Nintendo is easily my favorite game and gaming system developer. They did have a bit of an advantage on that front, however, as the NES was the first gaming system my family ever owned. I can still clearly remember my mom and dad playing the original Legend of Zelda in our old basement (my mom actually drew a map while my dad played — they MADE their own player’s guide).

Back on topic, a while back I was looking to upgrade my DS system. I had a chance to play around with a friend’s DSi XL and was quite impressed with the large screen, and the camera was fun to play around with. However, there really wasn’t anything that made me want to shell out more money to get it. Then came the 3DS, which added stereoscopic 3D to the mix, and I simply had to say, “Now THAT is cool.” It was an undeniably unpractical moment in my life, although a bit of a serendipitous mistake when I bought one.

As you can tell from my last post on the Facebook smartphone, it’s not a mistake that will happen again despite the fortunate results this time.

The 3DS was a system that had that wow factor that made it easy for people to convince themselves that they want one (in fact, I remember reading an article before the release about how Nintendo was pricing the system too low). The problem this system had, in my opinion, has nothing to do with Nintendo, it has to do with 3rd party game developers not being Nintendo.

There is no doubt in my mind that the most fun times I’ve had with the Wii were times playing Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Legend of Zelda, New Super Mario Bros, etc. See a pattern? Continuing the trend with the 3DS, the most fun I’ve had with this system was when playing Super Mario Bros 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and finally the most spectacular, the built in software. The augmented reality games are an undeniably fun experience. If the pattern isn’t clear, the most fun I have with Nintendo systems is when I’m playing a Nintendo game. It seems to me that only Nintendo knows how to use the system’s potential.

The thing about games like Wii Sports and the augmented reality games is that they are effectively demos. I have to imagine that they were meant as a showcase for game developers, showing them what they could be doing with the system. However, 3rd party game developers responded with the following 5,927 first-person shooters for the XBox. Is it a surprise to find that Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a game that you’ll find several of the widely popular mechanics introduced by the Wii Sports games? Not to me, it was developed by Nintendo.

As Satoru Iwata stated in the Nintendo pre-direct video, the goal of Nintendo is to “create something unique.” Nintendo is currently leading on that front, while the 3rd party developers are a bit lacking in that department.

The serendipitous part of my mistake comes in a few forms. First, the ambassador gifts. Because of the gifts, I finally got around to playing Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap, and it was surprisingly good (despite being developed by Capcom) and has several similarities with Skyward Sword. Second, downloadable classic games. I reunited myself with several of my old road trip favorites like Mario vs. Donkey Kong. And third, the games are getting better.

I still have yet to get a copy of Kid Icarus: Uprising, but I will soon. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is coming soon. And finally someone is taking advantage of the augmented reality capabilities of the 3DS with Spirit Camera: the Cursed Memoir. I just wish that the preview for that game didn’t creep me out.

… A man of my age shouldn’t be getting nightmares.