10 Comments
Jan 5Liked by Stephen Totilo

One time, I stood behind Stephen while he interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto for MTV. That's almost like interviewing him.

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A remarkable slice of gaming history and some prescient perspective from one of the industry's greats. Thanks for persevering and finding that working micro cassette player!

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Makes you wonder what is Nintendo going to do to follow up the Switch? Almost all logic would suggest, just make basically the same console with more power, but Nintendo never does that.

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it really is a curious thing , but with a change in leadership that thinking iwata and others had could also change too , the switch was being worked on while he was still alive , thats sadly no longer the case.

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Fascinating read. So fun to think about all the ways the industry has changed, and what's stayed the same. Thanks for sharing from your archives!

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We bought a used wii a couple years ago and had a blast just playing the OG sports games. It struck me how incredibly innovative the system was. At this point, decades behind present day gaming, but for me at least, more enjoyable. Fascinating company, thank you for the fun story!

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I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I'm sad that we don't get separate portable games and console games from Nintendo anymore (and probably never will). I have several 3DS's because I love them so much. I LOVE the 3D effect on the New 3DS. Am I the only person that thinks the Switch getting some influence from the DS could be cool?! It feels a bit to me like Nintendo is starting to conform to standard hardware these days. Ya the Switch can be a console or handheld. But does that influence gameplay at all? I don't think so. I forget the Switch even has a touch screen until I have to type something. So in essence we are just getting games with inferior graphics and no actual gameplay related innovation. I am also tired of the fact that every game looks the same to me. Almost all Nintendo titles are cel shaded and look graphically identical : pokemon, zelda, monster hunter Rise (🤮), Animal Crossing.

That was a great read, thank you Stephen.

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author

Thanks for the comment!

I agree that we've seen less Nintendo game innovation that's tied to hardware in the last few years. But the early Switch era did give us Ring Fit Adventure and Labo, which are two of the wilder things Nintendo has done. I hope we'll see a run of experimentation like that from Nintendo again.

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Great article! As a GenX gamer, I agree with him that many gamers like me feel alienated, especially today in the PS5 & Xbox world. I personally don't want everything on a Cloud subscription. However, I never bought a Nintendo when I was younger because the games were always kid's games in my eyes. I liked Sega games on the Megadrive like Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Golden Axe etc. I also definitely don't think Dual Screen devices are great. They are clunky and also add weight.

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really interesting read , it also sorta helps make alot of sense behind some of nintendos choices with hardware power the last few gens , not thats its a new concept of course but reading it this way is just interesting.

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