Favorite Nintendo Franchises?

[Xara]

animal crossing is, and always has been, my favourite nintendo franchise. it’s also the only big one i like for the most part, as none of the others (splatoon, legend of zelda, kirby, etc) have ever interested me much. i’ve finally been playing mario party: superstars and have been enjoying it, so i might give some of the other games a try one day. i’m also lowkey curious about pokemon, but rn i’m happy with what i have.

i was introduced to animal crossing in 2007-2008 with wild world, and it’s been special to me ever since. i’ve made so many friends and memories over the years because of it, and it’s even the reason that i was able to find and join this lovely community. it’s gotten me through a lot of hardships in my life as whenever i’m going through something or feeling unpleasant mentally, i can always zone out and distract myself by playing, and it almost always makes me feel better. it’s such a calm, relaxing, cute franchise, and i’m grateful for all that it’s given me.

two smaller franchises i also enjoy are style savvy and tomodachi life (not sure if this counts, but i’m including it since there’s more than one game)! i’m not into fashion games as much as i used to be, but style savvy is such a relaxing and cute series to play through, and i love that the later instalments included interior design, cosmetology and hair-styling for whenever i got bored of selling clothes haha.

tomodachi life genuinely drove me to tears my first night with it because i loved it so much and was having so much fun. i loved creating miis, finding out their favourite and least favourite foods, watching them date, get married, have kids, etc. it’s such a silly game, but i love it so much. i hope we get another game one day, either an entirely new one or a reboot.

 

[Belle T]

I don't recall a time in my life when I have not been a fan of mainline Mario games. They were among the first games I ever played and they're irreplaceable to me. I also just love the characters and mechanics to to this day. I do like the spin-offs (Mario Kart, etc.) but I don't keep track of them.

Animal Crossing is also great, and obviously I have some affection for it, given that I'm on a forum dedicated to it. But I will say that when burnout hits with any game in this series, it hits quite hard. I don't think I've ever been "just kind of" sick of Animal Crossing. I'll either play it everyday for a long time or I'll put it down for months with no in between.

I haven't played as much Zelda as I would like, but I have enjoyed just about every game I've played. My favorites are Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, even if the latter hasn't aged terribly well.

Smash Bros. is fun. I don't find myself compelled to play it like I used to, but I do enjoy it.

I have a lot of fondness for Pokémon, as it kickstarted a lot of important friendships and connections in my life. Modern titles range from middling to bad, though. Like Animal Crossing, it's a franchise where I will become obsessed for months on end and then heavily burnt out later.

I've never played Pikmin, but I sort of want to try it.

Kirby is fantastic. Even the lesser games are generally fun. I don't think I've ever had a truly bad experience with Kirby, though I haven't played every single game, either.

Metroid is a series that benefits from not having a huge number of entries. With the exception of Other M and the original versions of 1 and Samus Returns, I've enjoyed pretty much all of them, so it's definitely one of my absolute favorites.

Donkey Kong Country 1-3 are some of my favorite games on the SNES, but I've yet to play the more modern games.

I really want to get into Xenoblade, but I haven't had the time for it, and it would be nice if the games would stay in print long enough for me to grab them. Of course, I could always go digital, but I'd prefer not to.

 

[LoveGraceMarie]

Voted for Mario, Animal Crossing, Pokémon and Wii Sports truly defining my gaming experience

 

[skarmoury]

Voted for 4!

Mario - There are a lot of Mario games I really love! Mario Party, Mario Kart, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Odyssey are the ones on the top of my head. I especially loved looking for all the secrets in SM64 :]

Animal Crossing - Though I've only played ACNL and ACNH, I think I've sunk the most hours into the two than I have any other game. Don't think any game has topped my 1,000 hours into ACNH

Pokemon - Grew up with Pokemon, both the main series and a good chunk of its spin-offs. Love this franchise a lot, even if I'm not super updated with like the latter third of the Pokemon lol. The Mystery Dungeon series and the Ranger series are some of the funest games!

Kirby - I super love the GBA games! Kirby is also such a cute and loveable character. I adore the characters and different merch of them

 

[PacV]

Smash Bros and Animal Crossing.

 

[.: Meri :.]

I honestly don't play that many, but I really enjoy AC and Pokémon, and I might get more into the Style Savvy franchise as well! ^^

I only got into Animal Crossing a couple years ago, but my first AC game, New Leaf, really won me over with its charm. ;v; I've since gotten Happy Home Designer and New Horizons (+HHP), and I might try Wild World out at some point too! I really enjoy how cozy the series feels, and the dialogue really cracks me up sometimes. I also love hearing everyone's different experiences with and interpretations of the villagers; the series has a very personal feel to it, even aside from the customization options.

Pokémon's been with me on-and-off since my early childhood, so I'll always have a soft spot for it. I'm terrible at sticking with/actually finishing the mainline games, but the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon side series is very near and dear to my heart (especially EoS), and Legends: Arceus has been a pretty awesome experience for me. I've also played the Ranger side series, and although I didn't stick with these for long, I've played Pokémon Go, Quest, and Magikarp Jump too.

I also wanted to get Style Savvy: Styling Star before the eShop closed so I could give this series a try, and I'm really glad I did! It's got a really cute story and the dressup/customization options are nicely in-depth too. It honestly kind of surprised me how much I got into it—at first I thought I would just finish the story and call it good there, but now I've collected all the achievements and am currently working on completing the clothing catalogue. I think it's the kind of game that I could keep coming back to whenever the mood strikes, and I'm definitely planning to try out some of the other games in the series too when I get the chance! ^^

 

[S.J.]

I went with AC, Kirby and Pokémon! Even though I love LoZ, Mario and SSB, I wouldn't consider them favourites. I'm OK to miss a Mario or a LoZ game, but I don't want to miss out on a Kirby or Pokémon game if I have the console!

 

[Asarena]

It's a tough choice, but I'd probably say Mario. There're the 3D Mario games, Mario Party, Mario Kart, Yoshi Games, Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion games, and so on. A lot of games to enjoy~

 

[Venn]

Animal Crossing of course. But I also like SSB and Mario Kart. There are others I like as well. I can pretty much like them all.

 

[Tulaash]

Let's see, I'm a pretty big Nintendo fan, so I like most anything that they have. I love Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing (of course!), Kirby from the little that I've played, Super Smash Bros., Pokemon, I enjoyed the time I spent with Pikmin 3 but got distracted from ever finishing it, I liked Metroid: Other M, but it kind of was really hard for little kid me to beat, Donkey Kong, Xenoblade Chronicles was fun, but I got overwhelmed with trying to 100% it, Wii Sports, and for the other franchises, F-Zero (especially!), Fire Emblem, and Nintendogs!

 

[Halloqueen]

1) Fire Emblem

My favorite Nintendo franchise is Fire Emblem. One of the first games I can remember from my childhood is Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, a turn-based tactical RPG for the Sega Genesis, since my brother played it and I'd watch sometimes. When I eventually learned about Fire Emblem when I was older, the turn-based tactical gameplay and the similarities (knights, mages, archers, countries at war, etc.) really appealed to me due to my nostalgia for Shining Force. My favorite video game of all time is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (and its sequel Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, since it takes place three years later and features the same setting, returning and new characters, etc.), so the series definitely gets a boost from that.

I have some things I don't like about the series (Awakening and Fates era increased emphasis on shipping, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, recent games having player avatars instead of letting the lords be the main lead character like the older games, etc.), but hey, it's whatever. Love the gameplay, love the characters and their conversations, love the settings, love the music.

I wish more people were interested in the series, and I also wish it had released in the West from the start back in 1990 instead of waiting until Fire Emblem 7 in 2003. It feels undeservedly overlooked amid the Nintendo franchises even though it's older than Animal Crossing, F-Zero, Kirby, Pokémon, and Star Fox. Heck, it's older than Wario! Granted, turn-based tactical won't appeal to everyone, but I have to wonder whether it wouldn't feel so comparatively niche if it had international exposure back in the NES days like Mario, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and the like enjoyed. Maybe there would be less people annoyed about blue-haired anime swordfighters in Smash if more people had experience with the games to know the characters, and hey, maybe there'd have been more variety in the character selection (and the weapons they use) from the series instead of sticking with the lords and avatar characters.


2) Pokémon

Pokémon is second. I've been playing the series since childhood, starting with the initial boom in the 90s when Red and Blue first released in the United States back when I was a kid. Peer pressure got me to quit during Gen III, but a friend got me back into the series when they mentioned they were playing HeartGold and SoulSilver (I loved Crystal) and I got my own copies soon thereafter. I got back into the series hard; I got copies of Ruby, Emerald, FireRed, Leaf Green, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum since I'd missed their releases during my break, and I've gotten all of the (mainline) installments on release since Black & White. It's the series that I've spent the most time playing throughout my life. Battling is fun, breeding and team building is fun, I love hunting shinies with the Masuda Method.

Didn't really enjoy Sword/Shield for numerous reasons (Pokédex culling, raids feel poorly implemented and don't appeal to me, I find Dynamaxing to be a bad gimmick) and was prepared to step away from the series moving forward and stick to the earlier games, but Legends Arceus hooked me back in well enough to have me wanting to give Scarlet and Violet a shot in November.

3) EarthBound/Mother

I love this quirky little series. Quirky humor, lovable characters, great music, fun combat (and I love that ticking health mechanic). Nostalgic for me since EarthBound is another game I remember watching my brother play, and I inherited the game since he stopped playing games as he got older. I got a couple friends into the series by talking about it and they fell in love with it too. EarthBound was great on its own, but Mother 3 is absolutely magnificent and . I still need to get around to EarthBound Origins to fully appreciate the series, I never have due to it seeming a bit archaic and since I felt like I knew the gist of it from reading about it. Even still, this series has a special place in my heart.

4) Super Smash Bros.

I've always been into fighting games. I never really played platformers like Mario or Metroid when I was young, so I'm pretty godawful at them. Comparatively, I've been exposed to fighting games since I was about 2 or 3 since my brother had Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. As such, I'm more comfortable with such games. Super Smash Bros. and games it inspired are their own sort of beast with their focus on percentage damage and making your opponent lose stocks by ring out self destructs, but hey, it's close enough. Punching, kicking, jumping, crouching, throwing, blocking special moves, all that good stuff. Been playing the series since the first one on the N64 and it's been a blast.

5) Animal Crossing
Well, I'm here on an Animal Crossing forum, so it's to be expected I guess. Saw a friend playing it when I went to visit them one day back in 2002, got myself a copy so we could play together, and been hooked since. Didn't know about Wild World at the time, disliked City Folk, but absolutely adore New Leaf and have some qualms with but still really enjoy New Horizons. The animals are fun to socialize with, the NPCs have great personalities, and I love designing homes. Delightful little world.


Honorable mentions to:

Luigi's Mansion: I couldn't get into Dark Moon despite trying, and I've never bothered to try Luigi's Mansion 3 yet, but I absolutely adore the original Luigi's Mansion. I really love the general concept as well. I wish they'd stuck with the humanoid style of ghosts they had in the original though.

Mario Party: The series has had its ups and downs, but when it's great, it's great. I'm most partial to 2 and its selection of minigames, and I'm glad Horror Land and Space Land boards got to come back in the Switch's Mario Party Superstars. Mario Party makes for great fun to have with some friends. Sometimes strife and turmoil too, but you know that going in.

Metroid: I've never played any of them to be honest, but I love Super Metroid. I've watched people play it over the years during AGDQ/SGDQ speedrunning charity marathons, and I really love the designs, the setting and the atmosphere. Samus seems pretty cool too!

 

[SinnerTheCat]

Definitely Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem!! Both of them basically introduced me to Nintendo and now whenever a new game from those series gets announced, I get excited like crazy haha

 

[xX-Popplio-Xx]

I personally like more casual games so Pokémon and Animal Crossing are my favorites!

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Animal Crossing and Pokémon obviously, but I also love Kirby despite not having played many Kirby games. I also love the idea of Pikmin and Metroid, but I haven't played either of those at all!

 

[Etown20]

Animal Crossing and Mario for me. I don't often think of Mario as one of my favorite franchises because its so omnipresent, but it's the one I most consistently enjoy outside of AC.

 

[~Kilza~]

My top 3 favorite Nintendo franchises in order are Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, and Metroid. Legend of Zelda is my favorite since 2 of my top 5 favorite games (Majora's Mask, Breath of the Wild) come from the series, plus I've played through every main series game (minus Four Swords) and have enjoyed most of them. I also generally get excited every time a new Zelda game comes out and am definitely looking forward to picking up Tears of the Kingdom in May.

For Pikmin, I love all 3 main games (Hey! Pikmin is alright, just...different). I really enjoy the central mechanic of the Pikmin series and it's made it really fun to come back to and replay over and over. The first Pikmin is easily one of my most replayed games ever and one of my top 10 favorite games ever. Really excited that we're finally going to get Pikmin 4 after Pikmin 3 came out over 9 years ago.

For Metroid, it was my favorite at one point before slipping down to 3rd after Corruption was followed up by the next several years being pretty bleak and only featuring 2 games, both of them very unfortunate (Other M, Federation Force). But as a whole, the series still features some games I love (Metroid Prime, Super Metroid) and some games I enjoy to varying degrees (in no particular order, 2, Fusion, Zero Mission, Echoes, Corruption), plus AM2R was excellent even if it wasn't an official game. Metroid Dread's release last year definitely reminded me why I consider the series one of my favorites, since it's definitely one of the best Metroid games, and hopefully Metroid Prime 4 will follow that up when it releases before the heat death of the universe.

 

[JKDOS]

Animal Crossing (hence why I am here) and Metroid.

It comes to my attention today that it has been 5 years since Metroid Prime 4 was first announced, and we are still without an actual trailer or release date. It has been 16 years since Metroid Prime 3 released. Feel old yet? We've been waiting for our sequel a little bit longer than people have been waiting for the sequel to Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

I also like Legend of Zelda, but I am not a huge fan. Would probably put it in 3rd place.

 

[magicaldonkey]

voted for mario kart, animal crossing and wii sports. i remember when my padre brought home 'new super mario bros 2' and/or mario kart 7 for the 3DS!! also had the wheel accessory for the mario kart game on the wii. real dedication to the mario franchise since i was a smol bean. i also used to be an absolute legend going through rainbow road after a few practice runs ;D

played ACNL (+HHD) and ACNH (+ the paradise planning add-on thanks to a groovy TBTer who hosted a giveaway). i adore my villagers and love hearing their conversations!! both that and decorating my island make me happ, groovy and soft inside ;u;

 

[axaniao]

animal crossing, splatoon, pikmin, and mario are my favorites especially animal crossing and splatoon they hold very special places in my heart

 

[tumut]

Fire Emblem