There’s a reason that Nintendo doesn’t implement achievements in its games across its various platforms, and it might just make you reconsider pursuing them in the company’s bigger, HD enabled rivals.  According to Nintendo of America exec Bill Trinen, they simply aren’t needed. He said in a recent interview that:

 "When they create their games, [Nintendo's designers] don't tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward. Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery.

To that end, I think that when you look specifically at games from EAD [Nintendo's internal development division] and a lot of other games that Nintendo has developed as well, there are things you can do in the game that will result in some sort of reward or unexpected surprise. In my mind, that really encourages the sense of exploration rather than the sense of 'If I do that, I'm going to get some sort of artificial point or score that's going to make me feel better that I got this.' And that, to me, is I think more compelling."

So it sounds like Nintendo thinks of the achievements, which are prevalent on both the PS3 and Xbox 360, as crutches which aren’t needed to enthuse a player to fully explore their games. I totally agree with that, considering they’ve been doing a fine job of keeping fans happy with their achievement-less consoles.

[Kotaku]