What Nintendo Needs to Do
Written by: KingHyrule64

Nintendo was created in 1889 as a hanafuda card manufacturer. After that failed in 1956, they tried other ventures including a noodle company, a love hotel, and many others. But, unfortunately, none of it worked.

As a desperate measure, Nintendo bought the rights to the Magnavox Odyssey in 1974 and they began distributing their system, the Color TV Game. But after that, and a few other games (that Shigeru Miyamoto worked on), Nintendo almost failed again.

Then, a brilliant idea came up.

Donkey Kong was a huge success, boosting the company much higher and letting them buy out smaller things like the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. This all led up to Nintendo’s home system, the Famicom (or in America, the Nintendo Entertainment System). This NES shot Nintendo into being here today still.

But the success didn't just come from the systems. In fact, the systems could have been made and the company still could have failed. So, what did make Nintendo so big? The games that were on those systems. Mario and Donkey Kong and Zelda were what made Nintendo huge.

Unfortunately, it seems like Nintendo forgot that. Instead they are trying to make gimmicks to stay alive (though their Net income in 2008 was 2.3 Billion) and are making things that no one buys. Yes, yes, Nintendo is making gaming more “family-oriented” but they’ve done it to a point where they forgot about the people that don’t WANT to lose weight or don’t WANT to be a hairdresser. They seem to have forgotten about those people that have been playing Nintendo games since NES.

Now, you might say, WAIT! What about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess? What about Super Mario Galaxy? What about Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Yes, they were good games but they were made so that people would buy the Wii.

The Twilight Princess came out at the same time the Wii did. Nintendo knew that if they did this, it would make sure that all those die-hard fans bought a Wii. Super Mario Galaxy was the same way. Super smash Bros. Brawl was a game to make sure that people STUCK with Nintendo. They were good games but they were just ways to make sure their business didn’t fail.

Miyamoto stated, “Games should be what we would want to play.” Sure they are a few out there that would like to play Pet Doctor or Clothing Designer. But what about the rest of us? The ones that cry when Zelda and Link had to split up in LOZ and the people that stayed up for days or weeks at a time trying to beat the first Mario game. These people seem to be sitting and doing nothing...

So, you may ask, then what does Nintendo need to do? Well, here’s what they REALLY need to do. They need to sit down together and look over sales. They will notice that sales skyrocket when a Zelda or Mario game comes out but games have also been higher since they made the family-friendly idea.

So, they need to make more games that are of Zelda, Mario and Metroid. They also need to make about the same amount of family-friendly stuff. But that’s not all!

Another problem of Nintendo is that they find a good series that sells millions and they make sequel after sequel after sequel… They need to branch off! Find new series! Find new ideas! And make sure those new series aren’t gimmicky or cost a ton extra because it comes with a BALANCE BOARD!!!

So, Nintendo, what you need to do is clean up the clutter. Get rid of games that aren’t that great. Bring back your REAL Seal of Approval. Don’t just let every single game in. Make new series and make new games in the old series. Keep the families satisfied. MAKE GAMES THAT ARE WHAT WE WANT TO PLAY!

If Nintendo only did that, they would destroy the competition and be the shining star in the game industry that they used to be.