Zelda Williams Shares Some Kind Words About Nintendo

To Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, Nintendo is an important
part of gaming and a major player in her life. She was named after Hylian royalty, grew up with
Nintendo games, and starred in Nintendo commercials. While the Big N’s
Wii U seems to be struggling and the company has not been as explosively
successful in its endeavors as it would have hoped, Zelda reminds us
that Nintendo has something few others in the industry have: the gentle
caress of childhood wonder.

Many of us grew up with Nintendo titles more
so than others, and while some will chastise the company for remaining
true to their family-friendly roots, it is that consistency that has
kept Nintendo strong even in troubled times.

From the keyboard of Zelda Williams:

“I’d like to start by saying that I don’t work for Nintendo. I did those
commercials with my dad years ago now and enjoyed them thoroughly, but
the belief that my love of gaming is false and created for those spots
has plagued me ever since. I’d like to state, for hopefully the last
time, that it is not. I was named after a video game by two parents (and
a brother) that love them. I didn’t have to love them too… but, like
many of you, I do, and hopefully always will.

Anywho, onwards!

This was a difficult year for Nintendo. Between the new platform
upgrades beating out the WiiU and the loss of visionary ex-president
Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man who brought Nintendo into the video game world
in the first place, times have been better. But when things look down,
it’s important to remember why we all grew to love Nintendo so much in
the first place.

Now, I won’t pretend to only have one system in my house. Like most
video game players, I’ve tried my hand at every company’s platform. But
unlike Nintendo, the Xbox or the Playstation will never be the system I
grew up with. It will never be the creator of the first games I ever
played, the one’s that made me love gaming. Those are games I still play
with my parents, my brothers, my family, and hopefully always will. So
while some people are quick to critique Nintendo for not changing with
the hyper-realistic, violent times, I commend them for sticking to their
family friendly guns (irony intended). And here’s why.

I will never be nostalgic for the first Halo. I don’t go back to
replay old Call of Duty games when the newer, shinier ones come out. And
while those games and their legacies are impressive, I doubt we’ll be
buying antiquated systems or rereleased discs to play them again in all
their obsolete glory decades from now. I will happily continue to do so
for Nintendo. And while I wouldn’t want to imagine a gaming world
without those other companies and games (I do so love me some Master
Chief), I can’t imagine a gaming world without Nintendo. And hopefully
I’ll never have to.

Happy Holidays all.” — Zelda Williams