[This feature is a collaboration between four editors: Elia, Greg, Dakota, and Menashe.]

Introduction

Being a Nintendo fan has its perks, but it also has its rough moments where your loyalty is put to the test. Luckily, Nintendo usually pulls through and delivers, reminding you why you loved them in the first place. Those are the ups and downs of being a Nintendo fan. In this feature, we take a look back at the highlights and low points of this year so far, as we head towards the final crescendo of the year – the 2013 holiday season. Let’s take a walk down memory lane at some significant events that happened not too long ago.

Let’s begin our year…

-January-

January Nintendo Direct Heralds Major Announcements To Foreshadow E3

Nintendo came out with a very strong showing at the very beginning of 2013. Holding a Nintendo Direct at the beginning of the year in January, Nintendo not only decides to definitely establish a games-centered message for the year of 2013, but also establishes Nintendo Direct as a legitimate mean of communication between the company and its fans. Before, Nintendo Direct was not utilized for very large announcements, but that all changed when Nintendo held a Nintendo Direct in January, which eclipsed the E3 presentation of the year before.

All within a 40-minute period, Nintendo announced tons of new games, semi-announced others, and hyped up the world on Wii U. The presentation was like an E3 in January. The new Wii U Mario game, unnamed at the time, was announced for the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 was also announced. We even found out that a new Zelda game was in development for the Wii U, although very few details were given; a new Yarn Yoshi game was showed, but details were scarce for that game as well.

Hardcore gamers everywhere were overjoyed when Nintendo announced that both Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem and Monolith’s X were in development as well. To close out on the Wii U side of things, Nintendo provided several new videos for upcoming games such as Bayonetta 2, Wii Fit U, Wii Party U, The Wonderful 101, and Game & Wario. Nintendo even decided to treat old-school fans to a few treats as well. 30-cent Virtual Console games would be offered through the first half of 2013, and Earthbound would finally see a re-release on Wii U. In Zelda news, Nintendo announced Wind Waker HD, an upgraded version of the 10-year-old classic.

It was the best time to be a Nintendo fan, as there were so many games to look forward to at that moment. Unfortunately, most of the games have not yet come into fruition. Game & Wario was released to mediocre reception, while Wii Fit U and Wii Party U have been constantly delayed. Super Mario 3D World has not yet come out, while games like Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Smash Brothers, and Monolith’s X are only coming out next year. The Wii U Zelda game, as well as Yarn Yoshi and Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, have literally not been mentioned since January. Only The Wonderful 101 and Wind Waker HD have been successfully released, the rest of the roster has not yet been released, leaving fans wondering why they were so excited for 2013 back in January in the first place.

-February-

Dismal Wii U Sales and Rayman Legends Gets Delayed

After the initial sales success of the Wii U, nobody thought that the Wii U could drop so low in terms of sales and support. Several things took place within the first quarter of 2013 which put the Wii U in an incredibly tough spot. First off were the sales numbers. When numbers came out that the Wii U only sold about 55,000 units in January, the general gaming community was in shock. After its 3rd month on the market, selling 55,000 units was unheard of.

When the sales numbers for February were released at about 65,000, the sales situation grew even more dire. When key games were released in March and sales still failed to grow, the situation became pretty grave. These sales numbers really put the place of the Wii U in perspective. For what once seemed as a company which could not fail, the Wii U was failing pretty badly.

Another large blow came to the Wii U in February when Ubisoft decided to delay Rayman Legends by seven months in order to port the game to the other platforms. This game was integral to ensure that there was no draught in software for the first quarter of the year on Wii U. Unfortunately, this delay caused a huge draught spanning from December to the end of March. What was even worse was the motive for the delay: the fact that the Wii U, in particular its third-party software (ZombiU), was performing so poorly.

-March-

Critical Third Party Games Come to Wii U; 3DS Begins Its World Domination

Although there was a large draught of games in January and February for the Wii U, March did hold several awesome games for Wii U owners to play. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate ensured that all those who bought the game would never have a draught again. The game was embraced by Wii U gamers and critically performed very well, not to mention that the game holds literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. Lego City Undercover was also released for the Wii U, which was one of the funniest games I’ve ever played. The game took elements of GTA, mashed them in with Lego, and then produced hilarious dialogue which made me laugh out loud several times. This game also performed very well on the Wii U. And last but not least was Need for Speed: Most Wanted U, which managed to impress gamers by its improvement over the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. Criterion is one of the few third-party developers at that time who had put in the effort to take advantage of all aspects of the Wii U hardware, recognizing the Wii U’s potential.

The Wii U eShop was beginning to hit its stride at this point as well. Two large critically acclaimed games came out during the time period, Runner 2 as well as The Cave. Runner 2 proved that the competitive online spirit exists even on Nintendo consoles, as leaderboards became a very integral part of the experience. The Cave, on the other hand, emphasized a darker story and old-school adventure gameplay, both of which were praised in reviews.

The 3DS side of things were going much better. Fire Emblem Awakening was released to universal love as well as Etrian Odyssey IV. Both franchises were often known to be brutally hardcore, and although there was still the option to play the classic version of the games, both featured accessibility completely unheard of previously in the series. Brain Age and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon were released to cater to the casual fans, Code of Princess and Naruto to appeal to the fighting fans, Luigi’s Mansion for the Nintendo fanbase, and Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate for the hardcore Japanese audience. There was literally a game for everyone. There was no draught, as there was something new to play on the 3DS every week.

-April-

Wii U Resumes Its Dry Spell…

When I look back at the second quarter – between April and June – the first thing that comes to my mind is the distinct lack of noticeable game titles launched during that period. Of course, that is not to say that no games were released; it’s just that no game stood out among the pack.

Drought periods for video game releases is not a new concept to Nintendo systems, as both the Nintendo DS and 3DS both went through their own droughts after launch. During this whole period, only ten games were released for the Wii U and this number includes retail and eShop games other than virtual console games.

Of the ten different games released, several stand out for me. Resident Evil: Revelations and Mutant Mudds Deluxe are both great games, but both are ports from the Nintendo 3DS. Other games, such as Injustice: Gods Among Us, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, and Sniper Elite V2, just happened to be late ports, missing DLC, or above all, missing most of its features compared to other console versions. I think that this truly speaks in of itself on how bad the Wii U drought was. In fact, it wasn\’t until June 23rd that Nintendo released their first title of the year with Game & Wario. All in all, it reminded gamers of similar droughts on the Wii, Gamecube, and N64.

-May-

Rumors and Hype Pave the Way to E3

When I look back at the time right before the big Nintendo E3 Direct, the things that stand out the most to me were the crazy rumors and reactions at Nintendo not having a live E3 press conference this year. Just in case you missed this year’s E3 or were not that interested either way, you might have missed the announcement that Nintendo was going to skip their yearly E3 live presentation and opt in for a special Nintendo Direct instead.

This was a major bombshell that left a lot of people scratching their heads on why Nintendo would do such a thing. To make matters worse, it did not help that some were confused by the message and actually thought Nintendo was going to skip E3 altogether. Others were concerned that it being an online direct instead would result in less exposure for Nintendo’s E3 presentation, as it would not be covered by major websites and TV channels that happen to normally tape it live. So for a a good many months, we were all left arguing among each other if this was a crazy but great idea or a short-sighted silly idea.

Of course, that was not all that was being discussed before E3. There were also all the crazy rumors flying around about Nintendo and what sort of announcements they might have for us. As with any video game rumor, you should really take what is reported with a grain of salt. This goes double right before E3, because most rumors you might read or hear before something as big as E3 are just plain false and made up on the spot.

There were some obvious rumors, like Smash Bros. and Super Mario 3D World, but we knew about those from Nintendo themselves announcing them back in January or February. Most used this information to their advantage to throw in some \”rumors\” that in no way were happening. I\’m talking about silly announcements, such as Goku from Dragon Ball Z being in Smash Bros. and Eminem working on a exclusive Nintendo game. Some went all in and to create stories out of thin air.

Looking back, nearly everything was false, but given how people ate those rumors up and created dozens of pages of conversation off of each one, I can only assume next year’s E3 rumors will be even crazier.

-June-

Nintendo’s E3: Looking Back After the Fact

\”What’s going on? Why won\’t it play? No! Stop freezing.\” I think that best describes my and everyone else’s ability to try to watch the Nintendo Direct. Watching it was a disaster, because the video could barely play more then two seconds at a time before freezing. I actually ended up switching to the Japanese Direct stream to continue watching live. That one was actually viewable, for most part, but obviously I could not understand what was being said and, at times, wasn\’t entirely sure what game was being announced or discussed.

Others at the time were also annoyed and upset that Nintendo could drop the ball like this so badly. Personally, and I believe nearly everyone would agree with this, that doing an E3 Nintendo Direct instead of doing a press conference live was a mistake; at least, a mistake in terms of not using a better source for their video. I can only hope that Nintendo will actually do a press conference next year.

Though I think doing an E3 Nintendo Direct was a mistake, I think the video itself, at least when playable, was pretty good. The only downside in my opinion for the video was that it only focused on a few games with almost all of them not being new. That is not to say Super Mario 3D World and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS were not new and exciting; it’s just that we knew both of those games were going to be there and were expected. Donkey Kong Country Returns: Tropical Freeze had to be the most controversial announcement at the time. A lot of people were really upset that Retro Studios was spending time doing another Donkey Kong Country game instead of something else.

Overall, a good portion of the videos for each game were somewhat a success. They showed off exciting new information about upcoming games, as well as surprises, like Mega Man in Super Smash Bros. That got a big reaction at the time.

There was one Nintendo game that made big waves with its release in June. That game was Animal Crossing New Leaf. It debuted to critical acclaim and overwhelming response from the fans. For a little while after its release, all anyone spoke about was what they were up to in their daily dosage of Animal Crossing New Leaf.

-July-

EVO: Melee Steals the Show!

About a month after the glitz and drama of E3 had subsided, a new source of headline-worthy chaos exploded onto the internet in the form of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee involvement in this year’s EVO 2013 fighting game event. What originally started as a desperate struggle for campaign support to even be in the event’s line-up to the brief jeopardy of the streaming rights for the game all culminated in the second most watched fighting game competition of all time. Melee was a massive success, standing out among today’s popular titles like it had been released only this year. Undeniable was the passion and excitement for Melee at Evo 2013 both at the event and all across the world. While, of course, this indirectly seems like a victory for Nintendo, the credit goes to the strength of the competitive Super Smash Bros. community.

-August-

Nintendo Starts to Turn Heads Again

Smash’s EVO triumph seemed to foreshadow the eventual rise of the Wii U, and in turn Nintendo, following E3 2013 and the first half of the year, which had been largely a disappointment for the console. Slowly but surely, the Wii U gained momentum as the summer months dragged on; while Pikmin 3 laid the foundations for success in the following months, it wouldn’t be until late August that Nintendo really began to turn heads. This was, of course, when the Wii U price drop, Wind Waker HD release date, and the Nintendo 2DS were all announced. Sure, the 2DS raised some eyebrows, but this only helped highlight the paramount importance of the Wind Waker HD bundle coming in at only $299.99 on what would eventually be September 20th.

-September-

Pokemon and Kickstarters Steal the September Spotlight

The Wii U finally felt like a contender for living room space – so much so that I was adequately convinced to snag the Wind Waker bundle myself as soon as it was released – with a price tag that simply could not be beat. The majority of September, however, only reminded us how exceptionally well the 3DS is doing and how amazing of a handheld and its library are. September became the month of Pokemon, assuredly. The hotly-anticipated installments of the franchise were squeezed of their goodness across weeks of interviews and news articles, creating immense amounts of hype with every new Mega Evolution and gameplay mechanic announced.

Super Smash Bros. followed suit with its jump back into the spotlight with its daily character updates revealing returning members of the roster such as Peach, Luigi and Toon Link. Yet, September was also a particularly bright time for a number of Kickstarter campaigns, including Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and Mighty No. 9. Following these fundraisers from beginning to end was a compelling experience, exemplifying the astounding results that can come from the successes of crowdfunding. For what it’s worth, it is refreshing to see seemingly endless amounts of support for work made by some very talented people.

-Final Quarter of 2013-

Grey Clouds: Marketing Woes and Hiroshi Yamauchi’s Death

Of course, it wasn’t all glorious for Nintendo. The company’s struggles with marketing the Wii U continued to prove evident. The shining moments of the summer for Nintendo were still sporadic, riddled with a multitude of indications that the Wii U’s half-baked launch and less-than-stellar marketing campaign continued to plague the console to this day. So, while the aforementioned successes of Nintendo throughout these months definitely made progress for the Wii U, the console isn’t out of the hole yet.

The death of former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi was a somber reminder that even the sunniest of days can be followed by cloudy skies. From a broader perspective, we ultimately saw Nintendo take a more active role in generating necessary success going into the latter half of the year. Following Evo 2013, where the acknowledgment of the community backlash toward the streaming controversy was appreciated but nevertheless reflective of Nintendo’s distance from the competitive Smash scene, it became more apparent that Nintendo was gaining control of its situation. This seemed to eventually culminate in the price drop for the Wii U, which was received quite well.

Admittedly, the future of the Wii U may be foggy. Yet, the future for Nintendo has never been so clear to me. Almost a year from the Wii U’s release, we’re starting to see the manifestation of Nintendo’s game plan. The Wii U’s library looks healthy (and will be strengthened even more come 2014), especially packaged alongside the console’s new price. The 3DS continues to steamroll the competition. The signs point to this all stemming from a successful summer season for Nintendo, from the cries and roars of the Melee community at Evo 2013 to the changing winds in the eShop upon the release of The Wind Waker HD. One way or another, whether indirectly or directly, Nintendo continues to show its relevancy in today’s game industry.

To Be Continued…?