Bilan de l'année de Nintendo – Notre équipe Chat Switch, Jeux, Et stupide 2021 Des choses

The year is drawing to a close, et 2021 was another interesting period in the broader gaming industry and in the world of Nintendo. There were big online events, fantastic games, controversies and of course some enjoyable and humorous times. C'était aussi, by most metrics and with consideration for the various challenges it faced, a strong year for Nintendo.

Before we all fell into festive routines of eating too much cheese and sleeping a lot, a few of our team got together for a virtual chat — along with copious notes — to talk about the year. It was rather busy, as it turned out…

Alors, here we have editor Gavin Lane, deputy editor Tom Whitehead and staff writer / crab news Thursdays founder Kate Gray talking over 2021 in the Nintendo Life. Let’s get to it…

Kate Grey: I barely remember January at this point, but there was apparently a mass DMCA shut down – a field day for Nintendo, no doubt, avec 379(?!) fan games removed!

Gavin Lane: I definitely have a crystal clear memory of this… *frantically checks notes

Thomas Whitehead: Were they awful flash games, or proper good fan games?

Misao Senbongi: I’m not sure we listed them, bien que Ryan’s article specifically names one called ‘Five Nights at Yoshi’s”…

TW: That answers that then… Nintendo acquired Next Level Games though, that was very significant.

Misao Senbongi: Definitely. Nintendo takes its sweet time testing out partner studios, that’s for sure. Next Level has definitely earned its place in the ‘family’.

Misao Senbongi: And we know that Nintendo is enlarging their Tokyo offices, so I bet they aren’t done with acquisitions yet…

Misao Senbongi: It was a relatively quiet start to the year. I remember a lot of whispers worrying about Nintendo’s relatively blank slate for the year ahead, although looking back now I hope 2021 était le last year where everyone’s worrying that there’s nothing in the pipeline. It’s just the strategy Nintendo goes with for revealing games! Seems to work.

Nintendo takes its sweet time testing out partner studios, that’s for sure. Next Level has definitely earned its place in the ‘family’.

TW: We should also remember that you-know-what slowed projects down a lot in 2020, alors 2021 started relatively quietly. It says a lot that the biggest release of the month was the Monster Hunter Rise démo, which was hugely popular.

Misao Senbongi: That’s what I was thinking, too – 2021 marked the first full year after the start of you-know-what, and I think, combined with the post-Christmas news sleepiness, a lot of companies were probably trying to figure out their new strategies.

Misao Senbongi: I assume you both made a few million with GameStop stock, droite?

TW: Bien sûr, I just do this for fun while lounging around in my mansion like Bruce Wayne. It’s a good life.

Misao Senbongi: I just got my Reddit “year in review” and it told me I was one of the GameStop people. Which is just, nettement, untrue. Shall we move on to February, puis?

Misao Senbongi: A ‘GameStop person’, eh!? Okay, allons-nous en.

Misao Senbongi: Voyons. We had Monde de Super Mario 3D + La fureur de Bowser, which ended up on a lot of GOTY 2021 lists. I still haven’t played it…

Misao Senbongi: I played the Bowser bit pretty much exclusively. Good game.

TW: I replayed 3D World all-the-way but weirdly didn’t finish Bowser’s Fury. I’m aware that makes me a Mario failure. Really good though, even if Bowser’s Fury was the first Mario game in recent memory with iffy performance.

Misao Senbongi: Oh, and we got that February Nintendo Direct, trop. Feels like we had a billion Directs this year. I’m not complaining. Or maybe I am, en fait. So many news stories, jammed into so little time…

TW: I think it was the first ‘real’ one in ages? It was pretty epic, être juste, a lot of massive reveals.

Misao Senbongi: Definitely plenty to chew on after January. We also got Courageusement par défaut II, a huge RPG and therefore a game I never got around to despite the desire. That’s the story of my 2021 pour être honnête, and probably why I enjoyed Bowser’s Fury so much — a game I had a hope in hell of actually finishing! Either of you catch Bravely Default?

TW: Pas vraiment, the demo didn’t grab me so I skipped it. Demos are not always a good idea.

Misao Senbongi: I tried to get into the first one, but I read a ton of reviews about some annoying part in the middle, so I gave up… I’m also not super hot on JRPGs. je veux dire, I enjoy some, but the battle system always bores me. SORRY.

Misao Senbongi: Ha, I just can’t be doing with grind right now, or those ‘annoying parts in the middle’, you know? Don’t have the time for ‘em. Quoi qu'il en soit, moving into March, Switch turned 4, Super Nintendo World opened and we got Monster Hunter Rise AND Balan Wonderland. Non, Wonderworld. Damn, always do that.

TW: Poor old Balan.

Misao Senbongi: Tom, you’re the one that wrote “the nightmare began” in these notes, correct?

TW: Indeed! It became trendy to beat it up, bringing to mind the classic Simpsons scene. “STOP, HE’S ALREADY DEAD”!

Misao Senbongi: I didn’t engage with it too much beyond watching a video or two to see what all the fuss was about. I do get the feeling that the internet really loves to pick on a single target, and you just have to hope and pray that it’s never you.

Misao Senbongi: I think the video chaps put the most time into Balan – I didn’t touch it either. En fait, my expectations would be so spectacularly low, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that I might scrape some enjoyment from it.

TW: Monster Hunter Rise was brilliant, au moins, and I think the Switch release benefited from the good work of Monster Hunter World making the IP more ‘mainstream’. It was nice to see it so well received.

I can’t believe I secured an interview with THE Luigi. He’s a lot shorter in real life, you know.

Misao Senbongi: That was another game that I really wished I could devote a few dozen hours to.

Misao Senbongi: I just hope we’re not going to gloss over the fact that Mario décédés in March. Rappelez-vous que? Remember all the articles about Mario dying??

TW: Silly that Nintendo did that though, the false scarcity thing is never an admirable tactic.

Misao Senbongi: We would have never got your Back Page interview with Luigi if ol’ red cap hadn’t passed on, Kate!

Misao Senbongi: I can’t believe I secured an interview with le Luigi. He’s a lot shorter in real life, you know.

TW: Crikey, and he’s the tall brother.

Misao Senbongi: de toute façon, March was a lot of anniversaries (the Switch and Breath of the Wild turned 4) and Mario finally popped his clogs. Avril, on the other hand…

TW: We had Switch Firmware 12.0, which sounded exciting because of the round number but did nothing for us gamers. Nintendo can be cheeky sometimes.

Misao Senbongi: I think Pokémon fans may be irritated that you’re burying the lede with a Switch Firmware update when there was a new Pokémon Snap, Tom. Snappily titled Nouveau Pokémon Snap.

Misao Senbongi: And another Nintendo Direct, je veux dire, Monde indé. We saw Sans boeuf II, Fès, et The Longing – the game that takes 400-ish days to play. I guess no one’s finished it yet, huh?

TW: Don’t forget that Indie World had those plucky underdogs, Konami, aussi.

Misao Senbongi: Pac-Man 99 dropping, Streets of Rage 4 DLC announced, Great Ace Attorney, too… April wasn’t bad!

Misao Senbongi: I think The Great Ace Attorney announcement was one of my 2021 points forts. Reviewing two games was less of a highlight… especially because I had to play the two Club des détectives Famicom games at the same time. That was a hectic couple of murder-mystery months. But I’m getting ahead of myself!

TW: May had all sorts of fun. People going mad over a Waluigi render, Elon Musk being a plonker as Wario on SNL, and Epic v Apple in the courts. It was a weird time.

Misao Senbongi: I still have nightmares about trying to decipher the Epic vs Apple trial. Between that, and having to do an Economics 101 class to understand the GameStop stocks debacle, I think I never want to look at complicated paperwork again.

Misao Senbongi: Getting to see some of the figures devs were earning on Epic Game Store was fascinating.

Misao Senbongi: I was just thinking about that the other day! There were some surprises on there – games that really ought to have charged Epic way, way more. I hope they know their value now!

And on the “Nintendo loves doing takedowns” side of things, they won a $2 million lawsuit against a ROM website, trop. Which will come back to bite them when we get to the Nintendo 64 Emulation Fiasco…

Misao Senbongi: Ouais, I’d imagine it was a big wake up call for lots of smaller devs and a handy way to gauge what they should be charging. It’d be nice if more people got their hands on some of those Fortnite bucks.

TW: May also brought Nintendo’s financials and massif profits from 2020, which was no surprise. Pre-E3 hype was also building, along with all that Switch Pro malarkey. June was pretty frantic though, with more virtual showcases than I’ve had hot dinners.

Misao Senbongi: Another Direct. Nintendo, you’re spoiling us. Et Garage de constructeur de jeux! I’d totally forgotten about that – I was so excited about it at the time.

TW: I always had to double check its name though, bizarrement.

Misao Senbongi: It’s one of those games that likely went under a lot of people’s radars, which is a bit of a shame. I’ll be interested to see sales numbers on it next year.

Misao Senbongi: And on the “Nintendo loves doing takedowns” side of things, they won a $2 million lawsuit against a ROM website, trop. Which will come back to bite them when we get to the Nintendo 64 Emulation Fiasco…

TW: I remember it prompted some features on game conservation, ROMs etc, which always leads to civilised debate. Toujours. In terms of E3, we should say that 2021’s show will always be remembered for Terreur Metroid. That was a wonderful moment.

Misao Senbongi: Nintendo’s entire year would have a very different complexion without Dread. It’s been a constant source of excitement from the moment it was revealed. No offence to smaller games – the Miitopies, le Mario Parties, etc – but when you’ve got A NEW METROID on the cards, it draws all the attention.

Misao Senbongi: Se souvenir, aussi, that the Switch Pro rumours were hotter-than-hot just before E3, and then… rien. My hunch is that Nintendo was going to announce the OLED at E3, and pulled back knowing how much it would disappoint. We eventually got the announcement in July, free of E3 hype.

TW: Definitely. The white Joy-Con are basically E.M.M.I. colour, it seems likely that at some point they were supposed to be announced together, but the internet spoiled it. Are you happy internet?

Misao Senbongi: Speaking of a happy internet: Journée Bidoof. That was a thing.

TW: Euh, yes, it was a thing.

Misao Senbongi: Bidoof.

TW: Épée vers le ciel HD sortit de! I really enjoyed playing through that again, waving my arm around with increased Joy-Con accuracy. A lot of people complained about the ‘upgrade’ and price, but I was fine with it and had a jolly time.

Misao Senbongi: Ouais, I’ve got an awful lot of time for Skyward Sword. It brings back good memories, despite its flaws.

Misao Senbongi: This is starting to become my motto, but I haven’t got around to Skyward Sword HD yet… I’m planning to force my partner to play it, but first he has to finish the Ace Attorney series, which I’m also forcing him to play. I am a fun person!!!

TW: I’m sure you’re not forcing them to play… Steam Deck was also announced

Misao Senbongi: Remember when the Kinect killed the Wii? [smiles]

Misao Senbongi: And then Switch OLED got announced and killed everyone’s Switch Pro expectations amirite?

Misao Senbongi: It mollified us enough that I don’t think we’ve written another Switch Pro article since, let me see… Ah. We apparently reported multiple Switch Pro things in December alone. Never mind then.

TW: And thus the rumours will go on until the Switch successor arrives, and the ‘insiders’ will say Ahah, I was right you fools, even if I went on about it for 3 years!

I foresee a Mario 128-style ongoing affair where Switch ‘2’ will appear, but everyone will still be wondering where the real Switch Pro is.

Misao Senbongi: I foresee a Mario 128-style ongoing affair where Switch ‘2’ will appear, but everyone will still be wondering where the real Switch Pro is.

Misao Senbongi: Speaking of Mario, 2021 has so far been a very Mario-light year, other than Super Mario 3D World’s re-release, and Mario’s death.

Misao Senbongi: je veux dire, he died. He’s had himself a Mario Party recently. He’s doing pretty well, all things considered.

TW: And if I’ve read the trends correctly on social media, the world’s most liked actor will portray him in film, so not a bad year really.

Misao Senbongi: Tom, that’s September! We haven’t done August yet! And August was good – we got the announcement of Idris Elba as Knuckles in the Sonic sequel movie, plus the promise that he definitely, 100% would not be sexy. Which later turned out to be a lie. And now we’re all coming to terms with our feelings for Knuckles.

TW: (Darn I’m getting my months mixed up) August also had une fantastique Monde indé. Genuinely one of the best they’ve done.

Misao Senbongi: It was a belter. August also satisfied my feelgood Brendan Fraser content quota, et I got to converse with a whole bunch of VGM legends, trop. And the weather was pleasant. Great month, Août. Big fan.

Misao Senbongi: Although I was massively disappointed to see that Reggie Fils-Aimé wrote a book, and didn’t call it “My Booky Is Ready”.

TW: Maybe we should move on… to September’s Direct, which had Kirby x Nier in it!

Misao Senbongi: Nier: Kirbtomata of the Wild.

Misao Senbongi: It was nice to see that Bayonetta 3 is progressing well, trop.

TW: Ouais, it’s been progressing well for over 4 years, être juste.

Misao Senbongi: Et éclaboussure 3 earlier in the year. Big year for 3s, J'avais un de ces bons d'achat Nintendo Switch eShop à utiliser?

TW: Aussi, Nintendo really won over the fans with the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pa(c)k.

Misao Senbongi: And by “won over” you mean “Nintendo cracks down on emulation for years only to completely bork it when they get a turn”, droite?

TW: Yep, pretty much! Cela dit, Ti est certainement l'une des cartes graphiques les plus puissantes du marché you play a lot of Animal Crossing it’s a good deal. Oh God I shouldn’t have said that, the comments…

I got a brand new N64 controller and Banjo-Kazooie confirmed for Switch. The Expansion Pack is therefore Nintendo’s greatest triumph of 2021.

Misao Senbongi: Hey. Look. I got a brand new N64 controller and Banjo-Kazooie confirmed for Switch. The Expansion Pack is therefore Nintendo’s greatest triumph of 2021.

Misao Senbongi: I still think it’s brilliant. je veux dire, it would have been nice to have the upscaling or whatever they used work better, but I suppose it’s more aimed at casual players. If I wanted to play N64 games The Right Way, I could boot up my actual N64 which is plugged into an actual CRT…

TW: Also it was the month that gave us Bluetooth headphone support, so it was a good time.

Misao Senbongi: October was a big’un. Commutateur OLED, Terreur Metroid, Froggy chair.

Misao Senbongi: Horloge AAA...

TW: It was also the month of a million Chris Pratt memes, which stopped being funny to be honest, not much originality on social media.

Misao Senbongi: Et, more seriously, it was when the Activision Blizzard stuff was really being hashed out on social media. The allegations of harassment and discrimination, the lawsuit filed by the state of California, Overwatch’s McCree being renamed… a lot of things were going on, and they’re still nowhere near sorted as we write this.

TW: Personnellement, I think the most important thing with Activision Blizzard is that it is in the courts. Social media can be important for awareness, but the vital thing is tangible action, consequences and so on. That’s the key change in my view.

Misao Senbongi: It’s depressing that, after all the allegations and revelations that have come out, it takes the stock price being affected for any real change to get discussed at the highest levels. The whole thing has cast such a shadow on the industry this year.

Misao Senbongi: And there was a lot of talk about “proper crediting”, trop, as MercurySteam – the Metroid Dread studio – was accused of not properly attributing work to its former staff members, plus allegations of poor management within the studio.

TW: Ouais, Je pense 2021 was a year when the industry has had to face the fact a lot of its façons are at times juvenile and amateurish, and at worst obviously very damaging. With the credits thing, I just think studios need to get serious and take ego out of it. Giving people a line in credits is not much to ask for, really, it’s craziness.

Misao Senbongi: I hope this is the beginning of The Reckoning! Treat your employees well!!!

Misao Senbongi: It seems a bit trite to mention Sora in Smash and a Lego ‘?’ Block maintenant, but we can’t close out October talk without mentioning those.

TW: That Smash Sora reveal was an incredible moment really, the buzz was a bit crazy, in a good way. It was a lot of fun, and a credit to what Sakurai-san and his team built over the course of 3 years with Smash Ultimate.

Misao Senbongi: And since I’m the resident Minecraft fan here at NL, I shall highlight the 1.18 update release date, and the announcement of the 1.19 “The Wild” update during the Minecraft Live. Mojang have been really, really hard at work, and I could tell how disappointed they were to have to push things back… again. Mais 1.18 is fantastic, truly.

TW: Into November, it was pretty amazing for Animal Crossing fans. If you were just getting the free update or the paid expansion as well, it was a fantastic update. I think it gave the game new life.

I’ve been playing Pikmin Bloom semi-regularly ever since reviewing it and it’s just beautifully non-taxing and chill. Rare in a ‘game’ these days.

Misao Senbongi: I played 182 hours of Animal Crossing: New Horizons this year, and that was almost entirely during November. I wrote a lot of guides. I vaguely remember other things happening, like the C'est le week-end du Super Bowl, le Diamond and Pearl remakes, et Pikmin Bloom… but I was in a little Animal Crossing cage of my own design. Le mien Happy Home design.

Misao Senbongi: The best thing I can saw about the Animal Crossing update was that it brought me back to a game that I thought was over, and I haven’t even touched the DLC yet. On another topic, I know it’s hardly the biggest release of the year, but I would like to give a shout out to Pikmin Bloom. I’ve been playing it semi-regularly ever since reviewing it and it’s just beautifully non-taxing and chill. Rare in a ‘game’ these days, when everything is trying to tempt you back with meters and FOMO and other rubbish.

TW: I also enjoyed the dunking on C'est le week-end du Super Bowl, je vais admettre, because good grief it actually deserved it. I know that’s a bit contradictory to my Balan comments earlier, but I can’t help it. We should shout out Shin Megami Tensei V, trop, which was well received and broke a franchise record for its US launch.

Misao Senbongi: Did either of you get the Jeu Zelda & Voir?

TW: Santa is giving me one apparently.

Misao Senbongi: Joli.

Misao Senbongi: Bien. Too much stuff on my backlog…

Misao Senbongi: Shh, we don’t mention that word here! Heading into December, The Game Awards happened and brought practically nothing for Nintendo fans.

Misao Senbongi: Luckily, nous avons eu un autre Monde indé! Does that make it three this year? It was pretty fantastic, with a surprise shadow-drop for Chicorée: Un conte coloré (one of my GOTYs, as well as a lot of other people’s GOTY, trop) and a date for TUER, which a lot of people have been waiting for.

TW: I didn’t think it was as strong as the other Indie Worlds this year, personnellement, but the last 5 minutes definitely helped to lift it up. A few too many games not due until Summer or later, which surprised me slightly. Overall though, really nice to see Nintendo continue support for those shows.

Misao Senbongi: Masayuki Uemura’s passing had me re-reading a bunch of interviews he had given in the last years of his life. He really has left a huge mark on the industry through his NES and SNES console designs and it was heartening to remember how enthusiastic he was about his work. A true legend in the world of Nintendo and a sad day.

TW: Je pense articles like yours and others were good in helping more people understand his impact, as he wasn’t necessarily as well known as other key figures in Nintendo history.

Misao Senbongi: We also got the chance to see our Year In Review stats – I guess this is a thing now, since Spotify, Tic, and now the Switch are all summing up our year in graphs and stats. I like it, but I wish Nintendo’s stats were a bit more in-depth – I want to know which games it thinks I should play (that I already own), or how my stats changed from last year, for example.

TW: Surprisingly I think the EU page was a bit better to be honest, had a few more comparisons etc. I was amazed to see The Great Ace Attorney 2nd in my list, that’s a lot of reading and OBJECTIONS!

Masayuki Uemura left a huge mark on the industry through his NES and SNES console designs and it was heartening to remember how enthusiastic he was about his work.

Misao Senbongi: Ace Attorney wasn’t even in my top three, terriblement. Mine were Animal Crossing: Nouveaux horizons, Histoire de saisons: Amis de la ville minérale, et Histoire de saisons: Pionniers d'Olive Town. I didn’t even play the first Story of Seasons game for a review! That was all free time!!

Misao Senbongi: And that about brings us up to date. I’m sure there’ll be some megaton announced between the time of writing and the time of publication. Is it time to announce the Nintendo Life NFT Program encore?

TW: We need to get Peter Molyneux to check it over first.

Misao Senbongi: La vie de Nintendo: The new kids on the blockchain!… I need to make it explicit that this is a gag, don’t I?

TW: Indeed. But you got your ‘90s joke in there, so we can all be happy!

Misao Senbongi: I only have ‘90s jokes, my friend. Any final thoughts?

Misao Senbongi: If Nintendo can pull off multiple Directs and Indie World showcases during a pandemic year, I’m a little frightened.

TW: Vrai! I think considering the circumstances it was a fantastic year in gaming, and it’s been a wonderful hobby to have once again. So I tip my hat to all the devs that somehow finished and brought us a lot of marvellous games.

Misao Senbongi: Je suis d'accord. I was bracing myself for a quiet year, but it’s been a strong one for Nintendo. Room for improvement, bien sûr, but my personal plan is to head into 2022 with similarly tempered expectations and maybe, juste peut-être we’ll see something similar. The real question is… will BOTW2 en fait make it out next year?

TW: Ouf, it’d be amazing if it did, but… I dunno, I smell a delay!

Misao Senbongi: “Holiday” always sounds very slippy to me. Like it’s clinging on to the last vestiges of the year and hoping not to lose grip. It sure looked nice, but it’s so hard to tell what’s going on behind-the-scenes…

Misao Senbongi: Mars 2023 seems like a safe bet to me, but we’ll see. That about wraps things up! Thank you both, and a Happy New Year to all that read this (and even those that don’t, we’re nice like that).

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That was our pre-Holidays chat about the last year. Be sure to share your thoughts and memories of 2021 in the world of Nintendo and gaming down in the comments, and check out le 2022 Switch games we’re most looking forward to.