Nintendo's Reluctance to Fix and Improve Games

Screenshot by HylianAngel @ GameFAQs

Let's start this article by saying that Nintendo has some of the best, if not the best quality control in the business. If a Nintendo game hits the shelves, it's absolutely ready and in a finalized, fully polished state, which most games out there won't ever reach these days.

However, games are never perfect and even Nintendo goofs up here and there. And when that happens, it's very rare for Nintendo to actually do something about it, unless it's a critical, game-breaking bug.

As early as the Wii, they did provide a tool to repair your save game of Skyward Sword, if you happen to get stuck during the Song of the Hero sequence, because the Eldin part doesn't get triggered. And last year they've fixed the glitch in Link's Awakening on Nintendo Switch, where Marin doesn't ever leave her house, thus preventing you from making any progress after Level 3.

Of course in the days of the GameCube or in earlier generations something like this wasn't possible at all. The only way to fix anything was to release a new version of the game, put on disc or cartridge. So, they had to make sure that games would be near perfect before getting them out there, which is certainly one of the reasons why Nintendo's quality control is so good. Back in the day it had to be.

Now, with the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U it was finally possible to provide extensive patches and updates for all their games. If there was a problem with one of their products, they finally had the means to easily fix it, where day 1 patches are even getting more and more common for Nintendo.

But... they rarely make use of updates and when they do it's mostly just to either prepare DLC or to fix critical bugs like the ones above. Anything else most likely will be ignored... Of course putting updates out there costs money, time and other resources, so fixing some minor issues probably just isn't worth the effort for them. But with certain games they've released multiple updates, but still refused to fix some of the issues that have been bugging the fans for a while.

This blog has actually a dedicated series of posts that are all about updating most of the Zelda games from the past ten years:

• Let's Update Ocarina of Time 3D
• Let's Update A Link Between Worlds
• Let's Update Majora's Mask 3D
• Let's Update Tri Force Heroes
  
• Let's Update the Coliseum
  
• Let's Update Twilight Princess HD
  
• Let's Update Breath of the Wild
• Let's Update the Link's Awakening Remake
  
• Let's Update the Chamber Dungeon
  

Many of these suggestions are major feature requests, which of course aren't necessarily expected from free updates, but with each game there are also some minor fixes left to be desired, which were never happening.

It basically all started with A Link Between Worlds, where it felt almost too obvious that you should be able to summon Shadow Links via Play Coins, instead of playing for four hours to have one appear. It would have made completing the game much, much easier, especially if didn't have the chance to use StreetPass in some form. (Also, they could have lowered the requirements for the Giant Cucco. *cough*)

Majora's Mask 3D then mostly had some issues with its interface and controls, where the Zora Swimming probably was the worst offender. It's notably also the only Zelda release in the last decade without some "Hero Mode" option, which could have been added via an update.

Tri Force Heroes actually had placeholders for another area and for additional outfits, where all of this never has been made for some reason. But it was really the game's singleplayer and Coliseum modes that left a lot to be desired, where they could have improved many things with some adjustments.

Twilight Princess HD introduced the new Ghost Lantern item only for it to be completely useless. Ideally it would have made the Poes appear during day or let you change the daytime to night. There was also a bug where you could miss one of the three Bomb Bags, while the interface and controls were far from perfect. Especially the new horse behavior sucked monkey balls.

And don't let me get started on Breath of the Wild... There are unobtainable chests, a glitch preventing you from getting the Thunder Helmet, lots of annoyances around the armor inventory and still no way of climbing in the rain without slipping. And those are just some examples.

The remake for Link's Awakening wasn't much better, with its lack of D-Pad controls or the silly chests with Secret Medicines staying closed if you already have one. Another warp point in the central mountains was dearly missed. And the whole Chamber Dungeon feature was so underwhelming on certain ends that an update there could have done absolute wonders.

All of these were examples for the Zelda series, but this is a Nintendo thing and certainly concerns many of their games. The hugely popular Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for example is already on its eighth major update, version 8.0.0, but it still doesn't let you toggle stage hazards on the stage select screen and it still doesn't remember your last fighter choice in the Smash mode, both things that are just annoying and are frequently requested to be fixed...

...

The devil is in the details and it's often the little things that might leave a sour taste in your mouth after an otherwise excellent experience. And it's not like Nintendo is completely immune to the idea of fixing little issues and improving their game in small ways.

With Breath of the Wild they did actually fix and improve a couple of things. Originally you weren't able to re-obtain any of the DLC armor pieces, if you sold them, but update 1.3.3 added them all to Granté's collection, which was a really good improvement for the game. They've also fixed a couple of issues with the game's Master Mode.

But updates like that are rare, which is a shame. Even if some of these issues seem minor, Nintendo could a lot of good by listening a little more to the players and updating their games accordingly. Small things do count and in the end this is about making your most loyal customers happy.