Editorial: Directly into Gamer’s Hearts

By Adeki
2 Comments
Nintendo fan or not, the man deserves a tremendous amount of respect.

Iwata is dearly missed by gamers around the world and he will be for years to come.

It has been four years since the very first Nintendo Direct debuted in October of 2011 with the President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime hosting in a short, near eight minute video. Since then, Nintendo Directs have continued to do very well as a way to give fans updates directly from Nintendo without having to wait until E3 to do so. In fact, Nintendo has even started to lean towards these videos instead of large E3 conferences, and instead focused live efforts on fan interaction such as the Nintendo World Championships.

Of course, gamers undoubtedly remember the central host of the majority of these reports was the late CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata. After his unfortunate passing, Nintendo Directs went on a hiatus until the date of this publication, 12 November 2015. Fans have already begun speculation about multiple possible games to be announced such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD as there has allegedly been evidence supporting this fact within the backend of the Nintendo eShop. Another popular speculation is the possibility of Minecraft coming to the Wii U, joining nearly every other major console out currently. This was fueled by a recent PEGI rating coupled with the release of Minecraft: Story Mode by Telltale on the console. Whether or not either of these rumors is true will be resolved soon, but it would not be the first time fans were correct in assuming an announcement before a Nintendo Direct.

It is also a super fun game, shame about the Ice Climbers though.

One of the most popular Nintendo Directs was centered around the fourth entry in the Super Smash Bros. series.

It was not uncommon to devote an entire Nintendo Direct to a specific game, or in some cases a console, as shown by numerous single-game focused episodes ranging from Splatoon to Pokemon X and Y. Another great addition to these videos was that occasionally demos would release either during or directly after the video was over, adding on to the idea of fan interaction by having gamers boot up their console right after the episode was done. Sadly, this was about as interactive as it got as it is still physically impossible to reach inside monitors and claim physical rewards.

What can be said about future Nintendo Directs is roughly the same as what can be said about Nintendo’s future, it is hard to tell in the long run. While it is still easy to make general assumptions as to titles being released or characters being added to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, it is no easy feat to know what will actually happen in the much larger future. Because of this, gamers continue to watch Nintendo Directs will bated breath, not only because of their devotion, but due to their feeling of anxiousness as to what future is in store for them.

Despite Wonka's best efforts, I can not visit Nintendo Land from my room.

Every day the world gets closer and closer to having this dream become a reality.

What was your favorite moment from an edition of Nintendo Direct? Better yet, what was your favorite episode thus far of Nintendo Direct? Make sure to leave a comment below!

2 Comments

  1. Lusipurr
    Posted 2015.11.12 at 16:20 | Permalink

    Although there are some people who will argue that the media are mad that Nintendo is bypassing the media entirely through Nintendo Directs, the reality is that the media should provide a protective intermediary between the public and the profit-oriented and frequently consumer-exploitative interests of corporations.

    Nintendo bypasses the media because some critical voices in the media have serious, significant questions about Nintendo’s business practises, ethics, and intentions. And they would prefer not to answer these questions. They would prefer simply to stand on the back of their wagon and sell their snake oil without the interference of those damned journalists and their pesky questions.

    And, as a result, the audience that Nintendo has fostered is one possessed of antipathy to anything perceived as anti-Nintendo, even when–no, especially when it is the truth. Years later, there are Nintendo fanboys still claiming that the Wii U is a technologically more powerful system than the PS4 and Xbone; that the Wii U is going to take the lead this generation once Nintendo releases the next big game (currently: Zelda), and so on. Reality is opposed to PR bullshit, and the feeding of the public directly from Nintendo’s hose has created a group of consumers who deliberately choose PR bullshit over reality.

    For this, Nintendo Directs should be scorned as a policy, and treated with the most skeptical and critical evaluation after the fact, to help offset the uncritically positive PR spin that Nintendo puts on their own actions.

  2. Wolfe
    Posted 2015.11.16 at 17:17 | Permalink

    I agree Lusi, but as it stands we require a competent journalistic representation, and we only have a few outlying sites.

    That said, no amount of Nintendo of America marketing will undo the censorship advocacy I’ve seen on their part recently. Until they’re willing to treat consumers with respect, I’ll treat them with apathy.