Nintendo has the most impressive first-party line-up of any video game developer out there. Sony and Microsoft cannot compete with the might of franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Super Smash Bros, and Metroid. The pages of video game history are filled with the achievements of 🉐Nintendo characters, who have left their owꦑn impressive marks in the world of fiction.
Not every Nintendo game is a winner. Even the big N will occasionally turn in a half-assed piece of work from time to time. Their desire to come up with new ideas can sometimes lead to games that looked good on paper but played badly in reality. The Nintendo name holds a tremendous amount of weight in the video game industry, which means that some of their worst games ca⛄n still break the bank.
We are here today to look at the worst Nintendo games ꦺthat still managed to print money. From the drinks coaster that came with the Wii MotionPlus, to the Sinnoh old age home that trapped many Nintendo DS players for life.
Here are Twenty Garbage Nintendo Games That Still Made A Ton Of Money!
20 Capitalizing On Success 💙
The Nintendo Wii was promoted as having true motion controls: this was a lie. The original Wiimotes are more like a wireless mouse, as they couldn't detect twisting motions. This was rectified by the Wii MotionPlus, which gave t♕he player true motion controls... for about five minutes before it needed to be resynced.
Nintendo released Wii Sports Resort, which came bundled with a MotionPlus. The game was basically a lazy rehash of Wii Sports, with most of the games being MotionPlus-enhanced ports of old games. Wii Sports Resort also contained several games ripped straight from Wii Sports, like Bowling and Golf. It was the first Wii title to use the MotionPlus and it ♉set the standard of garbage games going forward.
Wii Sports Resort - 33.4 million copies sold.
19 ღ 💦 Sometimes Change Is Bad
The Pokémon franchise briefly went through a huge resurgence of popularity in 2016 thanks to the mainstream success of Pokémon Go. Pokémon Sun & Moon was 🦄Ninte🐭ndo's chance to keep the nostalgic audience around for more.
Game Freak totally dropped the ball with Pokémon Sun & Moon. The game was linear to the point of being on-rails, the so-called "Island Trials" were little more than incredibly basic Zelda puzzles, with one of them involving you pushing two blocks, and the post-game was just as empty of content as the other Pokémon titles on the Nintendo 3DS.
Pokémon Sun & Moon might not be the only games to disgrace the Pokémon name, as the upcoming Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon are looking like cheap cash grabs.
Pokémon Sun & Moon - 15.67 million copies sold.
18 🐷 There's Just Noಞthing To Do
The Kirby and Yoshi games have come under fire for ෴being way too short and easy for full-price games. Those games tend to be charming enough that they still present a fun experience for fans and newcomers alike.
The Mario games tend to offer more content and challenge for gamers. One of the games that dropped the ball with this was Super Mario Land 2 for🌃 the Game Boy. It's entirely possible to 100% complete the game in under two hours.
The amount of content wouldn't be such a bad thing if the game wasn't so easy. The original Super Mario Land was also short, but it provided a lot of challenge. Super Mario Land 2 was boring because of how straight-fܫorward it was.
Super Mario Land 2 - 11.18 million copies sold.
17 ܫ Feels Like Homework 🎐
The Brain Age series is a perfect example of how marketing can make🌃 anything seem interesting.
The premise of the Brain Age series is to help your br⛎ain stay active, which it does through various exercises that involve the ♊touch screen and microphone that are built into the Nintendo DS console.
The reason Brain Age is such a scam is that the game is just English and math homework that has been repackaged in a pleasing way. It's basically the "Virtual Yardwork" gag from The Simpsons, except it's real. If Nintendo was selling English and math𒀰 homework with Mario on th💞e cover, no one would buy it.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain - 19.01 million copies sold.
16 ꦅ Fumbling For Control
Super Mario 64 was one of the most important video games of all time. It showed that 3D graphics were the way forward and that Nintendo had w🎉hat it takes to lead the way into this new dimension of video gaming.
The follow-up to Super Mario 64 was Super Mario Sunshine on the GameCube. It managed to totally screw up the Mario formula by ruining one of the most important aspects of the series: the controls. Super Mario Sunshine has abysmal jumping controls, which the player will really start to notice during the sections where you need to pursue Shadow Mario through a stage. This basic problem is likely why Nintendo barely mentions the game in regards to the history of the Mario franchise.
Super Mario Sunshine - 6.31 million copies sold.
15 🅠 A Whole Lot Of Nothing To Do
The fans were surprised when Tomodachi Life was announced for an English localization. Tomodachi Life wa꧙s billed as a bizarre relationship-creating game that starred the Miis insid🅠e your 3DS.
Tomodachi Life suffered from the problem of being a full price game with barely any content. It was tough to keep your interest up when there was so little actual gameplay in the game. Most players run out of things to do in Tomodachi Life in a mꩲatter of days after only a casual amount of play.
Tomodachi Life was also at the center of a controversy surrounding the exclusion of gay relationships in the game, which wasn't helped by a few ill-chosen words used in statements made by Nintendo. To their credit: Nintendo did follow up on their promise to include gay relationships in the follow-up game Miitopia.
Tomodachi Life - 5.62 million copies sold.
14 𓆏Too A🔯mbitious?
Rare produced some of the best games on the Super Nintendo. They continued this trend with the Nintendo 64, with amazing games like Goldeneye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie.
The biggest disappointment of the Nintendo-era of Rare games was Donkey Kong 64. This was a game that was far too ambitious for the system that it was on. Donkey Kong 64 had a major issue with there being too many mandatory collectibles and the game forcing you to repeat areas as different characters in order to unlock everything. This was partly due to Rare trying to build on the formula of Banjo-Kazooie by adding more of everything while ignoring the things that made that game so great in the first place. This is a mistake that would be made again by the developers of Yooka-Laylee.
Donkey Kong 64 - 5.27 million copies sold.
13 💮 Just Dance Instead ꦛ
Wii Fit might not have been an effective game, but at least a lot of effort went into the technology of the Balance Board. One of the main issues with Wii Fit was the financial investment involved with buying the game, as the Balance Board wasn't cheap at the time (but they were a few months later when they were clogging u𒁏p second-hand stores.)
Zumba Fitness managed to be way lazier. It came with a free belt! This was a cheap sash that had a pocket for the Wiimote that was supposed to be reading your hip movements. Not only was this gimmick incredibly cheap and lazy, but it barely worked at the best of times. You were far better off buying one of the Just Dance games instead.
Zumba Fitness - 6.08 million copies sold.
12 ꦡ 🌟 Come On, Link!
The Wiimotes were very similar to the light guns that were a big deal in the old days of home consoles. This means that it is very easy to play a shooting game like House of the Dead on the Wii, aꦺs you only need to point and click on the enemies.
Nintendo decided to release a gun attachment that you placed the Wiimote into, called the Wii Zapper. This allowed you to use the Wiimote like an actual firearm. The Wii Zapper was released alongside Link's Crossbow Training, w🐲hich was Nintendo's attempt at pimping out Link in order to sell a product.
Link's Crossbow Training wouldn't be so bad if it had more contentꦏ. As it stands, you can see everything the game has to offer in a few hours, or more if you suck at shoot🌼ing games.
Link's Crossbow Training - 4.98 million copies sold.
11 Trapped At The Carnival 🌠 ❀
The runaway success of Wii Sports led to Nintendo creating several derivative games that closely matched the original. They weren't the only ones to do this, as other companies were eager to cash in on the audience attracted by Wii Sports by making t💝heir📖 own collections of minigames that revolved around motion controls.
Carnival Games was successful in this regard, as it managed to be one of the highest-selling third-party titles on the Nintendo Wii by offering a collection of lame mini-games that required the Wiimote. These are the kinds of games that people on game design courses make during their first semester, yet the success of the Nintendo Wii allowed Carnival Games to reach a massive audience andꦓ actually make a lot of money.
Carnival Games - 4.06 million copies sold.