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Nintendo is the world's
oldest and most famous
video games developer.
The company was founded
in 1889 and has always
been in the business of
entertainment. It's the
birth place of great
franchises such as Super
Mario, Donkey Kong, The
Legend of Zelda, and
Pokemon, as well as
popular consoles like
the NES, Game Boy,
Nintendo 64 and Nintendo
DS. Nintendo continues
to innovate and push the
boundaries of video
gaming with its Wii
console, which features
a friendly, freehand
controller.
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Nintendo began life in
1889 as a Hanafuda
playing card company
under the management of
founder Fusajiro
Yamauchi. The company
would stay a family
business until 2002.
Hanafuda was a gambling
card game in Japan, and
as it gained in
popularity, Nintendo
grew to meet demand.
The company was passed
down through the family
until 1949, when Hiroshi
Yamauchi took charge.
Nintendo's
longest-standing
president would expand
the company greatly in
coming years, striking
deals with Disney to let
Nintendo produce branded
cards for the Japanese
market, and testing the
waters in strange
industries like
controversial "love
hotels".
It was in the mid-70's
that a young Gunpei
Yokoi, creator of the
Metroid franchise, began
to invent quirky new
games for Nintendo, such
as the Ultra Hand, and a
love testing machine.
One of Yokoi's biggest
successes was a shooting
range using light gun
technology - though,
hours before its grand
unveiling, Yokoi
recognised a fault in
the system. Under orders
from Yamauchi, Yokoi
manually destroyed
targets behind the
scenes. No-one realised
and the (working)
shooting ranges went on
to be a smash attraction
in Japanese arcades.
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 In
1977, Nintendo released
dedicated consoles
called Color TV Game.
They contained
variations of a single,
simple game (such as
Pong and Breakout), and
plugged directly into a
television. As the
systems evolved, and
controllers were
introduced, the Color TV
Game consoles became the
forerunners of the
Nintendo Entertainment
System.
The Game & Watch series
was created by Yokoi in
1980; each one was a
portable gaming system
with a simple LCD game
pre-programmed. The
designs varied between
games, though the
dual-screened version of
some undoubtedly
provided inspiration for
Nintendo DS, while the
idea of a simple,
portable console opened
a market for Nintendo's
Game Boy console. These
consoles became
Nintendo's first popular
export, opening the way
for its arcade plans.
Worldwide smash-hit
Donkey Kong was released
in 1981, and was created
by both Yokoi and a
young Shigeru Miyamoto.
The game's legacy was
greater than anyone
expected - the little
man in dungarees (known
then only as Jumpman)
would evolve into the
Mario we all know and
love today - a career
kicked off by Miyamoto's
next arcade hit "Mario
Bros." in 1983.
These early forays into
the fledgling video game
industry proved
successful, but it was
in 1984 that Nintendo
became the world's
biggest gaming brand
with its Nintendo
Entertainment System.
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 In
the summer of 1984,
Nintendo released the
Famicom, the Japanese
version of the NES. The
system was a
cartridge-based system
that showcased
revolutionary new ideas,
like the R.O.B robot, a
light gun for home
consoles, and the Power
Glove which later
provided the inspiration
for the Wii controller.
Nintendo was
characterised as
authoritarian in regards
to licensing third-party
publishers, a reputation
it didn't shake until
Yamauchi stepped down
during the launch of the
GameCube. It locked
unlicensed developers
out of its console,
charged licensed
developers a great
proportion of a game's
retail value, and
limited them to
publishing five games a
year. This didn't stop
consumer demand, as
Nintendo promised
quality over quantity,
bringing us classics
like Super Mario Bros.,
Metroid and The Legend
of Zelda.
It was in 1989 that
Nintendo released its
most popular console of
all time, the Game Boy.
Along with the behemoth
titles Tetris and Super
Mario Land, the Game Boy
Classic destroyed its
high-spec competitors
using its greatest
weapons - value and
battery power, a
technique that carried
every subsequent
Nintendo handheld
through the portable
console wars as victor.
Over its lifetime, the
Game Boy series would
spawn upgrades and
"sequels", like the
Pocket, the Color, and
the Advance consoles,
and together they would
sell over 200 million
units.
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 The
success of the Nintendo
Entertainment System
cemented the release of
its follow-up, the
imaginatively titled
Super Nintendo
Entertainment System.
Released in Japan in
1990, America in 1991,
and Europe in 1992, the
SNES would have to
compete in the first
real console war.
A year prior the
Japanese release of the
SNES, a company named
Sega released a console
named the Mega Drive,
aimed at an older
audience than the
colourful, cuddly
Nintendo console. With a
cooler mascot and a
playful smear campaign,
Sega won the console war
in America and Europe
with games like Sonic
the Hedgehog, Streets of
Rage, Ecco the Dolphin,
and Golden Axe, original
franchises next to
Nintendo's lineup of
sequels like Super Mario
World, Zelda: A Link to
the Past, and Super
Metroid.
 Worldwide,
Nintendo's charm, and
original IP like
Pilotwings, F-Zero and
Super Mario Kart saved
the day and thanks to
the Japanese market,
they ended up number 1.
But, not everything they
touched turned to gold;
in 1995 they released
the biggest failure
their gaming history,
the Virtual Boy. Created
by best in class Gunpei
Yokoi, Nintendo had high
hopes for what was, in
reality, an unwieldy,
underpowered,
mistargeted and even
dangerous system. A pair
of goggles that rested
on a flimsy stand, the
Virtual Boy was to
recreate 3D worlds in
redscale, but the
awkward posture
inflicted by the stand
and the flickering of
the display caused
Nintendo to print health
warnings on the box. The
console was discontinued
after a year because of
poor sales and poor
software support.
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 If
the Super Nintendo had
been an evolution,
Nintendo 64 was a
revolution. The console
innovated in so many
areas, and pushed so
many control
enhancements that are
standard today.
Unfortunately, by the
time to console was
released, Sony's
PlayStation had picked
up so much momentum that
the N64 never caught up
in terms of sales. It
did, however, produce
some of the greatest
games of all time, and
it created a new
standard for multiplayer
gaming.
The controller
introduced the world to
two new devices; the
rumble pak and the
analogue stick. To
highlight the cinematic
effects of rumble, we
received the classics
Goldeneye 007 and Lylat
Wars, while the console
launched with a game
widely considered as the
greatest 3D platformer
of all time - Super
Mario 64. It introduced
gamers to a
revolutionary new degree
of control that bought
people closer to the
action than ever before.
The console also
included four control
ports for legendary
four-player action in
games like Mario Kart 64
and Super Smash Bros.
However, the Nintendo 64
also saw Nintendo slip
further away from the
position of leader in
the home console wars,
an issue confounded by
the arrogant bitterness
of Yamauchi after Square
moved development of
future epic Final
Fantasy VII to CD-based
PlayStation, despite the
runaway success of its
prequel on Super
Nintendo.
This period also marked
success for Nintendo
with the release of the
Game Boy Pocket in 1996,
a slimmer, sleeker,
bigger-screened
successor to the brick
Game Boy of yore. Then,
in 1998 Nintendo scored
another homerun with the
Game Boy Color, a system
that introduced the
long-requested colour
screen into the Game Boy
range, with minimal hit
on battery life (thanks
in large part to the
lack of a backlight).
Even though it wasn't
programmed specifically
for the Color, the
release of Pokemon gave
the console the momentum
that the old line had
lost over the years.
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 The
release of the GameCube
and Game Boy Advance saw
Nintendo regain a little
of the focus lost during
the days of the Nintendo
64 and Game Boy Color,
but it also saw them
lose a different bit of
that focus, too. On one
hand, Nintendo made both
GameCube and GBA cooler
than their predecessors;
the GameCube was
launched with edgy
marketing and the
Advance lost the kiddy
image of the Color. At
the same time, the GBA
suffered from SNES-era,
bright, simplistic
graphics, and the
GameCube suffered from a
kiddy-handle, a
Fisher-Price controller
and a purple case,
thanks to Nintendo's
mantra of making
products that look fun
to hold.
The GameCube also
suffered from unfinished
games. Launch title
Luigi's Mansion was a
gimmick stretched as far
as possible, Super Mario
Sunshine was a buggy
mess, and The Wind Waker
was the shortest,
easiest, laziest
Zelda game yet. The
GameCube produced few
sequels better than
their Nintendo 64
counterparts, with
F-Zero GX and Super
Smash Bros. Melee the
only games that managed
to better what some
would consider
perfection. It did spawn
a couple of new, lovable
franchises in the form
of Animal Crossing and
Pikmin, but overall the
console suffered from
quantity over quality.
 The
Game Boy Advance was
little better. While
fantastic, original
games were released for
it, like The Minish Cap,
DK King of Swing,
Advance Wars and Mario &
Luigi Superstar Saga,
the console was plagued
by remakes, like the
Super Mario Advance
series, Metriod Zero
Mission, and A Link to
the Past. The original
hardware was patently
defective - without the
light of a thousand suns
sat over your shoulder,
it was nearly impossible
to see the screen. In
2003, the clamshell
Advance SP was released
which included a
front-lit display and an
essential rechargeable
battery.
In 2002 Hiroshi Yamauchi
handed presidency to
HAL's Satoru Iwata, a
change which many
attribute Nintendo's
later personality swap
to.
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In 2004, we learned that
Nintendo was ready to
kick ass and take names.
The future president of
Nintendo of America
Reggie Fils-Aime told
the audience of E3 2004
that Nintendo know
what's wrong, know what
they want, and know how
to get it. Inside
Nintendo, there was a
growing urge to break
games out of their
stereotypical "lone boy
in dark room" niche, and
into the mainstream. The
solution proposed by
Nintendo was 2004's
Nintendo DS and 2006's
Wii consoles.
 The
Nintendo DS was intended
as a third pillar to the
Game Boy Advance and
GameCube, but in Japan
at least, the DS has all
but buried the GBA.
Worldwide, the pure
innovation in its games
has sold DS to people
who don't traditionally
play video games. Titles
like Brain Age, Big
Brain Academy,
Nintendogs and Wario
Ware have made games
truly accessible, truly
pick up and play. The
console has also hosted
updates to old classics
like Tetris, Zelda,
Animal Crossing and
Super Mario, and enabled
a new audience to enjoy
those, too.
While Nintendo had long
held back from the
online gaming sphere,
with Nintendo DS they
introduced Nintendo
Wi-Fi Connection, a
service that lets gamers
frag each other, Tetris
each other, and blue
shell each other for
free. Implementation
isn't fantastic; each
game has a different
Friend Code and Friends
List, meaning keeping
track of and adding
friends is a real pain.
With Wii, Nintendo are
changing aspects of this
system, for instance
introducing a universal
friends code that
applies strictly to your
console, rather than
your console+game combo.
It also uses a service
called WiiConnect24 that
enables Nintendo to
silently push content to
your console while it is
switched off.
 The
Wii itself is a home
console version of the
Nintendo DS mantra,
which opens up a whole
load of possibilities.
Games like Wario Ware
Smooth Moves and Wii
Sports demonstrate the
accessibility and
versatility of the new
controller, while games
like Super Mario Galaxy
and Metroid Prime 3 use
the nunchuck attachment
to create experiences
fit for hardcore gamers.
The controller can be
used to directly
manipulate events on the
screen, meaning a
non-gamer will have a
much easier time of
playing games for the
first time. Also,
breaking away from the
traditional paradigm of
a control pad means new
applications like
WiiFitness can be
created.
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