The Worst Decisions Nintendo Made In 2020

It was a good decade for Nintendo. Between hit games, the 3DS, the Switch, Amiibos, and more, the company has had quite a good run. What about 2020? As gamers enter a new decade, Nintendo is still on a roll, putting out hit games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and going all out to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary. With all the good, however, some bad is to be expected.

Nintendo has done some shady things in the past, and such a tradition continues into 2020. As much as the company has frustrated its fans, gamers continue to forgive Nintendo. With so many great games and a constant reimagining of the way people play, it's hard to stay mad at the legendary gaming company.

It seems as though every year, Nintendo manages to do something that frustrates everyone. What has the company done this year? These are the worst decisions Nintendo made in 2020.

In the Nintendo Direct announcement video for Mario's 35th Anniversary, fans received a lot of exciting news, accompanied by some rather ... bizarre and confounding facts. A collection of three classic 3D Mario adventures were due to release, along with a battle royale and several other notable products. What was especially strange was the announcement that both Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. 35 would only be available until March 31, 2021.

What is the significance of this date? Why would Nintendo only make these two games available until then? While it's important to note that the Direct specifically referred to a "limited-run retail edition" of All-Stars, it still feels unnecessary. 

Scalpers have been a major problem that's getting worse with next-gen gaming. When Nintendo puts any kind of limit on product availability, it seems like it would only empowering scalpers even further to make a quick and questionable buck. Users on Reddit were quite displeased with the company's habit of putting out limited releases. Again, one wonders: why would Nintendo give a free Mario battle royale a mere five-month run?

A great number of Nintendo users experienced a pretty significant account breach back in April 2020, and the company arguably did not handle the situation appropriately. After a surge of complaints flooded Twitter, Nintendo finally responded, acknowledging that tampering had taken place. Unfortunately, it appears as though this was too little, too late. Many customers already experienced fraudulent purchases on their accounts, and some even found it challenging just to contact Nintendo over the issue.

To make matters worse, more users were impacted than originally reported. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to trust Nintendo in handling sensitive information. The company tweeted about two-factor authentication to its user base around the time of the incident, suggesting it was aware of the problem, but chose to stay silent.

The breach could have been worse, but the way Nintendo handled the situation was not admirable in the least. Hopefully a problem like this doesn't happen again, but if it does, Nintendo needs to let its customers know.

If there's one thing that goes together like peanut butter and jelly, it's Nintendo IPs and lawsuits. In the middle of 2020, a fan made their own port of Super Mario 64 for the PC, and like clockwork, Nintendo went after them. This PC version, was given the 4K treatment with ultra-widescreen monitor support, offering the ultimate way to play this classic Mario adventure.

Nintendo's legal team attempted to take down the port almost immediately. This was yet another frustrating move that was likely further motivated by Mario 64's inclusion in the then-upcoming Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which wound up disappointing fans. What added even more insult to injury was that the Super Mario 64 included on the new All-Star collection didn't receive the same care and attention as the fan port. As one user on Reddit pointed out, "very funny to me that sm64 runs at 4:3 720p but you can run the unofficial port on a hacked switch at 16:9 1080p fine."

Fans seems to feel that if Nintendo had to go after a fan port, the least it could have done is offered a comparable alternative in the All-Star collection.