Taking Chances
For a while it seemed like Nintendo wasn’t trying to break the mold too much. Sure they innovated once again by included a tablet as a controller with tons of neat features, but they were still safe in terms of games. You got several Mario games, Donkey Kong, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., and more that you knew would continue to exist. While none of these games were bad by any means (except maybe Mario Party), safe doesn’t sell systems. They needed something new, something that only they could do, as well as something unexpected.
Splatoon was a brand new IP that came out of nowhere. It was Nintendo’s way of jumping into the competitive shooter scene without giving up on their values, and you know what? It worked exceedingly well. The traversal, unique weapons, frantic combat, and easy to love characters became something much more than anyone anticipated. Nintendo followed up that hit with Super Mario Maker. Creating is nothing new to games, but what about building a simple level creator that just uses Super Mario assets? Turns out that Nintendo was sitting on another gold mine, and this simple title blew up. Two games nobody would expect to be amazing, but they absolutely were.
Then you had the third party side of things. Devil’s Third and Xenoblade Chronicles X, while not both a hit, showed Nintendo’s willingness to provide variety on their platform. Nobody would expect a hyper violent game like Devil’s Third on one of the Big N’s machines. And Xenoblade was a game that pushed the Wii U to its absolute limits, showing that it can hang with the big kids.
Nintendo’s shift away from the comfort zone is a big deal. To those who see consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One offer all of these types of experiences already, it may not seem like a big deal. But for fans who have watched Nintendo’s rigidity over the years, this is the foreshadowing of a great awakening.
