Topic: The nintendo bonus

I finally got down to play captain toad treasure tracker and being about halfway through I must admit that this game is decent, not fantastic but quite good for what it is trying to do. I like captain toad! It has this Nintendo magic vibe to it and I am glad that I bought it.
Then.I thought what if this wasn't toad buy something like captain turtle. Made by a company like ubisoft. The very same game just.with different protagonists and.enemies.
I think It wouldn't have.even bothered to read about that game.
Now I am not buying everything with Nintendos stamp on top, certainly not akimbo festival or Mario party, but I realize there is a certain attachment to their ips in me that views games more leniently like I am definitely getting hey pikmin at launch even know though I think that game will not reinvent anything

How about you?

Putting a Yoshi sticker on the box can make me consider buying a game.

Of course they know how to capitalize on their characters and they do that in the most effective way possible. That's why they still use the same characters because if you are able to do it right people will feel attached to your characters and your ips

@LuckyLand
Nothing wrong with that imo. It just made me wonder about how I judge games and make purchase decisions. There is awesome titles that are no Brainers for.me. But not every game is like bothw and considering the price to be paid one might say a game like hey pikmin might not be worth the asking price - but that's just my reflections I had these days. Won't stop me from buying that game in the end, even though I am a little bit on the fence and wouldn't mind to wait and hope to get it cheaper.

Well it is more than just character recognition. Nintendo is a very good developer full stop. I would buy Captain Turtle made by Nintendo but if Ubisoft (ubipoop?) made it? Nope, because I'm expecting it to be online only, buggy and have a repetitive story and moderate to bad controls and the single player is going to suck if they add that mode in.

The only reason I am totally ready for the Mario Rabbids game is I know Nintendo supervised. They let Ubi do their thing but Nintendo usually wants the game to be playable. Part of the reason that IPs become iconic is due to them being fun and technically sound. Nobody is screaming for a daikatana sequel (please give me back those hours of my life). The many, many licensed games of the 80s, 90s and 00s show what happens when you try to push an IP/Character first and gameplay second.

Granted I'll buy a paper bag with the Wingcrest on it, but I've had nearly two decades of positive Zelda experiences to make such purchases reflex. While other devs that have let me down (cough Bioware) are now "wait for reviews and STEEP discount if not skip altogether". When people cite the draw of an IP they are citing the after effects of a consistently well made product. Take Nintendo's original (and oldest) products: playing cards. I only buy hanafuda cards and karuta cards from them...because they have been making them with consistent quality for over a century. I'm not worried about what I'm paying for.

Would you buy a luxury car made by Kia or Saturn? Likely not, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind dropping some cash for the well known manufactures like BMW and the like. That is why customer perception is so important. Put out a good product, promote your product in a positive but humble fashion ...watch money come in.

@brickofthewild I think the only thing that matters is how much I enjoy a game for whatever reason (its quality, the type of game, its characters, whatever it is if it makes me like the game it is good). I don't think one should consider the objective value of a game more important than his own enjoyment of that game, it's exactly the opposite in fact

I would buy Akimbo festival in a heartbeat.

Nintendo has always made games with the Style that only Nintendo can create. It has rarely ever been copied successfully.
The only game that comes to mind that hit the Nintendo vibe recently that is not Nintendo is Go Vacation on the Wii. Most others try and fail.
I am not sure if there is some "special" program that only Nintendo owns and they run all the code through before they launch a game, but there is definitely some magic that they have with games that other companies do not have. Even most of their failures still have the Nintendo charm.
I have a feeling it has to do with the mentality at the company. Take your time, yet keep moving forward and get it right.
I am thinking along the lines of Zelda. I assume they could have released that game about 2 years ago, but would it have been as polished as it is today? I do not think so. Zelda will have a very, very long life. It is really like no other game I have ever played before. But other companies either rush it out or they take too long and the game gets abandoned in development and then they just release what they have.
We are the fools who keep buying broken games. If everyone demanded Nintendo quality out of all their games, companies would make better games.

@Hikingguy
Well said. I think polish is key with nintendo. I remember when people were complaining about Zelda so-called empty world when.they saw.first real gameplay vids without any towns etc.and I got worried myself. After actually playing the game I am amazed at how great it had.become. If nintendo went the ubi soft road and would release a botw sequel annually a la assassin creed they would definitely lose on quality.

@Hikingguy
Well said. I think polish is key with nintendo. I remember when people were complaining about Zelda so-called empty world when.they saw.first real gameplay vids without any towns etc.and I got worried myself. After actually playing the game I am amazed at how great it had.become. If nintendo went the ubi soft road and would release a botw sequel annually a la assassin creed they would definitely lose on quality.

Familiarity and borderline guaranteed quality is a good way to consistently sell products.

The latter of which, many game companies don't realize, sadly. Doubly so if you consider "worth the price" and "works on day 1" to be quality (which you probably should).

@kkslider5552000
Games also tend to be special and unique.I remember the 360 to have 3 forward games. I owned the third installment and never saw a reason to buy the fourth. Most companies tend to milk their ips to death

Nintendo certainly have reputation on their side, and not just with long-established franchises - Captain Toad may be riding on Mario's coattails, but games like Splatoon show that the Nintendo brand alone makes games sell. We associate Nintendo with quality.

It is, however, worth it to look outside one's comfort zone sometimes. Disregarding releases from a company you don't like is one thing, but I feel like many people look at the weekly download updates and dismiss anything they haven't heard of as unworthy of consideration. That's a shame, as there are lots of good games out there you haven't heard of, made by developers you haven't heard of. There's a reason Nintendo Life reviews every no-name title that comes out on the eShop. That's what drew me to this site in the first place.

A somewhat related issue that comes to mind is how we choose games based on aesthetics. It's a point of pride to say you only care about gameplay, but that can never be entirely true. It's occurred to me that I wouldn't play Animal Crossing if it looked like The Sims. All else being equal, I'm more likely to buy a bright cheery game than a realistic-looking one because that's just my preference. I'm sure there are things I've missed out on as a result, but considering that I have more than enough games to play already, I don't feel much need to second-guess myself on this.

Nintendo likes their games to be fun, first and foremost. And that's what I look for in all the games I purchase. To the same degree, Sony and Microsoft seem to care about graphics and that's a big problem for me. I'm not as greatly invested in Nintendo's IP to the same extent others here may be. Zelda, Mario and Metroid are games I typically have no interest in. But for something like Kirby - I'll usually give it a second look to be sure it's what I do/don't want. Which is something I don't do for any of Sony/Microsoft's IP, or even for the previously mentioned Nintendo IP.

It depends, really.

Nintendo are the Blizzard of Japan. You know you will propably get a well polished game with the typical Nintendo feel to it.

@ThatNyteDaez Kirby is actually a great example of this "Nintendo Bonus" in my opinion, because the Kirby games tend to be video game comfort food. (Wait, hear me out!) Kirby games usually aren't super challenging, and they don't vary all that much in gameplay. But they are very well made and beautifully designed, and you always know you're getting a charming game that kids and adults alike can play. It's never going to be OMG BEST GAME EVER, but it's never going to be MONEY BACK PLEASE either.

With almost every video game, even established franchises, I always read a few reviews and gather some community opinions before I buy, because I'm not made of money. With Kirby, as with mainline Zelda games, I don't have to. I can just buy them, knowing that they will definitely be solid games.

@Zyrac
I think I am such person who dismisses eshop titles. I am sort of old school and prefer my games in a physical form. Of course I make exceptions for games like boxboy, pushmo or ace attorney or vc as its the only way I can get those games.

Any personal eshop favorites that you would recommend?

@JasmineDragon
You are right, kirby games arent the best, but they are steady in what they provide. Another point that sustains my original idea: the lack of challenge. How can a game be fun without some real challenge? See kirby!☺

@brickofthewild I'm a fan of the Fairune games. They're certainly not for everyone, as they're sort of deliberately obtuse... but that's what I like about them. There's absolutely no hand-holding as you confront the mazelike world, and you get to feel smart whenever you walk into a room and think "there's definitely a secret passage right about here". There's a demo of the first one available, although I don't know how good of a demo it is (it came out after I bought the game), and the second one is better overall, as it doesn't rely on the secret passages as much.

I don't like how exaggerated Kirby's reputation for easiness is. Sure, most of a typical Kirby game won't put up too much of a fight, but I just feel the need to remind everyone that the True Arena is a thing (that I love).

@Zyrac Kirby IS fairly easy, though. There are always a few levels that are more challenging, but it's one of the few game series that I can always complete without sweating too much. And I definitely like that sometimes!