Topic: Potential Problems with Future VCs?

I posted this as a comment in an article, but I figured I'd post it here too. I'm curious as to what any of you think about this.

So if you think about it, just about any game in Nintendo's catalog, from the Gamecube era and back, could (potentially) be mapped and emulated on the Wii U (analog trigger quibbles aside). But what happens when Nintendo tries to start emulating Wii games on future consoles? Or Wii U games, for that matter? Is every Nintendo home console that comes out in the future going to need to be compatible with Wii Remotes in order to download old Wii titles? Will future consoles need to have a Gamepad-like accessory in order to play or emulate Wii U games?

You see what I'm getting at here? Nintendo introduced innovations in the Wii and Wii U that they ultimately have to include in future consoles, if they want to keep up with their tradition of backward compatibility. That could potentially hamper their console development in a lot of ways.

Granted, Nintendo isn't bound by backwards compatibility, nor is it an obligation that they make the next console compatible with Wii U games (Gamecube obviously was not compatible with N64 games, nor was an N64 compatible with SNES titles). But considering Nintendo is a company with such a rich back catalog of games, it seems disheartening to consider the possibility that future consoles will need to cap their selection at the Gamecube and exclude games that require the Wii's motion control or the Wii U's Gamepad. But who knows? Nintendo has come up with some crazy stuff before, so it's possible they can do it again.

I guess my question to you is, do you see this as a potential problem? And if you do, how big of a problem is it? Does this hurt the nostalgic value of games currently releasing on Wii and Wii U? Or does it really not matter that much in the long run? Okay, so I guess that's more than one question, but you get the idea. What are your thoughts?

I'm sure Nintendo will figure something out when the time comes. For instance, you can't use a Wiimote to play N64 games so there's a classic controller to use. I'm sure there'll be a Wii/Wii U classic controller/remote in the future.

EDIT: The reason why I didn't list the Gamecube controller as an option to play N64 VC games is because not all Wii consoles support them.

What I hope Nintendo does is start to go back and fourth between motion controls and GamePad from now on and use the previous controllers as secondary use. So the next console would take Motion Controls to the next level and use the Wii U's GamePad Controller for some stuff. Then after that generation Nintendo could make a console with an advanced GamePad and so fourth

@DefHalan I wasn't a fan of motion controls. Doesn't work as well as it should, even with the motion plus. Now if Nintendo made an extremely precise and excellent motion controller that works much, and I mean MUCH better than wii motion plus controllers, then I'd gladly welcome another console with a motion controller. Either ways, I really like the gamepad though...just my opinion...

I think their next console will be able to use multiple gamepads per system and they will continue to support both the gamepad and wii remotes. Hopefully they will upgrade the gamepad and pro controllers to have analog shoulder buttons in able to properly emulate gamecube games, but I was hoping for that with the Wii U as well.

@Alpha2797 I don't think the motion controls are bad at all. Skyward Sword and Wii Sports all work well for me.

they will make you buy "new" wiimotes again

With a few exceptions a large number of Wii games didn't really use the motion controls for that much. What they did use could be supported, most of the time, by simply including an accelerometer in a standard controller. Which is easy enough to do. Alternatively they could map the "shake as a button" thing to an actual button in a lot of games. The real difficulty would be games with pointer controls.... which come to think of it is a fair chunk of the really memorable Wii games.

........... they just need to keep WiiMotes and GamePads on the shelves

A this rate I'm wondering if they're ever going to add any other systems.

If Nintendo can´t emulate rumble o expansion pack in N64 VC I don´t know how they can emulate gamepad in 15 years to the future.

@DarkEdi: We got Majora's Mask on the VC service and that game support expansion pack. But I agreed with you that we got no virtual memory pack and rumble pack for the N64 games on the VC service.

Yes, you are right, i mean memory pack, no expansion pack, my miss. Also i can put another example, the chip SFX in SNES games or the pointer in Super Scope or Zapper games. Even portable games like the rumble in GBC games or tilt in GBA games (like Warioware or Kirby Tilt).

@DarkEdi: We haven't got GBA yet so we can't really say much about them. I know tilt should be possible for 3DS and Wii U. As for rumble, I don't understand why Nintendo staying away from rumble since even Nintendo DS games support rumble and I thought its was awesome. Nintendo Wii Classic controller is usually used for everything and its doesn't support rumble and even Wiimote didn't rumble with the Classic Controller attached.

@DudeSean I had forgotten about Skyward Sword. Only game that had the best use of motion controls but still had its fair share of problems. I guess my expectations were too high when the Wii console and motion plus were announced/released.

To be fair the Classic Controller didn't have Rumble so I don't know how it could have been supported. Having the WiiMote rumble on the couch/table while you're playing it? I can see why they didn't do it. On Wii U both of their default controllers have Rumble so I'd assume it'll be in the new N64 emulator for Wii U VC.

Memory Pak.... I have no idea why that wasn't supported. It could have been but I guess there wasn't much reason to support it.

Well, I hope Wii U 64 VC supports rumble and memory paks. It should also support Wii remote + nunchuk for n64 games. The default controls could be like this:

Wii Remote - N64 Controller
A - A
Minus - B
B - R
Plus - Start
D-Pad - C-Buttons
Nunchuk - N64 Controller
Joystick - Joystick
Z - Z
C - L

Plus the controls would be customizable, so even if that isn't the best fit for a game you could always change it.

If backwards compatibility becomes an issue for Nintendo then likely they would not include games that rely too heavily on the Wii Remote's controls, say something like WarioWare Smooth Moves, but bring back a game like Animal Crossing, or Brawl, and give them updated control schemes for the new console. However, I can't say that thinking of games without a lot of motion controls is easy, given most of Nintendo's good first-party games have Wii-specific controls.