Nintendo - The Past, Present and Future
What's Happening With Japan's Biggest Gaming Company?
Nintendo was founded back in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi as a Hanafuda manufacturer, a type of card game in Japan. They were a moderate success, but in the 1960's Japan started to lose interest in the game, and sales dropped dramatically. Nintendo were soon in major financial trouble.
To help deal with the debts, they entered the toy industry. Competing with Bandai and Tomy proved to be very difficult, but thanks to a staff of remarkable creativity they managed to release some brilliant toys, including the Ultra Hand and the Ten Billion Barrel. One of their major contributors would go on to be a gaming industry legend - Gunpei Yokoi.
The Birth of Video Games
At this time video games had started to slowly surface, though still very rare. Nintendo got into the business, but were not completely successful at first. With the help of Yokoi and a future gaming legend, Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo released Donkey Kong to the arcades. This game brought Nintendo into the gaming spotlight, marking their place in video game history.
Shortly home video consoles started to emerge, with the NES being released in 1983 (much later in America and Europe). Many classics were born on the console, including Legend of Zelda and Yokoi's Kid Icarus and Metroid.
It wasn't long before Nintendo were recognised as the one of the best in the business. The SNES, N64 and the Gamecube all provided the world with a lot of highly rated games, including Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Majora's Mask, Goldeneye, Resident Evil 4 and Star Fox Adventures.
They continued to change the way gamers play with their latest console, the Nintendo Wii. The console utilizes motion sensitive controls and allows gamers to download old games from Nintendo's catalogue using the 'Virtual Console'. Viewed as a simple 'gimmick' by a few critics, the Wii has managed to sell over 29 million units since its release.
The Handheld Video Game Market
Though the Microvision by Milton Bradley was the first handheld gaming console, Nintendo took total control of the market with the release of Yokoi's marvel, the Game Boy in 1989. Previous attempts by Nintendo with Game & Watch were a moderate success, but the Game Boy brought Nintendo, as well as the potential market, into the limelight.
The Game Boy evolved into several different models - The Game Boy Pocket, Colour, Advance, Advance SP and the Micro. While it didn't produce as many classics as the home video consoles, the Game Boy line gave birth to the Pokémon franchise, which soon became a world phenomenon.
In 2003, Nintendo started to release information about their new handheld - the Nintendo DS. Using two screens, one a touch screen, the DS surpassed all expectation. With backward compatability with the GBA, as well as online wireless gaming, Nintendo once again revolutionized the handheld market and still dominates it to this day.
2009 and Beyond for Nintendo?
Nintendo's 2008 E3 conference was a massive shock to many fans, with so many of their announced games linked to 'casual' gamers, rather than hardcore gamers. With the Xbox 360 getting such games like Gears of War 2 and Fable II, and PS3 getting LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, Nintendo's only major releases for the festive period are Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk.
However, with Miyamoto confirming the development of new Zelda, Mario and Pikmin games, as well as the recent announcements of Sin and Punishment 2 and No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, Nintendo certainly have a marvellous line-up for the new year and next.
Nintendo Gamecube symbol
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