The Great Nintendo Drought of '15

By Brandon Sultana

October 24th, 2015

 

It’s not a particularly great time to be a Nintendo fan. You might have noticed that neither me nor Harry have been writing much in the way of opinions recently, and with this being a primarily Nintendo themed site (with Corey doing his Indie shenanigans on the side), you can see why it’s been pretty barren. News has been slow, and while the games have been coming out with high frequency, alot of them aren’t of the highest quality. It’s honestly really frustrating, and while I have no shortage of games to play thanks to a backlog, the slow news has made my hype slowly diminish.

 

News

A big part of why the hype is dying for a lot of us is a lack of news. Outside of random announcements through social media, the last concentrated dose of Nintendo news we got was back at E3, and I’m sure you all know how many fans felt about Nintendo’s showing there. I’m sure a lot of this drought comes down to the loss of Satoru Iwata, and while that was understandable at the time, it’s been over 3 months since his passing. I think it’s time for the company to move on and give us some new information. Moving on is tough, but the worst possible way to do so is to dwell on it. I’ve heard rumblings that NoA doesn’t want to do a direct for fear of offending people, but that is utter nonsense. The community is really starved right now, as shown by the fact that the replies to literally anything Nintendo tweets out are along the lines of “GIVE US A DIRECT!”. Games like Tri-Force Heroes, which was just revealed at E3 have been released with barely any marketing and information because of this lack of communication with the fans. Even if the direct ends up being underwhelming, at least we’d know what they are up to right now. Nintendo don’t stand to gain much from frustrating their fans at such a crucial time period.

 

Games

Another big reason for this lack general hype for me is the glut of less than stellar games released recently, and on the horizon (that we know of). Super Mario Maker and Yoshi’s Woolly World are both phenomenal (I have GREAT things to say about the later when I end up reviewing it), and while I haven’t played it, I’ve heard good things about Tri-Force Heroes. But those releases have been bogged down by plenty of recent releases that don’t quite meet the high standards Nintendo usually sets for their games. Happy Home Designer took away everything great about its core series, and Chibi Robo Zip Lash was a slap in the face to fans of that series. And the horizon doesn’t look much better. Mario Tennis, plain and simple, looks like rushed garbage, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival looks like poor-man’s Mario Party (and Mario Party hasn’t even been good in a while) that was probably just made to sell amiibo, Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam just looks like more of the same from a franchise that is starting to get worn out, and we’ve all seen the immensely negative reaction to Metroid Prime: Federation Force. It’s also really hard to get hyped for games that have been out in other territories for a while, like Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, and Rhythm Heaven (Yoshi suffered from this BIG TIME). The two pillars that were supposed to make this November amazing, Star Fox and Zelda, are pushed back, and we haven’t seen enough of either (especially Zelda) for me to start getting really excited. It’s kind of sad when the thing I’m most looking forward to this holiday season are the Falco and Mewtwo amiibo (Super Mystery Dungeon is definitely intriguing though, but the lack of quality from the previous edition in the franchise has me wary). While there are great games on the horizon that I mentioned, not hearing about them for a while makes your excitement drop. Making the game good is one thing, maintaining interest is another thing entirely, and Nintendo are failing horribly in the second department lately.

 

Future

The future is not doom and gloom though. It’s actually quite the opposite. There are so many things that we have strong possibilities of happening that can turn this around. Smash DLC, Pikmin 4, Twilight Princess HD, localizing the 3DS Rhythm Heaven game, the successor to Club Nintendo, Pokemon Go, and other things Nintendo probably has sealed away. But Nintendo seriously needs to stop keeping their fans in the dark. The community is getting frustrated and things will only get worse unless Nintendo injects us with some sweet Nintendo Direct goodness. Honestly, Holiday 2015 will probably be an unsalvageable bust, but 2016 holds great promise and I can’t wait until we get the info we crave.