Re-discovering Nintendo, the essence of gaming, despite prejudices

I've been gaming since..well, late 80's and I still remember my first gaming experience being with DOS games and soon after a C64. It was when I got a NES that I discovered the beauty of Nintendo games. But somehow I skipped the 16-bit era, where I'd mostly play at the Arcade and the last console I truly gamed on was the PS1. After that it's been all about Pc gaming for me.

It was only recently that I decided to buy a Wii U (since it's backwards compatible) and only know am I realizing the amount of greatness Nintendo has put out in the last 2 decades. I almost finished the first Super Mario Galaxy and I'm baffled to realize how wrong I was to have prejudices against Nintendo for its "kiddish" games.

I also got a second-hand 360 and PS3, but other than a few titles, I don't feel the same excitement and fun factor as when I play Nintendo games. It seems to me that Sony and MS strike to impress people with their graphics prowess - which make them ridiculous to the eye of a Pc gamer, whereas Nintendo wants their gamers to have pure fun with their titles, hence their systems are complementary to Pc gaming.

Nintendo is truly the essence of gaming and I wish there was a way to play Gamecube games on a Wii U without resorting to emulators, as now I'm really eager to play all the great titles I missed out on!

If you guys have some recommendations on the games I must play, feel free to do so.

Cheers

@italygamer: Since you missed the SNES, N64, GBA, GB, DS, GC, and Wii era of Nintendo I would recommend of playing Virtual Console (If you don't like playing with the Gamepad you can play with other controller like the Wiimotes and pro controller) , indie games unless you played on PC like Shovel Knight but you should try this F-Zero like game on Nintendo eshop called Fast Racing Neo, also pick the digital/physical versions of Wii U classics like the Mario games, Bayonnetta 1/2, Sonic, Monster Hunter, Batman, Rayman, Scribblenauts Unlimited and many others like Smash.

Thanks for sharing your story. I love to read these little gaming autobiographies. Maybe you would want to try one of the Pikmin games, Mario Kart 8, a Donkey Kong Country game, Splatoon, Star Fox Zero, Super Smash Bros Wii U, Yoshi's Woolly World, or Wii Sports Club. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Pikmin, and some of the Metroid Prime games were on Gamecube; and are available in some form on the Wii U.

Man, you missed out on a lot. There is such a huge library for you to play that you can stay busy for years. That Wii U is going to get a ton of use. What the Wii U virtual console doesn't have, you might be able to find in the Wii Shop channel. You're literally over your head in content that is new to you and I think you're going to have a blast. Not sure if you're an RPG guy, but one game I highly recommend out of the Wii Shop channel is Chrono Trigger. It's available on other platforms, so you might have played it already. On the chance that you haven't, it's under Super Nintendo. I was floored by how good it was and how well it holds up.

You really can't judge a game by its art style. Great game design comes in all different packages.

There are so many games I want to recommend to you right now, but I'll try and keep my cool. The two most pure fun games I own on Wii would have to be Boom Blox and Excite Bots.

Boom Blox is a party game about knocking over blocks in a variety of ways. Great with a few friends.

Excite Bots is a racing game where you play as robot animals. Winning doesn't necessarily mean crossing the finish line first, you need to score the most points. Throughout the race you'll have to complete challenges like knocking over bowling pins, doing flips over bars, and rescuing butterflies. It's nuts, and I like it better than Mario Kart.

From the SNES era I'd recommend F Zero, FF3, Secret of Mana, and A link to the past. From N64, I recommend Mario Kart 64, Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, and Snowboard Kids. From Gamecube, I recommend Double Dash, Mario Sunshine, Tales of Symphonia, and Super Smash Bros Melee. From Wii I recommend Xenoblade Chronicles, Wii Sports, and the Galaxy Games. NSMB is excellent as well.

Welcome to the Wii U brotherhood! People like to look down on it until they really play the games.

That's exactly my combination. Nintendo console + Nintendo Handheld + PC. I think this is the optimal combination.

@trugs26: Well said mate, people really underestimate the games Nintendo makes.

@YearoftheSnake5: I thought you hated Nintendo and thinked that they made a lot of stupid decisions.

@nintendo4evar: You haven't been here very long. I'm objective enough to know when they've made mistakes.

@YearoftheSnake5: you can't really be objective all the times since you share your experience all the time.

Wow. May I ask why you missed the SNES and N64 years?? Maybe even Gamecube and Wii??

@italygamer: Your post really warms my heart. Whenever I see someone label Nintendo games as "kiddie", it tells me that they haven't truly experienced those games.

It's also ironic in a sense, because when we are children, we are often desperate to be/appear more "adult" (especially as teenagers). I'm now in my mid-thirties, and I must say, I finally understand why adults value their childhood memories so much; it is a period that ends too soon, and when you're living it, you don't appreciate it.

It's this slightly painful irony that actually sits at the heart of what makes Nintendo so incredible, I think. When you play a Nintendo game, even in your mid-thirties...your age suddenly melts away. Nintendo brings forward all these emotions that lay dormant within you since your childhood - they re-surface all of a sudden.

Simple emotions like delight, wonder, and...for lack of a better word, glee. They aren't complex emotions, and that's the point. They are simple, pure, and they transport you to a time you thought you'd long-since forgotten, if even for a moment.

That, I think, is the true genius of Nintendo. There are very few companies who have the creative power to do that.

@djura: Well said. I'm also in my mid-thirties and experience the same sense of "your age suddenly melts away." It's unfortunate today's youth want to grow up as fast as possible; making them want to experience complex emotions. Too much too soon.

@djura: Nice post! I get similar feelings from Nintendo games. And if anyone thinks all Nintendo games are easy, well maybe if you play games all the time. I have been trying to beat New Super Mario Bros U for 6 months now. I have been stuck at the lava moat for a couple of months. Really fun game but definitely not a walk in the park easy.

I never understood the hate towards the Wii U when you look at what it does it's very versatile. I mean it's got the Wii U mode, All Wii Controllers work on it, 98% of the download Wii titles and virtual consoles games can transfer over or just work in Wii Mode and the Wii Shop still works, it uses external hard drives, don't need a USB pad to use amiibo, Speaking of which their amiibo can be used in different games, The Wii U isn't bad at all, Especially how the controller functions as a second screen and is wireless, You can play in the bathroom if you wanted.

I think its players that haven't really experienced Wii U that have issue with it. When I play on Wii U it feels responsive, fast, and simple. It does exactly what its supposed to do and does it well. I really don't understand the hate it gets. People like to complain about the online. I've never had connection issues. The eshop works great for me and Miiverse is always fun to browse through. Plus streaming netflix on the gamepad is a fine experience.

When I got to the point where I needed an external, I followed Nintendo's suggestions, and bought the kind of external HDD they suggested and I've had no issues with loading my digital games. I even bought Xenoblade Chronicles X digitally because its faster than the disc version and I am quite impressed with its load times considering how huge the game is.

Everything you guys are saying here is true. Voice Chat is one of the things that the Wii U gets a lot of criticism for, and it is way out of proportion for everything else that the Wii U offers. The Wii U is not perfect but it is as good as the other consoles for its versatility. Nintendo was not trying to make the Wii U "THE ONLINE CONSOLE", but games like Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, and Super Mario Maker are fine examples of the online working beautifully. Super Smash Bros Wii U once in awhile can get a little laggy online when there is high volume traffic online, but if I understand it correctly the competition does not have flawless online either. And the Wii U is a great console for local coop.

I love how the Gamepad and Miiverse work. Yesterday, when I was playing New Super Mario Bros U I found a purple Toad Hut on the map that I had not noticed before, took a screen capture, and inquired about it on Miiverse; and someone replied within minutes with some helpful info. When you are playing games on the Wii U even if they are not specifically online games, other friendly gamers are right with you when you want to talk about it on Miiverse.

Nice to see the positive thoughts from people here.

All good points. But you know what? I don't understand console hate in general. I mean, how can anyone "hate" a game console?

If you think about it, the gaming community is now really large, and we all have different preferences for the kinds of games and platforms we enjoy. But fundamentally, we are all gamers.

For years and years, we've had to justify our hobby - non-gamers have often scoffed at it, or belittled it, without ever understanding how wonderful games can be. We've also had various groups over the years decry games as being bad for you, or causing violence, etc etc...

So I sort of look at that and think, why would we now attack each other? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I love games, and if I could, I'd probably own pretty much every console ever made! :P

I can't imagine outright hating a console. I mean, it's a piece of plastic that plays games...what's to hate? I don't get it.

So, I mean, right now I have both a Wii U and a PS4 (I don't yet own an Xbox One...I'm considering waiting for Scorpio at this point). I'm a pretty big Nintendo fan, but I mostly play the PS4. Yet, despite that, I love the Wii U. It has a really great library. I've had enough hours of fun on the Wii U to completely justify the purchase, and then some. There's simply no way anyone could really argue that Wii U isn't a worthwhile platform - unless they're just not at all into Nintendo games (and even then, it would be a statement of preference rather than an acknowledgement that the Wii U isn't a worthwhile system).