Topic: What Made You Become A Nintendo Fan?

Of course, many people of all ages play Nintendo games, but what convinced you to go even further and start following news, updates and releases?
I feel like 'What was the first Direct you watched?' would also be a suitable name for this thread as I feel like that screams "I'm a fan" more than most things haha XD

I had been a Nintendo dabbler for much of my life particularly with the Wii but moving into the 2nd year of the Switch's life was when I became completely immersed into the fanbase. I think Super Mario Odyssey was the catalyst for this, it was unlike anything I had ever played before. The way I talk about Odyssey is akin to the way people who grew up playing SM64 talk about that game. Breath of the Wild gave me similar feelings of course.
The announcement of a Smash Bros. game early in 2018 also helped, not only because it would be the first one I would get to properly play but also because I viewed as the perfect opportunity to familiarise myself some of Nintendo's more obscure characters and franchises.

Grew up with the SNES (my first console, maybe age 7-8?) and fell in love with the 1st party IPs.

Had an N64, and adored OoT / Starfox 64 / Mario 64 etc... plus great 3rd party offerings from Rare.

Dropped off then and moved to PS, but got a Switch during the pandemic and was amazed by the likes of BOTW etc. I think the overall quality of their legacy IPs, alongside commitment to pushing
boundaries, keeps me a fan.

I personally still called myself as PlayStation gamer since my gaming experience built from 3rd party PS1 & PS2 games during my teenhood in 2000's era.
I got reintroduced by Nintendo games from Wii and NDS.
Since I didn't grow up by 1st party Nintendo games during 2000's era, I don't have that much hype level with Nintendo 1st party games than the 3rd party games.
I still have interest with certain Nintendo 1st party games but not that much.
The only 1st party Nintendo games I have the highest hype level are Animal Crossing New Horizons as the game felt more like The Sims style and I grew up by The Sims games on PC and PS2 back then so I got more engaged with ACNH.
ARMS, Mii games and 1-2-Switch games are also my favorite 1st party Nintendo games.
What made me become Nintendo fan?
Because there are a lot of cute, kiddie and unique games from Nintendo.
Their games diversity are really good and mostly appealing for younger audience so it gives me a lot of games choice to play from Nintendo machines.
The only Nintendo machines that I have the most games quantity are Wii, 3DS and Switch (More than 60 games).

I would say LTTP. I had an NES growing up but I didn’t enjoy the games overly much and while I liked the genesis, few games appealed to me. I was well on my way to outgrowing gaming as a hobby. I got a SNES with LTTP for my 9th birthday. Hated it (the game. I asked for the system).

Ended up in a coma and extended hospital stay a few months later. When I got home I couldn’t go to school and was temporarily blind. When that cleared up but I still couldn’t go to school I needed something other than homework and books as I spiraled into depression. So I picked LTTP back up. It was so frustrating but I had nothing else to do. I was too injured to go outside and at the time it would have been too dangerous anyway. So I kept playing. And eventually something clicked. I was determined to beat this frustrating game. I had been given other games but my focus was on Zelda. My heath improved and I found out that children are the cesspool of humanity, so my world narrowed to books, Zelda and homework. These things made me feel safe and happy. These things gave me control over my life again.

Took 3 years and over 900 deaths but I beat it. My mom baked me a cake. I was officially a game enthusiast at that point. The next summer I started teaching myself Japanese by playing Dragon Quest games. And then I got an N64…and Mario 64 and Lol and I am still here, still a grateful Nintendo fan. Since I love to read, getting gaming magazines and dreaming over games I didn’t have was fun.

Had my childhood been normal I doubt I would be much of a gamer today. The genre I loved (fighting games) were inaccessible (arcade near me sucked and I wasn’t allowed to go much anyway) and most other games I played at the time didn’t make me feel much beyond a few favorites. But had I not had that SNES to pull me through I am 200 percent certain I wouldn’t have made it to my teen years let alone my late 30’s as is. What’s funny is so much of my non gaming life was influenced by gaming. So I have no idea what type of person I would have turned out to be otherwise lol.

My family doesn't have a huge gaming history, they were more Sega fans if anything. But my Aunt had a GBC and GameCube, and was really into Pokémon, Pikmin and Animal Crossing.

When I was younger those were the kinds of games I was exposed to. And eventually I had an old secondhand GameCube and a DS. I personally enjoyed a lot of Nintendo series, and my parents were really strict around age ratings so it worked for them.

As I got older I just stuck with it. This was around the time of the PS3/360 era, and for some reason a lot of games were brown or gray? And that was cool...somehow?
After that it was all about multiplayer, which I didn't have an interest in. So I never had a reason to switch platform.

As a teenager I started to branch out towards Playstation, but so many of the series I was interested in came to Switch. So it's worked out for me
At the end of the day, it's usually about exclusives. And I'll always want a 3D Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing etc. The only series I've started to drop off from is Pokémon, but I still have 3 or so of the Switch entries - hardly abandoned it....yet.

I grew up with Master System, Mega drive, Gameboy and a game and watch. So whilst sega were my main systems, I always really loved the Mario games too. I clearly remember playing On a friends SNES and another friends N64 years later. I think I just loved games growing up!

Now, I still love the Mario games (the 2D and 3D platformers), and have a Switch which is a fantastic console. Switch is something my son and I play games on together, so hopefully we are making the kind of happy memories for him that I have of gaming as a kid

I grew up with Nintendo so there's obvious bias at first but in the last five years especially they've earned my respect and admiration in spades when compared to other gaming studios. They've kept a relatively clean ethics record, they've optimised their software development to perfection with the Switch generation and have kept costs and time expenses low in the process, meaning they're able to not only make more games but also take more creative risks.

The fact they're accepted to be winning the console race with basically an Android tablet from 2015 is pretty shocking but it's not their fault their rivals are so incompetent.

Their games are not only creative, inventive and fun but they are also inspiring how well executed their ideas tend to be. They have never been the best looking games, but they have more often than not been the best designed and crafted.

For me, I almost always have been playing Nintendo games. I feel like I started caring more/watching Directs during the Super Smash Bros Ultimate hype, especially around the earlier DLCs. One of the earliest Directs I remember watching was the one with the Super Mario Maker 2 reveal. I feel like that got me truly excited for Nintendo games (SSBU DLC was exciting but I was often let down since I didn't know most of the characters).Super Mario Maker 2 looked very promising as the original was great and it looked like I could get even more creative with it! The post-launch updates helped add more to the experience, and I was very hyped to see more coming to the game! Super Mario Maker 2 remains a very special game for me to this day, it's a game that's always fun to go back to!

Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a very strong game that made me more interested in Nintendo as well. That reveal trailer was AWESOME and Kirby looked so good in 3D! I wasn't particularly a huge Kirby fan (I really liked Kirby Air Ride and stuff but not too much Kirby experience) at the time, but the reveal trailer got me very interested. It was one of my first games I got day-1, and now it's one of my favorite games of all time!

Anyways thank you if you read all of that, I guess that's why I'm such a big Nintendo fan!

I’ve pretty much been a Nintendo fan for pretty much forever and I exclusively played their consoles for a while. I did sort of drop off the Switch when I got an Xbox for Christmas, but I am getting back into using it, and it makes me happy. I did get more into Nintendo though with the Switch, and the Directs are so hype, especially when watching them live with others. I have so many good memories with Nintendo consoles, especially the Switch and the 3DS. Pouring in a ton of hours into Animal Crossing: New Leaf, going against skilled players in ranked mode in Splatoon 2 and playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with my siblings and cousins and watching my older brother play with his friends and have lots of friendly banter are a few good memories of mine that come to mind. Even though I have sort of swapped to the Xbox as my main gaming console, I still love Nintendo and always will until my last breath!

2022 my dad got me a switch when i got sick with covid and it was almost my bday !!! became obsessed !!! so glad i joined the fanbase :33

I would call my situation odd, since while I grew up with Nintendo I also grow up with PlayStation. Back when I was a kid, my parents were definitely spoiling me a little since I was gifted both a PS2 and a GBA. And so every generation I would buy both the home PlayStation console and the Nintendo console.

I said its weird because most people only grow up with one brand, but I had two and loved them both equally. I dabbled with Xbox during my teenage years, with the 360 but I didn't follow them for much.

I ended up going back to Nintendo and PlayStation again with the PS4 and the Switch. Of course I would go and branch off into other areas of gaming like PC and Sega consoles, but I am the most nostalgic for Nintendo and PlayStation.

I think its cool that my childhood consoles: my PS2 Slim and my Onyx Gameboy Advance still both function to this day. I guess electronics were built different back then.

Probably since the first major game I learned and really played were brawl and played lost of stuff like Mario ds when I was little, it’s just kinda ingrained in me lol.

It’s what my brother had growing up so I just naturally became used to their games and systems.

Also, Pokemon.

My parents buying me a NES.and at the time that was the only well know video game system so anyone who was into video games was a Nintendo fan.

My parents got me a Wii over any of the other consoles because of the motion controls, and I've stuck with Nintendo consoles ever since. For all the flack people give the Wii now for being focused towards casual audiences, it sure did work on getting me and my family into gaming.

Had an NES, SNES, N64.

Stopped gaming.

Heard that Switch had NES & SNES games available through an online service. And I was hooked.

I had a GB, GBC and SNES growing up but I'm not sure I'd say I would've described myself as a "fan" so much. I had these consoles and I played the games but I was hardly following Nintendo stuff. From around 1999 through to like 2005 I wasn't really aware of what Nintendo was doing at all. I was barely aware of any consoles really. I mean, I knew the GBA existed and I was maybe slightly aware of the GC but I didn't get any of the consoles of that era and was really just into (pirated) PC games. My brother had a PS2 and a couple of my friends picked up XBoxes but that was pretty much the extent of my interaction with consoles during that whole period

The first time I heard about the DS at all was in early 2005 when a friend at UNI, who was a huge Nintendo fanboy, picked one up. I didn't think that much of it other than to be slightly surprised that portables were doing 3D now. Wasn't really interested in getting one. But through 2005 and into early 2006 people were picking it up and so I started paying attention. People were doing pictochat in lectures between each other and playing Mario Kart DS during breaks. Seemed like a good time so, I started to look into it

I'm not sure of the exact timeline of events but I'm fairly sure at one point while looking up info on what games the DS had I found a Google Video upload of their E3 2006 press conference that had just happened

The clips of Super Mario Galaxy blew me away so I was definitely picking up a Wii at that point. But more immediately after watching that conference I decided I'd wait for the DS Lite and pick it up when it launched. Alongside the DS Lite I got a copy of Mario Kart DS and I believe the next game I picked up was New SMB when it released not long after. Then I grabbed a Wii on day 1 and only had Wii Sports until I picked up Twilight Princess after Christmas. Obviously I turned into E3 2007 and ever since I've watched pretty much every Nintendo conference and Direct

So the E3 2006 conference is without question the point where I became a "Nintendo Fan" and both New Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Galaxy were the titles that got me across the line

I had an NES as a kid and saw the cool new games on this fancy new system called a "Nintendo 64" that I also wanted and just continued from there, forever.

I got a DS and Wii when I was 7, followed by my first Pokemon and Mario games the following year, which I was very into. But the thing that made me go from 'kid who likes games' to 'obsessive Nintendo nerd' was when I picked up my first issue of Official Nintendo Magazine in 2010. It was a Super Mario Bros 25th anniversary special with a big feature about the history of Mario, which really opened my eyes to the breadth of games in the series. Then I quickly became familiar with all of Nintendo's franchises and past consoles through the pages of the magazine, and it made me interested in a much wider variety of games than I was before.

I never missed an issue of ONM after that, and still have them all. As well as leading to my biggest obsession growing up, I think it was very influential on my vocabulary, writing style and sense of humour. It's such a shame the magazine didn't manage to survive the winter that was the Wii U era. Even with the decline of print media, it would probably sell alright now that Nintendo is arguably more popular than ever.