From the forum question for issue 31

[roberthazelby]

An easy one for you this month...
What makes Nintendo games so special?

It's the fact that you never have to read the instruction manual when playing a Nintendo game, as everything is gently explained as you progress through the title.

Sure, the instruction booklet is there should you need it, but Nintendo seem to have mastered the way of getting the player up to speed with the controls and the method of play whilst you're actually playing the game.

It's a trait that other software companies have only recently started to follow.

[The Last Ginja]

I don't think they are special, they rehash everything, and flog every franchise they have to near death.

Having said that I've owned every console they've made since the original Gameboy so they must be doing something right......

[woody.cool]

An easy one for you this month...
What makes Nintendo games so special?

... a fat tached plumber

[dr_bob]

As far as I know, Nintendo had a pretty much iron grip over the games released for their consoles.From the days of the NES onwards( thanks to their lock out chip systems) ,if you wanted to make games for them , you basically had to program the game, give Nintendo the code , they'd review it and if it was deemed "acceptable" you'd be allowed the "honour" of them producing the cart and of course sharing the profits with you.Also in most cases you could only make games for them and not the competition .This system was to make Nintendo money,and gave them power over software companies but also had the nice side effect that for the most part only decent playable games got their "seal of quality"(as that was what they figured would sell).So basically the NES/SNES had comparibly less games produced than other systems but fewer "stinkers"*

Compare that to the Atari VCS which had mounds of rubbish games released for it , because the world and his mother could manafacture VCS compatible carts , or the home computers which had thousands of releases but no quality control.

Also Shigeru Miyamoto, nuff said.

Nowadays I think they've realised that its pointless to compete with graphics alone , and that theres only so many "bling bling in da hood" racers /FIFA games/and generic WWII fps's you can sell, and they seem to be going back to what makes people play games in the first place , which is that they should be fun




_______________________________
*Ironically , one of my favourite NES games is Tengen Tetris , which was one of the few non-nintendo made cartridges in the west ,or at least it was before it was withdrawn from shelves, but theres a whole other story in that.

[Opa-Opa]

Family fun, Nintendo games are great to sit and play through together...

[rainbird rich]

An easy one for you this month...
What makes Nintendo games so special?

I'm not sure they are 'special' in regards to their games. After all, each time they launch a system they reinvent the same games over and over again, cue Super Mario, Mario Kart, etc. on the SNES, N64, GC... About the only game I played regularly on any of the Gameboys I owned was 'Tetris'!

However, their attitude to the hardware side of things is 'different' rather than 'special'. They don't have the huge resources behind them that Sony and Microsoft have, and so every yen counts. The fact that they made a profit from day one on the Game Cube hardware illustrates this difference perfectly.

[CrookedMouth]

I think that putting "Super" or "Mario" at the begginning of every title makes them special.

[Cornelius]

They put more effort into their games than anybody else, they have a taste for perfection, they raise the bar time and time again which proves they really know what they're doing and I'm absolutely certain that the game industry would fall apart completely without them.

[Szczepaniak]

If we're talking retro... Then, the mandatory censoring of violent games, the enforced regional lockouts which made importing impossible (pioneered with the NES), and the painfully strict licensing contracts they forced developers to live by.

Hold on, I think I've misunderstood the question somwhere.

[felgekarp]

Imagination and lots of it.

[Robbo]

I don't think they've made games that are any more special than other platforms and their games. Naturally each platform has games that are special, but no one platform is really that much better than the other and each has it's ups and downs. It's purely down to what kind of genre of game the individual consumer prefers.

[Elgin_McQueen]

Nintendo never seem focused on the money part of the business, they actually make games for proper reasons, so we can all have FUN!!!!

[dr_bob]

Nintendo never seem focused on the money part of the business, they actually make games for proper reasons, so we can all have FUN!!!!

!!
I think they totally focus on the money... the fun is just a happy side effect!
If you ever get a chance , have a gander at this (apols for the long linky)
"Game Over : Nintendo's battle to dominate videogames."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Over-Arcad ... 45?ie=UTF8
As its quite a good read.

[Sega2006]

Sony are the one's that realy focus on Money. Being that the GC and the Wii supposivley cost less than the compition and The Sony Machines have always cost the most even in the days of the Ill-fated Saturn.

[Dudley]

Er?

The Saturn was £399.

The PSX was £299.

Now unless my maths A-Level has failed me...

If we're talking retro... Then, the mandatory censoring of violent games, the enforced regional lockouts which made importing impossible (pioneered with the NES), and the painfully strict licensing contracts they forced developers to live by.

Hold on, I think I've misunderstood the question somwhere.

Yeah, it's astonishing how some people see Nintendo as the "Good guys". These were the people who were fined £100 MILLION for illegal price fixing in the UK during the early 90s.