Have I mentioned I’m something of a Nintendo Fan Boy? Yeah, I probably have lol. I grew up on Nintendo consoles, and even though I experimented with Sony and Microsoft, I’ve always gone back to Nintendo in the end. The Wii U is only a couple of years old, but the internet is always speculating on Nintendo releasing a new console. Honestly, I believe it will be at least 5 years before we get the Wii U successor. However I think it’s pretty much guaranteed that they are already actively working on the next console as we speak, and probably have been doing since BEFORE the Wii U was even released. That’s what they tend to do these days, so any time a small piece of news leaks out about Nintendo or anyone else looking into technology for new hardware, it shouldn’t always be seen as a sign of them planning to release a new console in the near future. It’s just them doing what they’ve always done, only now information gets leaked out easier than water in a sieve. Still, it doesn’t mean fans can’t speculate on what Nintendo might be doing, or in this case, what I personally would like them to be doing! So here is this week’s blog post, as I talk a little about what I would like Nintendo’s next console to be!
While I might not be as concerned with OMG GRAFFIX as the generic Sony and MS fanboys tend to be, I do feel that Nintendo should start to get back to having consoles competing in terms of sheer power. Mainly because Nintendo NEEDS to get that awesome 3rd Party support back. Far too often developers don’t bother with Wii U versions of games because the console limitations prevent them from doing what they really want to do with the game. True, a lot of it also comes down to the Wii U console being more difficult to develop for (something else they should change for the next console), but we do still always hear how the Wii U simply wouldn’t be able to handle Game X and Game Y etc. And if you are one of the many, many people that can’t afford to have every console out at the time, and only have a Wii U, it prevents you from playing a number of games that you might actually want to play. Unless you are a hardcore Nintendo fan who will buy their consoles regardless, what do you think most gamers will buy? A Wii U with basically no 3rd Party Support… or the PS4/Xbox One with all the new released sequels to games you loved to play on your last console? So for the Wii U 2 or whatever they will end up calling it, Nintendo in my opinion need to get back into the console wars and give gamers the chance to still play all the games they loved from the last generation on PS4 and Xbox One consoles, but with the added attraction of being able to play the rather magnificent Nintendo first party games that no true gamer should be denied!
Killer. Launch. Titles. I’m not suggesting they release a 3D Mario game, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda, Star Fox and Smash Bros on launch, as you do need to spread out the bigger titles to help maintain hardware sales over time… but come on Nintendo, give us SOMETHING. Look at the launch titles for the Wii and Wii U. What really stood out? Wii had Twilight Princess… that was also released on the Gamecube. And uhhh… yeah. That’s it. Was every launch title on the Wii a bad game? Absolutely not, but there was no true “Must Have” game upon console launch. As for the Wii U, the only real major game we got was New Super Mario Bros U, which, while a great game AND featured Nintendo’s biggest franchise character Mario… wasn’t a system seller. We’d already gotten numerous new 2D Mario game releases on Wii, DS, and 3DS up to this point, so the novelty of having another 2D Mario game had kinda worn off, especially when there wasn’t really anything major added to the game. Most of the other Wii U launch titles were either unimpressive, or Wii U releases of games most people had already played on older consoles long before the Wii U was released. Remember when we used to get a brand new, PROPER Mario game on launch? Super Mario World on SNES and Mario 64 on N64 were both system defining games, never mind system sellers. The Gamecube started this seem downhill slide of launch titles when it was announced we weren’t getting the next generation Mario game straight away, but instead a new game based around Luigi. Ok, the game was fantastic, but can you honestly say people were rushing out to get a Gamecube because there was a Luigi ghost busting game rather than a new 3D Mario game? The Wii U successor NEEDS to have a strong launch line-up in order to help it get the best start possible sales-wise. The next generation 3D Mario, another 2D Donkey Kong Country game, and then something new from one of their many other great IP’s. And even with maybe 3 high profile releases at launch, Nintendo would still have a plethora of awesome games to make us look forward to in the future! Oh hey, and there is also the ability to make, get this… A NEW IP!!!
I love the idea of the Virtual Console. When I first got my Wii, I was so excited that not only could I play the new Wii games, as well as the system being backwards compatible with the Gamecube… I could also buy and play classic games! NES, SNES, N64, Master System and Mega Drive (Genesis), all consoles I either grew up on, or had friends that owned. On top of that, other gaming systems that I either didn’t know about prior to them appearing on the Virtual Console, or knew about but never had access to them, such as the TurboGrafx and Neo Geo. Out comes the Wii U, and yep, the Virtual Console is there too. Only you can’t transfer your games over (you can still play them in the Wii mode, but you can’t use the gamepad and you still have to use old Wii/Classic controllers), and the selection after 2 years is honestly pitiful. A bunch of re-releases from the Wii’s VC and not that much else. Sure, we now have Gameboy Advance games on there which is different… but we DON’T currently have N64 or any non Nintendo console games on there! Within the first few months, the Wii had at least a handful of games for each of the different systems I listed, while the Wii U is still seemingly stuck with 2 consoles and 1 handheld, which not that much exclusive on the Wii U. So for the next Nintendo console, I would like some vast improvements. Firstly, let us transfer our games!!! Ok, you let us have a discount on games we already bought and have transferred over to the Wii mode on our Wii U, but I still don’t like the idea of having to re-buy everything just to play it with the Wii U controller. And perhaps most importantly, don’t skimp on the games! They should launch the next Virtual Console with everything they’ve already released on BOTH the Wii and Wii U. So we get a great selection of NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy Advance, Sega and other systems right from the get go. And THEN maybe we could get some more in the way of DS (they gave away 1 DS VC game for free, but haven’t said anything about releasing more), and hey, maybe some Gamecube games too? With plenty of life in my opinion still in the Wii U, I can hold out hope that Nintendo will give us all of this sooner rather than later. If they do, they need to make sure it ALL carries over onto the next console. And if they don’t, they need to make sure everything is on the next console anyway as a potential selling point!
I’ve mentioned more power, and now I’m mentioning MORE STORAGE SPACE. I like that Nintendo released a cheaper model with less space, for those casual gamers who likely won’t be downloading a billion games etc… but for the rest of us, 32GB really isn’t enough. Especially when you only ACTUALLY get around 25GB!!! I bought my Wii U with the Mario Kart 8 bundle, and with Mario Kart 8, they had a wonderful special offer of a free downloadable game. Great! However, depending on which game you selected, you could have easily used up a total of 17GB for ONE GAME. What do you do if you fill up the 25GB? Well, the option is there for external USB hard drives, which again is a good idea… but the fact is we shouldn’t HAVE to buy another hard drive for it, certainly not after only potentially downloading TWO games and using up all the space. For the next console, go all out and throw in a nice, big hard drive for us, with the ability to still use external drives if we want/need. Hell, still release a much smaller storage model at a cheaper price again for the more “casual” gamers. But please, don’t screw over the rest of us. ESPECIALLY if you do what I want with the Virtual Console! All those classic games PLUS new games, PLUS hopefully being able to transfer any other digital Wii U games too? We’re gonna need a lot of space!
And that’s all for now. I may come back to this and add more stuff to it should I think of anything, but for now I’m rather pleased with what I was able to put together. What do you think? Don’t agree with me? Think something should be changed/added? Let me know by leaving a comment below!!!