty of smaller or more niche gems like Toad's spin-off puzzler game, Donkey Kong tropical freeze, and Hyrule Warriors. Add that onto the stuff that people were already cheering about the Wii U for, like 3D world and pikmin 3, and you have some very happy Wii U owners. Oh yeah and I think Shovel Knight is currently console exclusive to it as well. Every single big profile game from Nintendo hit a happy mark, while the other consoles had shared games with high profile failures, broken games, microtransactions, and now at the end of the year we're hearing about how they both were taken down to screw up some folk's christmas. I wont hide the fact that they still got many incredible games, but I can sure see why people are praising Nintendo's efforts more.

I really think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that Nintendo is still "stuck in the past" in many ways. However as any common reader of this blog might be able to pick up on, I don't exactly see much wrong with that if the "past" was any good. When consoles just worked, games just worked, discs were pop-in and play, and games had an inherently "fun" presence about them, things were all pretty good. In all those ways and more, like couch co-op, Nintendo really is stuck in the past. For a while now people have said "gamers will get sick of buggy games" and I think that time is coming up sooner than ever before with the high profile disappointments and whatnot. Meanwhile Nintendo has been in the green this entire time, and they're releasing major high profile titles that are doing a grand job. Oh and if you're still on that bandwagon that they're weak in hardware, do yourself a favor and go buy Mario Kart 8 which may be my favorite visuals on any of the newer consoles. Yeah its not the best in raw tech power, but I can't stop thinking of how amazing and happy the well refined style feels on the Wii U hardware.

They're also producing diverse games, things different from one another and things that are going to grab your attention if you don't  already have it. Meanwhile if you have one high profile ubisoft game, it works on the ubisoft game formula where you've got towers, sidequests, money begging, and progression grinding. If you buy one activision game, its going to milk you to death. If you buy a bethesda game its probably going to feel like it derived off an older PC game. If you buy a sony or microsoft game you're going to be comparing it to some 3rd party equivalent for some reason or another, because almost all of them work off some iconic formula (even if a game doesn't turn out to stick too close, it'll still grab some sense of "feeling" like it). There isn't necessarily anything wrong with this by itself, but when almost everyone has a very specific style or is copying another, things get more predictable and stale. If so many big hyped games are just open world stuff running on a familiar grind, you have a game like WatchDogs that disappoints. If you have a high profile game that is yet another cinematic adventure, you're going to only stick around for as long as the trend. Personally I'm a guy that has bought quite a few ubisoft games despite their similarities, and they're still fun, but the thing is I think I'm really done with them now. I already dodged unity because its more of the same with even less user control (hidden blades are now automatic, no thanks). Now by contrast If you buy Toad's Treasure tracker you're getting the one and only toad's treasure tracker, a unique and light heated platformer puzzle adventure. If you run out and buy Bayonetta 2, you're buying a two pack game bundle of possibly the most critically acclaimed fighter ever that no other company wanted to publish. If you buy Smash Bros you'll have hundreds of hours of multiplayer brawling content from a cast that comes from around 40+ games. Even if you run out and buy the generic new super mario bros wii U copy, you're getting the one and only 2D Mario series that is tuned and done the way that only Nintendo would publish in the modern day. I guess there is rayman for an alternative to that one though, but even then that's yet another niche game from a genre people don't usually talk much about anymore. Nintendo has these things covered though, and has them delivered in an extremely gamey "fun" fashion that is just proud to be a fun game. Again I'm not saying the other more predictable styles are in any way bad on the whole, I love a lot of it, but I'm saying Nintendo covers more interesting ground.

In the past maybe I'd say nintendo has too many linear strict (and by that I mean usually precision based) experiences, as is the case with either most Japanese games or platformer type things. On top of that there's the obvious sight that most of their stuff has that family friendly type of format to it, so where is the coverage for people that want more cinematic or serious games? Going back to precision complaint first though, Zelda works by a very directed formula. Mario and DK go on one plane of field. Even Mario 3D world is more like a 2D style platformer done in 3D. However Nintendo proves to be more than that in recent times. In one year alone they've released their most iconic replayable series, Mario Kart and Smash Bros. On top of that, bayonetta also throws in a more easily accessible and replayable format of a game, though it still is lit on precision. However the biggest kick, is the Zelda franchise. Not only did they HD remake one of the more (supposedly) open entries of the franchise, but they put together a major spin-off where you can easily get a ton of replay and free experimentation with different characters and weapons and maps, and the next major game in the franchise is actually going to be an open world game. That all just blows my mind, and I'm proudly going to say that I am actually fascinated by this upcoming Zelda entry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that its the very thing I've always wanted this series to be, but of course I'm prepared to still feel left out if it remains "not my thing". Still they're actually trying. They're stepping out of the box, doing new things, and bringing up so many replayable, different, and interesting games. You've also got splatoon (a multiplayer shooter.... yeah, from nintendo), mario level maker, and probably something else I'm forgetting that is coming up. Nintendo is now free of any chance of predictability, except for the fact that everything they're publishing in recent times is high quality, and complete stuff that you can just pop into your console and play (sometimes there are software updates, but its so few and far apart and not required to enjoy the games). That's the only thing predictable about them, and that's why they're getting a lot of praise right now in the face of some foul triple A practices, and disappointments.

A really good idea we never expected

I do believe that 2014 was still good outside of Nintendo stuff, but this article feels necessary as Nintendo has still been doing one amazing job holding up some great titles in 2014. I regret to say I've only grabbed MK8 and smash bros from them, but I really want some of the other stuff and what I've played on kiosks at stores is very promising. They've got the most games I still want out of last year, which is really weird seeing as I dodged many games from my favorite publishers (bethesda and sony, I only needed one from each), and watched as another burned themselves over and over again (ubisoft... which I'm really not sure if I want to do an article on their weird yet predictable situation). Meanwhile Nintendo has so many good titles, but their "we will never drop our prices, because we say so" mentality and their history keep me cautious about things. Still so many ones that on some impulse or another I want to buy, and there's so many reasons to support them. They're the only ones making consistently strong, well polished, unique games on a game console that actually feels like a game console. They deserve a lot of praise, and I may be looking at a generation where I focus more on them if they continue to impress. So Nintendo thank you for being here and doing what you do. Yes you may be "backwards", but this is a time when that's never been better.