Nintendo Silliness

       When I say “Nintendo”, what comes to your mind? Mario? Zelda? Easier times when all you had to was complain about going to school - at least we could trade our pokémon, and I really needed that Ditto! - and play some games? Nintendo always were a huge part in our life, bringing to our home a good and easy way to forget the stress, and having true fun, either by jumping in enemies, or by hitting them with your sword. But, the thing is: it is changing.
       No, I’m not saying that the new Nintendo games are bad, actually, I’ve been playing the new Zelda for days non-stop, because I simply love it, and I simply love the easy “gameplay + mechanics = happiness” formula, the same formula Nintendo always used, but, bear with me, is Nintendo bringing the same thing to the younger kids?
       Nintendo was so huge that it even made “Nestalgia” a existing term, for us, gamers. This “Nestalgia” simply meaning “wanting to play Nintendo games again”, and, yes, it is about Nintendo, and not NES or SNES, it is about those two, but also the 64, the Game Cube, the Wii, and the Wii U, because, yes, you could play anything, but the simple jump action in a Mario game brings you a different joy, it is the Nestalgia joy. But, and yes, this feeling is dying.
       When a kid asks for a game console, the non-gamer parent will probably buy the Xbox One, or the PS4. Why? Because they know it, everyone is talking about it, and, when you go into a game store, you’ll always find huge shelves of PS4 and Xbox One games, they are easy-to-buy consoles, not because all of their games are fun, but because there are lots of them. On other hand, and you go to a game store, you’ll find a handful of Nintendo games, and now I ask again, why? Because there’s not to many games for the newer consoles(Switch and Wii U), but they’re all good and sell well.
       So, yeah, ok, you must be thinking “all right, you wrote just because Nintendo doesn’t make games?”, and no, dear reader, that was just the intro, the real problem comes now.
       Nintendo is still in the market for being innovative and fun. The new Nintendo Switch is completely awesome, for instance. With one controller, you can play a coop game, either on you TV, or on your Switch built in screen. There are motion sensors in each joy con, the amiibo sensor, everything, it all in a small package, basically, a good way to have fun in your home, or on the go. But, there’s a problem.
       I recently bought myself a Switch, and, it was, for the humble price of 2000 reais, which is about 630 USD, and it may not sound much, but, bear in mind that the actual price would be only 900 reais, 1100 reais less. Also, the minimum wage here in Brazil is about 252 USD(800 reais) which is just barely enough to pay the bills and buy some food, and yes, barely. And, of course, the problem isn’t all about Brazil, there are the other places in the world.
       Nintendo shut its doors or never even gave some support in other places, like, Latin and South America, the upper half of Asia, some parts of Oceania, and the most part of Africa. Does that mean the Switch stops going to those places? No, people still buy it, but less and less people will keep buying it, until, some day, no one else gets it. Think about it, new kids not knowing what “Zelda” is, and making fun of the game that burns in our hearts. Even parents that are or used to be gamers and remember the good golden age that the old Nintendo brought will have to give in to the PS4/Xbox One pressure, and buy one of those to their kids, because it is cheaper and easier.
       Splatoon 2, for instance, is a great game, but most of the world will not buy it, because, or they will not be able to play the online mode(me included), or because the game and the console will be to expensive to buy.
       I’m afraid, actually. Nintendo left the so called BRICK, and now is focusing only in the Asian market, and the US market, but, what about the world? What about us? Brazil is the second in the gaming business, only losing for Japan, and not by much, and yet, Nintendo shuts its doors in here.
       Not saying that they’ll die, that will probably never happen, but, for the most of the world, Nintendo will be just a memory.
       And the worst, Nintendo alos takes down our fan games and arts, stuff that we've been working for hours, days, weeks, maybe years, and yet, it's like they dont care, sometimes I feel, not as a game designer, but as a player, that they only care for our money, and not our joy, and my friends from college feel the same too! And… that’s sad.
       Really, really, sad. I don't want the kids from the future forgeting about the adventures from Samus, and Link, and all my other heros, but, that's what I can see in their future. But only if they don't change.