Growing Up in Nintendo’s Weirdest Era

The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U era sits in a weird spot in gaming history. It came right after the massive success of the Nintendo DS and Wii and right before the Nintendo Switch took over. Because of that, it is usually labeled a down period for Nintendo. If you actually grew up with it though, it did not feel like that at all. This was the era of StreetPass, SpotPass, and the Mii Plaza, where your 3DS felt active even when you were not playing it. It was when Miiverse existed and every game had its own community filled with drawings, comments, and complete chaos. Nintendo Directs with Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aimé, and Shigeru Miyamoto felt like actual events you would stop what you were doing to watch. The 3DS had a rough launch but ended up with one of the strongest handheld libraries ever. Games like Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Fire Emblem Awakening, Super Smash Bros for 3DS, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, and Majora’s Mask 3D all came out of this period. At the same time, the Wii U struggled commercially but still gave us Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Super Mario 3D World, and Super Mario Maker, which later became some of the most important games on the Nintendo Switch. This was also the era of the Nintendo eShop, Virtual Console, downloadable demos, and Nintendo Selects. Discovering games felt different and more personal. With the 3DS and Wii U eShop closing in 2023, a lot of that is now gone, including digital-only games that were never re-released. More than anything, this was a different kind of Nintendo era. It was smaller, more experimental, and more personal. Being a Nintendo fan was not as mainstream, and that made it feel like something you chose instead of something everyone just had. If you remember bringing your 3DS to school, checking for StreetPass, playing Smash before class, or opening your system just to see what happened, you already understand why this era still matters. 0:00 Intro 0:18 Opening + setup 1:03 Growing up during the 3DS & Wii U era 2:09 How both systems faceplanted at launch 4:19 Nintendo’s personality era 6:28 The daily routine era 7:09 StreetPass 9:21 Miiverse 11:00 The Wii U identity crisis (and why it kind of worked anyway) 13:29 The Wii U games that deserved better 14:43 The eShop and the cost of losing it 16:33 The games as phases 18:34 The weird Nintendo era 19:35 Game Domain 20:11 It didn’t feel like a decline (and what that actually meant) 21:10 The end of the era 22:02 Why this era matters 23:26 Outro Join this channel to get access to perks:    / @domainie