Nintendo is a multinational corporation founded in Japan in 1889. When Nintendo was first founded, the company produced hanafuda cards. In 1974 Nintendo entered the video game industry and would later on become the most successful console manufacturers and video game developers. Nintendo have created popular franchises such as Mario, Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Kirby, as well as many more. In 1980 Gunpei Yokoi developed the Game & Watch handheld. Unlike later handhelds, the games were built into the handhelds rather than separately on cartridges. Despite this, the Game & Watch series was a success. A year later Shigeru Miyamoto would develop the arcade game Donkey Kong, which proved to be a bigger success. Despite the videogame crash that took place in 1983, Nintendo's success would only rise even more when they released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES for short) in America in 1985. To convince toy stores to sell their console, Nintendo bundled the console with an electronic toy robot called R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), which could interact with a couple of Nintendo's games they developed for their system, this convinced toy stores to treat their console as a toy. Along with being bundled with Super Mario Bros. (regarded as one of the greatest selling videogames), Nintendo is often credited for reviving the console industry. |
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| NES with R.O.B. and other accessories |
In 1989 Gunpei Yokoi would go on to developing the Gameboy line of videogame handhelds, which proved to be another massive success. The Gameboy line would later be succeeded by the Nintendo DS in 2004, which later replaced the Gameboy as the best selling handheld of all time.
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The company still continued to make new home consoles throughout the years, including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gamecube. In 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, a console that uses motion controls. Along with the Nintendo DS, the Wii helped broadened its audience.
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| Wii with Motion Controller |
Nintendo's current generation of handheld and console are the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The Nintendo 3DS was released as the successor to the Nintendo DS in March 2011, which allows games to be viewed in 3D and can connect to other 3DS handhelds using a function called Streetpass. The Wii U is the successor to the Wii U, which utilizes a new controller called a GamePad, which has a built-in touch screen for extra functionality, and can also allow the user to play games without always needing a television screen. The Wii U was released in November 2012.
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