Nintendo games that are very un-Nintendo

Nintendo-published/owned games that are uncharacteristic of Nintendo's usual thematic design.

I'm not including games like Perfect Dark, The Wonderful 101, the Wii/Wii U Fatal Frame games etc that were originally published by Nintendo but ported to other consoles. Taking suggestions.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Astral Chain
Astral Chain
Bayonetta 2
Bayonetta 2
Bayonetta 3
Bayonetta 3
Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
Devil's Third
Devil's Third
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
F-Zero GX
F-Zero GX
Geist
Geist
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West
Napoleon
Napoleon
Odama
Odama
Pandora's Tower
Pandora's Tower
Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love
Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love
Sin and Punishment
Sin and Punishment
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
Warlocked
Warlocked
X-Scape
X-Scape
Zangeki no Reginleiv
Zangeki no Reginleiv

5 Comments


2 months ago

Maybe Astral Chain? Part of me wants to suggest all the fire emblem and xenoblade games as well because they're so diametrically opposed to what Nintendo is in my head.

2 months ago

@TimAlien I think FE and XB are too affliated with the Nintendo brand for them to be uncharacteristic, and as far as RPGs go they're very routine. You could say FE4 because of its dark tone and XBC2 due to being raunchy but even then that's a stretch. I'll think about it. Added Astral Chain

2 months ago

Metroid Prime I think might qualify, with the grim sci-fi tone and the fact that it's a first person shooter.
I was thinking Star Fox Adventures, though it might be a little too Nintendo-y. Star Fox is a big Nintendo franchise, but the game itself is a weird Zelda-clone developed by Rare of all people. The gameplay itself is not foreign to what Nintendo has been doing for years, but the tone of the game feels very influenced by Western sci-fi and pop culture (feels tonally like a Pixar movie, basically, and I don't mean that as an insult).
Lastly I would suggest Codename STEAM for the 3DS. The whole visual style looks like Borderlands rather than anything out of Nintendo, it has Abraham Lincoln as a playable character, and it's steampunk America subject matter isn't something I would expect out of Nintendo.
Anyhoo, feel free to pick and choose which of these suggestions meet your criteria (if any).

2 months ago

@DizzySkullKid19 Funnily enough, I think Prime is a very Nintendo take on the FPS genre. T-rated, focused on exploration and puzzles rather than combat, associated with motion controls, and notoriously marketed as a "first person adventure" in order to further distance itself from FPS. I think Star Fox Adventures would count if it retained its Dinosaur Planet story and aesthetics. I completely forgot about Codename STEAM, I've added it.

2 months ago

@bwoe Fair enough, I'm thinking in mainly aesthetic terms because thats my natural inclination, but Prime's gameplay is pretty typical of Nintendo's philosophy.


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