5. Nintendo Power magazine has been my constant companion since March 2006. There’s not a source I trust more for Nintendo news, previews, and reviews. NP has broadened my horizons, letting me in on games that are a perfect match for me, but that I wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. A great example is the rhythm game Samba de Amigo for Wii. At a mere $20, this easily makes my list of the top five best values. The game-play revolves around the idea that Wii remotes can be used much like maracas. I can’t go into detail, but I love this game. It also opened my eyes to the fact that the rhythm genre of video games extends beyond Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Imagine that!
4. Nintendo’s vast history is more accessible now than ever before through Wii. That’s right; number four is all about old-school! Thanks to the Wii system’s Virtual Console, I own games like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 2, Donkey Kong Country (numbers one, two, and three), Star Fox 64, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Metroid. I put Metroid at the end for a reason: this is how the Virtual Console feature has really impacted me as a gamer. The Metroid series is one of the big Nintendo juggernauts. It was only a few months ago that I decided I wanted to be a part of this series. I spent a whopping five bucks on the NES original. Boy was I impressed! I never thought I could enjoy NES classics like I enjoy Metroid.
3. The Super Smash Bros. series highlights another great Nintendo feat: that is, the gargantuan roster of characters and all the fantastic worlds they inhabit. It just so happens that each Super Smash Bros. game thus far has managed what seemed impossible: to bring this enormous number of characters together in a most perfect way. The Nintendo “family” includes such figures as sweet, innocent Kirby, charismatic Captain Falcon, determined Pokemon Trainer, sweet-but-sassy Princess Peach, and slightly dorky Ness, to name a few.
2. Creativity and originality are indispensible traits in video games. (Or at least they should be.) Nintendo titles and systems have them in spades. Take the most basic series in Nintendo history: Super Mario Bros. Let’s see, there is a Mushroom Kingdom, pipes that warp the player to different locations, enemies with names like Goomba, Koopa, and Shy Guy, a plumber as a protagonist, a dinosaur/turtle…thing as a villain, and a kidnapped princess. Do you see where I’m going with this? How do all these wacky elements combine to create the best-known, most widely-played video game series of all time? Who knows? But it’s great, isn’t it? Nintendo has demonstrated again and again the willingness to try new things.
1. From casual to hard core, from age 7 to 77, Nintendo games cater to every player’s needs. Do video games get more casual than Wii Sports? I’ve got friends, who had never touched a video game before, to play Wii Sports back in the day (or back in 2007 anyway). It seems it’s becoming the fashion now-a-days to consider an M-rated, explosion-littered, kill-everything-in-sight game to be “hard core”. Well here’s my idea of a hard core game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. A plot with depth, characters with motives, music with thought, a spot-on control scheme that includes the perfect balance of motion-controls to button presses, and cleverly-designed dungeons…the story is driven by emotionally-charged cut scenes; the characters bring the player to wonder who the true enemies and allies are (*cough*Midna*cough*). It easily takes 30-50 hours to complete this game, depending on the time spent pursuing optional, but extensive side quests. Wii Sports and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are just two examples of the variety offered by Nintendo.
That concludes my list of the top ten reasons to love Nintendo. So join me as I offer my opinions on Nintendo games, embark on the journey of the Metroid series, and ponder on all the joys and hardships that come with being a gamer.
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