Nintendo has one of the richest, most celebrated libraries in the entire gaming industry. They’ve given us treasures such as Super Metroid and Pikmin. They’ve created timeless classics such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Who can forget the first time they played Donkey Kong Country or Mario is Missing?... Yeah, for every ten amazing games Nintendo makes, there are some duds that simply just don’t stack up. Even with a pedigree as fine as Nintendo, sometimes, some games just slip through the cracks. Whether that be due to an unfortunate incident with a certain CD-i making company, or the bright idea of making a cooperative shooter spin-off in a franchise that had been seemingly forgotten by Nintendo even with fans clamoring for a new entry for six years, it just happens.
No one intends for their game to be bad, but sometimes all your efforts just simply don’t pay off, and the fans end up disappointed. And today that’s what we’ll be talking about! 15 Nintendo games that fans would just rather forget exist. Along with that, we’ll also be discussing 15 classic Nintendo games that fans forgot that deserve so much more credit than they get! So from that one weird Dancing Mario game to the one where he needs stickers to attack for some reason, here are 15 Nintendo games fans pretend don’t exist, along with 15 classics forgotten far too soon. Let’s get into it!
30 Yikes: Metroid: Other M (Wii)
Metroid: Other M is notable in the Metroid series for being one of the few entries absolutely derided by fans and sending the series into hiatus for six years. Yikes. The title receives much of its criticism due to its story. While a story focused game isn’t necessarily bad...
Other M portrays Samus as weak without the help of a man, contradictory to her entire nature previous to this title.
Rather than discovering new power-ups, Samus gained new abilities when her male superior officer decided it was time to let her use one of her abilities. Top this all off with a linear progression system, and you’ve got a recipe that would make any Metroid fan say, “oh… gross.”
29 Gem: The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)
The Wonderful 101 is a Wii U exclusive (could this have a part in this game being forgotten? Find out by reading on!) title developed by PlatinumGames. The action-adventure title was well received for its story, gameplay elements, and presentation. However, due to the lack of marketing the game received, this title is almost never talked about anymore. While many Wii U games are regarded as classics trapped on a deal console (or they just get ported to the Switch), The Wonderful 101 is never mentioned, and seems to have simply slipped the mind of most Nintendo fans.
28 Yikes: Zelda: The Wand Of Gamelon (Philips CD-i)
“You’ve [ended] me!” “Good.” The fact that this game wasn’t nominated for an Oscar never ceases to amaze me. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon is one of the several Philips CD-i games featuring Nintendo characters. In this title, you control Zelda on a quest to save Link and the King of Hyrule!
Sounds interesting, right? Well, it might be if the game wasn’t terrible.
Horrible controls, truly creepy animated sequences, a nonsensical plot, and overall boring and repetitive gameplay are just a few of the issues that plague this game. Honestly, just watch a compilation of the cutscenes on YouTube, it’s actually totally worth gawking at.
27 Gem: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky (DS)
The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series is by far the best spin-off Pokémon series and no one can tell me otherwise. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky is one of the most polished titles in the series. The gameplay is refined from previous entries, and features varied, interesting dungeons and almost every single Pokémon in existence at the time. The game’s plot is very well-told, and has many exciting twists, while never feeling like it bogs down the game. If you’re looking for the definitive Pokémon Mystery Dungeon experience, this is the game to play.
26 Yikes: Mario Is Missing (Multiple Systems)
Here we go, Luigi’s first solo outing! You know, I really am glad he got this opportunity, he deserves his chance in the spotlight. I wonder what type of game he’s going to star in oh no it’s an educational game. Yeah, that’s right, Nintendo chose to disrespect Luigi as usual by making his first starring role in an educational game. In the title, Luigi has to rescue Mario from Bowser and the Koopalings by going to real-world locations and retrieving artifacts stolen by Koopas (such as the literal entire Sistine Chapel ceiling). The game also features boss fights where Luigi can’t be hurt, and half of the geographical facts the game is supposed to teach you are wrong. Fun!
25 Gem: Bird And Beans (DSiWare)
Ok, hear me out. Bird and Beans, the $2 DSiWare title that is actually a remade WarioWare minigame, is so FUN! The concept is simple, you play as a bird that has 30 tiles to walk on, and you have to swallow or shoot vegetables falling from the sky. If they hit the ground, the block they hit is destroyed, and you can no longer walk across it. The game is simple and incredibly fun and addicting. The title was even featured in the 2017 Nintendo World Championship! I don’t know what it is about this game that I love so much, but in all honesty, I would personally finance a Switch port. Please Nintendo, I want so little.
24 Yikes: Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U)
Oh boy, do I have fun plans tonight! My friends and I are getting together to play the new Mario Party, except instead of minigames you’re just told something happens and amiibos are required to do literally everything! Oh wait, it’s Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival! Unfortunately, the game is really everything I just described.
A sad title created simply to make and sell the Animal Crossing amiibo that were everywhere you looked on store shelves.
The game lacks any substance whatsoever, and is barely worth being called a game at all. It was a shameless attempt to sell some physical media by Nintendo, and is not worth having the Animal Crossing moniker.
23 Gem: Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)
While Bayonetta 2 is not nearly as forgotten as many of the other titles on this list, being trapped on the Wii U certainly did not help this excellent game reach the audience it deserves. The game is an evolution in every way of the original Bayonetta, and exceeds in almost every single aspect of its design.
It truly is the pinnacle of its genre, and deserves far more attention than it got.
While its Switch port certainly helped it find a new audience, as it already outsold the Wii U version, hopefully, the game’s sequel manages to be even better than this already amazing title.
22 Yikes: Hotel Mario (Phillips CD-i)
Hotel Mario is another Phillips CD-i game that's, to put it lightly, horrible. The cutscenes are similarly horrifying to the Zelda CD-i games, and the controls are just as unresponsive as those titles as well.
The real kicker here is the gameplay of Hotel Mario. You close doors. That's it.
The entire hook of this game is closing doors that enemy Goombas and Koopas are opening. I can't even make this up. Phillips had the Mario license to use as they please and they make a game about closing doors. Truly iconic.
21 Gem: Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (GameCube)
While Donkey Kong is now back in the swing of things since the return of the Donkey Kong Country series, he had a few weird, experimental years. This phase of DK's life gave us Jungle Beat! This game is a platformer that centers around getting points by collecting bananas!
Oh, and it's played with a pair of Bongos!
Yes, this game is primarily made to be played with the DK Bongos, a GameCube controller made for a few DK games. I don't know about you but when someone asks if I want to play some video games, the first thing I say is, “Sure! Where are the bongos?”
20 Yikes: Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
Paper Mario is another Nintendo series that has had a few rough patches. While the first game was considered a very good game and the sequel was considered an amazing improvement on everything the first game did, Nintendo decided that from there, things would change. The third game ditched the RPG mechanics and instead became a platformer. And then the 3DS sequel, Sticker Star, was set to bring the series back to its roots as an RPG title! But it didn't and was bad! The game went back to the original combat style, but was stripped of all RPG elements, and made Mario find stickers in the overworld to attack. Why? I don't know. The series has made a lot of changes for the worst in the past few entries, and doesn't seem to be making it back from the dark side anytime soon.
19 Gem: Pokémon XD: Gale Of Darkness (GameCube)
THIS GAME IS EVERYTHING AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISE! XD is one of those rare home console Pokémon titles, even rarer so because it's highly akin to the main series titles, unlike most other home offerings. Similar to its predecessor, Pokémon Colosseum, in this title, you tackle the Orre reigon, a (fully 3D!!!!) region that has very few wild Pokémon. Instead, your team is built from the Shadow Pokémon, corrupted Pokémon being used for evil, that you snag from trainers. So while you are doing a good thing and returning these Pokémon back to their normal, pure forms, you're definitely stealing Pokémon from other trainers. A darker than average story combined with the tried and true Pokémon gameplay make this a great, often not talked about, GameCube title.
18 Yikes: Hey You, Pikachu! (Nintendo 64)
Now we have a bad console Pokémon game. Yay! This title is about befriending and playing with a wild Pikachu you meet. This is one of the only game that features the Nintendo 64’s Voice Recognition Unit. In this game, you use voice commands to interact with Pikachu. Besides the fact that the commands don't really even work, since the VRU was programmed to respond to children's’ often higher pitched voices, sometimes, Pikachu just doesn't even listen! Wow, amazing! Besides all this, the game is just mediocre at best, and leaves so much to be desired.
17 Gem: Nintendo Land (Wii U)
Another trapped, forgotten Wii U game is Nintendo Land. Positioned similarly to Wii Sports, Nintendo Land was used to show off what the Wii U GamePad could do! It contained an array of fun mini-games based off Nintendo properties such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Animal Crossing and more! The games were varied and lots of fun, and really did use the GamePad in some clever ways, one of the only games to truly do so. This was a fun game that is now doomed to be trapped on the Wii U until the end of time.
16 Yikes: Mario Teaches Typing (MS-Dos, Mac OS)
Ok ok, so I know this is an educational game, but, it's bad. I remember my days of learning typing, SpongeBob SquarePants Typing was amazing! It was so much fun, and this is just… odd looking.
All the characters look… gross.
Nothing looks quite like the Mushroom Kingdom (the Koopas are awful), the audio sounds horrible, and even for a typing game, there is absolutely no variation. Honestly, the game is free to play online at any time, just try it for yourself.
15 Gem: Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix (GameCube)
DDR Mario Mix is a treasure we didn't deserve to have. It's exactly what it sounds like it is, DDR featuring Mario characters and music, including new tracks and remixes of classic Mario songs (and also classical public domain songs for some reason) that just straight up FIRE! Also, the plot of this game features Waluigi!
What did we do to deserve this game?
Besides all the Mario cosmetics, the gameplay is essentially just the tried and true DDR gameplay we've all come to know and love, and honestly, I'm bumping to some of the music as I write this.
14 Yikes: Star Fox Zero (Wii U)
Star Fox is a weird franchise for Nintendo. It's not one of the A+ franchises like Mario and Zelda, and it's constantly changing and being used as a testing ground for new technology. Star Fox Zero was supposed to be a return to form for the franchise, but awkward controls and gimmicky features made it feel like just a poor retread of 64 that didn't build on the franchise at all. It was just a dud for a franchise that doesn't get new entries often. It's likely fans are waiting for the Star Fox content in Starlink after the disappointment of Zero.
13 Gem: Super Paper Mario (Wii)
While I did previously talk about this game being the first in the Paper Mario franchise to change the formula that made the series great, I actually still really like SPM. The game makes great use of the paper aesthetic, the style of this game is striking. The writing and humor is just as great as the previous entries, and the game has a charm to it with interesting missions and bosses such as Francis. While it's not the same Paper Mario experience you might be used to, it's a positive experience.
12 Yikes: Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS)
Why? Why would Nintendo do this? If this game had been the start of a new IP, fans might have really enjoyed the title! Instead, Nintendo chose to brand Federation Force as a new Metroid title, something fans had been begging for. This is not what they wanted. Metroid fans want a dark, creepy game, with an overwhelming sense of isolation. Not this. While the game itself might be great, it's not the quality people were concerned with here.
11 Gem: The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
The DS Zelda titles are weird ones. They feature an interesting control scheme, using the touchscreen to control Link and use items. Spirit Tracks was an improvement over Phantom Hourglass. It featured new gimmicks that worked well, and didn't have you traversing the same dungeon over and over. The Zelda/phantom addition to the gameplay was welcomed, and kept things interesting. It introduced new concepts to a franchise that doesn't stray often, and while it's not brought up often when talking about the Zelda series as a whole… well, it should be more, ok?