Nintendo Entertainment System: Difference between revisions

With the hotline and ''Nintendo Power'', Nintendo's American reputation was firmly established in American minds, though not without some drawbacks: Nintendo faced lawsuits from various companies (and often conducted various lawsuits against other video game companies themselves) about Nintendo's monopolistic practices in the U.S. and the possible side-effects of video games on the minds of U.S. citizens and children, most of which are covered in ''Game Over''. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> Nintendo won every time, thanks to its excellent lawyers, and Nintendo and its money-making NES persisted in the American culture. The NES also gave birth to the "Nintendo Generation", which were the young children who grew up with the NES during the late 80s and early 90s, passing game codes, secrets and rumors at schoolyard playgrounds, faking being sick to stay home and play their NES, and devouring each issue of Nintendo Power with aplomb. At the height of its popularity, the NES was in one out of three American homes. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> The NES library contained first-party titles that are still revered as some of the best games of all time today through innumerable lists of NES favorites, and licensed third-party titles ranging from mega-popular fictional franchises to live-action films from ''{{wp|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles}}'' to ''{{wp|The Simpsons}}'' to ''{{wp|Ducktales}}'' to ''{{wp|Back to the Future}}''. The "Nintendo Seal of Quality" was also established on the NES game covers by Gail Tilden to assuage any retailers or buyers of the excellent quality of the NES system and its titles back in 1985 after Atari and is competing rivals churned out low-quality game titles [[wikipedia:The video game crash of 1983|back in the early 80s]]. Nintendo employed a rigorous contract with its third-party developers, in which Nintendo was later repeatedly persecuted against; one part involved Nintendo manufacturing every NES cartridge even if it was a third party licensee's game and receiving a lion's share of all the profits reaped from the games' sales, while another part detailed that no game could be released without Nintendo's express approval. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/All_Your_Base_Are_Belong_to_Us/kWKODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/Console_Wars/kCSSAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref> Despite this, many third-party licensees signed up to make NES games, such as {{wp|Konami}} with their games ''{{wp|Castlevania}}'' and ''{{wp|Contra}}'', and {{wp|CapCom}} with its ''{{wp|Mega Man}}'' and ''{{wp|Ducktales}}'' series of games. Nintendo also held back on possible sales for the NES and its games, which angered industry heads and retailer representatives; nonetheless, the NES and its games would still be among one of the most successful products sold in the late 80s and early 90s, with the gaming industry eventually being rivaled only by the movie industry in terms of grossage. One such example is with the 1990 title ''Super Mario Bros. 3'', which sold 14,000,000 copies worldwide with its total grosses only being succeeded by the [[wikipedia:Steven Spielberg|Spielberg]] blockbuster ''{{wp|E.T.}}'' film, with ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' going on become the highest-selling individual game in history at the time. <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/gxyXUi336egC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiwnND9-ruAAxVfI0QIHbheCmEQre8FegQIAxAY</ref> The video game industry earned 450,000,000 dollars in sales in 1986 <ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/All_Your_Base_Are_Belong_to_Us/kWKODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0</ref>, with the video game industry being a $5,000,000,000 industry by 1990 with Nintendo maintaining a firm grasp of over 90% percent of that. <ref>https://grantland.com/features/the-rise-of-nintendo-video-games-history/</ref> Multiple third-party companies became famous due to the NES, with the ''{{wp|Mega Man}}'', ''{{wp|Castlevania}}'', ''{{wp|Contra}}'', ''{{wp|Dragon Quest}}'', and ''{{wp|Final Fantasy}}'' franchises continuing on subsequent game platforms and systems since the NES. A {{wp|UK}} company named [[wikipedia:Rare (company)|Rare]] also became a reputable third-party licensee for Nintendo through their NES titles ''{{wp|R.C. Pro-Am}}'', ''{{wp|Snake, Rattle 'n' Roll}}'', and the hit game ''[[wikipedia:Battletoads (1991 video game)|Battletoads]]'', leading Nintendo to purchase a 25% stake of the company in 1994 after being impressed by their recent Silicon Graphics (SGI) advances in video game technology, leading Rare to become an independent second-party developer for Nintendo. The stake increased to 49%, while Rare would go on to develop more titles and franchises for Nintendo's subsequent consoles, such as the ''[[mariowiki:Donkey Kong Country (series)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', ''{{wp|Killer Instinct}}'', ''{{wp|Banjo-Kazooie}}'', and ''[[wikipedia:Conker (series)|Conker]]'' franchises, with stand-off titles such as ''[[wikipedia:GoldenEye 007 (series)|GoldenEye 007]]'', ''{{mw|Diddy Kong Racing}}'', ''{{wp|Perfect Dark}}'', and ''[[lylatwiki:Star Fox Adventures|Star Fox Adventures]]'', before finally being bought out by {{wp|Microsoft}} in 2002 due to Nintendo refusing to purchase the other 51% of Rare. <ref>https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare</ref> In addition, R.O.B. has gone on to star in other Nintendo franchises as a cameo, from being a statue, a minor appearance, or a part of a mini-game in the ''[[mariowiki:WarioWare (series)|WarioWare]]'' series, a giant statue in [[fzerowiki:Port_Town|a race]] in ''{{fzw|F-Zero GX}}'', and its head and gyro blocks being part of the [[pikipedia:Blast from the Past Series|Blast from the Past series]] in ''[[pikipedia:Pikmin 2|Pikmin 2]]''. His most notable appearances in other Nintendo franchises are as a playable racer in ''{{mw|Mario Kart DS}}'' and the ''[[smashwiki:Super Smash Bros. (series)|Super Smash Bros. series]]'' as a playable fighter in every series title beginning with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. The NES itself has also been subject to an innumerable amount of references and appearances in other media since the 80s, like television (''{{wp|The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air}}'', ''{{wp|The Big Bang Theory}}''), fan-made documentaries (like {{wp|Nintendo Quest}}, which features two friends as they try to collect every licensed NES game in a month), and feature films (like {{wp|8-Bit Christmas}}, where a young boy and his friends try to obtain a coveted NES system for Christmas 1989).