Fishing in Animal Crossing: When We Can’t “Feel” it Working
The act of fishing in Animal Crossing is pretty simple in concept… we watch the water for the telltale shadow of a fish, cast our line where they will see […]
Money Trees In Animal Crossing: Reaping What We Sow
The act of “planting” in most games follows a pretty predictable and linear path… if I plant an apple seed into the ground, typically one single apple tree will grow. […]
A New Day in “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”
There is something unique about playing Animal Crossing during the “seasonal events” that it offers that few other games can successfully mimic. From receiving gifts on my birthday, the real-time […]
Legend of Zelda: The “Echoes of Wisdom” that Develop in Quiet Places
In “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom”, Nintendo finally made Princess Zelda herself the primary playable character in the series that bears her name. While she has often taken […]
A Lesson From Nintendo: Co-op Built in From the Start
While it might sound obvious in retrospect, one of the most critical design decisions Nintendo made when developing their home gaming console was including more than one controller port. Even […]
From the WiiU to the Switch: Making Masterpieces From Missteps
While the Nintendo Switch has surpassed all of Nintendo’s previous home consoles in units sold and will go down in history as one of the most successful platforms of all […]
An Inconsistent Experience: Balancing “Shovelware” with the Nintendo “Seal of Approval”
After all these years, the Nintendo Wii console still stands as one of the best selling hardware platforms of all time, selling over 100 million units during its’ lifetime. But […]
The Only Way to Win in Splatoon… and in Life
While most competitive games in the “shooter” genre tend to focus on eliminating adversaries, Nintendo’s “Splatoon” series flipped the script by prioritizing painting prowess over traditional combat tactics. Victory in […]
Pokémon: Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
The Pokémon franchise is one of the largest on the planet, captivating massive audiences for years and challenging them to fully explore each game with one mission in mind… “Gotta […]
Mario and Sonic: Finding Common Ground Through Unified Purpose
For years, Nintendo and Sega’s respective mascots existed in an adversarial relationship… as the competing public faces for their brands, the idea that we would ever see Mario and Sonic […]
Finding God in Video Games 