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Fun Club Let’s discuss weird things Nintendo has done that are only really weird if you think about them for a bit

Derachi

Derachi

Fresh Eater
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Most of the time, if you truly think about questionable decisions that Nintendo has made, you can sorta understand why they made them. The answers are usually, in order of frequency from most to least:

1) money
2) the safety of young children (who make up a large portion of their audience)
3) technological limitations

I’m not interested in talking about these. I wanna talk about the opposite: things that, on first glance, you think “yeah okay” but when you think about them a little too deeply, you’re like “wait, what? Why?” And cannot come up with a legit reason why they did that.

Here’s my example: the bottom two buttons on the Wii Remote. They called them “1” and “2.” Huh??? One and two??? Why?

Like I know the prototype Wii Remotes called them (lowercase) “a” and “b” and that made a bit more sense given how many times you held that thing sideways NES style. But when the console came out: 1 and 2. Weird, right??? Not X and Y? Or something else?

Also the Nunchuck had a C button???

Anyway you got anything else like this? Just little Nintendo things that, if you think about em, are weird
 
How is that weird? "b" and "a" are confusing when there are already B and A buttons, "X" and "Y" don't make sense for primary action buttons, and there's not much else they could have called them.
 
How about the microphone in the Wiimote? I always thought the sound effects were weird in Skyward Sword!

Also the adoption of the microphone as a weird player input in the DS, mostly by blowing into it for various puzzles. And then using it to play the wind instrument in Spirit Tracks. A portable game. I remember looking around on the train and thinking ‘nah’ :)

And why did the Gamecube have a carry handle. How many people carried it around like that to make it worth adding.

What was the rationalisation about having dedicated ‘select’ and ‘start’ buttons when there were only two primary input buttons on the NES and GB. I get that ‘press start’ links up to arcade attract screens and 8-bit computers, it makes sense, hit start to start. But why ‘select’ when you’ve got a dpad to scroll through options with.
 
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Elite Beat Agents, made by iNis and Nintendo. They made a game about a Oendan (male cheerleaders) squad who helps people by cheering them, that made sense. They localized it to... Some sort of Men in Black doing the same? It sounds weird as hell as I'm writing it lol

Odama: Edo era samurai war simulation. Played with pinball arms? That's not weird enough, we need more. You controlled your army with voice commands!

And GameCube launch color was purple just because purple was the best selling GBC color.
 
The fact some Wii games had a "Compatible with Wii Wheel" icon on their packaging...

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It's just a piece of plastic.
 
PixelKnight said:
How about the microphone in the Wiimote? I always thought the sound effects were weird in Skyward Sword!

Also the adoption of the microphone as a weird player input in the DS, mostly by blowing into it for various puzzles. And then using it to play the wind instrument in Spirit Tracks. A portable game. I remember looking around on the train and thinking ‘nah’ :)

And why did the Gamecube have a carry handle. How many people carried it around like that to make it worth adding.

What was the rationalisation about having dedicated ‘select’ and ‘start’ buttons when there were only two primary input buttons on the NES and GB. I get that ‘press start’ links up to arcade attract screens and 8-bit computers, it makes sense, hit start to start. But why ‘select’ when you’ve got a dpad to scroll through options with.
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The Wii Remote speaker was pretty ingenious when games made good use of it. There's a horror game called Calling used it such that you had to put it to your ear like you were using your in-game phone to hear calls and messages.

Speaking of, Calling also made creative use of the Wii's message board feature. There was one particular ghost in the game that, if I recall right, would leave messages on the console message board after encounters with her.
 
e-reader was a descent into madness for me, so much untpapped potential. amiibo are the rebirth, but still.
 
1, 2 and C make... Some sense. It's the primary and secondary button of a secondary button paradigm. Numbers are thought of as parallel to the alphabet, in a way.

The C button was intended to be held so the control stick could be used to control the camera.

To me, 1, 2 and C make sense... Conceptually. But I find them weird in practice, because really, C ended up being used as L, and 1+2 became auxiliary buttons (or pause buttons, with games using + and - as zoom or modifier buttons!).

I think they should come back, though! The L and R sticks don't have a label assigned to them, let them be CL and CR (with a single Joy-Con just having "C"). 1+2 would make sense as the fifth and sixth buttons in a six button layout if they ever go back to that context. These extra buttons like on say, the original Xbox, were and likely would still be used as "modifiers", or "auxiliary", so 1+2 makes sense, and Z is presently taken, twice over.

As for one specific thing I find weird with Nintendo, definitely the Wii U GamePad's battery situation. Not the Wii U GamePad itself, I love that thing. Not even its default battery life, I don't game for longer than 3.5 hours at a time too often. It's the whole SITUATION. The fact they knew many wouldn't think it's enough, so instead of giving it a bigger battery, they... Designed the battery compartment to fit multiple sizes of battery, then sold the extended capacity one seperately... But it wasn't like, a Wii Remote you could just pop the cover off, it wasn't even a battery like the Switch Pro Controller or 3DS using a simple pressure fit. It was an internal component held in with screws, battery not-a-ribbon-connector and all, that was also... Intended to be user replaced, not as a matter of repair, but as a value add?

But, neither official battery actually filled the battery compartment. So there was always just... Air in there, either in the compartment with the small battery, or in the battery casing in the large battery. The terminals of the battery were not in the same place, of course, because they used different keyings, one vertical (original) and one horizontal (large), the wire connector rather than a pressure fit either enabling or precipitating this. They could have used the space saving of the smaller capacity to make the controller that ended up lambasted for being too big thinner, and offer the upgraded battery as a clip-on enhancement, I mean it had its own case anyway! But no.

The Wii U was sold at a loss. They were already losing money on it. Their in-dev cost saving measures did not succeed. Yet they insisted on launching such an ABSURD one that created a NICHE accessory for what turned out to be a niche console. On the face of it an upgradable battery sounds good but in context, then or now, hindsight or forethought, it was absurdist top to bottom. The Wii U GamePad high-capacity battery WUP-013 is one of the most incredible, inedible, terrifying, effective, awful, great things that Nintendo has ever done.
 
JorgenRaft said:
The Wii U marketing collaboration with Pottery Barn.

And then there were people who genuinely believed that was gonna be the turnaround for the system’s success.
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If only they had marketed the The Wii U GamePad high-capacity battery WUP-013 it may have succeeded! 🥸
 
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Derachi said:
Like I know the prototype Wii Remotes called them (lowercase) “a” and “b” and that made a bit more sense given how many times you held that thing sideways NES style. But when the console came out: 1 and 2. Weird, right??? Not X and Y? Or something else?
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I see it kind of like how on Futurama when two universes met they went with the names Universe A and Universe 1. That way neither automatically seems above the other. In this case, "A and B" and "1 and 2" were both considered valid main button pairs.
 
epicmartin7 said:
The fact some Wii games had a "Compatible with Wii Wheel" icon on their packaging...

image.png


It's just a piece of plastic.
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I'll do you one better.

5947803-goldeneye-007-wii-front-cover.jpg

At least the Wii Wheel made the B button easier to press on it's side which was frequently used in racing games.
The Wii Zapper just made things more cumbersome than just standard Wiimote/Nunchuck.
 
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I'm sorry to 🤓 on y'all, but the Wii Wheel Compatible symbol and the Wii Zapper Compatible symbol were meant to serve a function.

Although Wii Wheel had a window for the IR camera for pointer controls, it was off to the side. So "Wii Wheel Compatible" games were games which had menus that didn't require the IR pointer to navigate, and which defaulted to assuming the Wii Remote is being held on its side. Oh, of course, supported "tilt controls" for actually controlling the game, and didn't require the Nunchuk or other exp. port accessory. Whether all games with the symbol followed these guidelines, I can't tell you with any certainty.

Wii Zapper limited the buttons available to press when being held in its default position, and physically fixed the Wii Remote and Nunchuk together. So gameplay and menus had to account for the way you hold Wii Zapper. Fixing the two controllers together meant the game could in theory, poll the Nunchuk for its motion data, and combine it with the motion data from the Wii Remote for more accurate motion controls, since it gives the whole setup an extra accelerometer that the developers know will be in a fixed position in an accessory of fixed weight and proportions. Again, whether games that used this symbol actually used this functionality or followed the guidelines for playability with Wii Zapper, anyone's guess!

Not all games are compatible with Joy-Con Wheel or Joy-Con Grip, or even Joy-Con Strap, and they're all bits of plastic! Wheel can only be used in single Joy-Con Play, and although it expands the SL and SR buttons, it blocks the L/R/Z buttons, Joy-Con Rail connector, and IR Motion Camera. So yes, there's Joy-Con™️ Wheel compatible icon, even now!


Screenshot_2023-11-20-02-04-03-58_3aea4af51f236e4932235fdada7d1643.jpg
 
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The fact that their biggest franchise is about an incredibly athletic Italian plumber wearing a bright red and blue outfit jumping around stomping on sentient mushrooms and bipedal turtles while grabbing mushrooms to grow big and flowers to throw fireballs.
 
GamerJM said:
That someone in their marketing department okayed the music and audio design for this commercial for their newly launched console

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I remember this commercial as a point where I specifically lost hope in the Wii U.. lol. I was holding out benefit of the doubt for a while, thinking I was missing something Nintendo was going to be able to use to pull it all together by launch and sell it.... then we got this mess.

On the flip side, the Switch taught me to trust my gut :)
 
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epicmartin7 said:
The fact some Wii games had a "Compatible with Wii Wheel" icon on their packaging...

image.png


It's just a piece of plastic.
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It doesn't work if the motion controls are wrong way so I can understand that. For example Excite truck motion controls worked with the controller being buttons up. It isn't compatible with the wheel. And of cource some casual players may not no which games support motion to begin with.
 
k samedi said:
I think the limited Mario remasters were weird.
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It sold about 10 million copies before they pulled it. With the legs of evergreen Switch titles and an undoubtable boost from the Mario movie, it would likely be around 15-20 million sold. Nintendo just threw away 5-10 million copies of sales for no real reason.
 
k samedi said:
I think the limited Mario remasters were weird.
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Yup like I understand make the collection limited with the extra bonus of ost etc but I always expected them to put the games at least on the eshop after a while.
You can only play SM64 in NSO and it's not even the same version.
Forkball said:
It sold about 10 million copies before they pulled it. With the legs of evergreen Switch titles and an undoubtable boost from the Mario movie, it would likely be around 15-20 million sold. Nintendo just threw away 5-10 million copies of sales for no real reason.
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One might argue that it would sell less if t wasn't limited. For me this isn't about potentially lost sales, is just weird they made these version and you can't buy them unless you did the first time.
 
Surprised the GameCube handle wasn't mentioned yet.

But weirder is the fact that both Luigi's Mansion and Mario Sunshine would have controlled better on Wii with a pointer, yet neither got a New Play Control release.
 
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k samedi said:
I think the limited Mario remasters were weird.
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It's not that weird. Nintendo is a toy company at heart, and limited editions for anniversaries are common with toys.
That's genuinely why. It wasn't for FOMO or any money reason.
 
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PixelKnight said:
And why did the Gamecube have a carry handle. How many people carried it around like that to make it worth adding.
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meeeeee, I did constantly

not just to navigate divorced parents, either — even just bringing to friends’ houses.

it really drove home the “portable” idea
 
epicmartin7 said:
The fact some Wii games had a "Compatible with Wii Wheel" icon on their packaging...

image.png


It's just a piece of plastic.
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nah this makes a ton of sense! that thing could double as a comfort grip sometimes and knowing whether or not you could play the game in that configuration was handy
 
PixelKnight said:
Also the adoption of the microphone as a weird player input in the DS, mostly by blowing into it for various puzzles. And then using it to play the wind instrument in Spirit Tracks. A portable game. I remember looking around on the train and thinking ‘nah’
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no way this fucking ruled. you’re not literally always on a train, and if you are you can do it with headphones. it was such an interesting twist when it was used, and a very very neat hardware + software trick. truly a “magic nintendo” moment
 
k samedi said:
I think the limited Mario remasters were weird.
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What’s even weirder is that Jump Rope Challenge was intended as a limited release too, with an even shorter deadline, before they decided to leave it up indefinitely because people collectively did a big enough amount of jumps.
 

Suswave said:
no way this fucking ruled. you’re not literally always on a train, and if you are you can do it with headphones. it was such an interesting twist when it was used, and a very very neat hardware + software trick. truly a “magic nintendo” moment
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I was! I was commuting for 10 hours a week on a train at the time, that was literally my gaming time! Not the weirdest portable decision for me (that would be the Kid Icarus controls) but even so it was weird to me and annoying. For the times it was mandatory I’d literally just wait till I got home, read a book instead, get past it then put it back in my bag for the next day. Didn’t really want to mess around with using headphones for that input on a packed train either.
 
PixelKnight said:
I was! I was commuting for 10 hours a week on a train at the time, that was literally my gaming time! Not the weirdest portable decision for me (that would be the Kid Icarus controls) but even so it was weird to me and annoying. For the times it was mandatory I’d literally just wait till I got home, read a book instead, get past it then put it back in my bag for the next day. Didn’t really want to mess around with using headphones for that input on a packed train either.
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I think I had you beat at 3+ hours a weekday and ten per weekend, lmao

you can just run your finger over the microphone for a basic input, it’s all volume-based

idk I still thought it was very cool shit and made sense. doesn’t strike me as a “wtf” at all
 
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It's still baffling to me that Nintendo:

1) Dedicated an entire subsection in the Switch's settings menu to 'Themes'
2) Created two themes for this section
2) Chose to name the 2 themes 'Simple Black' and 'Simple White.' Implying more complexity to come.

...and then never did anything more. There's only really two explanations for this:
  • Nintendo never intended to make new themes, but for some reason decided to make a whole submenu and UI for 'themes' instead of something more clear like a 'Dark/Light mode' toggle.
  • Nintendo did intend to make new themes, but for some reason never made anything. Not even the most basic of 'change some HEX codes around' colour swaps.
And neither seem fully satisfactory to me.
 
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PixelKnight said:
And why did the Gamecube have a carry handle. How many people carried it around like that to make it worth adding.
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Nah I actually think the handle makes sense. The GameCube was, in the grand scheme of things, an awkward size for a console. It was too big for most people to one-hand it, but was two small to two-hand it. Something like a Playstation 2 or Xbox, you were gonna pick that up with two hands, one on each side. GameCube was light enough that two hands was, weight-wise, overkill and a waste of hand/arm space, but the shape of the console did not lend itself well to picking up with one hand because it was too big in every dimension for one hand to kinda just grab it. Hence: handle.

The handle also served double duty in that it made it so you couldn’t push the console too far back against a wall and damage the power/video cables/receptacles in the back by bending them too far.

The handle was good!
SiG said:
Labo...being made of cardboard.
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Would you rather these bespoke single-use controllers be made of something non-recyclable?
 
AR functionality on 3DS. What games used that? The built in ones and... Bravely Default? (which is a game that specifically set out to use every single 3DS functionality)
 
Plum said:
It's still baffling to me that Nintendo:

1) Dedicated an entire subsection in the Switch's settings menu to 'Themes'
2) Created two themes for this section
2) Chose to name the 2 themes 'Simple Black' and 'Simple White.' Implying more complexity to come.

...and then never did anything more. There's only really two explanations for this:
  • Nintendo never intended to make new themes, but for some reason decided to make a whole submenu and UI for 'themes' instead of something more clear like a 'Dark/Light mode' toggle.
  • Nintendo did intend to make new themes, but for some reason never made anything. Not even the most basic of 'change some HEX codes around' colour swaps.
And neither seem fully satisfactory to me.
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Switch firmware 0.8.5 (prototype firmware) has leftover strings for more themes, that's probably why it's like that.
 
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Concernt said:
Wheel can only be used in single Joy-Con Play and blocks the L/R/Z buttons
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I’m so sorry to have to specify, but it doesn’t block SR and SL, which do take over most of those functions where possible (though you are completely technically correct! just for those who aren’t aware of the lovely little back triggers on the wheel
 
Plum said:
It's still baffling to me that Nintendo:

1) Dedicated an entire subsection in the Switch's settings menu to 'Themes'
2) Created two themes for this section
2) Chose to name the 2 themes 'Simple Black' and 'Simple White.' Implying more complexity to come.

...and then never did anything more. There's only really two explanations for this:
  • Nintendo never intended to make new themes, but for some reason decided to make a whole submenu and UI for 'themes' instead of something more clear like a 'Dark/Light mode' toggle.
  • Nintendo did intend to make new themes, but for some reason never made anything. Not even the most basic of 'change some HEX codes around' colour swaps.
And neither seem fully satisfactory to me.
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I truly bet they started with basic colors and quickly recognized how much that shit clashed with multiple game icons — especially without the white buffers the Wii U and 3DS had. they may have even had buffers for a minute when themes were cooking.

it’s a lot easier to pare down a feature and eventually decide not to use more of it later than it is to move it completely, so the menu — still useful — remained
 
Perhaps not Nintendo directly but two things that will forever baffle me are.

Waluigi doing a crotch chop celebration in Mario Strikers Charged

Bomberman not being a playable fighter in Smash Bros Ultimate.

I suppose Waluigi not being playable in Mario Kart 7 is up there too.
 
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Suswave said:
I’m so sorry to have to specify, but it doesn’t block SR and SL, which do take over most of those functions where possible (though you are completely technically correct! just for those who aren’t aware of the lovely little back triggers on the wheel
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I had hoped SL and SR being available would be a given! It doesn't block the "S" buttons. I mean it's Joy-Con Wheel, for Mario Kart! How can you play Mario Kart without shoulder buttons - never been done! ❤️‍🩹


Well. You could use items with the D-Pad and drift automatically in Wii.

Addendum:

I also sense we may have common ground in finding Joy-Con wheel a comfy grip for sideways single Joy-Con Play with its big shoulder buttons and improved ergonomics.

Though I'm a sideways Joy-Con FIEND who's used to Wheel, Strap or plain, I've used that mode so much. So many times I whipped out my Switch with some friends and played some sideways Joy-Con Smash, Kart or what have you.
 
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JorgenRaft said:
The Wii U marketing collaboration with Pottery Barn.

And then there were people who genuinely believed that was gonna be the turnaround for the system’s success.
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What timing - Nintendo and Pottery Barn are doing a Mario themed collaboration right now!

NintendoImage.jpg


...more to the point of the thread, I second the Nintendo e-Reader. Two different versions in Japan (one without a link cable port!), no release in Europe, the release of games that just ended up as cartridge releases instead, a promising line of Game & Watch games on cards that only ever got one release, all the best stuff never coming out of Japan because the thing barely sold over here but that lack of content in and of itself contributing to the lack of sales...its a beautiful mess. Love my little e-Reader.
 
Oh this reminds me! Grip modification!

See, Joy-Con have a number of official "grip" modes. There are the ones that the OS doesn't recognise (Thumbs-Up and Joy-Con Grip accessory) but those are just variations on the system level "Joy-Con Pair" grip, a single person holding two Joy-Con upright. But you know an official mode recognised by the OS but inaccessible without a compatible game? Upright Grip! This is the form you use for 1-2-Switch, with a user holding a single Joy-Con upright. You can activate the sideways grip by pressing SL and SR on the pairing menu, or the default pair grip by pressing L and R (which of course can also be used to switch up which Joy-Con are which pair).

But upright grip? You'd think since the others use two shoulder buttons, it's easy, the two upright shoulder buttons are L and ZL, or R and ZR but... Nope! The only way to access this mode on the home menu is to open software that FORCES upright grip, then press the home button.

And how about that home button with an LED the system doesn't use. Or how in single Joy-Con play, Capture can never act as a secondary HOME button. Games can DEACTIVATE HOME and Capture depending on the grip, why can't it move them? It kind of can, just, not enough. If a game doesn't use ZL/ZR in sideways Joy-Con Play, why can't Capture and Home be... Home buttons, and make Z the capture button? There isn't much harm nor risk in accidental captures.
 
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