Something weird happened when I watched the last Nintendo Direct; I saw a whole bunch of games I actually wanted to play. I’m not being facetious here. I’m being serious.
Normally when I see a Nintendo direct, I expect two things. 1) I expect brand name properties that carry the big N, like Mario and Zelda , and 2) I expect a bunch of casual games, like Tomodachi Life , that I’m not all that interested in.
Nintendo is pretty well known for being unwelcoming to the hardcore crowd. No one is going to play Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed on the Wii or Wii U unless it’s the only console they have.
But this Nintendo direct we saw a lot of genuinely interesting hardcore games. We saw the return of the SMT X Fire Emblem project, which appears to be an absolutely beautiful RPG complete with HD graphics and anime cutscenes. We saw the next Fire Emblem game itself, which allows for multi squad battles and has an in-depth character creator. We saw Mario Marker , which while it appears to be casual, allows you to make incredible super hard Mario stages that would make Kaizo Mario World crap its pants. There’s even a new Fatal Frame in the works.
Then we saw perhaps one of the most interesting things Nintendo has done yet. They opened up a suggestion box for Smash Bros. DLC. They are allowing fans to vote for any Nintendo character they can think of, give their reasons why it should be a fighter, and send it along. They all have a chance to become Smash Bros. DLC. Vote Geno now, or I swear I will light this internet on fire.
All of this boils down to one thing: it looks like Nintendo isn’t necessarily just targeting the family friendly market anymore. But at the same time, it isn’t targeting what we think of as the hardcore market either. It doesn’t really care about die hard shooter fans or people who want to play the next crazy action game. But it does seem to care about obsessive importers, strategy gamers, and the professional Smash Bros. crowd. While these may be their own niche communities, it would be hard to deny that they are hardcore communities, not casual.
So maybe that’s Nintendo’s ultimate strategy here. Instead of appealing to Sony and Microsoft’s hardcore, maybe they are making their own “Nintendo hardcore” which will purchase games like Hyrule Warriors in the future. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.