Random "That's Wild" - The Fact That Two French Devs Didn't Play Nintendo As Kids Appears To Have Upset Some People

I can't tell how much of this is translational.

Of course it makes perfect sense that the games they played in their formative years would have reflected regional tendencies at the time. Nobody should be even slightly surprised (or upset) about that.

But it actually is hard to believe that all these years later, they wouldn't have sought out some of those missed experiences. Artists and creators tend to be interested in the work of other artists and creators. So when I read a wild sentence like "I've never had the opportunity to play with a Nintendo game console" I'm inclined to think this was translated incorrectly. They may not have had the opportunity before, but they've certainly had the opportunity by now.

I mean, I'm not even a game designer and I've happily availed myself of the opportunity to play old Master System and PC Engine games that weren't popular in the US when I was a kid.

Of course, none of this detracts from what a masterpiece Expedition 33 is, regardless of its influences.

@Razieluigi Well, I never had the inclination to rectify my lack of Sega games experiences. If I pick up an old game, it'll be one I already played, or one I would have wanted to play, and those would also be Nintendo, very ffew exceptions.

I don't think it's that rare. Now, I am not a game dev so I guess they should have a little more exposure, but with the VAST amount of games available, it's still no surprise they'll stick with the systems they know already.

As for regional tendencies, it wouldn't surprise me if Paris was more Segan than Nintendoid. Dunno, feels like it would be.

Classic Nintendo fan reactions - "what do you mean you didn't play Nintendo?? They invented everything and are the greatest and most important ever!!!!!"

As they just completely ignore PC gaming, arcade gaming, other consoles (NEC, SEGA, SNK, etc)...

Nintendo didn't take Europe seriously until the 16-bit era, instead allowing Bandai to distribute its hardware in the region. As a result, it was the Sega Master System which introduced many European players to the wonders of game consoles, and by the time the Mega Drive arrived, Sega had a sizeable lead over Nintendo in the territory – and by the time Sega's star began to fall, Sony's PlayStation was on the market, meaning that many Europeans bypassed Nintendo altogether.

The quoted statements may be true of France and some other parts of Europe, but you shouldn't really be talking about Europe as whole. For example, here in the Nordic countries the original NES was very popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, much more popular than Sega's consoles. So it would be considered weird if a Nordic game director in their 40s would say that they've never played any NES or SNES games.

I can very easily tell who doesn't know even has a very slight knowledge of video game history and this is a very obvious self-out on this front lol. Even when I was young I knew that Nintendo didn't dominate in Europe so it makes sense that both of these devs didn't grow up with Nintendo systems, especially LizardCube's CEO. Hardcore Sega fans usually grew up with them solely in childhood so if anything I wouldn't of wanted them to have a Nintendo if it didn't lead us to their line up of Sega reboots we've been seeing

I mean jeez, I knew the Mega Drive better in South Africa due to Nintendo not supporting the country till the Nintendo DS / Wii era.

Heck, I didn't even know what the DS was when I saw it in a gaming store near my office. Bought it on a whim and was pleasantly surprised.

It’s not particularly unusual; SEGA were massive in Europe in the 90s, with the Master System being very popular in the UK in the 80s before that. Nintendo seemed to ignore us in the UK until 1990 (the Game Boy and the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles NES pack were very popular that year and into 1991) and the Mega Drive was everywhere growing up. The Saturn was a bit of a bust, so people seemed to swap to the PS1, whereas I went the other way with the N64. Aside from SEGA it was really micro computers that were king over here. Nintendo was present, but I only encountered the NES in shops on displays and I knew 2 people with a SNES.

Welcome to the continent of the microcomputers. Some young americans forget that even Super Mario Bros 3 came to Europe in 1991! Until the Gameboy, Nintendo was not a big thing here.

Never played Nintendo as a kid. Nobody i know owned a Nintendo home console until the Gamecube. It’s not unusual, the online american revisionism is strong in this topic

Americans discover there are other countries outside with different tastes.

@Polvasti Exactly, it's wild to think that Sweden was a bastion of Nintendo games even during the G&W period, and that the relationship with Nintendo and the local distribution company Bergsala was so close that Sweden almost received an official release of the Famicom there, but in the last minute Nintendo changed their mind and redesigned the console for the North American launch, but still granted Bergsala the first launch of the NES in Europe, meaning Sweden was the first European country to receive the NES.

Everyone in Sweden had an NES back then, but from what I gather it was not as dominant elsewhere in Europe.

'didn't play Nintendo' is very ugly syntax for the title and hardly in keeping with this site. For the record, we don't play with Legos either (though we do hoover the carpet due to the genericide of the brand!)

Would these people getting upset be American?

These morons need to learn that Nintendo just wasn't a thing in Europe. And in France, it was all Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and Sega for consoles. Nothing else came close.

So, just because people a third the way around the planet had a different childhood from you, you have zero right to gatekeep them. STFU, the rest of the planet is sick of your ignorant rhetoric as it is.