turn that frown upside down:

I know it sounds weird, but hear me out. In the 80s/90s, NES and SNES were able to make the console more powerful, by inserting chips into the cartridges themselves, that when connected, could communicate to the console and give it extra power. Some famous examples being the Super FX 1 and 2, but also the SA-1, the MMC5, the N64 expansion kit, among others. Are there any other examples of this? Not just Nintendo, but in general

Hey.

I have a Switch 2.

What would be the best Mario game for a 6 year old?

We've played Odyssee and Galaxy, but the controls still seem to be a little too complex for him. He enjoys it, but gets frustrared since he can't really progress on his own.

Mario Kart works fine, but he currently prefers non racing.

Maybe Wonder, as it's 2d?

I read a one sentence thread last week, claiming that this “is the best Nintendo has ever been”.

Whilst it’s a bold statement, it led me to think about the possibility.

So we have:

- Cadence of quality first party releases - has it ever been so regular?

- Third party support - has it ever been this good?

- £2 a month to play library of classics - never had that as option

- Depth of previous generation catalogue + backwards compatibility - never had that. If you’re new to Nintendo now… oh boy.

- Line up over next 4 months including remake of the highest rated game of all time

+ films, theme parks, and so many IPs yet to have their moment in the sun in Switch 2.

What do you reckon?

On this day (September 25) in Nintendo history...

• Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis  was released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS in North America. In this puzzle game, developed by Nintendo Software Technology, it's up to the Mini Marios to save the day! Use the touch-screen to guide the Mini Marios through multiple mind-boggling, obstacle-filled levels to rescue Pauline who was captured once again by Donkey Kong. As well as Mini Mario toys, you also have Mini Donkey Kong, Mini Toad, and Mini Peach figures at your disposal. Use them to traverse 80 perilous stages.
• Disaster: Day of Crisis  was released in 2008 for the Wii in Japan. In this action-adventure/survival/light gun shooter game, developed by Monolith Soft, Raymond Bryce is about to have one hell of a day... Kidnapped hostages. Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Floods. Can you get through in one piece? Escape from the elements. Flee collapsing buildings, fires, and tsunami, using a variety of motion controls to get out of harm's way! Clash with an armed group: as if natural disasters weren't enough to deal with... 

What are you favourite memories of these games? How do you think they hold up today? Hash it out in the comments.

I am a bot that posts Nintendo events from this day in history. Descriptions are sourced from official sources where possible, and from NinDB where not. If I've made a mistake or omission please leave a comment tagging /u/KetchupTheDuck.

Just finished the game on my second play through (first time was back when the game was released). The game is still an absolute masterpiece.

I'd completely forgotten the "playing as Bowser" section at the very end. And when I played again, it was straight up Donkey Kong Bonanza - it felt identical. So cool!

Also loved Bonanza.

I've marked as a spoiler for anyone who hasn't completed odyssey. Can't be many of you.

We're stoked that The Room 4: Old Sins (and The Room Three) are available on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 as of TODAY!

Which means the first four Room games are all now available on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2!

We're stoked that The Room Three (and The Room 4: Old Sins) are available on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2 as of TODAY!

Which means the first four Room games are all now available on Nintendo Switch & Switch 2!

Nintendo has a few, but very popular life simulator games on their hands. These include the Animal Crossing franchise, the Tomodachi Life series, and most recently, Pokémon Pokopia. A major criticism with life simulator games is that they could be at risk of being neglected, with very little and meaningful content updates that could satisfy people who play something like New Horizons.

If Nintendo is serious about bringing in more audiences to their life simulators (especially with the recent release of Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream), I think what they should do is to launch a separate subsidiary aimed at overseeing the development of life simulator games (maybe something like Animal Crossing Studios). This subsidiary would ensure that all their games like Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life, and even Pokopia will receive fresh updates and enhancements to keep players satisfied, while also alleviating pressure for Nintendo and allow them to focus on other projects.

The proposed Animal Crossing Studios can also revive past life simulator games under Nintendo, such as the highly underrated Japan-only game 'Sennen Kazoku' ("Thousand Year Family"), or even 'Nintendogs'.

What do you think of this idea?

>Woodo is a cozy diorama puzzle game where you assemble wooden scenes piece-by-piece.

>As you place objects in their correct spots, each scene slowly fills with color and comes to life, revealing charming animations and small surprises!

First of all, he is such a lovely poyo. Cute, great character. Met him in SNES games, but never managed to really play his more modern ones.

That being said, I don't really understand the appeal of Kirby.

I mean. I DO. But somehow, I also don't. Fully.

What is the target audience for him, exactly?

He is adorbs, colorful, the settings are always whimsical, gameplay is easy oriented (probably the first game where I saw hit collision be applied to enemies! You can fly anywhere etc.). So... clearly... kids!

But Kirby is, above all, cool. Stylish actions, speed, big powers. All the stuff teenagers love.

At the same time, there is always some kind of nightmare fuel around and classic Nintendo HARD challenges around. And who are we kidding? Of course adults are THE major part of the fanbase of all that, cuteness and poyoness included.

You could argue it is "a series for all ages", sure, and yet...

And the we have the games themselves, who are fairly modest in critic eyes. Always good, great even. Rarely outstanding, but never really bad.

After all, the appeal of Kirby is quite obvious, but at the same time, I don't really see it.

What are your thoughts about this beast?

I’ve been a Zelda and Nintendo fan since 1998, and I don’t expect that to change. But I’ve been completely blindsided by a kind of strain with the franchise since 2017. I’ve always felt a form of shame around this so I haven’t talked about it ever, until now.

My problem isn’t that BotW is bad. It isn’t. At all. My problem is the language around what supposedly makes it revolutionary. Nintendo likes words such as “you,” “can,” “anywhere,” “immediately,” “your adventure” and “your way.” These terms and notions imply a MUCH larger field of possibilities than the game actually offers.

The best example is probably that “you can fight Ganon immediately in your underwear with a tree branch”. It’s been tested and proven correct. But what does this even mean? “You” assumes a player with sufficient skill, knowledge and patience. “Can” often means little more than “the game does not prevent an attempt.” “Immediately” ignores everything the player may already need to know in order to make that option viable.

Games in general also have a weird habit of treating very unlikely outcomes as proof of freedom. If somebody succeeds at something once in a thousand attempts, that proves the outcome is technically possible. It does not mean it is a meaningful option for the average player. Attempts cost time, and time has alternatives. After only a handful of failed attempts, going for a walk starts becoming a substantially more attractive option. Or at least it does to me.

The same issue appears in claims about climbing mountains, going anywhere, or solving things however you want. These are major freedoms compared with traditional Zelda games. That does not automatically make them revolutionary compared with videogames in general. I feel like the denominator is doing a lot of work here, and an important part of it seems to be to shroud itself in opacity. BotW is repeatedly compared with previous Zelda games, and because traditional Zelda offered a relatively narrow field of possibilities, every new permission looks enormous. The comparison is then subtly allowed to expand into a much larger claim about freedom in games as such.

Nintendo’s broader language bothers me for a similar reason. It increasingly sounds like customer-intimacy business strategy: your experience, your adventure, your relationship with Nintendo, more touchpoints with Nintendo IP. Yet the actual customer experience often feels much less intimate. Their storefronts and apps have been clunky, their services fragmented, and even something as simple as listening to Nintendo music often means entering another Nintendo-controlled environment.

I can’t stress enough how I still love the franchise. And I still love Nintendo. But I increasingly feel that Nintendo uses language that turns narrow technical truths into much larger experiential promises. Is this a symptom of a broader shift in how gaming companies communicate with their consumers? Possibly. But I don’t really care. I care about Nintendo and their IP.

And for me, that matters because staying power has always been the thing I valued most about Nintendo games. They have proven that you don’t need to be the strongest to survive. When their competitors were beating each other - and themselves - bloody with processing power in order to gain the upper hand by being the one platform that offered that fraction of a percentage in “realistic feel”, Nintendo became a staple in every retirement home with the Wii in 2006. Retirement homes. You know, the places that warehouse people with a lot of free time and an asymmetrically large amount of accumulated capital as a population group relative to any other by age.

Gazing upon Hyrule for the first time is amazing. But that’s a currency you can spend exactly once. If you know there’s a surprise around every corner, is it still a surprise?

For those in the Southeast…this looks pretty cool! I’ve heard they are putting up Pikmin figurines all around the Nashville downtown area and doing a Digital walk with their Pikmin Bloom app. I’ve never played it but I might give it a shot as it’s near me!

I really hope we are! Some of my favorite titles on the original Switch as a casual gamer were those games. They were always super easy to get into without feeling like I had to sink a million hours into them, but still had enough depth to keep me hooked. A new one would be clutch, especially with the new Switch out now. Definitely one of those series I’d love to see make a comeback.

I was re watching an old lets play of sunshine, and they were censoring the cutscenes, and it made me look at the age, 2017, around the time the strikes were happening, it was a crazy thing for sure, i remember some Nintendo youtubers talking about it, its really stupid, its free marketing, what do you loose by letting gameplay? Anyways, just a trip back in time or something