Nintendocore

The story

From Nintendo (“Japanese multinational video game company”) + -core (suffix denoting a music genre, especially one influenced by hardcore music), with reference to the simplistic sound effects of early video game consoles. The word was coined by the American musician Nathan Winneke, the frontman of the metalcore band Horse the Band, as a joke; the band posted the word on the Internet and also printed it on a label on the compact disc of their first demo I Am a Small Wooden Statue on a Patch of Crabgrass Next to a Dried Up Riverbed (2001).

First known use, by meaning

• from 2001 An aggressive genre of modern rock music influenced by chiptunes (“music that samples or emulates the audio capabilities of older sound chips”) and video game music.