As a kid, I was a big outdoors person until I got my SNES as a Christmas gift. It set me on a path to becoming a night owl software engineer.
I fell in love with Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Mario RPG, and never worked harder to earn enough money to buy an N64. The web was just starting to take off, and it was at that point I started using the internet to look up cheat codes and make friends to talk about games with.
Because of Nintendo I found out there was incredible depth to Japanese culture. I learned Japanese, discovered anime and manga. Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke, tokusatsu, that whole lot. I also learned to build websites to share cheat codes (strategywiki.org), and started to engineer chat, matchmaking (dsmeet.com), character designer tools, and more. I eventually wound up in Japan teaching English for a bit, working on code on the side.
Eventually video games lost the magical spell and I preferred to spend my time with building and creation. But I don't think any of it would have happened, at least not quite the way it did, without Nintendo.
But it hurts to see that Nintendo can be real jerks to their fans. They force take downs for indie games, ROM hacks, and even music. For a long time they vehemently tried to destroy the vibrant Smash Melee scene. Contrast this behavior with Sega, which actively leans into their fans' excitement and issues artistic license for their creations.
Nintendo also doesn't get the broader picture. They consistently fail at online gaming and paint themselves into boxes.
Switch was a success, but Wii U was not. Wii was a success, but Gamecube and Nintendo 64 undersold. I don't know what they're going to do against the juggernaut power of Microsoft and all of the studio consolidation. Or how they'll fare with Steam entering their lucrative market. They're going to need more successes in this crowded market. I hope they continue to innovate. They're the Studio Ghibli of the gaming world, and it'd be sad to see them go.
I also hope they learn to treat fans better.