Has Nintendo lost its mojo?

Musou got old after a couple of games.

Pokémon should've been docked points years ago for failing to improve its visuals.

Kirby Air Ride was dogshit on the GameCube. It's revisionist history to try and reframe it as a good game which needed a sequel.

The only game I'm surprised about is MP4, but also not really. Games rarely exit development hell unscathed and Retro are probably Ship of Theseus'd so much they barely resemble the old team.

Donkey Kong Banana was great and I enjoyed it more than Odyssey, so Nintendo are still capable of producing quality.
 
Crazy to think that'd be the case after the NDS and Wii years which were so successful for them. They've gotten drunk with the success of the Switch 1 and have become lazy, at least that's how I see it.
I mean, we all should have seen this with the release of Drag and Drive.... Could old Nintendo release such a game bereft of any fun, creativity, etc? Maybe but yea, the accountants have taken over at Nintendo now.
 
Crazy to think that'd be the case after the NDS and Wii years which were so successful for them. They've gotten drunk with the success of the Switch 1 and have become lazy, at least that's how I see it.
I see it the same way, but honestly Nintendo is just following the broader herd mentality that has taken over the entire entertainment industry. They're operating almost like a bank, a financial institution, or a shareholder-driven corporation: avoiding risks, playing it safe, maximizing profits, cutting costs wherever possible, and showing total aversion to new markets or genuine experimentation.

This mindset has become a kind of virus in modern business — almost a religion. Everything is dictated by algorithms, forecasts, and "safe bets," and any move outside that comfort zone is treated as unnecessary exposure. Companies only acknowledge the need for change when there are clear signs of financial decline, as if that's the only metric that matters.

Nintendo hasn't escaped that logic. If anything, the massive success of the Switch just pushed them deeper into it. Only a significant downturn will force them to rethink the model — and that's exactly the problem.
 
They've contracted the mind virus sadly.



"In 2015, following an article published by The Mary Sue that suggested Samus Aran was a transgender woman (which cited a potentially transphobic statement made by Hirofumi Matsuoka in 1994), Fausti tweeted their support for the idea and personal belief that Samus is and will be transgender. This tweet was liked by the article's author Brianna Wu, but it has since been deleted."

what the fuck

source
 
Last edited:
I mean, we all should have seen this with the release of Drag and Drive.... Could old Nintendo release such a game bereft of any fun, creativity, etc? Maybe but yea, the accountants have taken over at Nintendo now.
My brain just wont register that game as a Nintendo first party title. Most bland designs I've seen in a videogame, maybe ever?

This mindset has become a kind of virus in modern business — almost a religion. Everything is dictated by algorithms, forecasts, and "safe bets," and any move outside that comfort zone is treated as unnecessary exposure. Companies only acknowledge the need for change when there are clear signs of financial decline, as if that's the only metric that matters.
Yeah agree, and shit sucks. Videogames used to be led by geeks and nerds that were all about innovation and making new cool stuff just for the sake of being cool. Fuck.
 
Yeah agree, and shit sucks. Videogames used to be led by geeks and nerds that were all about innovation and making new cool stuff just for the sake of being cool. Fuck.
Yeah, exactly — and it sucks. What used to be a space led by geeks and weirdos experimenting purely for the sake of making cool new stuff has turned into an industry so big and profitable that financial forces inevitably took it over. The money got too big for the people who only care about returns and control to ignore.

And this isn't just happening in entertainment. What you're describing is part of a global trend: a form of neoliberalism that's become increasingly extreme, deregulated, and hyper-concentrated, fully centered on maximizing profit and consolidating wealth and market power. Entire sectors get swallowed by this mindset — there's no "innovate because it's cool" anymore, only "innovate if the spreadsheet allows it."

This level of concentration and financialization isn't socially sustainable. The more wealth, power, and decision-making get funneled into the hands of a tiny group, the more tension, inequality, and instability build up. And historically, when systems reach that kind of rigidity and imbalance, it inevitably leads to rupture — political crises, economic shocks, and major social conflict.

It doesn't have to mean a literal war, but deep social upheavals are almost guaranteed if this trajectory keeps going.

The games industry is just one visible symptom of a much bigger structural problem.
 
You nailed my point, zelda botw had many fucking flaws and it was still scored like it was an almost perfect game, the quintessential overrating media move.

I never thought they were untouchable except for the snes era tbh.
I mean you can hardly reproduce games like SMB/SMB3/Zelda/Metroid in the NES era. They were basically inventing genres.

Then SNES refined them to the point of perfection.

N64 basically told all developers around the world how to make 3D platformer (Mario 64, Banjo) and 3D action / adventure (Zelda OoT). Standards that are still used to this day.

GC was the start of the drop in quality, though some GC games are still golden and the best in their genre (SSBM).
 
Top Bottom