I’m sure I’m not the only one who immersed myself in Animal Crossing: New Horizons while trying to stay sane in the mess that was 2020. I’ve always loved the cozy vibes of some Nintendo franchises: Kirby, Pokémon, and, of course, Animal Crossing. Fortunately, there’s a student club starting up at Camosun for anyone who enjoys the rich history that Nintendo has to offer the gaming industry.
Interactive Media Developer Technology student Matthew Hood is very knowledgeable about the evolution of Nintendo games and consoles and aims to share that with fellow students by starting Club Nintendo here at Camosun.
“It’s not your traditional ‘meet up and hang out and play video games’ club. It’s more, almost, exhibit,” says Hood. “Really understanding the history hands-on is not something that a lot of people can do. So, my hope with Club Nintendo is to be able to bring real authentic hardware experiences to people [who are] interested so that we can all talk about them and learn from them.”
Hood picked Nintendo as his focus based on the company’s contributions to game development, and because it’s his personal favourite.
“A lot of people credit Nintendo for basically saving the entire game industry. There was a point where, technologically, games just kinda reached a pinnacle with a lot of the Atari and games from that era. And people just stopped buying them cause they were all the same, but when Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System [NES] in the ’80s with Super Mario Bros., that was like a revolution with games. So, they’ve kinda done a lot of leading the charge in terms of innovation, starting with the NES and moving through with things like the Wii, which was a huge phenomenon,” he says.
Nintendo made very bizarre, specialized accessories for their previous consoles; remember the Wii Fit balance board, for example? Modern emulators for old games can’t find a good way of replicating that experience, giving Hood another reason to start this club to keep those weird Duck Hunt guns and Wii nunchuks alive.
“A lot of games you can easily play through emulation or different services, like Nintendo Switch Online lets you play classic games. But what that misses out on, something Nintendo really specializes in, is weird hardware. Like, weird accessories that you can plug in and they’re these physical things you can use [instead of a controller],” he says. “A lot of people, they know about them, but they can’t really try them. They’re a thing of the past.”
Preserving the past is very important to Hood, and the rise of digital media can make people anxious about losing everything in their games if, say, a server shuts down, a fact not lost on him when discussing older forms of media.
“One of the things I love the most about older games is the physical aspect. Nowadays, most games are just downloaded from a store. Which has its advantages, it’s very convenient, but you lose a lot of the ownership of your games, because [when] modern game companies are done with a platform, they can just shut it off. The store will close and you can’t get those games anymore,” says Hood. “So, the preservation angle is very important to me, making sure that we archive and document these experiences so that people can play them for years to come is really important, so that’s a big part of why I’m trying to start this.”
Hood says that he’s excited for people to come check out Club Nintendo, regardless of their background in gaming or knowledge of development.
“Even if you’re not super interested in gaming or you don’t know anything about Nintendo, don’t be afraid to come,” says Hood. “Even for one day, just to see what it’s like. These games, all games, can appeal to so many different people in so many different ways. There’s no reason not to try it. You might have fun; you might discover something that is actually pretty interesting to you.”
Head over to camosunstudent.org/all-groups/club-nintendo to learn more about the club.