There have been a plethora of rumors and leaks about Nintendo's upcoming NX console. At one point the large rumor was that the NX would run Android and as awesome as that may be, Nintendo shot it down pretty quick. As the rumors keep coming and the days march closer to the rumored NX reveal I have been thinking about what i'd like to see in an upcoming Nintendo console.
The Most Compelling Catalog Of Games
Nintendo has been rolling strong in gaming since the early 70's when it got into it's Game and Watch series and as such has a huge library of games. Many of us know this first hand because we keep re-buying the same games over and over again on new hardware. It's as if Nintendo has us trained to buy Earthbound over and over because dammit... I will play it on my 3DS! I think Nintendo is sitting on a treasure trove of games and the ability to launch something that few game companies could do and I think Nintendo should offer a Netflix like services for it's back catalog.
Think of it, for $10 a month you could download and play Earthbound, Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time on any of your Nintendo systems that support the game. Since we live in a digital world all the games can be delivered over Wifi and you can download and play what you like. New games that come out won't be readily available but if you want to play Nintendo's amazing back catalog and experience games you missed, download and go. One aspect of this that makes it so neat is that many of these old games are small so you could download them straight to your system, no need for any kind of streaming game service.
To me, this service would be the most compelling of all in that it allows you to download the game to your system and avoids the hassle of always needing to be online that other such streaming game services require. It also allows these older games to be played by a generation that might have missed them and gives Nintendo a stab at a huge new source of sweet monthly revenue.
Seems like a solid win for everyone to me.
The NX Should Be A Handheld System That Can Fling To Your TV
I'll be totally honest with you, I don't think the Wii U and 3DS should be different systems. They seem to really be so, at heart, entirely similar they shouldn't be different things. Does anyone with a 3DS only NOT want to play the new Zelda game coming out? Does anyone with a Wii U only NOT want to play Pokemon X and Y? Some new titles are for both systems but, in my not so humble opinion, there are not enough.
Nintendo has a clear strength in mobile and I believe it should continue to play to this and allow the ability to fling to the TV for playing games with your family, friends or simply a larger screen experience. Even if the NX it's a TV only experience, at it's core it should no longer be different from Nintendo's mobile offering. Valve and Apple shouldn't be the only companies to realize that in in 2016 customers expectations are to buy a game and play it in many different places.
Ultimately I am hanging on the NX announcement to be something that pushes Nintendo into a more modern world that gives us something a bit different. I am open to seeing what Nintendo has but even seeing just one of my ideas come out would be something very compelling.
What do you want to see from the upcoming NX? What would get you to pull the trigger on a new Nintendo system?
The Most Compelling Catalog Of Games
Nintendo has been rolling strong in gaming since the early 70's when it got into it's Game and Watch series and as such has a huge library of games. Many of us know this first hand because we keep re-buying the same games over and over again on new hardware. It's as if Nintendo has us trained to buy Earthbound over and over because dammit... I will play it on my 3DS! I think Nintendo is sitting on a treasure trove of games and the ability to launch something that few game companies could do and I think Nintendo should offer a Netflix like services for it's back catalog.
Think of it, for $10 a month you could download and play Earthbound, Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time on any of your Nintendo systems that support the game. Since we live in a digital world all the games can be delivered over Wifi and you can download and play what you like. New games that come out won't be readily available but if you want to play Nintendo's amazing back catalog and experience games you missed, download and go. One aspect of this that makes it so neat is that many of these old games are small so you could download them straight to your system, no need for any kind of streaming game service.
To me, this service would be the most compelling of all in that it allows you to download the game to your system and avoids the hassle of always needing to be online that other such streaming game services require. It also allows these older games to be played by a generation that might have missed them and gives Nintendo a stab at a huge new source of sweet monthly revenue.
Seems like a solid win for everyone to me.
The NX Should Be A Handheld System That Can Fling To Your TV
I'll be totally honest with you, I don't think the Wii U and 3DS should be different systems. They seem to really be so, at heart, entirely similar they shouldn't be different things. Does anyone with a 3DS only NOT want to play the new Zelda game coming out? Does anyone with a Wii U only NOT want to play Pokemon X and Y? Some new titles are for both systems but, in my not so humble opinion, there are not enough.
Nintendo has a clear strength in mobile and I believe it should continue to play to this and allow the ability to fling to the TV for playing games with your family, friends or simply a larger screen experience. Even if the NX it's a TV only experience, at it's core it should no longer be different from Nintendo's mobile offering. Valve and Apple shouldn't be the only companies to realize that in in 2016 customers expectations are to buy a game and play it in many different places.
Ultimately I am hanging on the NX announcement to be something that pushes Nintendo into a more modern world that gives us something a bit different. I am open to seeing what Nintendo has but even seeing just one of my ideas come out would be something very compelling.
What do you want to see from the upcoming NX? What would get you to pull the trigger on a new Nintendo system?
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A Netflix-type service would be amazing! Especially if they made the app look like an old-school video rental store. But Nintendo had a bad relationship with video game rental stores, so that's probably not happening.
+1 on both. Imagine having a netflix like system in place day 1. They could have a massive day 1 catalog of games!
I would like them to get back the 3rd party games. Honestly, I would love to just own one console and have that be nintendo, but since they have crappy support for 3rd party games, I must own another console, or not get a nintendo one at all.
The NX has to be something competitive, and could really stand to stay away from any envelope-pushing gimmicks. I think what most gamers really want right now, is a solid platform, with means of posterity, where they can play Nintendo franchise games. Nintendo systems have never been the go-to for 3rd party experiences, with few exceptions. If they can change that, great, but the system needs to stay grounded with the "standards" of game development (e.g. use a tested control scheme, no gimmicks!). I feel like Nintendo shoots themselves in the foot too often when they try to think outside the box. Maybe they don't realize that they have all the innovation they need, right there in the games they make. Part of their strategy has been to reduce avenues of piracy, and I get that. At some point, however, conformity can be a good thing.
A subscription game service might work, and since everyone else is doing it, Nintendo might give it a go (is anyone actually doing subscription downloads, though?). It would be even nicer if you could simply keep the games you purchase for their virtual console, and have those tied to an account rather than a system. I don't know if they changed this for the Wii U, but I had a sweet library of retro games on the Wii, and lost them all because of this.
Handheld gaming doesn't interest me significantly, but I know it's huge, so I wouldn't be surprised if the rumors are true that the NX will be a console/handheld hybrid. Nintendo has shown interest in bringing their handheld games to the TV, ever since the N64. DS/3DS games pose a twin-screen problem that seems to only be solved by having a Wii U type setup, which, for me, muddles the experience. The beauty of those handhelds is that you can still view important information on the second screen peripherally. Contrarily, a controller in the hands can move out of that vision while focus is on the TV. This can be annoying. This, I think (if rumors are true), will be one of the make/breaks of the new system.
All I really want is a powerful system with a clean UI, a great controller (a WaveBird, with better button configuration would be perfect), and a proper online service. Build it, and they will come.
> I feel like Nintendo shoots themselves in the foot too often when they try to think outside the box.
Possibly recently, but not historically. They went dpad when people were joysticking. Great idea. They did the monochrome Gameboy. Incredible. Virtualboy? Terrible. The Wii waggle controllers. Dominated. DS stylus? Yeah, ok that kind of sucked. Wii U tablet? I think it works but it's not essential.
I think Nintendo does really well actually BUT I am with you, something more traditional would be welcomed for me.
> is anyone actually doing subscription downloads, though?
Closest I can think of is The Humble Monthly Bundle subscription and it's DRM free. Not the same thing entirely.
> All I really want is a powerful system with a clean UI, a great controller (a WaveBird, with better button configuration would be perfect), and a proper online service. Build it, and they will come.
I agree.
I don't know that the D-pad was all that innovative, rather a natural evolution of its predecessors (Intellevision was the first to go no-joystick, I think). Wii motion controls were fine enough for Nintendo (although, I would have much rather played Skyward Sword without motion controls), but not so much for 3rd party devs, so I don't know how much they dominated. Game Boy was awesome, and the DS was/is pretty amazing. I think the GameCube is my favorite system that they've put out, beside the SNES (best controller, and best games).
They do make great things, from time to time, but they seem to excel on the software side of things ;)
When I saw the Wii dominated, I mean in terms of sales.
Here is a good article from a couple years back:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/26/11-gaming-innovations-we-owe-to-nintendo
That's an interesting article, but some of those are a bit of a stretch. I'm nitpicking, of course (as I'm wont to do, sometimes), but a lot of items on that list are simply a natural evolution of existing ideas. Even the first sentence under "The Directional Pad" reads "The directional pad was inevitable." The modern side-scroller? Pitfall was around before Super Mario Bros. The Playstation had the Multitap, which wasn't pretty, but did the same job, and then some (supporting up to 8 controllers, if memory serves) when it came to multiplayer on one console. To say that we owe the innovation of virtual reality to the Virtual Boy is crazy talk (there was nothing VR about it, it was 3D).
Nintendo has made some great things, but there may be a bit of sugar on some of the details. One could argue that Nintendo has also been active in stifling progress in the industry over the years (e.g. the slow move away from cartridges, poor support of online gaming, abstract proprietary control systems...).