Yesterday, Nintendo put out a hilarious video in collaboration with the guys at Mega64, officially detailing some of the company’s E3 plans. It featured fan favorite and president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime. I’ll include the video at the bottom.

This morning, I woke up to another video from Nintendo, this time, in the form of a special Nintendo Direct, featuring details about the upcoming Wii U title, Mario Kart 8. It, too, was a very whimsical presentation.

And that’s what I love about Nintendo. They’re a very lighthearted company. Their public identity is kind of weird. On one hand, they’re often seen as being very traditional, conservative and stiff, but on the other, they’re easily the most jovial and fun-loving of any major developer.

Within the gaming community, I feel like too many people get hung up on technicalities. They focus on trivial things, and can’t see the forest for the trees. I mean, when I was a kid, we didn’t care about stuff like frame rate, clock speed, resolution, game engines or hardware specs. That stuff didn’t matter. We just simply loved games. All we cared about was having fun.

And I feel like Nintendo is the embodiment of that philosophy. Say what you will about their business practices or their slow-to-adapt approach to industry standards, but when it comes down to it, they are still making the very best games.

I’ll admit, my Wii U has gotten a little dusty over the past few weeks, but that’s only because I’ve had my hands full playing my 3DS. But in a month’s time, Mario Kart 8 will be available for one and all. Until then, I look forward to picking up Mario Golf: World Tour for 3DS this coming Friday.

Check below for the two videos I mentioned earlier.

Play Nintendo

Mario Kart 8 Direct