If then was now would you...wait, what?

Mucashinto

Bit of a rambling post but something I've been wondering about for a while.

So I'm old and when I was a kid after having a Spectrum 128k I got a NES. Duck hunt/Mario pack. Blissful times.

Now at the time a few friends might have said the Amiga/Atari was better but, as a console at least, the NES was as powerful as it got.

Then the Super Nintendo came out and while I had a Mega Drive, and again some people might have complained about Nintendo's no blood policy etc., when I played my mate's SNES I was always jealous as again it seemed more powerful to be honest. Those colours man.

So that's Nintendo, over nearly 10 years, going head to head on power.

Now Nintendo obviously doesn't compete this way at all anymore, doesn't even try. But there's a bit of a false narrative imo that Nintendo never competed in this way. That it was always about games. Always about Mario. Not true, a Nintendo console, in this part of the world at least, was as cutting edge as it got for a period.

There's a kind of personality with Nintendo fans, especially of a certain age, that they appreciate gameplay over raw specs. I fancy that most posters on this forum reckon that they would still be Nintendo gamers, even if they were born later.

But do you really think that would be case? Excluding the probable likelhood that you'd now get a DS/Switch Lite at 8 years old and build up the affection that way, let's keep it at the way it was then.

So, transplanting then for now - you are 10/11/12 years old. You can buy one console that is going to be with you for 3/4 years. Do you get a Switch? Do you see the value in having the quality 1st party games available over Death Stranding etc.? And if you don't, would you ever build up the affinity with Nintendo that gets you to buy a Switch as a second console etc. when you're older and have more disposable income?

Tl;dr If ciderman was born 20 years later, would he have no interest in Nintendo :eek:

blockfighter

Interesting question. When i was 10 the year was 1995 and the PS1 was the hot new thing. Nintendo wasn't on my radar at all then, only one of my friends had it. The rest had Sega and were graduating to Playstation. And ultimately that's what made the difference then. When i seen my mates going for Playstation i knew that's where i had to be too.
By the same logic, if i was 10 now I'd go most likely to where my friends play. Sports games was the main draw for me so that kinda rules Nintendo out. So I'd probably be an Xbox boy.

CastorTroy

I suppose it depends on what kind of kid I would be if I was that age now. Like I very rarely play online or really use social media so that may be different. Then if I was of the mindset that I'm too old for Nintendo, because no GTA.

But if I was the same as I was as a kid, then there's a good chance I would still like Nintendo.

I also went from Spectrum 128k (Crazy Golf was great)

Fysh

I guess it depends on your entry into games.

First games system that was "mine" was an OG Gameboy. These days I don't know if that would have the same appeal when there are so many games on phone and tablet (quality and merits of F2P aside). Similarly I think the impact of wbat your friends play is more important now because online gaming time is more significant, whereas I remember getting a SNES when my best friend had a mega drive specifically so we could play games on both systems - because multiplayer was local and only needed one system.

Mucashinto

Yeah, times/gaming have changed too much to transplant the situation back I suppose.

Still, funny to think that when the N64 was out a huge amount of the gameplay centred around stoned teenage boys killiing each other violently in GoldenEye. Nintendo promoting toxic masculinity :eek::)

I guess WindWaker really was the big move and the reaction, if mistaken, was warranted. Genuine shock to see the cutesy, cartoonish graphics that Nintendo have essentially stuck with to this day - the rub beiing there's a depth and complexity behind them people didn't expect. I didn't expect to enjoy Super Mario Oddyssey so much anyway.

I wonder if now Nintendo players are basically under 12 and over 30. You drop out for your teenage years but come back when you've grown up But if you've never got in when you're young are they even on your radar?

CiDeRmAn

Mucashinto wrote: »

Tl;dr If ciderman was born 20 years later, would he have no interest in Nintendo :eek:

Well, firstly, thanks for the shout out and me a representative of grey gamers everywhere...
I'm only 48!

I'd say that, I have always been platform agnostic, focusing only on the games and buying the platforms that allow me to play them.
If a game is good enough I'll buy that platform regardless of the rest of the content, which is why I bought a Nuon just to play Tempest 3000!

I too went through the cycles you describe, during the times when I only had one console/computer at a time.
From the Spectrum to the Gameboy, then the Megadrive and then the Snes, 3DO followed with the PlayStation arriving not that long after, then the N64 and the Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GC, PS3, 360, Wii, WiiU, PS4, XB1 and Switch.
That's not counting the repurchases, loops of enthusiasm for a format, and then the buying over the past 20 years of everything I had owned before and everything I missed out on the first time, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Vectrex, Atari Pong, Amiga 32 and so on.

The thing my ongoing gaming journey had thought me is that certain companies are awfully good at certain things, regardless of generation.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have 20 years of exceptional games behind them, and if I had to choose some consoles to take into the hereafter it would be my PS2, a reliable 360, a Megadrive, a Snes and the Switch.

Nintendo most of all seemed to have games at their hearts.
They've taken massive chances with their consoles and have had hits and misses, but have always been interesting and the gaming world has benefited from the content they produced.

Tldr:
I would like to imagine that it wouldn't have mattered what gaming generation I was born into, Nintendo would have always been significant to me.

Mucashinto

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Well, firstly, thanks for the shout out and me a representative of grey gamers everywhere...
I'm only 48!

Ha, sorry this was not my intention - I was lazily trying to hammer home the point and picturing a world where you have no interest in Nintendo was the easiest! A world most would agree would be a far diminished place

And really, I consider myself very lucky to have lived through the gaming generations. You could put a pin in music/film at the end of the last century and I would still be satisfied with the 100 odd years of stuff there to enjoy, but gaming is the one aspect of popular culture where I'm still really keen to follow developments.

I think the new consoles coming out have got me thinking this way - they seem to have an amount of power not seen in consoles for a good while and the gap with Nintendo looks to be getting bigger if anything. Maybe this will trickle down to Nintendo as well, things change quickly, but remembering that I was there when the SNES was sold on having an "Arcade perfect!" exclusive of Street Fighter 2 has me a bit wistful. Part of me would love to see Nintendo compete in this way again tbh.

Although the idea of Miyamoto talking about "teraflops" in the next release presentation is probably not something to be desired

Gonzo

I first got into gaming with an Amiga 600 loved it, however it wasn't long before I really wanted either a megadrive or a SNES. It was a very tough decision, especially as the parents didn't have a whole lot of money back then to buy me a games console.

I was going to go for a megadrive because Sonic looked great but about a week before I decided to buy a console 'Starfox' was released for the SNES. I remember standing in Virgin Mega Store with my cousin and our jaws dropped to the floor looking at those polygon 3D graphics, that was my decision made.

About a month later I got my Super Nintendo Street Fighter 2 bundle with Starfox and Super Mario World. That pretty much changed me forever into a Nintendo fanboy, however once I was in my 20's I had more money to spend on games and consoles and ended up getting a PS1 and N64. The N64 was great but it didn't quite win me over in the same way as the SNES did. At this time Nintendo were at the top of their game with graphics and great games along with cutting edge graphics was the sweet spot for me.

Eventually got the Gamecube and loved it too but by then Nintendo's popularity wasn't the same as the PS2 was way on top at that stage.

I tried to get a wii but couldn't get one as they were sold out everywhere and then for months there was a shortage. I ended up buying an Xbox 360 instead and that was that. I saw very little titles of any interest on the wii and I lost interest in Nintendo, sure there was a few games I'd love to play but there were far too many great games on the xbox and eventually PS3, that I abandoned all interest in ever getting a Wii and then the Wii U. By then most kids and teenagers were into Call of Duty and Xbox live, so I could see why Nintendo was losing ground with much weaker hardware and so many games for 'all gamers' including exercise games, puzzle games and brain games and a severe lack of decent first party games while their 3rd party support almost dried up.

Then the Switch came and initially I thought it was going to be another Wii U with sparse release schedules. A few months after the Switch release I could see the momentum really building on youtube for the Switch and lots of games were being announced. I walked into Smyths and bought the Switch with Mario Oddessy and BOTW and the rest is history, I've over 30 Switch games at this stage and my PS4 is only used to play Sony exclusives while the Switch has seen most of my gameplay playtime over the past 3 years. To me the Switch is now has golden as the SNES was back in the early 1990s despite still having weak hardware compared to the pc/xbox/ps.

In order to stay appealing to a young audience the Switch does need some of the big 3rd party games such as Minecraft and Fortnite. I do feel that next year Nintendo will have to release a Switch Pro that can continue to take on 3rd party conversions of pc and Xbox Series X/PS5 games to stay relevant with the younger market or else Nintendo will get left behind again if the Switch stays the same as it won't be able to continue it's regular influx of decent 3rd party support and that's very important.

itsa_me_mario

Old here. Have had a couple of 8 bit computers, Oric, Amstrad and some random games on tape that would look pathetic right now.

Then a Sega Megadrive and some more games when I had money. None of them ever clicked. Then years later a SNES and finally some games that clicked (SMW and all-stars). Then Gameboy for a short while. Ditto for N64 with the absolute classics of Mario 64 and OOT.

Then a Wii and the Galaxy games stand out. Twilight Princess still to be completed ... yawn. Think the Wii U was a pleasant surprise maybe 'cause the games were finally HD and not PAL limited (hdmi). Kart, Yoshi, 3d world, Mario deluxe, Rayman legends, and then the best game ever ...

BOTW. Which was the first game I'd ever spent many many hours on. Then Switch and Mario Odyssey. I nearly escaped from gaming but BOTW pulled me back in. Then got an Xbox one x to experience RDR2 etc in 4k hdr ...

I think the Switch has become a gateway drug for video gaming. Load of people in work of all ages have one. After the Wii U ! Who would have thought ?

Back to the original question. My kids absolutely love the switch and the teenager's friends all got switches to play smash, kart, botw, animal crossing ... even the cool kids in work have one... So yep, I'd be getting Nintendo today too

CiDeRmAn

Nice thing about hitting this and the past 20 years of gaming generations is working over that time, having the money not to have to choose what console to buy and simply buying them all.
I've been working for 30 years but only really had the income in the past 20 to not have to worry about getting just one.
The Switch has been remarkable, even if no one aside from Nintendo had released anything, BotW and Odyssey made the format worth buying.
I can't wait to see what's in store over the next 24 months.

Gonzo

The Switch has been remarkable alright and it has introduced several games which I never would have considered ever playing which have turned out to be just fantastic.

These games include:

Dragon Quest Builders 1 and 2 (originally I dismissed this as a Minecraft clone)
Dragon Quest Xi S (amazing game and series that gives Final Fantasy's best games a run for their money)
Octopath Traveller
Animal Crossing (I bought it out of interest to see was the hype worth and it and it really is!)
The Touryst (beautiful game if a little short)
United Goose Game (very fun and addictive and far too short)
Mario Maker 2 (very addictive and fun)

Really looking forward to Mario 3D All stars as I only half finished Mario Sunshine back in the day and have never played the Mario Galaxy series (hopefully they will add Mario Galaxy 2 at some point!)

Really looking forward to Immortal Fenyx Rising and Hyrule Warriors:Age of Calamity. The Switch continues to bring us golden gems.

CiDeRmAn

No matter the format you consider your primary console, be it PS/Xbox/PC, Nintendo is always a good second purchase.
Maybe you love racing sims, RTS, walking simulators etc, but having a Nintendo console, regardless of generation, just for the AAA content is always a good idea if you consider yourself a fan of great games.

Greyfox

I was a snes child but if i was young now I still would of as if a game gets loads of hype I'll play it at some point so I would of never let BOTW pass me by.

I'm glad Nintendo do their own thing rather than compete directly with Sony and Microsoft but this road does run the risk of a few gamers overlooking Nintendo

Retr0gamer

Was a C64 kid but wanted a NES. Then was a Megadrive kid and Megadrive fanboy, even though I owned and loved a gameboy. Still I always kind of recognised in my heart that the SNES was a much better system and coveted the games on it. By the time the 32-bit generation came it was confusing. As a Sega fanboy I wanted a Saturn but then the Playstation just turned out to be so much better and while the N64 had Mario 64, it was late to the party and the PS1 was just so exciting. I ended up with a PC! Then a PS1 much later.

Then I grew up a bit and had a bit of money and I could own any console I wanted, and by that point I started to own every console that was worth owning.

Honestly if the games are good them I won't dismiss them. For a short while I though nintendo sucked because of no gore in Mortal Kombat but then a few months later I realised that was a stupid way to look at it and Mortal Kombat is a terrible game anyway.

What really annoys me though are people just straight up dismissing nintendo games because they are colourful, or not dark and mature. Which Ironically is a very immature outlook.

Mucashinto

I suppose another way to look at it is Nintendo are the last man standing. Still at the forefront (in their own way) after almost 40 years while all the other names of that time mentioned here are long gone/only carry on in a very diminished form. Very impressive.

My hot take (usually guaranteed to be 100% wrong :rolleyes:) is Sony will go the way of Sega ultimately, perhaps starting with the PS5. Google/Amazon/GiantTechCorp will figure out how to get in to the space properly at some stage surely and Sony won't be able to adapt. Ol Ninty will still be there though, doing what no one else can

CiDeRmAn

I don't know.
Sony have been making a lot of money from their Playstation brand and it also, I imagine, gives the kind of brand recognition which boosts sales of their other products.

I could have seen Nintendo and MS linking up, somehow, after the 360 generation, but with the kinds of investment MS are making right now that seems unlikely, although there is no other way that MS are going to crack the Asian market unless that team up with Nintendo to make a current gen console.

Streaming is going to be the way forward for most, I imagine, in five years time, and as a user of Stadia I can tell it that it works very well, no installs and will deliver Xbox Series X/ PS5 quality visuals and gaming with none of the expensive overheads, though I can't be without my home consoles!

Nollog

Similar memories as you, loved my nes, loved my mega drive, cousin's had the SNES the games we played on it were amazing.
My brother had the psx and let me play it and bought a few games for it, while the same cousin's had the n64. I only remember golden eye and lylatt wars from that whole generation...
Growing up the first console I bought with my own money was the PS2, for the dvd player and backward compatibility.

I'd be buying an Xbox X or S if I was 10/12 now
Nintendo games are expensive so the subscription service Xbox are peddling would make the little money I'd have work more for me.
I was always thrifty. Even right now the value on buying nintendo games has gone down for me just because of NSO, it's just in the back of my mind I'm paying for a rediculously bad service, even if it's only 3 euro a year, it deminishes the value to me. I'm not buying a console again.

Sen7877

I would still get a switch if I was ten now as the memories I have of playing my DS with friends just wouldnt exist if I didnt have it or had just an xbox or playstation since they dont have the same portability as the switch does and the ds did, even though the psp existed, I knew only two people who had it, and even then, they had no multiplayer games

CiDeRmAn

Sen7877 wrote: »

I would still get a switch if I was ten now as the memories I have of playing my DS with friends just wouldnt exist if I didnt have it or had just an xbox or playstation since they dont have the same portability as the switch does and the ds did, even though the psp existed, I knew only two people who had it, and even then, they had no multiplayer games

Ah, the PSP.
Multiplayer was not it's strongest suit but...
It had some fantastic games,
I'm not going to do the list thing but that device was worth it for the launch stuff alone.
In Ridge Racers and Lumines it had a pair of classics, worth playing to this day, as well as a ton of others