'Weird Nintendo' Isn't Dead
Video game historian Jeremy Parish explains one of gaming's oddest terms
Skeptics of the Nintendo Switch 2 claim Nintendo is resting on the boring and safe. They see, in this year-old hardware, a company following up a groundbreaking hybrid handheld and home console with more of the same.
Of course, more of the same is what big video game companies tend to do, but not Nintendo. Nintendo, at its best, has the capacity to be unabashedly weird. It has sold novelty controllers made from flaps of cardboard. It created a talking flower that will tell you the time, intentionally incorrectly. It pitched the world on motion-control bowling and dual-screen, touch-screen handhelds when such things were seen as silly, childish, and well… weird.
“Weird” starts as a negative, but then stores can’t keep the latest Nintendo on shelves, and suddenly “weird” is the highest of praise. The secret sauce. The superpower.
The Switch 2, however, was never weird. It was a presumed hit. The name itself proudly proclaims it’s a sequel, an update, an echo. So, in that way, the critics are undeniably correct.
And yet, when I look at the games available on the Switch 2, I see, well… a lot of weirdness, from a life-sim that lets you play matchmaker between Peter Griffin and a sentient shoebox. Or Pokémon Pokopia, a Pokémon game set in a world without humans? Or the upcoming Rhythm Heaven Groove, the first entry in the Rhythm Heaven series in 11 years, which promises to let you compete with friends in plucking chin hairs from an anthropomorphic onion.
Has Nintendo’s weirdness been hidden in plain sight? Are these games merely the weird final gasps of an earlier, stranger era? To answer those questions, I needed to learn what Weird Nintendo actually is.
So, I called the one person I was certain could give me an answer. Beloved game historian, documentarian, and podcast host Jeremy Parish. He provided me not one answer, but ten.
This Week on Post Games:
Act 1: Defining ‘Weird Nintendo’
Act 2: Weird Nintendo, #10-6
Act 3: Weird Nintendo, #5-1
Patreon Bonus: The Nintendo Story I Could Never Tell
Guests:
Jeremy Parish: host and author of Video Works, co-host and co-founder of Retronauts
Act 1: Defining ‘Weird Nintendo’
THE NES ERA VOL. 1 (HARDCOVER) (Limited Run)
The full Video Works collections (Jeremy Parish/YouTube)
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream (Nintendo)
The Best (And Most Cursed) Tomodachi Life Miis We’ve Seen So Far (NintendoLife)
Pictonico (Nintendo)
Rhythm Heaven Groove (Nintendo)
Ultra Hand (Fandom)
EP. 10: NINTENDO’S GUNPEI YOKOI’S HISTORY WITH MATT ALT (Video Game History Foundation)
Gunpei Yokoi - Humility in the World of Video Games (Yokogao)
Gunpei Yokoi’s Life Story: The Man Who Made Nintendo (DidYouKnowGaming)
lateral thinking with withered technology (You’ve Run Out of Complimentary Articles)
Weird Nintendo never went away (The Verge)
This newsletter is brought to you by my friends at Overworld: “Games media is scattered. The digital town square has become clusters spread across different platforms. It’s harder than ever to keep up with the industry without bouncing between mountains of tabs and feeds. Overworld gives you a high vantage point. We aggregate, sort, and curate the most interesting news, reviews, and analysis from across multiple sources and deliver it in a single space.”
Act 2: Weird Nintendo, #10-6
#10. Fascination (Nintendo Wiki)
$9. Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School (Wiki)
#8. EarthBound series (WikiBound)
#7. Metroid Prime: Federation Force (IGN)
#6. I am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater (Wiki)
The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Wiki)
Miho Nakayama (Wiki)
Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School Prize Tape [VHS Rip] (Jeremy Parish|Video Works)
The Life of Shigesato Itoi (HG101)
How Earthbound Led to a Marriage and a Career (Polygon)
Act 3: Weird Nintendo, #5-1
#5. Elektroplankton (Wiki)
#4. Pokémon Mini (Wiki)
#3. Game Boy Camera (Wiki)
#2. Odama (GameSpot)
#1. WarioWare series (Wiki)
Sutte Hakkun Review (SNES) (NintendoLife)
Dave Eggers (Wiki)
Dave Barry (https://www. .com/)
Werner Herzog (Wiki)
Gameboy Camera : the journey (Sébastien Tourneux)
Miyamoto talks Odama (Eurogamer)
Yoot Saito (Wiki)
Yoot Saito’s Odama Hands-On (GameSpot)
Yoot Saito on His Classic Sega Game Where You Take Abuse from a Fish (Vice)
Nester’s Funky Bowling (Virtual Boy) 2D Playthrough (NintendoComplete)
Patreon Bonus: The Nintendo Story I Could Never Tell
Meet the collectors - #4 - Isao Yamazaki (BeforeMario)
Nintendo Museum exhibition, Osaka (2007) (BeforeMario)
Mamaberika (Fandom)
Here’s What Nintendo’s HQ Looked Like In 1889 (Kotaku)
This Week in Video Game Links
investigating corporate puzzleslop (Juniper Dev)
First Look: They Actually Made a Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball Machine!? (Retro Ralph)
‘Shareholder Greed’ And How Publicly Traded Companies Actually Work (Jason Schreier)
Why Jason Schreier started a YouTube channel (ReaderGrev)
This Fangame Took 20 Years to Finish (MonkeyNess/YouTube)
Free Game of the Week: Another Door demo
From the Steam summary: “Another Door is a multiplayer, turn-based roguelike with monsters, despair, risk and betrayal. Hide your intentions, bluff to survive and bet on your luck. Will you back out, or venture through Another Door?” (Steam)
What Else I’m Enjoying
Sheep in the Box - Official Trailer (YouTube)
BITTER CHRISTMAS | Official UK & IRE Trailer (YouTube)
Is AI a good thing or a bad thing? Yes (Made By Humans for Humans)