Topic: The nintendo bonus

Agree with many here on Nintendos quality. You know over the years the seal has meant more and more to me. I invested in games that if made by a different dev I would not bother at all. Captain Toad TT looked awesome when I first laid eyes in its trailers. As I played I was slightly disappointed the levels didn't get bigger but I still enjoyed it a lot. This was because it's just made to such pedigree and I find Nintendo always manage to include some neat trick into many different parts of their games be it the level, character abilities or graphically that always charms, impresses or excites me as a gamer.
Not many other game developers manage that on every game of theirs that I spend hard earned cash on.
I'm getting more and more into Kirby these days, whereas once I left it out in the cold because it looked to cutesy for me, now I have discovered how cool and complex he can be.... The dudes hardcore the way he ingests enemies and uses their abilities to crush yet more foes! Lol Kirby is great fun and like you say just quality no dodgy controls etc.
Sorry I know I'm going on now but side note. I've always wanted to play Ico, Shadow of Colossus and then just recently even tried Last Guardian and they suck!!!!! The controls are so consistently broken I just can't do it... I wanna enjoy the experience I read about in reviews and feature articles but I can't get passed the quality of the games, they just plain frustrate me and I eventually give up. I'm not a skilled gamer so it takes me time and dedication to get through games, I'm not rubbish but I'm not winning tourneys if you get me. So when games are just difficult due to the quality being subpar I tend to drift away from them and never come back. I finish Nintendos games cause the only thing holding me back in them is me which I can handle.
Anyway long story short Nintendo quality any day of the week. And they always surprise me with something fresh.

Even when 3rd party companies stop working with Nintendo, bad things seem to usually happen. Outside of the go-to example of Rare, Silicon Knights showed exactly the type of difference Nintendo can make. Look at Factor 5, going from Rogue Squadron 1-3 to Lair.

And it gets weird, because it goes so much further with coincidences. Look at Ubisoft's terrible year of 2014, the same year they stopped supporting the Wii U (Child of Light came out ONE MONTH before Watch Dogs). And that one will always amuse me and yet make me mad, because Ubisoft is a company I went out of my way to defend before that year (and occasionally during it). They've made plenty of good games, they've made 2 of my favorite games ever, it angers me when they pull some of the garbage they do. Especially when I had considered them in the past to be the better, more creative alternative to certain other big publishers. And it isn't even about abandoning the Wii U, it's that it shows perfectly that even if it made some level of sense, it shows the contrast between a company with self-respect and putting quality as a top priority over greed as a priority. If your company stops making games for a console, and the company behind that console is so much better at making quality games and isn't betraying the trust of its customers the way Ubisoft did, I guess I prefer playing their games over Ubisoft's then.

Otherwise though, I feel like "Nintendo generally releases good quality games" is a very uncontroversial opinion.

@kkslider5552000
I sort of liked ubi during he old xbox days, prince of persia, splinter cell etc. I was also into graphics back in the day. After that I disliked ubisoft for milking their franchises with anual reiterations. Never played an assassins game. Told myself to never touch a ubi game again. Kingdom battle will be the first in more than a decade. I will wait for reviews, though.

I mean, there's definitely a Nintendo bonus. I still recall reading about how hard Okami bombed when it came out on the Wii. Something I didn't understand, because I thought the game would go hand-in-hand with the user-base (especially the Zelda fans). Whilst it is true that Nintendo's games are generally more polished (with a few exceptions here and there), this also means that people will find it easier to dismiss third party games, and that's a shame I think.

There is absolutely a Nintendo bonus. In some ways, I think it was earned by Nintendo due to the high-quality games they put out, but in many ways it's not fair.

I look at games like Bastion (kind of old by now, I guess) that was SPECTACULAR, but I feel it didn't get quite as much recognition as it should have. But man, if that game starred a Nintendo character like Link, I bet it would've taken off.

Bottom line is: lots of good games out there by all companies. Nintendo has just earned itself the reputation of being a bit more "polished" (as @Octane said) and overall more consistent in the quality of its games, so it tends to get a bit of that bump.

Another example: I'm playing ReCore right now on my Xbox One, and despite the reviews, I really love it. Lots of charm and really fun platforming and combat gameplay. World isn't totally massive, which is actually a turn-off for me. The only problem is the load times: they're freakin' HORRIBLE. Worst I've seen. Anyway, this game get absolutely no recognition. Not even a blip on the radar of most. But if this was a Nintendo game starring Star Fox (for example), it would've gotten WAY MORE attention.

For someone like me, the other factor is time. I have limited play time now I'm a full fledged adult with bills n stuff to look after I only have a finite play time for my hobby. Every week there is something being released either hard copy or digital. I have to decide what's worth my time and money. As it's been said before Nintendo have created brand trust and consumer confidence that I will be willing to spend money and time on their products.
Whereas I bought Last Guardian on special because I had tried team Icos previous games and was cautious. Then I spent 4 hrs with it being horrible and very almost unplayable in my eyes anyway. It now sits in the shelf and I don't think I will ever pick it up and finish it.
Any Nintendo game I have that first couple of hours I spend with it won't just frustrate me due to controls and camera issues, that always makes me pick up that game again load it up and carry on.
That's why I am a Nintendo fanboy. They have been giving me good quality service for years even if a game doesn't blow me away or is cutting edge it's always very high quality. In a world full of buggy day one patch games I think that's important.

I could find nothing about this, and I remember it being a success (at least relative to other versions)

Closest thing I could find is that it was the lowest selling game to win a game of the year award. Apparently. But it still sold more than 600,000 in a year (on Wii), which is actually more than I expected.

Did way better than Muramasa or Little King's Story, that's for sure.

@Filth_Element
Time is definitely an issue. So is money. I cannot afford to buy all games and I probably won't ever finish my backlog. So I have to make priorities.

I think the level of polish has a lot to do with it but it goes a bit deeper than that. Nintendo are also one of the few developers who consistently make a "cartoonish" style of game. I mean, here's a list of big games that have gotten a metacritic rating above 90 over the last 3 years:

Zelda Breath of the Wild
Mario Kart 8
Persona 5
Uncharted 4
Overwatch
Forza Horizon 3
GTA 5
The Witcher 3
MGS 5
Smash Bros Wii U/3DS
Dark Souls 2
Bayonetta 2

Other than Overwatch and Persona everything else on there that's even remotely "cartoonish" is Nintendo. That's why I like Nintendo's content. Sure I'm fine with a more realistic and "mature" game every now and then. But not all the time.

Unfortunately, I think this thread starts on a false proposition. I think we can all agree that a 'Captain Turtle' game would bomb for the clear lack of imagination lol. Ubisoft are more than capable of making a game like Captain Toad but giving it their own IP and not having to resort to copy cat Mario characters.

Looks at Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.

Dammit, my point still stands...

U know what, I think you are right. When I look at my collection it mostly goes into the cartoony direction. I have all gba and ds castlevania games but no 3ds titles mainly because the style changed. Recently I thought about skyrim and decided it would not fit into my collection. I make exceptions from time to time though like deus ex