Nintendo : The Teacher in the World of Soldiers

Since the release of the first Xbox there has been a war. A war between the companies, a war between the fans, and a war that would never find a victor.

For those who don’t know, it is the belief that the console wars are fought by three companies – Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. With fans on each side it can often become a bloodbath in the comments section of a Youtube video.

To hardcore gamers Nintendo was always considered a joke, a casual player’s console, and that it had no chance in the fight for console dominance.  However, what many players don’t know is how Nintendo influenced the hardcore games they play on the other consoles. If we look through Nintendo’s past we can see the birth of the most popular genres of today.

It is interesting to consider where open world games would be today if not for Nintendo’s Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. Would Skyrim be the masterpiece it was if not for the inspiration of these early 3-Ds?

The makers of Dark Souls even tweeted in response to a fan, giving their respects to Nintendo as the teacher and inspiration for modern games.

Nintendo never follows the trends, they create their own trends. If you step back and watch the console wars you can see how Nintendo isn’t fighting but it is building the weapons for those who are.

When the Wii was released in 2006 the motion controllers were considered insane. Why would anyone want to get up and play games? Well clearly people did because Wii Sports is the 3^rd best-selling game ever. Not even five years later Sony released PlayStation Move and Xbox released Kinect. They borrowed the weapons of the master to fight each other. If you look at that generation of consoles the Wii outsold the PS3 and XBOX 360, proving that it was never a struggle for Nintendo because they had created their own niche.

The handheld market has been long dominated by Nintendo, from the original Gameboy to the Switch. Sony has tried and tried to break into the handheld and has been shot down by Nintendo both times.

Wherever you stand on consoles everyone has a game on Nintendo that they love. Whether it is Goldeneye, The Legend of Zelda, or Mario Party. It is a company that has kept us entertained for years and years.

From its humble beginnings as a playing card company to becoming one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, Nintendo has seen it all. It has battled consoles that existed before Sony and Microsoft even thought of joining. It has invented and the reinvented all in the name of good fun. The developers that create the games we play today were inspired to get into the business by playing Nintendo games as kids. They inspired not only the games we play but the people who make them and I think that rises Nintendo over the rank of a soldier in a war of consoles and to the rank of Teacher.

Written by Ryan Ball

Ryan is a 25 year old from Canada. After realizing that the normal life wasn’t for him, he left college and decided to travel the world for a year. While in Japan he was able to geek out to his fullest, experiencing everything Japan had to offer. He’s a real retro gamer, he owns all the Nintendo systems and still manages to squeeze in some Duck Hunt now and again. He’s a huge fan of Assassins Creed, so much so that he’s going to Italy in April and plans on taking a rather large detour to Monteriggioni just so he can say he went to the Assassins Headquarters.