Platformers: Mario main series
Action Adventure: Zelda OOT, MM
Open World games: Zelda BotW/ TotK
Racers: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Fighters: SSBU
Lifesim: Animal Crossing New Horizons
RPG: Xenoblade 1 and 3
RPG/ strategy: Fire Emblem series
FPS: Metroid Prime
RTS: Pikmin Series
Action: Bayonetta series
2.5D: Metroid Dread, DKC Tropical Freeze
Anything else comes to mind? To me it looks like Nintendo has conquered almost every genre with best games of these genres. Well, maybe not counting sports games such as american football.
@Rambler
Nice suggestions. However, compared to the genres I mentioned those are not too popular. Except MMO, which is at this point the only really popular genre Nintendo has not conquered, apart from certain sports games. I believe WoW is still number 1 mmo?
@Cia
I would say that, while Nintendo have created games in multiple genres, they have left quite a lot alone, mostly, I would say, from that list above.
However, when they have concentrated on a genre, it's almost to the detriment of any other games company.
Nintendo and Mario are synonymous with side-scrolling platformers, and no other kart series appears to be able to hold a candle to Mario Kart.
BoTW/ToTk appear to be making headway and into the sandbox / open world, the same as the other Zeldas have for action games. However TEL, GTA, Souls, etc are still highly (higher?) regarded.
But I doubt that Nintendo will ever release the ultimate scrolling shoot em up or run n gun, leaving that to Capcom, Treasure, Cave in another age.
A couple different threads have also mentioned recently that Nintendo could use a good rogue-lite, another popular genre.
In terms of the list in this thread, those are good games, but not always the best in the genre.
Mario Platformers and Mario Kart are certainly very strong contenders. But FPS? Metroid Prime is (comparatively) a niche series and there are a lot of insanely popular FPS games out there. Bayonetta is similarly niche and there are also a ton of popular 'action' franchises across other consoles and pc. I think the more accurate thing to say is that Nintendo has excellent games in a remarkably broad collection of game genres.
I would agree that Nintendo have popularized several genres.
But in many cases other developers have created better experiences in those genres.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,256 games (as of May 29th, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
@Rambler
GTA open world games are not as highly regarded as BotW/ TotK. In the best case scenario, they're even. By this I mean only GTA V. RDR 2 is a better contender, but even that is not better than BotW or TotK.
The only Souls game that can compete with BotW and TotK is Elden Ring in terms of ratings.
So, we could say the best open world games (in any order based on preference) are BotW, TotK, Elden Ring, GTA V and RDR 2.
While those games you listed are good, I wouldn't say even a single one of them is the best in their respective genres, I can easily name multiple games I would put before the ones on your list.
And the waiting line for your picks would get even longer depending on the genre; Action adventure, Action, Open world (this isn't really a genre) and RPGs especially since it's such a wide umbrella.
When Nintendo dips in toes into a genre it usually doesn't I expect a unique take on it most of the time, not "conquering" the genre.A
At the end of the day this is a subjective discussion but I'm just stating my personal take.
Nintnedo makes unique takes on a genre, but I can’t really say they created the best game for each, sure platformers and there rpg are amazing, but everything else has been done better I think anyway, but other games.
Nintendo are like woman, You love them for whats on the inside, not the outside…you know what I mean! Luzlane best girl!
(My friend code is SW-7322-1645-6323, please ask me before you use it)
While those games you listed are good, I wouldn't say even a single one of them is the best in their respective genres, I can easily name multiple games I would put before the ones on your list.
And the waiting line for your picks would get even longer depending on the genre; Action adventure, Action, Open world (this isn't really a genre) and RPGs especially since it's such a wide umbrella.
When Nintendo dips in toes into a genre it usually doesn't I expect a unique take on it most of the time, not "conquering" the genre.A
At the end of the day this is a subjective discussion but I'm just stating my personal take.
Out of curiosity, what would you say is best platformer? This list just said 'Mario' which I admit is pretty vague, but I suppose the question is whether a non-Mario game deserves the title. According to Metacritic, the top 10 rated platformers include top 3 all Mario, a PlayStation 3 game, Celeste, 4 more Marios, and one other game. I wouldn't rate it exactly that way, but I tend to agree with Mario at the tip and Celeste very close — Celeste is excellent but its difficulty makes it less universal so I wouldn't give it number one spot.
Note that I would consider action-platformers, puzzle-platformers, and metroidvanias different categories so that we don't have to consider e.g.
dark souls in the same category as Mario.
I would say Mario arguably deserves the platformer title (with above caveat), but I'm not sure if Nintendo deserves the number 1 spot in other genres. Although Zelda is so canonical I tend to cheat and say Nintendo has the best Zelda-lke but not the best rpg or adventure game...
Personally, when comparing broadly similar games from the same genre to determine 'the greatest', I would give extra weighting to any game with universal appeal - so anything with a PEGI 3/7/12 rating may get a boost against a game with a 16/18 rating. And I'd say the same thing for books and movies too.
That's not too say things like GTA, God of War, Elden Ring, The Godfather, Shawshank Redemption etc. aren't truly great works, but they are deemed socially inappropriate for a chunk of the population that love games and movies. Thus things like Toy Story, Mario, Zelda, Splatoon tend to win out for me.
When it comes to life Sims, I think only one person can decide...
@Anti-MatterIf you could only have ONE, what would you choose - Animal Crossing or The Sims?
You guys had me at blood and semen.
What better way to celebrate than firing something out of the pipe?
IHowever there are better games just less accessible for instance 2D mario is eclipsed by plenty of platformers like ori or celest however it’s easier to get into.
Your application of better seems subjective - 2D Mario is, objectively, a better multiplayer game than Celeste and Ori by a million miles. Some people's favourite memories include multiplayer gaming and the value of including multiplayer in a game should not be overlooked. A game that is good as a single player and good as a multiplayer is almost automatically better than any single player-only equivalent.
Personally, when comparing broadly similar games from the same genre to determine 'the greatest', I would give extra weighting to any game with universal appeal - so anything with a PEGI 3/7/12 rating may get a boost against a game with a 16/18 rating. And I'd say the same thing for books and movies too.
The film version of Orlando is a PG, but I really don't think that it's got universal appeal, fantastic as it is.
And, or course, books don't have ratings.
Platformers: Crash series
Action Adventure: Zelda OOT, MM
Open World games: Zelda BotW/ TotK
Racers: Wipeout, TDU, GT, Forza Motorsport 2 - 4, Wipeout
Fighters: SSBU
Lifesim: The Sims 1
RPG: Atelier Series, FF 5-10 (+Morrowind if we count WRPGs)
RPG/ strategy: Phantom Brave, FFT/A/A2
FPS: Half Life 1/2
RTS: Dawn of War + addons
Action: Uncharted 2, Okami, many more
2.5D: Metroid Dread, Klonoa
Forums
Topic: Nintendo Has Created Best Games For Almost Every Genre
Posts 1 to 20 of 54
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic