Originally Posted by
Melf
My problem with the whole "Nintendo savior" perspective is that people forget that Nintendo was doing everything in its power to keep the NES from being perceived as a video game system. After the American crash, video games as a whole were considered toxic, and Nintendo didn't want the NES to be viewed as a video game console. That's evident in the redesign for the west, the name change, the inclusion of R.O.B. and using Worlds of Wonder for distribution.
Making Nintendo out to be savior of the industry when it went out of its way to distance itself from being associated with video games is ridiculous. It would be far more honest to say that Nintendo filled a void, and the situation in America gave it a huge advantage. It's success is as much the result of a lack of competition and monopolistic licensing practices as the games themselves.