I would find it funny for Mario to be in KIngdom Hearts and I would love to have some older games like Earthbound or the Mario RPGS on GOG or even steam.

I don't, that would leave us with just MS and Sony for console gaming. I generally prefer PC gaming, but I'd like the option of having a console and having more than just 2 choices.

Disney buying Nintendo? How about no.

Only if they have a real wiimote, and a sensor bar. MPT does not map well or feel right with regular controller at all, not to mention it's one of the most demanding games on the Wii, with Dolphin still having speed issues even on my beefy rig.

There's always the "buy a Wii U" option. It's a worthy system that deserves more sales and if you can't find a disc version of MPT, there's always the VC download.

I feel much the same, actually. In fact, Disney buying Nintendo is about the only thing I can think of which might turn Nintendo onto a path which might potentially make me care about them at some point. At least Disney doesn't seem to have its head quite as far up its own ass as Nintendo does.

Nintendo stays creative because they are in control of their own hardware and build games according to their own design choices. They are free to experiment. If Nintendo went third party or was bought out by someone, they would be turned into a yearly sequel spewing factory like so many others. Think there's too many Mario games? Well in 3rd party hands there would be far more of them, and produced far quicker, without the time and resources to keep up the quality.

Not only that, they would be relegated to only core franchises, if an acquisition had happened before the Wii U, I guarantee there'd be no Splatoon... hell given the initial negative reaction, Mario 3D World may not have happened. Then there's the stuff that only happened due to being free to reach out to other developers... crossovers like Hyrule Warriors, Platinum's Star Fox Zero or Namco's involvement in SSB4, and worst of all, there would never have been a Bayonetta 2.

So basically you're willing to sacrifice 32 years of creative integrity and ruin the fun for everyone else just to have these games released on GOG?

Excuse me. BWAHAHAHAhahahaaaa...

Sorry. We now return you to the scheduled discussion ;-)

Typical bandwagon comment of someone that doesn't actively play Nintendo games. To blanket dismiss Nintendo's efforts in recent years is just ignorant and disrespectful.

I don't really pay attention to anything Nintendo are doing, whatever it is they're doing it doesn't interest me at all.

Maybe being part of Disney would change that. I'm quite happy about the state of Pixar currently.

Nothing against Nintendo, but honestly the idea of them having "32 years of creative integrity" is laughable. Sure, there's the occasional new IP, and they have their lame system gimmicks. For the most part though, Nintendo is just the same games over and over again with slight differences. Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and especially Pokemon are all great examples of that. I'm not saying that Nintendo or their games are bad, but to treat them as some bastion of creativity is ridiculous.

I think you're confusing "constant use of the same franchises" with "creativity". In essence, Nintendo uses the same franchises again and again for marketing purposes, but with a few exceptions, the games are usually completely different. While Nintendo have recycled gameplay concepts from time to time (New Super Mario Bros., Pokémon and Mario Kart being two of the worst offenders - I believe there have been five NSMB games by now?), you'll notice that many Nintendo franchises tend to employ different gameplay concepts. Zelda games, for one, tend to be uprooted with impressive regularity, and I don't think there are more than three Zelda games employing the same gameplay style.

You beat me to it... but so many people who don't play modern Nintendo games are completely set in their ways, they don't want to try out the new games or controller concepts, they're happy to stick to the status quo and fall back on the mindless bandwagon of "Nintendo is all the same". The blind dismissal of the amount of genuine work they put in makes me furious.

Christ even the likes of Mario Kart 8 which is clearly in the same mould as the games before it has had a hell of a lot of care, polish and yes creativity put into it's mechanics and track designs.

It's true that the Zelda series does have a decent amount of variance, and not all of their games are completely the same. You also might have a point about constant use of the same franchises not necessarily being the same as lacking creativity. That being said, shouldn't all of the games that do end up being the same thing be enough to discredit them as far as creative integrity is concerned? Shouldn't a company with creative integrity only make sequels when they have enough new ideas to warrant one, rather than milking franchises for easy money? Mario Kart, NSMB, Pokemon, and Mario Party should be enough evidence alone to throw the idea of Nintendo's integrity out the window.

Not really, no. You see, a company that only innovates cannot survive. Innovative game concepts are all well and good (and innovation isn't the be-all and end-all - most experimental concepts on PC are utter tripe and are different for the sake of being different or contrarian rather in the interest of being worthwhile), but money needs to be brought in fund this.

A company cannot simply be dismissed as being uncreative simply because it employs iterative improvements in certain areas. That's not how it works.

Nintendo is really the only company left that strikes the perfect balance between iteration and creativity. Sony comes close, but rarely allows their innovative concepts to adequately mature - such games often seem more like proofs of concept than actual games (Rain, Super Rub-A-Dub, pretty much anything by thatgamecompany).

Sega gave up that claim around a decade ago (although Sonic: The Lost World showed that there is a spark of it still). The other mainstream publishers (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Take 2, Microsoft) either don't bother to innovate at all, or they only "acquire" innovative concepts for indie kudos.