It’s no secret that Nintendo has had a profound impact on the history of the video game industry.
After an epic collapse of the video game industry in the early ‘80’s, which left retailers with absolutely no desire to have anything to do with any product that called itself a video game, Nintendo was able to single-handily resurrect home console gaming, through their sheer determination and moxie.
What was once an emerging art-form that was left for dead, was suddenly reforged into an activity synonymous with the name Nintendo itself; through the popularity and might of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
While those salad days didn’t last forever, as new challengers rose and eventually overtook Nintendo’s position of industry leader, the company has continued to pioneer; pushing forward our conceptions of gaming, the mechanics of games, and what products will be accepted by the consumer.
After resurrecting the home console, Nintendo was able to define gaming on the go, through the portable Game Boy line of systems. When Nintendo needed to rethink both portable and home gaming, they did so through the massively successful Nintendo DS and the Wii systems.
At this moment, we are on the cusp of Nintendo’s next console, a hybrid device between a home console and a portable unit called the Nintendo Switch. Much like the launches of the Wii and the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is once again attempting to redefine the concept of what it means to play video games.
There is a huge potential impact that the Nintendo Switch may have on the market place if they are successful in their endeavors to marry home and portable gaming.
However, as good as the Nintendo Switch may or may not be, no console is going to be worth a single dime without good games.
Fortunately, Nintendo has often been at the forefront of redefining the art of gaming itself; having published numerous games that have pioneered new mechanics and established new genre’s.
With the launch of the Nintendo Switch on the horizon (March 2017 as of this writing) I thought it would be fun to take a look back through the history of Nintendo and pinpoint the ten games that in my opinion, have been the Ten Most Important Games Nintendo Ever Published.
Throughout the month of December, we’ll be counting down the titles in Nintendo’s vast history that have pioneered standards for the entire industry and laid the foundations for Nintendo’s success.
These games were the games that were often instrumental in refining the very notion of what video games are and what they can be.
We already counted down #10 and #9 on our list, which you can view here and here.
8. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
It’s hard to believe this, but prior to the release of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1998, there had been only three prior mainline entries in the Legend of Zelda series, as well as one well-regarded Game Boy spin-off.
“Z targeting” was a brilliant way to engage in hand-to-hand combat in 3D.
Of those original three: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, with its experimental perspective shift from an overhead to a more traditional for the time, 2-D side-scrolling experience, was such a radical departure from what was established in the first game that it had become a sort of black sheep for Nintendo.
But despite the risk that Nintendo took ten years prior with Zelda II, Nintendo was looking to profoundly alter our perceptions of the Legend of Zelda series once again. This time Nintendo had to retain the elements that had made the Legend of Zelda series so special, as they made the shift to full 3D as a showcase for what the Nintendo 64 hardware was capable of doing.
However, success wasn’t guaranteed, and there were plenty of people who openly speculated about their fears that the new Legend of Zelda game would end up feeling too similar to Nintendo’s own Super Mario 64, which had set the bar for development a 3D game two years prior.
Nintendo persevered, proving those fears to be unfounded.
The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was a revelation for the art of making video games.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time featured epic boss fights that were previously impossible to represent in 2D
Not only did it prove that third-person action/adventure games could convey a different “feel” between titles, within the still-fledgling advances of 3D; but it also pioneered a number of game mechanics that would later be adopted and put to use in titles even today.
Two of those mechanics were “Z-Targeting”, which allowed your character to lock on to a single enemy when facing a group of badguys, and contextual buttons – a button whose function would change when faced with different situations.
Those two advancements would have been revolutionary to the creation of games as a whole, even of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had turned out to be rubbish, however, the game built around those mechanics was indeed, well.. ahem.. legendary.
Nintendo took everything that they had learned in their previous twenty years of video game development and poured it into one of the finest games ever created.
Today, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time stands as the foundation for the series as it moves forward. It’s lessons learned during the course of its development have carried through to the most recent titles in the series.
The next Legend of Zelda game – Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, began its life as a game for the Wii U, however, Nintendo has since seen fit to parallel its development onto the Nintendo Switch, and will release it in 2017.
I hope that you enjoy this look at the Most Important Games Nintendo’s Ever Published. Please keep an eye out at NerdBacon.com, or like our Facebook page as we continue the countdown!
We also want to know your thoughts on what games were most important to Nintendo. Have a disagreement with the list? Want to share a Nintendo memory? Just let us know in the comments section below.
Written by The Watchman
He’s also an actor, a reporter, a pro wrestling connoisseur, and some say he’s a cat whisperer.
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