Nintendo

Background
Nintendo is a consumer electronics company centered around the development of video games, and hardware to run them. The company was founded in 1889 by entrepreneur Fusajiro Yamauchi, originally as a seller of hanafuda playing card games, at the time banned by the Japanese government due to its ties to gambling; Yamauchi's hanafuda playing cards were one of few that were permitted for sale to the Japanese public. Around the 1960s, Nintendo started to experiment with numerous ventures, including a taxi service (their most successful venture at the time), love hotels, a TV network, and the sale of instant rice. After securing the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey game console in Japan in 1974, Nintendo started to solely focus on the development of video games and gaming hardware for both arcades and home use. Today, Nintendo is best known for its participation in the video game console market, with consoles such as the DS, Game Boy, Wii, NES, and most recently, Switch. They are also the owners of numerous iconic gaming franchises, including Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Kid Icarus, Kirby, and Pikmin, among others.

Nintendo began to use stylized logos in their games starting in 1982.

1st Logo (Still variants) (August 2, 1982-)
Logo: We see either the Nintendo logo with an oblong shape on either a black or white background or copyright information for the company below the title screen of the game.

Variants:
 * On many arcade, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy and NES titles, the logo wordmark appears within a copyright notice.
 * On the arcade games of Punch-Out! and Super Punch-Out!, a larger Nintendo oblong shape appears below the title screen.
 * Sometimes, on early arcade titles, the text instead says "Nintendo of America, Inc."
 * On some early SNES games, like Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Safari, Super Punch-Out!! (this game has the logo in ), and Stunt Race FX (this game has the logo in ), the logo is smaller.
 * On NTSC-J/PAL releases of some Nintendo games, the logo is colored in instead of.
 * Some NTSC-J/PAL releases of games, like Donkey Kong Jr., have the logo appearing in.
 * On Super Mario 64, the Super Mario 64 logo pops up before zooming out and fading away, with copyright information for Nintendo seen below.
 * On most Kirby games, it is paired with the HAL Laboratory, Inc. logo or the Halken logo. It is also paired with HAL in some Smash Bros. games.
 * On Kirby and the Forgotten Land, it is superimposed on the end of the opening cutscene with HAL Laboratory, Inc..
 * On the American Nintendo DS games of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, "in cooperation with" is shown above the logo.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the game.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * An enhanced version of the coin collect sound effect from the Mario series is heard on Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario 64 DS, respectively.
 * On Super Mario 64, we also hear Mario saying "It's-a-me, Mario!"
 * On Stunt Race FX, a honking sound effect is heard.
 * On Super Punch-Out!!, a bling sound akin to the Game Boy startup the is heard.

Availability: Very common.
 * The logo's wordmark was first seen on the arcade game of Donkey Kong Jr., and went on to be seen on various console games, beginning with the NES game of Punch-Out!, and appeared on several games, like the Nintendo NES game of Tetris, the NES games of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Dr. Mario, the Game Boy games of Super Mario Land and Baseball, and the SNES game of Pilotwings, among others.
 * The logo with the oblong shape first appeared properly on the European version of Solstice (NES), as well as the US version of NCAA Basketball (SNES).
 * The small version was seen on Super Mario Kart, Super Mario All-Stars (+ Super Mario World), Stunt Race FX, Super Punch-Out!!, Yoshi's Safari, and Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition.
 * It can also be seen on most Nintendo games and their title screens such as Paper Mario, Mario Party 5, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, among others.
 * In most relatively recent games such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the logo is absent, but it still shows up occasionally, such as on Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

2nd Logo (November 21, 1990-October 21, 2003)


Logo: On a black background, we see "- Nintendo -" in its corporate font without the oblong shape. Below it is "Presents".

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: A random sound effect from the game.
 * On Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for SNES, the coin collect sound effect from the game is heard.
 * On Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi says the word "Nintendo".
 * On Yoshi's Story, a chorus of Yoshis say "Nintendo".
 * On The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the Rupee collect sound effect from the game plays.
 * On Super Scope 6, none.

Availability: Uncommon.
 * It appears on Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Scope 6, Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.
 * However, on Super Mario Advance, there is no Nintendo logo at all.

3rd Logo (King of the Zoo variant) (1990)


Logo: Same as the ASCII logo used in Penguin Wars VS and the Nexoft logo used in Penguin Wars, but with the corporate Nintendo logo, sans the oblong shape.

Technique: See ASCII and Nexoft.

Music/Sounds: See ASCII and Nexoft.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen only on King of the Zoo, a European localization of Penguin Wars for the Game Boy.

4th Logo (September 1, 1992-December 1994, December 12, 2010) (USA)


Logo: On a black background, we see the normal Nintendo logo, but the oblong shape is stretched out a bit. On top of the text is a Mario coin that shines once.

Variant: On Super Mario Kart, Yoshi's Safari, Super Punch-Out!! (this game has the logo in ), and Stunt Race FX (this game has the logo in ), there is no gold Mario coin.

Technique: Sprite-based 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: The coin sound effect from the 1st logo.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On Stunt Race FX, a honking sound effect is heard.
 * On Super Punch-Out!!, a bling sound akin to the Game Boy startup the is heard.

Availability: Uncommon.
 * Seen on Super Mario Kart, Super Mario All-Stars (+ Super Mario World), Stunt Race FX, Super Punch-Out!!, Yoshi's Safari, and Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition.
 * However, the Super Mario Advance series doesn't have this logo, as in the first game there was no Nintendo logo at all, and the later three use the first logo instead.

5th Logo (Mario Kart 64 custom variant) (December 14, 1996-June 24, 1997)


Logo: We see the Nintendo logo in, spinning slowly on a black background. After some time, the logo spins gradually faster, as later the screen fades to white, segueing into the title screen. The logo has a trail/ghost effect when it gets faster.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: The sound of a race car zooming by.

Availability: Only seen on Mario Kart 64.

6th Logo (Perfect Dark custom variant) (May 22-June 30, 2000)


Logo: We start on a black background. A light brightens up, revealing a version of the Nintendo logo, slowly rotating on its y-axis, as the light slowly dims and becomes dark again.

Technique: Good N64 animation.

Music/Sounds: A whoosh sound.

Availability: Only seen on Perfect Dark.

7th Logo (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem custom variant) (June 24, 2002)
Logo: On a black background, we see some reddish- smoke rising, forming a skeleton with its eyes lit, which then looks to the camera with its mouth opening. Its eyes brighten up before a flash of light appears, causing the skeleton to melt to the right, off the screen. The flash becomes a beam of light, circling around before it reaches the bottom-center of an outline of the Nintendo logo. It flashes even brighter and the full Nintendo logo appears in light blue. Throughout its screen time, the color of the Nintendo logo changes to.

Variant: On the PAL/European versions of the game, the Nintendo logo would turn instead of.

Technique: All CGI.

Music/Sounds: Ominous orchestral music, accompanied by the skeleton growling. After a phasing sound when the Nintendo logo gets formed, a deep "thud" is heard and a deep male announcer says the company name.

Availability: Extremely rare. Only seen on Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem for the Nintendo GameCube.