I'm actually extremely pissed off at the Yuzu (and Citra) situation, especially after there's been an article detailing how Nintendo sued a man's life into oblivion just for being employed by a team that was hacking Nintendo Switches. Not for developing or selling the tools to circumvent their anti-piracy measures, which he didn't, just for being related to them at all, to be punished as an example. These two cases show that they can absolutely bully people that are doing work that is straight up not illegal for extremely petty punishment, and the consequences of them might lead to people doing the work to preserve and make accessible games via emulation be way more scared and secretive of it, or outright quit. Nintendo's lawyers even fucking lied on their case about Yuzu being used to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pre-release and claimed "spoilers of the game" were "harming Nintendo customers". "Harming". Fuck this bullshit.
And they do this because they know their brand holds an immense power in people's heads. They do this not because they need the money they're wringing out of individuals that weren't even close to living luxuriously, but precisely because they're selling more than ever, that people are more dependent on their games and systems than ever, that they can afford to do such heinous shit. And then what, everyone gets mad for a week and then everyone goes back to saying how Nintendo has made and makes all the best games and making free propaganda for their next release but adding a little asterisk that says "I hate how the company and their lawyers act though!". No. I refuse.
And yes, I'm aware that the artists, designers, musicians, etc, under Nintendo are not the people doing this. The people who make their games be what they are aren't responsible. But there's so many other people making games, who have made games, and all this endless praise and inflating of their brand only furthers the dependency people have on Nintendo as a brand, and continuously erases other important work from other places. I refuse to play this game and here's why you shouldn't play this game either:
I'm checking my backloggery now. The last Nintendo game I played was 10 months ago. In the meantime, I played (to completion!) over 36 games. Mostly all great, none by Nintendo. You don't need them to eat good, you don't need them even if you're like me and mostly plays retro Japanese games, to which Nintendo fans would lead you to believe Nintendo is basically all there is to that niche.
Here's the truth: Every classic Nintendo landmark release stands on the shoulders of a myriad of other games. The impression of Nintendo as the pioneers and stewards of game history has a lot to do with their aggressive marketing and with the fact that many of the games made by other companies that Nintendo were directly iterating on did not see a release in the US. Even when they did release in the US, they often did not have the same notoriety due to indirectly competing with the marketing might of Nintendo of America.
So if you're as angry at them as I am, but you love Nintendo games and don't know where else to get that fix, I'll help you. Nintendo isn't Christ's second coming to videogames, you just need to expand your world properly:
If you like Pokémon
If you ask for a consensus of what RPG videogame is the best, Dragon Quest V will very likely be the answer if you're asking Japan specifically. It very directly inspired Pokémon. The DS version looks and plays amazingly and was the first time the game got localized in the West. Prior to DQ5 though, the mechanics of "monster taming" that DQ5 and Pokémon uses actually find their origin in the Megami Tensei series, of which Persona is a spin-off of. Other than those, there's Digimon Story Cybersleuth, the Monster Rancher games, and of course, DQ5 spawned a whole monster raising spin-off with the Dragon Quest Monsters series.
If you like 2D Mario
Super Mario Bros. was definitely a big pioneer of platforming games, and all platformers after it were directly or indirectly inspired by its weight. However, games like Pac-Land and Ghouls'n Ghosts actually preceeded it, so it's not like scrolling platformers began their existence with Mario! With games released after Mario, there's of course the Sonic series, but also Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (pictured), Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, Rocket Knight Adventures, Dynamite Headdy, Ristar, Rayman Legends, the Megaman and Castlevania games, and the technical platformer masterpieces Gimmick! and the Umihara Kawase series.
If you like 3D Mario
Jumping Flash! is a 3D platformer pioneer released a whole 2 years before Super Mario 64 and I honestly like it better! Jumping Flash! 2, the Ape Escape games (pictured), Penny's Big Breakaway, Chameleon Twist 1 and 2, the Ratchet & Clank games (more of a 3D action shooter than a platformer but w/e they're pretty good games) and Sackboy: A Big Adventure are all superb too.
If you like 3D Zelda
Megaman Legends is a fantastic 3D action and dungeon exploring game and actually released before Ocarina of Time, too. You also have the Ys series (started 2D back in 1987 but has a ton of fantastic 3D entries to this day!), Okami, the dot Hack series, Tail Concerto and Solatorobo.
If you like 2D Zelda
There's absolutely no shortage of great games in this category. Beyond the early Ys games: Beyond Oasis (pictured) is a beautiful top-down action RPG with beat'em up mechanics that was made by Ancient, the developers of Streets of Rage 2, and the company of legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It also had a sequel on the Saturn, with Legend of Oasis. There's also the Mana series (the first game, Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy, I like better than Link's Awakening), Unsighted (developed by two brazillian trans women!), Crusader of Centy, Linkle Liver Story, Soul Blazer, Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia, Sylvan Tale and Alundra.
So there, please try some of these games out. My focus is on classic games because that's what I like, and also, because it feels like people remember less and less games from a decade+ ago that were not Nintendo. Please don't let them colonize the collective mind about their inflated importance in game history.