The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a shoo-in for my Game of the Year. I just can’t stop playing the open world sequel even after finishing an 80 hour playthrough for my review. There is so much I missed, from game-changing abilities to cute little discoveries waiting off the beaten path. Nintendo has done it again, altering the world of video games with ideas that will blaze yet another trail others will follow.

It has become a master of setting these new benchmarks. Super Mario Odyssey cemented the iconic plumber as the King of Platformers once again, while other franchises like Metroid Prime, Fire Emblem, and Super Smash Bros. hold a warm place in the hearts of millions. We can struggle to fault Nintendo’s repertoire, with misses often viewed as exceptions instead of signs of things to come. Fumbles aren’t common, and thus it has become near untouchable.

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Most of us also grew up with Nintendo, likely forming a nostalgic connection with games that have long been crowned as our personal favourites. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was an experience that shaped my view on open world fantasy, and Super Mario 64 changed my life like it did for millions of others. These titles have earned their place in history, and remain loved to this day for so many worthwhile reasons. We replay them and beg for remasters all while delving into their worlds time and time again because they mean that much to us. It’s a shame then that the company behind them often kicks its own sweet darlings to the curb.

Tears of the Kingdsom

We make excuses for the company, and always will. The games it makes are much too good, and we’d rather bargain with an otherwise damning level of mediocrity in its other practices if it means playing a game like Tears of the Kingdom or having a console like the Switch. Everything is a balancing act for Nintendo, even if the scales are supported by several masterpieces and a mountain of tedious bullshit. Friend codes are only the beginning of this pile of ludicrous nonsense.

Nintendo has always danced to the beat of its own drum, but that rhythm is several years behind the latest trends and often willingly ignores important industry changes. As the rest of the world moved forward into the world of online it followed almost out of spite, deciding to implement backward security features or social implementation that felt like a direct inconvenience for players. MiiVerse and Street Pass were undeniably cool ideas, but even this innovation was buried beneath awakward tedium because Nintendo had to be different. Where past generations still showed a care for its own legacy, Nintendo has now decided to ignore it. Whether it be through the Virtual Console or impressive ports of classics that would have forever been lost to time, Nintendo used to save its old greats. That isn’t always the case anymore.

Via MarioWiki.com, de.wikipedia.org

The Switch has been available for more than six years now and is woefully archaic in not only its hardware, but also the user interface, online storefront, and a subscription service designed to hold classics hostage in exchange for monthly payments. On previous consoles, Nintendo seemed to understand the importance of releasing its catalogue of classics to the public even when playing them required a second purchase, because these games are a part of history and inaccessible without illegal emulation or digging out difficult to find physical copies. Now that isn’t possible, the very same releases held hostage by the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass as a single digit number of titles are released every few months with minimal fanfare. Many games are not available on the hardware at all. We’re meant to celebrate this, falsely believing Nintendo is performing an act of charity instead of preventing an entire generation of new players from experiencing an important part of gaming history. It sucks, but we’ve all come to normalise it.

Let’s not forget the extensive list of Wii U ports to Nintendo Switch with minimal additions yet still justify a premium price tag. I’m sat waiting for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD safe in the knowledge that I’ll be asked to pay through the nose for them. And I will, because I’m a fool and know unless I get hard into emulating on my Steam Deck or dig out dusty hardware that moving forward this will be the only convenient way to access them. Nintendo is keenly aware of this too, hence why it will probably release them as separate $60 games instead of a twin pack they’d be much better suited for. All this and they won’t be up to scratch anyway.

the super smash bros melee roster

Nintendo is also historically litigious when it comes to taking down fan projects or punishing those who dare try and preserve video game history when the company itself is clearly not bothered. This isn’t about teaching us a lesson or protecting the rights and values this industry holds dear, it’s about money. Nothing more and nothing less. Nintendo must keep its intellectual property unsullied by pesky outside forces because in the future it can repackage them before selling things right back to us at inflated prices. History and nostalgia has value, a bending of commercial will in which Nintendo has few rivals. It can and will continue to get away with this, forgiveness becoming an easy emotion to express when the outwardly bright and wholesome aesthetic does all the talking.

We owe it to ourselves to dig deeper, or at least recognise how the company operates away from critically acclaimed masterpieces and beloved classics we bring close to our chests in fits of warm nostalgia. Nintendo messes up all the time, and makes it abundantly clear that it doesn’t care, because, no matter what, it’s bound to come out on top.

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