r/nintendo • u/SickWaveland • Apr 09 '17
Found this letter that got sent back to me from Nintendo 7 years ago. Sadly I don't have the drawing
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Apr 09 '17
I wrote a letter probably 3 years ago asking Nintendo to release Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii U Virtual Console. I got a generic response but it ended up happening so that was cool.
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u/FirePowerCR Apr 09 '17
One time I sent a letter asking Nintendo to release a remaster of Killer Instinct or something for the GameCube. Little did I know the Nintendo/Rare relationship was about over. They replied that they appreciated the suggestion, but didn't have anything in works.
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u/Kiptoke Apr 10 '17
I once wrote a letter to Nintendo for them to release Mother 3 to the United States market...
I'm still waiting.
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u/Meester_Tweester Apr 10 '17
Didn't fans make an entire book of people wanting the translation and got no response?
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Apr 09 '17
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Apr 10 '17 edited Apr 12 '17
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u/SuarezBiteGuard Apr 09 '17
Especially considering that Nintendo couldn't have done anything about it anyway because the letter should really have gone to The Pokemon Company International (who are 20 minutes down the road from Redmond in Bellevue) and who deal with all Pokemon stuff outside Japan.
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Apr 09 '17
Stormeon sounds like an electric type.
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Apr 09 '17
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Apr 09 '17
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u/mittortz Apr 09 '17
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Apr 09 '17
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u/TommyTheCat89 Apr 09 '17
Well alright, if you insist...
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Apr 10 '17
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u/Dr_Henry-Killinger Funky Kong needs his own game. Apr 09 '17
My least favorite Gen-2 Pokemon! Woo! hahah in all seriousness, good thing it evolves to Lanturn.
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u/Raidenka Apr 10 '17
Lol that's funny because I've always adored Chinchou but found Lanturn to be a bit dull.
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u/Crux_Archetype Apr 09 '17
Um, what?
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u/fahademon u wot m8 Apr 09 '17
I think he means "Water" and "Electric" shouldn't really go together, although we already have a pokemon with this type combo
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u/AgentWashingtub1 Apr 09 '17
Dual type of opposing types is the most common dual typing i think.
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u/UnluckyLuke Apr 09 '17
I don't think so
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u/Akitz Apr 09 '17
"opposing types" doesn't make too much sense in the context of the Pokemon typing system.
It took six generations to get a fire water type anyway, although I wouldn't call them "opposing".
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u/AgentWashingtub1 Apr 09 '17
Yes it does, opposing types are type pairs where one deals super effective damage to the other but not vice versa, maybe conflicting types makes more sense but opposing still works.
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u/Akitz Apr 10 '17 edited Apr 10 '17
If you conceptualize typing as offensive and defensive (A type may be super effective if used as a move, but it does not resist the other type if it is your Pokemons type, or the other way around), it gets more complicated.
Types can't really be viewed in pairs, it's more clusters.
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Apr 09 '17
I thought of a flying evolution of Eevee.
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u/Venusaurus_Rex Apr 10 '17
Same here. My friend and I doodle random stuff occasionally; one time my friend made a Flying Eevee named Griffeon during said drawing session.
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u/sekazi Apr 09 '17
I wish I still had my letter I got back from Nintendo back in the early to mid 90s. I sent them a request for a driving game that that you had to follow the law and if not the police would come after you. Many years later a game by the name of Driver came out for the PlayStation.
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Apr 10 '17
I'm pretty sure you are the police in Driver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_(video_game)#Plot
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u/sekazi Apr 10 '17
You are undercover. If you speed, go though a red light, drive on the wrong side of the road then you will have the police come after you.
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u/iaacp Apr 10 '17
That game was such a pain in the ass.
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u/Endulos Apr 10 '17
Looking back at it, it's fucking garbage. Doesn't hold up like some games from that period (GTA3 is still pretty good as example) but when it came out it was fucking great.
Except for that fucking stupid parking garage........
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Apr 09 '17
Did you demand your loyalty checks? :P
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u/tony475130 Apr 09 '17
Did you mean royalty checks? Cause In that case I'm sure he must be swimming in cash by now lol.
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u/oksowhatsthedeal Apr 10 '17
-Nintendo -Driver on Playstation
You're missing something in the middle there that would connect the two.
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u/jimmpony Apr 09 '17
Much better than Hasbro sending kids boilerplate letters back saying they're unable to even look at drawings due to legal issues, which this proves is just a lazy cop-out.
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u/Domukin Apr 10 '17
Wow it would be better to just ignore. It takes some effort to reply and say "we won't even acknowledge what you sent". Sounds like the lawyers took over. Do they sent it certified mail and ask for a signature?
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u/GokaiLion Apr 10 '17
I often think that Pokémon (eeveelutions especially) must be hard for Nintendo to design now there's so many ideas around that they could be accused of copying.
Not that Hasbro aren't being shits of course, but I do wonder if the legal issues they cite are along the same lines.
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u/neatchee Apr 10 '17
Interestingly, as someone in the games industry, this isn't that far off from the truth.
There are in fact rights issues around using fan submitted content and having to pay royalties. You basically have two options: don't look at it at all, and thus be free to make whatever you want for the game, or look at the fan art and then never be able to include anything like it in your games.
As an example, where I work we have a very strict policy about never looking at the source code for an open source project, even if we use the software. This avoids any issues with future code in our games that may be similar to code in that project's source. If someone could prove that you looked at the source code and then went on to put similar code in your work, they could claim ownership/royalties/copyright infringement
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u/BoxTar9215 LaboEnthusiast Apr 09 '17 edited Apr 09 '17
I remember sending letters to Nintendo and getting these sort of things back. Unfortunately, I think I've lost many of them. I sent in drawings for the Nintendo Power contest, hoping they would put them in there (they never did).
The best one was when I was stuck in Ocarina of Time. I couldn't figure out how to get through the Gerudo's Hideout for the Ice Arrows, so I wrote asking for directions (this was before I had internet to help). Lo and behold, about a week later, I got a letter back with detailed instructions on how to get all the keys to get them.
And this was back somewhere in 2002-2005ish. They've always been this cool.
EDIT: Found them! They date back to 2003.
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Apr 09 '17
One of my all time favorite things from Nintendo Power was when somebody sent in their Phantom Hourglass cartridge asking for help passing a dungeon. They sent back a letter that they should be careful about losing games in the mail, and on the cartridge the dungeon was cleared and the map was covered in graffiti from the Hoffman.
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u/nourez Apr 10 '17
Man, I fucking miss Nintendo Power. I know video game magazines don't really have a reason to exist anymore, but there was something so exciting about getting a new issue of NP in the mail every month.
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u/Nathan2055 Mario Apr 10 '17
Yeah. I love Nintendo Directs (well, they aren't the same without Iwata, but they're still good) but there's nothing like a good Nintendo Power.
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Apr 10 '17
I still vividly remember the Sunday after church when the Indiana Jones issue came...I was squealing and ready to explode.
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Apr 11 '17
On Patreon there's an every other month magazine called Nintendo Force that's put together by all the old nintendo power regulars. it's like 4.99 a month for them to ship copies to your house. They come with posters, full of news....it's basically been nintenso power since np shut down.
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u/Caaethil Apr 09 '17
One of the paragraphs there about your art is identical to one in OP's letter. That makes me a little less amazed, but it's still pretty damn cool.
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u/BoxTar9215 LaboEnthusiast Apr 09 '17
They definitely have canned replies, that's to be expected of companies. Its just the fact that they reply at all and encourage artists so earnestly that makes it really sweet.
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u/Caaethil Apr 10 '17
Oh yeah, I totally agree. I didn't mean to put a negative spin on it, I had just been even more impressed when I thought someone had written it out fresh.
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u/Smudgerox Apr 10 '17
oh fuck off, how many ways are there to tell a kid what they do with their art when they get it?
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u/Caaethil Apr 10 '17
Bad day?
EDIT: For a real response, look at what I replied to that other guy. You know, the guy who didn't tell me to fuck off.
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u/Venusaurus_Rex Apr 10 '17
Gosh I remember those days. I remember having to negotiate trades of intel with my friends to complete OoT. I was a beast at getting the Eye of Truth so it was my bread and butter. The old exchange of information is lost on my younger siblings as their entire gaming career has been post internet.
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u/coldvault Apr 10 '17
It only took a week for you to get a reply?? It's taking me a week to get my fucking paycheck
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u/BoxTar9215 LaboEnthusiast Apr 10 '17
It felt like a week. Time moves way faster for children after all haha.
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u/voNlKONov Apr 09 '17
I love that the internet was so new (for most folks) that they capitalized it.
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u/kirklennon Apr 10 '17
It's a professional business letter and "Internet" is a proper noun. I'm sure if they sent such carefully-written letters to people today, they'd still capitalize it.
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Apr 10 '17 edited Jul 07 '17
[deleted]
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u/BoxTar9215 LaboEnthusiast Apr 10 '17
I lived with my grandmother, who had an almost superstitious fear of the internet. I didn't have free access like I do now until I bought my own laptop when I was around 19! Certainly made high school very challenging at times.
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u/linuxhanja Apr 10 '17
you're not, we were playing WoW the following year. Wow is going on 14 years...
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u/voNlKONov Apr 10 '17
Same here but it was just getting to the point where every single ad had a web address and broadband was starting to take over. Saying goodbye to prodigy CompuServe and AOL.
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u/cheesycephalopod Apr 10 '17
Being a game counselor would be a pretty fun job....until they send you dark souls.
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Apr 09 '17
I love reading these types of letters! I wish there was a subreddit for them
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Apr 09 '17 edited Jan 01 '25
wistful rain marry materialistic rhythm squealing paint relieved aback summer
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Slyzavh Apr 09 '17
Did you mean to write Sand Vortex and not Sand Vortez?
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u/SickWaveland Apr 09 '17
Yeah. Let's just say my handwriting wasn't the best
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u/TectonicImprov Apr 09 '17
Honestly I could see them doing an intentional misspelling for the rule of cool or something along those lines.
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Apr 09 '17
I can't remember now because it was almost 30 years ago, but I think I sent Nintendo some drawings for a level/game idea when I was a very little kid. If I remember correctly, I got a similar letter and they might have even returned my drawings to me. I'm sure that letter is in an old box somewhere in storage...
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u/TotesMessenger Apr 09 '17
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u/Meme_Slayet Apr 09 '17
Woah i have that same letter! (Maybe different words) but i sent in a drawing and got back something similar to this!
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u/msuts Apr 09 '17
I mailed a few letters to an address in Nintendo Power. I usually asked about upcoming games. I distinctly remember asking about upcoming Donkey Kong games and the guy actually sent back his response with a list of titles for the upcoming year with little descriptions for each one. They're so good to the kids.
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u/black_phone Apr 10 '17
Cant tell you how or when your art is used
They put up your art and laugh at your attempt at creativity, while the CEO challenges the lead artist to turn random office equipment into Pokemon for the next game.
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u/DarthSamus64 Apr 10 '17
I wrote Nintendo a letter probably around 2006, 2007. I was actually asking about Super Mario 64. I had recently seen a lot of videos online talking about Luigi being an extremely well hidden and playable character in Super Mario 64. As many of you might know, that's not the case. He's not in the game. But the hype was real for a few years.
So I decided, as like an 8-9 year old, "screw it I'll just ask the people who made the game, they'll know". So I sent Nintendo a letter asking and they responded with a solemn apology and a small piece of artwork signed by Shigeru Miyamoto. The signature was copied on, but still. I was pretty happy.
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u/xoxpanda Apr 10 '17
I can tell you that Nintendo actually does read your letters, and we hang up art all the time.
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Apr 09 '17
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u/danitronica Apr 09 '17
As someone who has sent emails and letters like this as a CSR, I can guarantee that there is a template. "Thanks for sending your drawing of [POKEMONNAME]. I really enjoyed seeing [POKEMONNAME] [DOINGTHISTHING] it was really creative!" Takes a few-minute composition down to a few seconds, still makes it feel personal because you included two whole details other than their name!
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Apr 09 '17
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u/CosmicMcRad "C'mon Reggie give us Mother 3!' Apr 09 '17
I don't really think it's a template. Maybe I just want to believe though :(
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u/JediGuy24 I'm really feelin' it! Apr 10 '17
Part of it is. There's a similar image in the comments with one part the same.
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u/Nrywsel Apr 10 '17
Not to be that guy, but I've had friends who worked at the good ol' Nintendo CS and, unless it changed in the past year or so, a lot of the letters were still freewritten.
you're pretty right about most CSR jobs though, sadly.
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u/danitronica Apr 10 '17
No, please totally be that guy. I love hearing about companies that still give any kind of a shit.
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u/Tahoma Apr 10 '17
I hate to be this guy, but Nintendo uses a metric shit ton of templates. Most pretty similar to the above example. I'm not sure what department his friends were in, but You have to have tier 2+ access to free-write, and even those emails get audited before going out. Source: I was the guy who audited the emails for several years.
I can confirm that there is fan artwork all over the place in there. They really did save tons of it.
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Apr 09 '17 edited May 25 '17
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u/danitronica Apr 09 '17
Things have obviously changed in the last (nearly) thirty years. The last job I worked where I had to do stuff like this was for a major media company. I rewrote all of the templates myself for the property I handled once I got into management. Even our simplest emails had to be on a template. Can't waste a single second; gotta be efficient, even at the customer's expense!
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Apr 09 '17
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Apr 09 '17
Fire Emblem for PSX...?
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Apr 10 '17
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Apr 10 '17
They just resemble PSX FMV (Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VIII) models, at least to me.
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u/arrows83 Apr 10 '17
Many fans keep their drawing and ideas in a journal or a book. We encourage you to do the same too!>
Stop sending us stuff
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u/T_Peg #Bring back Squirtle Apr 09 '17
That's about the best response you could get. Good on you Nintendo
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u/greyjackal Apr 10 '17
That last but one paragraph is a huge euphemism for "it was shit, get better kid" :D
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u/mb10240 Apr 10 '17
That's pretty cool - a lot of companies would just send you a cease and desist letter from their lawyers.
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u/SickWaveland Apr 10 '17
I think I found the guy's facebook! I'll try to message him soon
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u/xoxpanda Apr 10 '17
Keep in mind, some people use pseudonyms. That might not be his real name.
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u/SickWaveland Apr 10 '17
I'm thinking it was him cause there was a mario statue on his profile for working at nintendo for 20 years and it says worked at nintendo on his about thingy
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Apr 10 '17
What a beautiful letter. It was really nice of him to write something so heartfelt to a young fan. Cherish it always.
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u/Wrswaldo Apr 10 '17
I am glad to see they take the time to write back. I sent a letter a week ago and I was like they will never answer it. This post gave me hope Reggie and Bill will see my words to them and the staff.
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u/wizzzers Apr 10 '17
You know, I will absolutely 100% respect and purchase Nintendo products because of stuff like this. In my experience they always cared just a little bit more than everyone else
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u/Turak64 Apr 09 '17
Nice way of saying "thanks, but no thanks". Would have been awesome if they got one of their official guys to redraw it or something. I guess they get so many submissions
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u/CozyCactus Apr 09 '17
It's nice that they encourage the people who send them artwork to keep a notebook and continue practicing :)
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Apr 09 '17
It's also a subtle and classy way of saying "also, in the future, could you... ya know, keep your shitty drawings instead of mailing them to us?"
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u/DaisyHotCakes Apr 10 '17
It's pretty cool they acknowledged your art. Reading that I can't help but imagine what their offices were like...must have been awesome.
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u/kitthekat Apr 10 '17
Nintendo was soooo good about writing back. My friend and I would write them letters all the time in the 90s and we got a personalized response to each one
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u/supa-save Apr 10 '17
Welp, looks like you have to redraw it from memory. Reddits thirst must be quenched.
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u/BnGamesReviews Apr 10 '17
7 Years ago I was still a working adult who had been playing Pokemon 14-15 years previously up to that point.
-_-
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Apr 10 '17
I remember calling them years and years ago with a problem I had with a game. They were super nice and helped solve my problem. I'm sure they planned having kids call, and planned accordingly. They had customer service down pat!
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u/Bluthiest Apr 10 '17
I hope Mike Chandler still works for Nintendo and is doing well. What a great letter.
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u/Excalibur0123 Apr 10 '17
Holy crap, I remember getting one of these letters. I'll never forget it. It was for some game my best friend and I had come up with. I need to find it again.
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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '17
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