What got you into Nintendo gaming, what are your best/worst Nintendo moments, memories, and favorite, least favorite games?
I am genuinely curios because lately it seems like most Nintendo fans are just fans of the company and have either forgotten what they used to like or what got them into Nintendo in the first place. I am guilty of this, the Wii had so much potential and then I lost interest because it wasn't more like the Game Cube and then Wii U has me kind of not caring at all. I should be hyped I stood in line in the cold winter to get a Wii, I got a paper route and saved all my money to get an N64 and I sold my drum set that I had been dreaming of starting a rock band to get an SNES so once upon a time I would bend over backwards to buy the latest Nintendo console.
I will share mine first and others feel free to chime in or ignore it if you want. What got me into Nintendo gaming was Donkey Kong. I played it in the arcade, and on the VCS. I also loved Popeye and Mario Bros, similar gameplay. I got an NES one special Christmas and was hooked, I loved every minute of it, the dark times, the endless glitches and blinking aside I couldn't wait to get home from school to play some more Super Mario, Duck Tales, or Mega Man. I rented more games than I owned back then. I got a Sega Genesis for my 12th birthday and like most people it just made me hungry for more Nintendo. I kept it for a while but once I got into Super Mario World, Mario RPG, DKC, that was it, Sonic was dead to me.
I got an N64 day one, loved it played it to death, got all the big titles, Turok, Mario 64, Smash Bros, Mario Party, Banjo, MK4, MKT, DK64, Kirby, and many others. I traded in my aging Genesis and a used Saturn I grew tired of never finding affordable games for and picked up a Game Cube with the Zelda Collector's disk bundled in and took it home plugged it in and instantly reminded how awesome Nintendo was. I loved the Game Cube, it has the first and only decent 3D Sonic game released, it had a pretty good Pac-Man world with a Vs. bonus disk, it had a unique and interesting Final Fantasy that didn't rely on emo tranny saving the world with big sword. I stood in line to get a Wii because the idea of motion controls sounded super exciting, Wii Sports was pretty good, there was Wii Play which held my interest for about a week and then motion controls became unappealing. I tried to love the Wii but somehow I lost interest. Looking back even the few Wii games I might be interested in is not enough to sell me on Wii U, as tempting as Mario 3D world and DKC TP are, I just sort of lost interest.
At first I thought I lost interest in gaming entirely until I picked up a PS3 early last year and remembered what I was missing out on. I also had a PS1 and a PS2 during their heyday so I was covered but when Wii came out I just couldn't afford the behemoth PS3 so I went all in and I think that was what soured me to Nintendo, it was the first console they made that I really felt lacked all the games I wanted. Wii U is even more lacking and as hard as I try I can't get excited for it, I should Mario 3D World and DKC look amazing, but thats not enough. But why is that when Mario 64 was enough to shell out $250+ of my hard earned paper route money? That is why I think the Wii U biggest problem is price, for the first time ever Nintendo priced their console out of the target market that usually buys their machines.
Right now even a used Wii U costs more than every single previous Nintendo console did at launch and that is including the useless Basic models that are also way over priced. It isn't just the Wii U, I struggled to pay $129 for a DS but the 3DS is too far out of my reach to care and even the cheaper 2DS as appealing as that is, is still too much for a hand held, especially ones that traditionally launch at that price and go down quickly. I would grab a 3DS in a heartbeat at $129 or lower but I can't find anything even used at that price. I won't get a Wii U until it gets down to below $250 where it should have launched and by then it needs some games too. Look at Playstation, their first was $300, their second also same price, their third double that, which one had trouble selling, and it wasn't all due to games PS3 had the games all along. PS4 is only $100 dollars more expensive and with bundles it's priced right where it should be, that is why I think Nintendo needs to drop the price ASAP. I especially think a $50 price drop days before Mario Kart 8 would be a miracle for Nintendo and might save their asses.
As far as hand helds go, this is console discussion but I will throw this out there, had a Game Boy Pocket and then a GBA, and then a DS all within a year or two of release. I would have gotten a regular game boy sooner but I was young and no money then and my parents gave me Tigers and said that was good enough.
Anyways my best Nintendo moment ever was playing Super Mario 64 for the first time, magical never forget that moment. I still go back and replay that game and as old as it is and as lame as this sounds just that game in full HD with proper graphics upgrades I would buy Wii U tomorrow.
My worst Nintendo moment was playing Wario World, probably the worst game they ever had anything to do with. I liked the Wii at first and I think if I got another one I might give it a second chance but I am torn, get a cheap Wii for next to nothing or get a Wii U and play Wii games on it?
So what are your memories and if you aren't sold yet on Wii u, or even 3DS what are your reasons and what would be the tipping point for you? Me dropping the price would get me closer, but honestly it needs more games, Hyrule Warriors has my interest and Mario Kart 8 could be a good game but other than that I think all I am interested in is Mario 3D World, DKC TP, and maybe New Super Mario/Luigi U but even that is not much. I thought I was interested in that Sonic game but I lost interest after watching videos of it on Youtube, even still that is just barely one more game.
Of course all this would be settled if the virtual console was worth a damn because that held me over on Wii for a while but even that is not enough I have Steam and PSN for indie games already.