How about single-handedly bringing the entire American video game industry Back from the Dead after market over-saturation caused by Atari and its many, many competitors caused the The Great Video Game Crash of 1983? Say what you want about some of the company's draconian policies during the era, but there's no denying that Nintendo paved the way for the continued future of home console gaming in America, allowing for othermajorplayers to enter and help keep the industry going.
Nintendo showed why they were top banana after Universal Studios tried to sue them for Donkey Kong. Nintendo tried to be reasonable and offer a partnership. Universal refused, hoping to destroy the video game company. At a formal dinner where Universal expected Nintendo to agree to pay profits from their game, Nintendo of America stated their intent to take them to court. A court case that the small company won thanks to the fact that the characters and story of King Kong were actually in the public domain.note meaning copyright had expired and that no single individual or corporation can claim ownership, e.g. Shakespeare
The page image for Made of Indestructium is a Game Boy that still worked after being inside a building that was bombed during the Persian Gulf War. And in a Heartwarming Moment, Nintendo sent the nurse who owned it a free replacement.
The year is 2006. Nintendo has been lagging behind the competition since 1995, when Sony's PlayStation overtook the video game industry. The PSX beat Nintendo 64 by a landslide, and the Nintendo GameCube threw the company into last place behind both the PS2 and newcomer Microsoft's Xbox. People were wondering what Nintendo had up their sleeve to stay in the home console race. About a week before E3 2006, Nintendo finally announced their next console (codenamed "Revolution") would be called the Wii. Yes, the Wii. It would be only slightly more powerful than the GameCube (in fact, it's famously said to basically be two Gamecubes taped together, specs-wise). It will utilize a freaking remote control instead of a traditional gamepad as its main controller. Many laughed it off as marketing suicide. Then E3 came and went, and once everyone had gotten the laughter out of their system, they were starting to admit that it could be pretty cool. Come the system's launch that autumn and the Wii quickly became one of the biggest mainstream success in the video game industry, putting Nintendo at the top of the heap for the first time in a decade. And even three years later, it was still the top seller, with everyone and their grandmother (quite literally) owning one. The Wii wasn't Nintendo committing suicide; it was their ultimate comeback story.
So a group of Moral Guardians were bashing Nintendo for releasing MadWorld on the Wii console despite Nintendo saying that the Wii was meant for everyone. Their response: that the Wii is indeed for everyone... and gamers that play games like MadWorldare included with everyone.
E3 2010. Microsoft was going gaga over the Kinect, while had Sony showed little of note (outside Playstation Move). Come Nintendo's press conference, where the public was expecting the waggling and casual games of prior years, Nintendo instead announced and showed off AAA-title upon AAA-title upon AAA-title, and topped it off with the announcement of the Nintendo 3DS! Sure, some of those games are now divisive within their fanbases, and the 3DS had a slow start, but at that time it was nothing less than awesome and proved why Nintendo should still be considered relevant to hardcore gamers. Saying that the fandom rejoiced is an understatement. Summed up here. (Slightly NSFW)
At the end of the E3 2014 Smash Bros. Invitational, Reggie congratulated the champion and officially sums up his Memetic Badass status with this:
Better yet, one year later, in 2015, Reggie FOLLOWED THROUGH ON HIS PROMISE AND CHALLENGED HUNGRYBOX TO A MATCH! He ended up on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle, but given that this is a corporate executive against a professional gamer, he did reasonably okay.
The reveal of Star Fox Zero as this as it starts with Muppets of Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Amie and Shigeru Miyamoto preparing for an announcement before transforming into the Star Fox crew (Peppy for Iwata, Falco Reggie and Fox for Miyamoto himself) before they pose triumphantly.
Peppy: Hey Fox, Do a Barrel Roll! Falco: Yeah, c'mon Fox! Do a barrel roll! Fox: Barrel roll? I can do better than that! Check this out! (zoom in on Fox's face before it switches to the Star Fox Zero trailer)
In 2016, Nintendo raised a lot of eyebrows when they said the only game they'd be bringing to E3 was the then-unnamed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Many were skeptical of the idea, even after Nintendo stated that some smaller games would be featured the following day during Nintendo Treehouse. After all, putting all your focus on a single game for the bulk of your E3 presence? That's insanity. Then the game was revealed and suddenly Nintendo didn't seem so crazy.
You'd think all the rivalry between the fandoms of two major video game companies would get in the way of general platitudes? Yeah, nope. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
E3 2017's ARMS Invitational put the game in a bit of a tight spot — skill didn't seem to matter next to just spamming the grab move, and gameplay was really boring to watch. ENTERMR.YABUKI, who not only proved that the game he directed was indeed a game of skill, but did so only using the grab FOUR times.
Nintendo and Microsoft Studios both got positive publicity when it was announced that multiple titles, including Rocket League and Minecraft, would support cross-network multiplayer between the Switch, Xbox One, PC, and, in Minecraft's case, mobile versions of the games. The announcement was positively-received and both companies were praised for bringing more players together, with many deriding competitor Sony for not joining in.
While there are assorted moments of awesomeness from E3 2017 from the various games announced, there is one very unstated one that PC fans have taken notice of: the Switch runs Doom (2016). One of the most brutally system-intensive games on the PC, one that the PS4 and Xbox One can barely manage to run at 60fps, works on the Switch. That sound you heard in the background is the PC port floodgates shattering under the pressure of this revelation, as this essentially means that with proper optimization, just about any game can work on the Switch as well, a point which was reinforced when Mortal Kombat 11 came out afterwards: while it did come with some graphic losses (especially on the Krypt mode, with its terribly small draw distance), Nether Realm Studios took the lesson as seriously as possible when they did everything in their power to port the game without leaving anything out, or sacrificing framerate in the fights. Similarly, one of the most notable announcements at E3 2019 for Nintendo was that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was going to be released on the Switch, something which took many, many gamers by surprise. Come its release, and the general consensus from reviewers is that even with the sacrifices made, the port runs very smoothly, looks visually great, and still plays well.
The directs. Instead of relying on con, interviews, and shows Nintendo has taken to hosting half-hour long presentations to give their consumers ideas of whats being done and what games are coming and updates on existing games. It doesn't sound like much but, unlike their competitors, it allows them to control the hype and keep it from dying. There is also the added benefits of allowing them to have Directs to be about one thing ie; just Smash, Bayonetta, Pokemon, Zelda and so on. And then COVID-19 hit the world hard, forcing lots of people to stay at their own homes and shuttering large-scale public events like E3; while other companies had their individual growing pains dealing with a COVID world, Nintendo had the infrastructure in place already and, save for shorter durations to spread out the distribution of news and events, the Directs continued as if nothing ever happened.
As of September 13th 2018, Nintendo and Square Enix seem to have buried the hatchetnote except where it concerns Final Fantasy's standing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but that's something else, with all the PlayStation-exclusive Final Fantasy titles (VII, IX, X, X-2 and XII) being ported to the Switch (with VIII being missing most likely due to the Source Code being gone, although E3 2019 has revealed that its own remaster is on the way). While some players got frustrated that the Switch version of VII wouldn't get the Remake treatment of the other competing consoles, instead being a straighter port from the PSOne, this is nevertheless a win for Nintendo as VII is notable for being the game which led Square to break away from Nintendo and start to favor Sony.
On January 24th 2019, Nintendo shows how much respect they have for their consumers and fans of the Metroid series by openly admitting about Metroid Prime 4's sudden drop and restart in development.note Nintendo didn't feel that the game's current development was meeting the standard of the previous titles of the series and has decided to restart from scratch with the original dev team who worked on the Prime series, Retro Studios. The announcement has been met with utter understanding of the situation from the fans and said fans have been praising Nintendo for being completely transparent about the whole situation.
Prior to E3 2019, Nintendo sent a cease & desist letter to somebody who was threatening to reveal their E3 lineup. Nintendo pretty much prevented their entire line-up from being spoiled, and ruining the surprises that year. Andconsideringwhatsurprisestheyhadinstoreforeveryone, it was a good thing none of it was leaked.
The game library for the Switch is something to behold. Prior to the Switch, games had been split between consoles and handhelds, with games like the 3D Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda titles mainly receiving their major releases on home consoles, while franchises like Pokémon and Fire Emblem being relegated to handhelds. With the Switch, however, players are now able to receive the best of both worlds now that all of Nintendo's franchises are united under one specific platform, and some of those series' most acclaimed/best-selling games being released for the Switch. And when you take into account the endless amount of third party support for the Switch, with games like the Devil May Cry series, the mainline Persona series, both Portal games, The Witcher, Dark Souls, BioShock and Five Nights at Freddy's making their debuts on Nintendo consoles, Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Doom and the Batman: Arkham Series returning to Nintendo consoles after many years or several years, indie titles like Cuphead, Shantae and Shovel Knight receiving more and more mainstream attention and even Xbox games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Minecraft being featured on a rival platform, then you have one of the strongest libraries for any gaming console in history with more and more games coming to the console itself, period.
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