Nintendo: The Family Reunion
Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of the slim orange and white ray gun shot off at the screen of our T.V. A duck froze for a moment and swiveled down to the ground where the dog rose from the bushes, holding up the bird.
“Joey! Let me try now!” I had whined at my older brother.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The ray gun went and the ducks flew off into the distance as the dog rose from the bushes again and mockingly giggled at me.
This was the first of many memories I have of Nintendo bringing my family together. Weather it be Marble Madness and Duck Hunt or the endless nights of our father playing Mario’s famous catchy tune all night as our lullaby, this was the true beginning of Nintendo in our lives.
Nintendo at first was a multi-national company in Japan founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamchito which solely produced hand made Hanafuda[i] cards. It wasn’t until 1966, when sales for playing cards dropped, that Nintendo decided to move to the toy industry and created the Ultra Machine, Love Tester and the Kousenjuu[ii]. In 1985 the NES[iii] was released in North America and became a hit especially with Super Mario Brothers sold along side it. Until 1991, when the SNES[iv] was released in August. Although a brand prospective of seeing video games with 3D graphics was developed and released in 1992 under the name of Virtual Boy, it was relatively short lived.
I remember the day I opened my birthday present and received Virtual Boy. I was just as excited as the next kid in line. It was a big step into a 3D world which gave off the impression that you weren’t just sitting there looking at a screen. No, you were actually in the game, you were watching things as the appeared to be coming around you instead of just in front of you. I received two games for this magnificent console, Mario Tennis and Wario Land. Boy did I ever have fun, we all did. My brother, my cousin and I all played it until the batteries died and we’d have to go ask our parents for a new set of batteries.
Then the Nintendo 64 came out in 1996 which proved to be a big hit with games included, such as Super Mario 64. As well as several little games such as The Game Boy Pocket in 1996, Game Boy Color in 1998 and Game Boy Advance in 2001. All of which followed the big hype about Pokémon and became very successful that way.
When my cousin had received Game Boy Pocket, we were all in to Pokémon. My cousin had 53 Pokémon cards, I had 25 Pokémon cards and we used to play battle with them. Now we could spend countless hours playing a Pokémon journey. We could name our own character and our brother character. We could pick weather we were female or male. We went to all the cities and fought for our badges. Walking through paths, catching Pokémon, moving through long grass and crawling through caves. You name it, we could do it all and we loved it.
Also in 2001, Game Cube was released on November 18th. Being the first Nintendo Console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium. Using miniDVD based discs instead of full sized DVD’s, Nintendo thought this to be more of a space saver. Game Cube also put a wild spin on things and inserted an internal clock to keep track of time and the date. This in turn put a spin on games like Animal Crossing that needed to be played instead of put aside for strenuous amount of times.
The first to have a Game Cube was my brother and after he played Animal Crossing, it caught on with the flick of a page. My mother started to play it and then my father started to play it. Pretty soon we all where playing it and exchanging things between one another in the virtual world of Animal crossing. Keeping our towns in tip top shape. In all honesty, I still have my Nintendo Game Cube and I still play on it from time to time. Although I have bought another game for it called Chibi-Robo. Chibi-Robo being similar to Animal Crossing (except for the time restraints) is a role playing game with a lot of adventure and a lot of responsibility.
Further along the line, Nintendo promised to release a hand held that hand nothing to do with Game Boy at all and they kept their word. In November 2004 the Nintendo DS was released. Unlike any other hand held video game, this hand held embarked on the new age. With color, 3D graphics and touch screen, the Nintendo DS received over three million pre-orders.
My brother, being one of them, pre-ordered the Nintendo DS and Animal Crossing along with it. Can you take a hint where this is going? Yup, we all were amazed to see Animal Crossing in a new perspective. With more abilities, such as changing your hair style and color added neat little effects to this fun filled game. We all took turns playing this little hand held game. Enjoying the fact that Animal Crossing was indeed better on Nintendo DS.
Finally in 2004, there was a large amount of talk about a new console. A console that would shock the nation. They called it Nintendo Revolution, but it is now simply known as the Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii made its launch in November 19 2009 for $249.99 and is recorded to be a big break through for Nintendo. The Wii console, being just as up to date with future technology as the Nintendo DS, had wireless controllers simply called “Wii Remotes” which is used as a hand held pointing device that detects movement in three dimensions. The Wii also is enabled to access the internet and receive messages, along with downloading games and viewing the weather, creating and exchanging Mii’s and developing your Mii’s brain with the voting options.
My brother had brought home this device with many games. But the game that brought the family together was a game called Rayman. I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard or seen this epic and funny bunny that randomly screams at some point in time. This epic adventurous game included a various selection of games that could be played and the reactions to the things we had to do in Rayman were amazingly funny. This in turn made this game an awesome game to play with anyone. We’d all sit round the TV screen and swirl the remote while holding a button down and released when we felt necessary and the cow went soaring through the air making panic mooing sounds. This made it incredibly hard for any of us not to laugh at all and we would end up laughing so hard we’d all be crying.
On May 2009 Nintendo announced to release a console that would replace the Nintendo Wii console.
It is July 4, 2009 as of today and my thoughts are of what this future console might hold for us and how it’s going to bring my family even closer. Is it going to be super tiny? Is it going to be paper thin? Is it going to project on a wall or big screen? Are we going to have to step in a pod that scans us in the game and has a motion sensitive pad on the bottom? Are we going to replace our walls, floors and ceilings with special screen like vinyl that officially inserts us into the game? We never know for sure what the future will bring to us. But one thing is curtain. Nintendo has been and will continue to be a part of my family for as long as I live.
Did you know?
The word “Nintendo” is a Japanese word and when translated to English, it means “Leave luck to Heaven”.
Where do I buy Nintendo Products?
Most Nintendo Products can be found at your nearest gaming store (Game Spot ext.) or local mall. Nintendo products can also be found online on sites like Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon, and EBay. Older Consoles might be tough to find and only sold on EBay, but for a much more expensive price then originally sold for.
[i] Playing Cards.
[ii] A series of light gun games.
[iii] Nintendo Entertainment System, Video game.
[iv] Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Video game.
