Happy Halloween BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is Game Grind, the place where we examine the various aspects of videos games both as an industry as well as an art form. I wish today’s topic was a little more festive, but today’s topic really needs to be addressed so I’m going to forgo that seasonal hook. Nintendo, you’ve got to step it up.

I know that this is a weird time for you guys. You’re trying to restructure yourself so that you are more competitive in a more diverse society. That’s totally fine. I’m stocked that you are going to be embracing mobile games and I’m sure that you guys can do extremely well in that market, but not with what you’ve announced.

Miitomo is an interesting idea, but nobody was asking for this as your first mobile game. It is great that you are expanding the concept of Miis to be more involved with social gaming, but your first venture into the mobile world needed to be way cooler than this. Do you remember how much everyone freaked out when Pokemon GO was announced? That’s what you need to do, take your preexisting properties and convert them to work with the unique functions of the mobile platform. Alternatively, you could release official mobile versions of your classic games, because they are currently being emulated the hell out of. Either of these routes would have made fanboys and fangirls scream, this “Nintendo Facebook Game” pretty much just gets a collective “meh”.

While we are one the topic of games, you need to be making more of them. You have five games that are going to be released in what’s left of 2015, and not one of them is a major title. That’s really going to hurt in the holiday season. You also have a bunch of incredible games planned for 2016, but none of them have specific release dates. Is Bravely Second, the squeal to the crazy well received and well selling Bravely Default, coming in January or do I have to wait until April? With the holiday’s upcoming you really have to drop some kind of big announcement to get people excited about Nintendo again or, at the very least, give some kind of acknowledgement that you care about the games that your audience loves.

I know that your headquarters must be scrambling right now. That’s totally understandable. Iwata’s passing probably could not have come at a worse time and you are probably trying to figure out how to expand your horizons while still holding true to what made you great in the first place. My advice, don’t freak out. You’re Nintendo! You are the most well known video game company in the world. Do you remember when Sega tried to move in on your turf? You kicked there ass across multiple console and bought them out. You won the original console wars by embracing new ideas, making great games, and by putting out new properties while also making sure to release games for your oldest IPs. Video games may be changing, and you definitely need to change along with it, but it really does seem like you can win this console war the same way you won the last one.

Alright, glad I got that out of my system. If you enjoyed this post please be sure to like it and leave a comment down below. As always, you can subscribe to 4B via the upper right tab using your email. You can also stay up to date by liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter on Twitter. Have a great Halloween everybody and remember to be safe.

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