Being a Nintendo fan is not an easy job. We have to put up with countless delays, lack of third party support, and small media capacity, even with the GameCube. So why do people (such as yours truly, and everyone else at Wii Café) stick by the men from Kyoto year after year, system after system? It’s not just the amazing, must-play classics like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., GoldenEye, etc. It’s not just sticking up for the little guy versus two of the largest corporations in the world. No, it’s because Nintendo has never forgotten what videogames are all about: Fun.

Do you remember the first time you played videogames? Chances are, if it wasn’t at the controls of an Atari or in the arcades, you were playing a Nintendo system. It was the original Super Mario Bros. for me-playing as Luigi as my friend Jon would blast ahead as Mario over at his house. It didn’t matter that I would have to wait ages for him to finally die, it was fun just watching, willing Mario to make that long jump to the tiny platform before another long jump in World 8 (if you’ve played all the way through, you’ll know what jump I’m talking about). Shooting ducks with the Zapper, running in place on the Power Pad, these things never involved too much strategy and planning like so many of today’s games, they were just plain fun. If you wanted a more challenging adventure, you popped in Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Final Fantasy, or one of a myriad of other NES games that were challenging yet still as entertaining as the more simplistic games.

Things only got better with the Super NES. Soaring above stages on your blue Yoshi, firing red shells at your friend in Mario Kart, exploring the vast Dark World of Zelda: A Link to the Past. All classic gaming moments, all fun even now-so fun, and so timeless, that Nintendo has decided to revive them all for the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo continued to produce games that, above all, were pure fun, while other developers started to move towards games that involve so much strategy, so much planning, so much effort that its hard to call them “fun.” The SNES Final Fantasies and Chrono Trigger were still fun, but you could see where things were headed: games becoming more of a commitment than a fun diversion, requiring hours upon hours of playtime just to get anywhere. Nintendo’s own games were starting to require more and more commitment, but never lost that fun element. Who hasn’t attacked enemies in with the Megaton Hammer in Zelda: Ocarina of Time just because it was fun? Run at top speed through dozens of enemies in Super Metroid just to see them become little bits of pixels? These simple pleasures are increasingly hard to find in modern games.

The Nintendo 64 was supposed to be the mother of all systems, the greatest system of all time. Well, um, we know it wasn’t. When Nintendo announced it was sticking with the cartridge format, developers left in droves. The PlayStation trounced the N64 in the market place, with what seemed like ten times as many titles available. Of course, the PlayStation had its share of fun titles, but again it was Nintendo who could truly stake a claim to the term “The Fun Machine”. Those two extra controller ports added a new dimension to gaming that few people had experienced before. The PlayStation was a system you played by yourself; The N64 was a party machine. Dozens of people jammed into one room, passing around multi-colored, multi-pronged controllers, each focusing on their small corner of the screen as the shouting and laughing grew louder. Many say that the N64 was a failure; I disagree. When I moved into a college dorm room two year ago, I was expecting Nintendo players to be a minority. I was pleasantly surprised to find that you couldn’t walk down a dorm hallway without hearing the sounds of Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Smash Bros., and Mario Tennis. Even when I left earlier this summer, GameCube in hand, the N64 was the dominant machine on all floors, people forsaking Halo and Metal Gear Solid 2 to play one more game of Mario Kart. It’s a type of fun that can’t be replicated with online multiplayer-the interaction of the people in the room, taunting and swearing, laughing and pushing. It’s a type of gaming that Nintendo invented, and it’s not hard to see why Sega and Microsoft decided that four controller ports was the only way to go from now on (though why Sony didn’t is a mystery to everyone).

So why Nintendo? Well, it all comes down to one factor: Fun. While other videogame companies are pushing forward with more impressive graphics, more technological feats, and online gaming, Nintendo remains focused on what gaming should be all about-fun. Smash Bros. Melee has shown this commitment, as have exclusive third-party titles such as Super Monkey Ball. That’s why I stick by Nintendo, and will continue to do so for years to come.

Chris Stevenson