Nintendo, Same Ingedients, Same Old Meals

If I gave 10 different people a cow and said make a meal out of this chances are I'd have 10 different meals to look forward to.

Some people would just cook a steak, some would make stir fry, some would make fajitas, some would grind it up and make a meatloaf or meatballs. Everyone would take the ingredients and go their own separate way.

Nintendo has been taking the ingredients and making the same thing, the same *!#^$& thing over and over and over.

When Iwata took over at Nintendo he started making hamburgers and he's only made hamburgers. When things were dire for the company he added cheese and thought all the problems could be solved because he added cheese. Then when that didn't pan out he just added a DIFFERENT kind of cheese.

Bottom line, Iwata has made hamburgers and doesn't know what else to make with those ingredients but hamburgers.

Nintendo, while not the best looking company by any means, is still a formidable power even in it's currently damaged state. Someone else does have ideas in there. No one knows if they'll be as good as Iwata's predecessor but at this point there's not much father you can drop.

Someone's got to have a new recipe in there.

Dynasty Warriors Hyrule is Nintendo's all time low regarding this. Reskinning Dynasty Warriors is picking a lower quality meat but still using the same cheese and bun on the other hamburgers. It's a desperate ploy that will hurt the franchise just like everything else that has been tied to Dynasty Warriors.

Nintendo Direct today was nothing but the same old meal, the same meals that have sent people away in droves to the two other "cooks" who can proudly boast "Over 4 million sold in just weeks" currently.

Nintendo needs a new cook and they need him or her soon.

There might be a parade behind you on this one. They might be pretending like they're just walking down the street, but they're behind you.

Nintendo's talent is still amazing, and 3D World shows they've absolutely perfected that formula.... but they need some different things to spark more interest in their brand.

Software-wise, Iwata has been pushing the same things for his whole tenure there, aside from a few outliers. He's done an excellent job of it, as Nintendo's games are still as awesome as ever, but that's obviously not enough any more.

I don't know the answer, but Iwata apparently doesn't, either. I've really liked him as CEO of Nintendo, but I would welcome a change.

McDonald's built an international empire on hamburgers.

Just sayin'.

That's 100% false

Their global empire didn't rely on the hamburger at all. They were able to dominate worldwide because they thought up new products.

Seeing our two articles side-by-side just makes everything feel right in the world.

@Jaysonguy: if you wanna split hairs, their empire was actually built on inventing the concept of "fast food."

But I deny your reality and therefore am right for standing by my original assessment.

So suck it, Jayson.

@El_Zo1212o: To be fair, there is a certain truth that McDonald's didn't thrive by simply sticking grade-D beef product on a strangely invincible bun (I'm referencing how McDonald's doesn't mold or spoil, for those who might be confused), they also put grade-D chicken product on a bun, and have implemented a strangely limited edition, but still often-reoccurring, pork rib-shaped product on a bun. They also deep fry sliced potatoes and ground up whole chickens.

but when your hamburgers are this good...why change?

@KBFloYd: You have no idea how tempted I was to mention IN-n-OUT, but i't mostly a west coast franchise and didn't have the gargantuan worldwide recognition potential of my McDonald's analogy.

Nope, not at all lol

What Nintendo needs is new franchises. Taking the same Mario burger and turning it into a taco will have people complaining that they want and expect a burger.....or, um....something like that!

Seriously though, Nintendo needs to come up with all new games with all new mechanics. The N64 had one main Mario game, as well as the GC. The Wii U already has New Super Mario/Luigi U and 3D World. I'd be ok if they didn't release another one until the end of the console's life. Now is a good time for something completely new while reviving series that didn't make it to the Wii, like Star Fox and F-Zero.

TC is looking at this the wrong way in his analogy. Mario is the beef, Pokemon is the chicken, Zelda is the fish, and the rest compliment those three as the extra stuff. Makes perfect sense.

Well Jayson, I like Chinese food. Who's gonna make me some Sesame Chicken dangit?!? I want Sesame Nintendo, GET ON IT!!!! >.<"""""

this

lol..i thought...if people dont recognize in-n-out then too bad :P

Well I must like the other white meat then because I like Metroid

metroid is pork....

or baby

I like how this article is so silly it turned into an argument about fast food.

Fast food is yummy...bad for your health ..but yummy! :)

This was one instance they could have come up with a new characters..but nope use freaking Zelda instead, gee...well at least its not toon Link. I just remember, that I find Dynasty Warrior games boring. The clip they show was bad, the enemies don't match Link's artstyle...looks like a really bad copy & paste job. :P

Nintendo does not understand that all they really need to do is invest in new series and bring back some we have not seen in years. Give us a Star Fox that has everyone huddled around the couch (online couch too!).

They don't take risks. NES Remix is a joke. We already have VC games. Mario Mario Mario; it gets old. Eventhough those Mario games are always of the highest quality. Nintendo just has no interest in getting the attention of gamers outside their fanbase. And even their own fanbase is waning. All they like to focus on is non gaming centric consumers and then they like to drip feed their loyal fanbase.

They don't keep up with current tech trends and if they ever do make a new IP its generic/low risk. They need something fleshed out like Pikmin as a new character but on a more grand scale.

zelda warriors has the 233,000 views on youtube in just 6 hours...nintendo hasnt seen this kind of interest for a while.

When Nintendo was making different meals just a few short years ago, they got shunned for it, even despite the fact that those meals were selling in droves. Now, those same people are complaining about Nintendo doing the same thing over and over again after Nintendo listened to them.

Welcome back to the GameCube era, kiddos! Hope you enjoy your long, stressful stay!

Iwata's made some head-scratching decisions, yes. That being said, his worst one was trying to please the 'industry' when things were going as well as ever for Nintendo. It's what has given birth to all of Nintendo struggles since 2010, as the focus shifted from the DS and Wii to the 3DS and Wii U, but more importantly, after Nintendo sought out an audience that really only cares about the same meals with spicier condiments. And frankly, Nintendo can't hope to survive with such a narrow-minded/market attitude in this day and age.

This feels so much like 2001-06 again, it doesn't make sense. The more things change... :P

Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. Typical Jasonguy spewing random junk that nobody should pay attention to. While I have no interest in Hyrule Warriors theres no need to bash Nintendo. I know, I know your payed to bash Nintendo. Your like Michael Patcher. Each time you bash Nintendo you make $50 instant cash. So just leave dude. Seriously we all grow tired of you.

@Grieverr:

Nintendo doesn't need NEW franchises. Though Miyamoto still has his new one...What Nintendo needs to do is revive Starfox, F-Zero, and Custom Robo. Heck even a new Ice Climbers would be nice lol.

@Madmangamer364:

Do you think Iwata should've remained focused on the crowd that bought a Wii for Wii Sports, though?

I'm pretty sure his logic was that that market had an intensely focused interest on Wii Sports, as they bought very little else, aside from Wii Fit and... Mario. 2D Mario, specifically, and Mario Kart. Since that audience obviously lost interest in Wii Sports, he decided to go with Mario on WiiU. 2D Mario, specifically, and they didn't care.

It seems to me that the Wii Sports audience could be described in much the same way you described the "industry." They cared about one meal and one meal only, and then they lost interest in it.

The Wii was a one-hit wonder that can't easily be replicated. The DS's success has been entirely usurped by the mobile market. Unless Nintendo somehow managed to imagine ANOTHER one-hit wonder, their only choice was to go with an audience that already loved them.

But they're doing it the wrong way.

You're all wrong, Spanky's has the best burgers in the world. Oh wait, games? Eh Wii U is a mixed bag so far, some stuff I'm REALLY excited about, some stuff that is headscratching.

Nintendo's products have always been high quality. I've just stopped giving a shit about them.

and this right here is why they're failing with the wii u. the wii essentially went after a new audience. one that hasn't played the same IP's for the last 20 years. and now that they played them on the wii, they have no reason to upgrade to the wii u. so no one's buying it.

@starwarsjunky: I've been saying just that since they announced the official name and showed off the gamepad. That's why I've been saying from the start that it should have been branded a DS home console.

That made me hungry for some reason.

But it is alright for Infinity Ward, DICE and other company's to do the exact same thing? Shut up you troll. Claiming Nintendo only "rehashes" shit when the majority of AAA titles are rehashed garbage.

The fact that you don't understand the difference between a publisher and a developer means you have no business in this conversation.

mmm, now I want some taco bell beef mixed with cardboard.

I do understand the difference, I question if you do.

Yes, that's exactly what Iwata should have done. Nintendo ran away from its strongest ever audience because it was perceived to be fleeting, not proven as such.

If Iwata's reasoning for leaving that market, the mass audience, behind was because of the impression that they only cared about Wii Sports, he wasn't paying any attention at all to the trends of his other products. The much smaller GameCube audience only seemed to care about Mario, if you look at the system's best selling software, and the DS' software-to-hardware ratio isn't exactly remarkable, either. Actually, the Wii's software-to-hardware ratio surpasses the DS' by a couple of games and misses out on the GCN's by about a game, despite the reputation of not having as 'dedicated' of an audience. And look at what the Wii U is becoming right before our eyes. Right now, the system can only dream of a piece of software of Wii Sports' popularity, as nothing has made a huge impression on the masses at this point.

Based on all of this, if that "Wii Sports audience" and the "industry" are one and the same in terms of how much they're interested in, why give up what you have in droves to try to gain just a part of the other market? Of course, no one is saying that the Wii's success could be recreated so easily, but the problem is that Nintendo has simply treated the mass market with the same half-hearted attitude as the rest of the video game world in recent years, and thus, doesn't deserve Wii-like success. What we've seen is what is going to happen when you throw around labels like "casual" and try to sell $250 portables and $350 consoles with only a bone or two to attract the masses while you go after what you currently feel are greener pastures in the narrow-market audience.

I don't believe that the Wii is a one hit wonder. Only in the video game industry is the idea of expanding the audience seen as horrible thing. I also don't agree that the mobile market has crippled what Nintendo once established with the portable market. Most importantly of all, it's silly to say that Nintendo's only choice was to go with their oh-so-loyal audience, which is the very same audience that led to Nintendo's decline in the console market for multiple generations and this very "same ingredients, same meals" attitude that is being criticized by so many as we speak... again.

No one, including Nintendo itself, has learned a thing the past 10 years. I simply can't express the sadness I feel inside as this only becomes more obvious to me as time goes on. To think there will be at least four more years of things like this, too...

@Madmangamer364: I didn't mean that Nintendo shouldn't go after the mass market in general. I meant that they shouldn't try to scratch the same itch with their next console as they did with the Wii. If Nintendo made a new console targeted directly at people who bought a Wii for Wii Sports, they would have to come up with an advanced version of motion control that was worth the price of the upgrade to people. I honestly don't think that's possible. People would have to be absolutely amazed by the experience to spend a couple hundred dollars to improve an experience they've already had their fill of.

But I totally agree with you that Nintendo should have made a console with mass market appeal. The problem is that I think Nintendo thought they WERE going after the mass market with the Wii U, which is why they kept "Wii" in the name. I think we agree on this point. Delving a little deeper into that, I think Iwata thought that a unique console idea with a Mario game at launch would be enough to draw mass market appeal, based on the sales figures of NSMB Wii. He was wrong. People liked Wii Sports; Mario was a bonus.

And I want to clarify that I totally misused the term "one-hit wonder" when referring to the Wii. I didn't mean to say that it only had one hit game or one hit feature. I meant that it was a once in a lifetime money shot for Nintendo. They had the right idea at the right time and sold it well. But their attempt at following up that formula was a total misfire.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the mobile space eating up the handheld market, though. Of all the kids I know, one of them has a 3DS, and the others all have tablets. They have no interest in 3DS, and their parents will more easily shell out $100 for a cheap tablet than $150 for a 3DS. And I know absolutely zero adult non-gamers with a 3DS, nor would I even attempt to sell them on it.

@JordanElek:

I hear what you're saying. I do. Even so, I'm standing by my belief that Nintendo really didn't try to go after the mass market with the Wii U, even if they believed they did. Much like with the 3DS, they thought the brand power behind the system and a certain game (Mario for Wii U and Nintendogs for 3DS) was enough to pull people in. It's as if they suddenly forgot the effort that was actually put in place to make the predecessors of those two platforms so successful. It just reeks of a company that heard and reacted to all of the bitter remarks that had been aimed toward them and decided to placate to those critics, as opposed to sticking with what was clearly working.

But yeah, I suspect that Nintendo would have had to do something fresh to keep that market interested, but I don't think anyone can say stereoscopic 3D or the Gamepad were ever the answers, especially combined with narrow-market games and price points significantly higher than the ones the original DS and Wii flew off shelves from. That's more than enough to lose the attention of the masses, on top of the fact that Nintendo had already taken its foot off the DS/Wii gas pedal before their successors even launched. Expecting Mario or any other single game to offset the obvious contrasts that make the 3DS and Wii U much less viable as mass market-friendly systems was asking for a situation not unlike that we've seen with both platforms, and seeing as how I've said this for years now, this isn't just from hindsight.

I was pretty aware of what you meant by calling the Wii a "one-hit wonder." Nevertheless, I still think that's selling the system well short of what it was and could have meant for Nintendo moving forward. Sure, the timing of the system's release couldn't have been much better for Nintendo, but the philosophy behind it still has plenty of merit that will always be relevant. The audience that embraced the Wii didn't just vanish after the system's glory years were over, and they shouldn't be seen as aliens that the industry can never relate to. The same goes for the portable market; even if mobile games and tablets have presented alternatives for a lot of people, there are still very few with the potential and ability to provide top-notch portable experiences as Nintendo, provided that's what it chooses to do.

While we could probably go back and forth on this for a while longer, it's pretty clear that Nintendo has dropped the ball in a big way somewhere and has to rediscover where it went. My problem with this topic as a whole is that it's another situation where the message being sent doesn't fit the reality at all. Not that I'm talking about Jaysonguy in particular, but the majority of those who bad-mouth Nintendo for doing the same things just finished talking about how Nintendo "abandoned" them with the Wii... who also rant and rave about old franchises, like F-Zero, Metroid, and Star Fox, all the time... despite how much they've struggled to remain relevant when they have been released over the years. At this point, I don't even know if the word "hypocrisy" even works when talking about the bizarre cycle that has taken place with Nintendo and its critics, and that include many of its so-called "fans" that are quick to claim they're so special and crucial to Nintendo's success moving forward.

are you back on with this story once again Jasonguy? I seem to recall you were a Nintendo fan, prior to being anti-sheep??

What happened? In defense of the video game industry, the industry is a very young industry. 3D only picked up in the late 90s. So if you're talking about new IPs, then welcome to the real world. It's got nothing to do with programming, or level design. It's got to do with ideas. Which by the way I consider more important than anything else. An idea is worth a lot, while programming skills alone are a sort of sidequest if you can pardon the pun.

But, back on topic. Why all this Nintendo hate?? I don't understand?

I don't agree at all with your philosophy with this hamburger but let's say you're right for a moment. You're not Jayson but let's say you are:

Why change it up when what Nintendo is doing is still winning game of the year awards. You know, as in a Link Between Words here, or Super Mario Galaxy 2, or A Link Between Worlds, or Skyward Sword, or A Link Between Worlds, or Xenoblade Chronicles or Super Mario Galaxy....I feel I'm forgetting one...Did I mention A Link Between Worlds? Or if you want to go back a ways: Metroid Prime, The Windwaker, Smash Bros Melee....OH! A Link Between Worlds, yes that one too.

Game of the year here, game of the year there, simply put best games in the business from nes to NOW spanning over 25 years Nintendo still makes the best titles? And they are the best after all. Mhmm. Yes, yes they are.

I agree TC. I'm bored to death of Nintendo's offerings and as such refuse to support them. And while I don't think there's anything wrong with people continuing to enjoy familiar experiences, I do think it's wrong to be content and or defend the lack of new ones, regardless of the reasons. People should ALWAYS want new experiences. Saying it's ok to not is more pathetic Nintendo apologist nonsense.

A large part of the problem stems from Iwata's extreme conservative approach. He cuts corners wherever possible (no charger with the 3DS? Simply inexcusable), over-charging for digital content, cheap hardware components (Wii U's touch screen isn't even multi) which they attempted to charge an absurd price for, and barely any risky new IP ventures.

I cannot WAIT until Iwata is gone. I will celebrate when he steps down as I think he's crippling a company with such incredible talent and potential.

And hopefully, new IPs will rise out of the ashes to help once bring Nintendo to be a dominant force in the industry.

Yeah, we're saying exactly the same thing. The gamepad WAS a fresh idea, as was glasses-free 3D, but neither of them were the RIGHT fresh idea to sell to the mass market. I don't know what that idea would be, and neither does Iwata. It's INCREDIBLY difficult to come up with that idea, and to go back to the original point of this thread, that's why a change in leadership might be a good thing.

When that same meal is delicious beyond belief, I say keep it.

Sure, sometimes I wish that they'd mix things up a bit, but, really, at the end of the day, I find comfort in the fact that when all else fails, I can count on Nintendo to deliver a product that I know I will enjoy.

So you've only enjoyed Nintendo since Iwata took over? Because that's what you're saying

@Jaysonguy: I've enjoyed Nintendo throughout the years. Their old games are great, their new games are great, they put out a great product. That's what I'm saying. I didn't start seriously gaming until the Gamecube era, but I've played a ton of their old games in the past few years to know that they've always been a great company for video games.

I enjoy most of their stuff as well.

The thing though is that under Iwata (second half of the Wii, 3DS, and the Wii U) all the products they offer are the same now.

Everything from the NES to the first half of the Wii's lifespan had a wider scope, a larger plan.

Because removing 4 words can make someone correct.

You're welcome.

No, not at all

Learn your history

i know the history

i am THE WIIFAN001