“That’s what I love about Nintendo titles, I get older, they stay the same games.”

Nintendo is an institution. They may not have the same global relevance they did twenty years ago, but were it not for them gaming would likely be a far more marginalized medium. After the market for video games crashed in the 1980s it was Nintendo that brought it back from the brink. Many of their policies that are holding them back today are holdovers from that time. Their business plan is not one of delusional madness, but rather dated pragmatism. Enthusiasts like myself clamor for Nintendo to join us in the twenty-first century, to adopt more consumer-friendly policies and diversify. What recent news and experience with their current hardware have shown me, however, is that while Nintendo could certainly benefit from emulating their competition, gaming needs Nintendo to be Nintendo. When all the dust from these “console wars” has settled, they could be the only manufacturer still making a dedicated video game console.

What I’ve come to understand about Nintendo though is that any given title could be someone’s first. I work in an elementary school. My day-to-day experience is with ages ranging from six to twelve. If you try to chat with them about an Xbox, first-person shooters, or western role-playing games (such as Skyrim, Mass Effect, etc.), their eyes glaze over, but if you mention [prefix] Mario [suffix] they can and will talk your ear off. Anecdotal evidence, sure; I am in Japan, Nintendo’s motherland, and I remember being exactly the same at their age. One of the biggest complaints coming from the enthusiast community regarding the most recent Nintendo Direct is that there wasn’t anything truly original (granted, this can be something of an ongoing topic of conversation in games). What was shown was a series of sequels, remakes and ports, however every one of these releases may serve as someone’s introduction to video games.

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