There is no denying Nintendo is my favorite gaming company. Still there is a line separating fans from fanboys and personally I like to think of myself as a Nintendo fan because even though I love the company I am still able to criticize and see faults in some of their decisions instead of blindly following and agreeing with everything they do. Here are five current issues the company presents, followed by a brief explanation.
Localizations
The main goal of every single company out there is to make money, so it is only natural they will avoid making moves that may cost them a few hundred dollars. Still, Nintendo's policy on localization seems a tad inconsistent. While fans are from time to time pleasantly surprised by releases that looked eternally restricted to the Eastern market (Starfy), Nintendo simply refuses to bring to Western shores some of the titles that are most wanted by fans.
The symbol of Nintendo's bad localization judgment is the Mother series. A big part of the American Nintendo fanbase will never get to enjoy the masterpiece that is Mother 3 simply because Nintendo keeps looking at fifteen-year old charts that show the terrible sales of Earthbound (Mother 2). These charts though fail to showcase the bad marketing campaign behind the game (telling gamers "This game stinks" doesn't seem like a good idea), and most importantly Nintendo fails to see that during the last decade the North American fanbase has vastly changed. Not even a large cult following the series is enough to make Nintendo realize Mother 3 will be a profitable venture.
Online
Sony and Microsoft have outstanding online systems that take the experience provided by their consoles to a whole new level, while Nintendo is constantly failing while trying to be different in their approach to online gameplay. Not only is the company overly strict when it comes to communication between players, but they are also quick to extinguish any trace of competition out of their games.
Nintendo's bigwigs are constantly stating that being told that you are the thirteenth thousandth best Mario Kart player in the world may disappoint some gamers, while that assumption may ring some truth depending on the players the presence of competitive leaderboards are one of the biggest appeals of online gaming. By taking away any incentive to competition, Nintendo also erases a big part of what is compelling about gaming online. After all what is the point of playing against the world when you don't know how you rank among the globe's best players.
Marketing
Nintendo has successfully brought a whole new group of gamers into the market and instead of trying to lock myself up into a bubble I enjoy the fact that many non-gamers are suddenly getting into my hobby and adding new power to the industry. What bothers me though is how far Nintendo goes when trying to market all of their titles to pretty much every single gamer.
Their marketing team has got to understand that not all games can be marketed for everyone. Adding silly actors waving their arms around to an add for games like Metroid, Punch-Out, Zelda or other franchises won't do them no good and will barely manage to move a few more copies, in fact spending that advertisement money on well produced flashy commercials may help them sell even more copies of those games to their proper target audience.
Seal of Quality
One of the main, most overlooked, reasons why Nintendo managed to resurrect the gaming industry with the NES was their Seal of Quality. Back then most systems had a wide library of low quality titles and ended up doomed to store shelves. The NES on the other hand had a very small lineup, but consumers knew that if a title managed to go through Nintendo's Seal of Approval then chances were it was pretty damn good. And so the system was a major success while selling huge amounts of big shiny cartridges.
Nowadays the Seal of Quality means absolutely nothing. After the company managed to establish itself as a trustworthy manufacturer they seemed to take the average consumer's trust and throw it on a garbage can. Low quality titles now plague Nintendo's current platforms and surprisingly some of them manage to sell quite well. Instead of guaranteeing product quality that golden stamp is now a dusty symbol of an era where terrible titles had a hard time entering Nintendo's platforms.
The Limbo
If there is one area on which other gaming companies can not be compared to Nintendo is recognizable characters and franchises. Nintendo's collection of mascots has kept their presence strong in the gaming market even during the company's struggling years. It is easy to notice though that due to such a large group of incredible characters some of them are overlooked by the company, as many intellectual properties are taken for granted.
Pilotwings, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers are just a few symbols that have vanished from the gaming world. It is obvious that Nintendo lacks the manpower to develop all those franchises, but through outsourcing most of them could be reborn in a fantastic fashion making a large group of fans happy. After all there is one big reason why many people go for Nintendo's systems on every generation, and we all know what it is.
Comments
But all valid. Well done!! I wish they would do a new Kid Icarus. Insanely hard game, I have yet to beat it!!!
I've never tried to do anything online with my Wii except download Virtual Console games... and I don't know that I ever will while it seems so restrictive.
Now when games release on the Wii you can't import them from other regions which sucks. Also I always like to see how I rank online and I hate the fact there are no lobbies like in some games on the 360 and PS3. So I 100% agree with you about online.
To me, online games are perishable. Things like Final Fantasy XI or Warhawk need to be bought right away and enjoyed while the servers are supported and everyone else is playing the game. I'm more of a game collector, and would like to think I can revisit any of the games in my collection at any time. But online games take that away from you.
Then there's the issue of DLC. There are so many lazy developers out there who send an incomplete game to the market, knowing full well that they can just patch it later. But that also takes away from the collectibility. Sure, you can patch it now, but in 15 years, will that patch still be there, ready to download for you? If you dust off your ancient PS3 and pop in an incomplete game, and Sony no longer has that download available for you, you're just stuck with an incomplete product.
I'm happy with a console that goes online for downloadable or retro games like WiiWare and VC, but beyond that, I'm not a fan of online gaming. So for that reason, I think Nintendo made the right choice. (My opinions are unpopular, I know. I'm ready for whatever comes of this comment.)
I have spoken.
2. I still believe that Nintendo is making a new Kid Icarus for Wii
3. It's hard to control the quality of every recent game like, as you said, during the NES era. Simply because of the ridiculous number of games from big to small publishers. 4. Nice blog as always and I suggest you write another one for "things I like about Nintendo"
... I think you will even mention more than just 5 points. 
@katamari: I thought it would be a nice change of perspective. I haven't beaten Kid Icarus either.
@Out-Of-Ammo: I am ok wioth people acting like that on commercials for Wii Sports Resort and other games of the kind, but when it comes to franchises that are more aimed at Nintendo's loyal fanbase I think silly actors is a big mistake.
@Sir_Demii: Their amazing franchises and outstanding first-party software of course.
@SiK99: I can guarantee you that Mother 3 lives up to what everyone says about the game. It is the most overwhelming RPG I have ever played because of its fantastic plot.
@bacchus2: I think it does because games that appeal to Nintendo's expanded audience can have great quality, the most notable examples being Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort. They may not be the most exciting games ever for us, but it is undeniable that they are quality products.
@GabuEx: Now I am really confused because a few weeks ago I read an article on Nintendo's strategy on the NES days and Yamauchi's decision to create the Seal of Quality to keep terrible games away from the system, limiting its library. I guess instead of saying terrible games that article should have mentioned glitched titles that won't work.
@just_nonplussed: Thanks and you make a great point about innovation, but I think that is more of quality. While some of their ideas do go underdeveloped (I am afraid the upcoming vitality sensor will be one of them) I think that is a natural issue with companies that always try to be different.
@AK_the_Twilight: A Mother localization would make me very happy.
@BlinDShoT95: You are rigth.
@Aberinkulas: Thanks.
@mitu123: Yes, and I think that is one of the reasons we will always complain about the bad things they do.
@Foolz3h: I think the Professor Layton series is a good example of that.
@xdude85: That is why I never buy a new model, because I know they will keep on upgrading those until they decide it is time to a new handheld to hit the market. The only thing that could make me exchange my Phat for a DSi would be a massive DSi exclusive title, but I don't see that happening so my good old DS Phat will be with me until the end.
@Ifnot: Thanks.
@Stonetowerghost: I thought it would be nice to write a totally negative blog about Nintendo. After all the internet just loves some negative content, right?
@wildcat2000: Thanks.
@Hizang: Those days are never coming back.
@Century-Child: I feel your pain. I live in Brazil and here games and systems are extremely expensive. I just bought a Wii game and it cost me 85 dollars, a value a US gamer would refuse to pay for title, but that here is considered to be a nice price even though this is a third-world country.
@eternalcube: I could write a book on things I like about Nintendo, but I will try to limit myself to five points when I write the blog.
@doctores143: Nintendo has found a new audience to please and right now they are focusing on two different kinds of audiences. We used to have all the attention to ourselves, but now we need to share it with another group. I am ok with that as long as they keep providing fantastic first-party software.
@TheGamemannn: And it was a fantastic translation work. I still remember the day I got an e-mail warning me of the translation's completion. What a happy day that was.
That would be basically correct, regarding the Nintendo Seal of Quality. What it was effectively telling consumers is really just that the game in question is indeed as it appears on the box. Probably one of the worst games to have ever been released on the NES, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, proudly sports the Nintendo Seal of Quality on its box. The biggest contributor to the video game crash at the end of the second generation was not shovelware, as many assert, but rather cases where a person would buy a game and basically get lied to about what it contained, which created immense consumer distrust and consequently people just stopped buying games. The point of the Seal of Quality was to provide a way for consumers to be assured that they wouldn't be subject to that when buying a game for the NES. It never was "quality" in the sense that the game was very fun to play.
On the marketing issue. Most people who live in th US will have noticed the seemingly endless parade of Wal-Mart commercials currently on TV. What all these have in common is that they market a family environment. According to Wal-Mart, a bowl of Tostito's is an opportunity to have a good conversation; and a Wii, an opportunity to play as a family. Truth is, that kind of marketing sells games much better than those aimed at fans.
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On the point of online. I think Nintendo is looking to the future (yes, I mean that). With video games increasingly becoming more like computers in that they have to be constantly updated, consoles such as the 360 and PS3 may soon find themselves stuck in a market black hole: neither simple enough to be a game console, nor complex enough to compete with a computer. Nintendo's consoles, however, always remain purely game consoles, not mini-computers, and lack of online support shows that kind of point of view. Ignoring online might prove better for Nintendo than most think.
I do agree these things are annoying, but I think they have a reason for being that way. We do need better localization support and better support for established licenses, though (so long as they don't suffer in quality for being released to fast).
What I don't like is that you can't watch DVDs on the Wii. And that they don't seem to have a great online multiplayer. How are you supposed to know that 16-digit code?!?!?!?
TissueShoe