Summary
A lot of people grew up playing Nintendo games on the NES and beyond and then went on to develop games of their own. Of course, these developers were also inspired by arcade titles but Nintendo was a big brand in the 80s and 90s. So, it’s not out of line to say that Nintendo too perhaps got inspiration from other places.
These examples go beyond things likeHyrule Warriorsbeing likeaDynasty Warriorsgame. Omega Force, theDynasty Warriorsdevelopers, also madeHyrule Warriorsso that doesn’t count. These other examples think outside the box and may or may not have helped inspire these Nintendo games. Either way, they are great games overall.
Intelligent Systems makes some incredible tactical RPGs with theFire Emblemseries. They have branched out making other RPGs for Nintendo too includingAdvance Warsand thePaper Mariogames. Most of these have been successful but there is an outlier viaCode Name: S.T.E.A.M.which was a one-off 3DS title that didn’t do as hot.
Players were part of an elite and diverse set of agents from around the world who worked together to stop an alien invasion. There were grids on the battlefield, but movement was more loose. Between the movement and attack systems, high difficulty, and alien threat,Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.felt like Nintendo’s take onX-Com. It wasn’t a bad likeness but it did not seem to pop off, unlike theX-Comreboot in 2012.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn was a Wii game in 2010 which was then adapted into a 3DS version in 2019. It was a cool diversion fortheKirbyseriesas it used yarn for the visuals and mechanics. For example, players could pull on stitches to unfold platforms. This yarn aesthetic was used much later forYoshi’s Woolly Worldwhich looked even better on the Wii U in 2015 which also got a 3DS version.
It’s hard not to believe that Nintendo, and more so the developers at Good-Feel, were inspired by Sony’sLittleBigPlanetseries. The first game debuted on the PS3 in 2008 and it featured stitched characters called Sackboys and Sackgirls running around homemade levels using crafts. All three games are not quite the same experiences, but there are definitely similarities to sew them all together.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildmay be thebest launch title of all timewhen it was released alongside the Switch in 2017. It was Nintendo embracing the open-world genre that blossomed fully during the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation.The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, for example, was one of the biggest hits on those platforms.
Open-world games following that owe a lot to Bethesda, especially Nintendo. Granted,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildintroduced new mechanics to the genre that others would also get inspired by. Link’s glider, for example, along with the ability to climb most surfaces. But the structure of being able to go anywhere and do anything in a nonlinear fashion is definitely something thatThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimperfected in 2011.
This example is an interesting one because it shows Nintendo recruiting talent. Fans of the PlayStation golfing franchise,Hot Shots Golf, may know that Clap Hanz is the developer. They did not start the franchise though as they only took over starting with the second game. The first game was developed by Camelot Software Planning and Nintendo fans may know them for theGolden Sungames.
They also make a lot ofMariosports titlesfor Nintendo includingMario Golfwhich was first released on the N64 in 1999. There are a lot of similarities between it and the firstHot Shots Golffrom the power meter to the menus which, again, is not surprising considering the Camelot Software Planning connection.
Pokemon BlueandPokemon Red, orPokemon Greenfor hardcore Japanese fans, are typically linked to startingthe monster-catching genre. However, monster-catching in games existed long before that series premiered in 1996 in Japan.Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, for example, was released in 1992 for the SNES.
It was a different battle system for theDragon Questseries. Instead of human party members, players could befriend monsters like Slimes. This then inspired Enix to later make the spinoff series,Dragon Quest Monsters, which was an even more direct monster-catching game. The first entry of it was released in 1998, so after Pokemon began but still overall,Dragon Quest 5: Hand of the Heavenly Bridehad to inspire someone at Game Freak.
Super Mario Makerwas one of the bigger titles forthe Wii U. It seemed wild that it took Nintendo until 2015 to use the idea of player-generated content on a grander scale. A couple of games could have inspired Nintendo to chase this idea.
Minecraftcould have played a big role as creativity was the theme of that project.LittleBigPlanetcould also be thanked again and even more directly than the aforementioned yarn aesthetic. It was a 2D platformer wherein players could make their own levels and share them online. That’sSuper Mario Makerin a nutshell too but Nintendo had the benefit of the Wii U’s touchpad to make level creation a breeze for players.
