I'm going to take this as a positive sign that the NX is likely to reemploy a lot of the features that made the original Wii great for gamers young and old alike. Innovative, simple, elegant, and approachable controls, low price point compared to the competition, and some kind of fresh new take on how to play games that will capture the imagination (and wallets) of the general public. All that adds up to big sales numbers, and big sales numbers mean big third party support; which I think is what Nintendo needs more than anything right now.
Ultimately making video games is a business that companies are in to make money, so Nintendo really needs the NX to be a massive success that can guarantee third party developers a solid profit if they want to regain their support. Getting that kind of success again will likely mean appealing to the casual gaming masses as well as Nintendo's core fan base, so I'm all for Nintendo revisiting what really made the Wii a success with the NX. Every copy of Just Dance 2017 that sells on the NX increases the likelihood of other third parties seeing the system as profitable, which leads to the core gamers getting more titles like Ōkami, Dead Space: Extraction, and any number of other outstanding third party titles on the new NX.
In short, the NX needs to appeal to casual gamers like the Wii did to sell enough units that the major third party developers will want to develop for Nintendo again and bring the core gamers quality titles to enjoy.
Woohoo, NX news! Personally I'd love it if the NX was basically a Wii 2 with a couple new features in terms of it's functionality. I can never get enough of on-rails shooters and a return to the motion based controls of the Wii would pretty well ensure another round of quality on-rails games on the NX. =)
@Hamster_Overlord
Thanks buddy! =) My comments on this topic may have been a little heavy handed in defense of homebrew developers, but the homebrew software scene and all the amazing work that the developers for it have done (without getting paid a single cent for their countless hours of hard work no less) for the Wii is my #1 favorite thing about the console so it's something I feel pretty passionate about. Thanks to the efforts of homebrew developers the Wii can play not only Wii and GameCube games but also just about every game ever made for any 8 or 16-bit system, far beyond the scope of anything Nintendo ever even fathomed for the e-Shop. Complete Sega Master System library? Check. Complete Sega Genesis library? Check. Atari 2600, 7800, and ColecoVision? Check, check, check! Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom in all their original DOS glory? You betcha!
Homebrew software development has turned the Wii into an all-in-one retro gaming dream machine and I'd love to see homebrew developers be able to do the same for the 3DS, but Nintendo sure isn't making it easy for the talented people who dedicate so much of their free time and energy to making dreams like this come true. Ah well, with any luck once the NX rolls out Nintendo will stop putting out software updates for the 3DS; at which point the homebrew developers will be left in peace to do their thing.
@BensonUii Of course some people will use homebrew software to pirate games, that's just the way it goes. However, the small percentage of people who do use said software to pirate games generally aren't willing to pay full retail price for games anyway so it's not as if Nintendo is going to lose any sales on their account. Again, Nintendo needs to relax and stop punishing software developers in the name of maintaining an unrealistically iron clad grip on the hardware they produce long after it's left store shelves and they've made their money off it. No other electronics manufacturer goes to such asinine lengths to prevent users from enjoying their products in whatever way they please. It's just kind of ridiculous.
Nintendo really needs to relax and just let the Homebrew developers do their thing. Yeah I know, intellectual property ownership rights yada yada yada, but come on! 3DS owners already shelled out $200 for their system and Nintendo got paid, just let the people do whatever they want with their systems at that point. It's like buying a computer and then having Microsoft/Apple/Whoever forcing updates on you and deleting your software to prevent you from downloading torrents and pirating movies or music on it. Those computer manufacturers get their money for the hardware sale then leave their customers to do as they please with the device, and you don't see them complaining. Chill out Nintendo.
I've always found one of the best things about the original Wii to be the Homebrew Channel, giving it the ability to play backups of nearly every game from the 8 and 16-bit eras. From the Atari 2600 and 7800 to the NES, SNES, Master System, Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, PC Engine, Game Boy / Color, and to some extent even the Game Boy Advance. Once I learned my way around the Homebew Channel the Wii really became my ultimate All-In-One gaming device, and it would be really cool to see the Wii U get the same treatment as a swan song to a largely underappreciated console. =)
Signed. I'm not usually one for doing petitions, but in this case I think if someone needs to travel abroad to compete in whatever sort of entertainment events they compete in for a living then they should be able to get the visa to do so.
@arronishere
@JustJulyo
Buying the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle was the only way to get the smaller regular sized New 3DS in North America until the special edition Pokémon Red/Blue New 3DS was released over here. And now, since those special edition systems promptly sold out everywhere, the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle continues to be the only way to get a New 3DS in the North American region. I kinda doubt that most people who bought the bundle actually wanted Happy Home Designer, but if they wanted the regular sized New 3DS then buying the game was the only way to get it.
So they're not going to release the NX during the holidays when everyone and their grandmother would want one, and instead they're going to wait until a couple months afterwards when everyone is paying bills and won't be interested in spending large amounts of money on new hardware? Are they daft?
Definitely Wild World for me. I tried to get into New Leaf, but there was just way too much to do in it and I felt like that took a lot away from the relaxing simplicity of the Animal Crossing series. I also found that being able to buy items from the houses of other players you met over Street Pass made it way too easy to build the perfect house with everything I wanted in it, which resulted in me losing interest in the game after a few months rather than the couple years that I played Wild World for.
Bundle Metroid Prime: Federation Force with the regular sized black New 3DS that North America has been wishing they could have for over a year and I'll buy it.
I would have believed it if it wasn't for the fact that the garlic clove wasn't peeled first. Nintendo would totally peel their garlic before stealthily hiding it inside the controller. Oh, wait... Nintendo is having all their consoles produced in China to cut costs these days, and you know how those Chinese factories are when it comes to quality control. I'm calling "legit" on this one!
This is why I don't buy digital download games. Eventually, once a system is a couple generations old and the company running the system's servers is no longer making a profit off it, the servers will shut down and your ability to reacquire the games you bought should something bad happen to your system or it's SD card disappears. Of course, this is the perspective of a retro game collector who likes playing 20+ year old games and I'm sure there's a lot of people who simply wouldn't care that they might not be able to play the games they downloaded today in 20 years time. For me though it's physical media or nothing.
You know, when I first saw this and pondered the possibility of it being real I was a little upset. A gaming system without physical face buttons just doesn't seem right to me. But then I thought about it a bit more and said to myself "Hey, it's Nintendo. No matter how the controls are designed the games are still going to be good." So, I'm not worried. If it's fake then that's fine, and if it's real that's cool too. Either way the NX is sure to have a lot of games that I'm going to want to play on it. =)
@Sticker That's actually the game I'm most looking forward to of any on the list, seeing as how the 3DS is nearing the end of it's life cycle and it has exactly zero quality (physical media) first person shooters on it.
So they demo 3DS games on a background that looks like the black regular sized New 3DS, then make no announcements about the black New 3DS being released in North America? What a bunch of teases. I guess it's alwhite. =P
@NaturalGus Nintendo's hardware has always stuck with their former employee Gunpei Yokoi's development philosophy of "Lateral thinking with withered technology". It's what works for them and keeps production costs (and thus system prices) down to a level that will make them substantially more budget friendly than their competition. Taking older technology and putting some unique twist on it to make it new and innovative is just what Nintendo does, and those "twists" combined with strong first party games are what sells systems. The only time Nintendo ever had the most graphically powerful system on the market was during the Super Nintendo era, and even then Sega still had the edge up on them in the processing department.
In short, whatever the NX is, it's not going to be a more powerful system than anything currently on the market. That's just not what Nintendo does.
Most of the predictions seem to make logical sense as far as where Nintendo wants to go in the marketplace (social connectivity and a proprietary OS that's easy for 3rd parties to develop for mainly) but the supposed power level of the system crammed into a handheld does seem a little far fetched. We'll probably have to wait 3 and a half months until e3 to see what Nintendo really has up their sleeves with the NX, but I can imagine a few of these predictions being accurate.
@Tops I'm in the same boat. I've been waiting until the regular sized black New 3DS comes out in North America to jump on the 3DS bandwagon. I had a New 3DS XL for a month or so when it first came out, but it was way too heavy for the carpal tunnel in my left hand to deal with so that got returned and I've just been waiting for the smaller black one to be released since then. I'll buy it on day 1 if it's ever released on this side of the pond.
I picked up a black XL size one on launch day but ended up returning it because it was too heavy for my carpal tunnel to handle. Now I'm holding out for the black regular sized New 3DS to be released in North America before I buy another, since I'm not a fan of white handhelds.
Comments 226
Re: E3 2016: Ubisoft is Confident That Nintendo NX Can Recapture 'Lapsed Wii Players'
I'm going to take this as a positive sign that the NX is likely to reemploy a lot of the features that made the original Wii great for gamers young and old alike. Innovative, simple, elegant, and approachable controls, low price point compared to the competition, and some kind of fresh new take on how to play games that will capture the imagination (and wallets) of the general public. All that adds up to big sales numbers, and big sales numbers mean big third party support; which I think is what Nintendo needs more than anything right now.
Ultimately making video games is a business that companies are in to make money, so Nintendo really needs the NX to be a massive success that can guarantee third party developers a solid profit if they want to regain their support. Getting that kind of success again will likely mean appealing to the casual gaming masses as well as Nintendo's core fan base, so I'm all for Nintendo revisiting what really made the Wii a success with the NX. Every copy of Just Dance 2017 that sells on the NX increases the likelihood of other third parties seeing the system as profitable, which leads to the core gamers getting more titles like Ōkami, Dead Space: Extraction, and any number of other outstanding third party titles on the new NX.
In short, the NX needs to appeal to casual gamers like the Wii did to sell enough units that the major third party developers will want to develop for Nintendo again and bring the core gamers quality titles to enjoy.
Re: Poll: Did Nintendo Triumph With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3?
Breath of the Wild rocked my socks so hard that they jumped off my feet and began scurrying around the room! =O
Re: Just Dance 2017 Coming to All "Motion-Control Gaming Platforms", Which Includes Nintendo NX
Woohoo, NX news! Personally I'd love it if the NX was basically a Wii 2 with a couple new features in terms of it's functionality. I can never get enough of on-rails shooters and a return to the motion based controls of the Wii would pretty well ensure another round of quality on-rails games on the NX. =)
Re: Talking Point: 3DS Homebrew Development Causes Another Game Takedown as Nintendo Maintains Its Tight Grip
@Hamster_Overlord
Thanks buddy! =) My comments on this topic may have been a little heavy handed in defense of homebrew developers, but the homebrew software scene and all the amazing work that the developers for it have done (without getting paid a single cent for their countless hours of hard work no less) for the Wii is my #1 favorite thing about the console so it's something I feel pretty passionate about. Thanks to the efforts of homebrew developers the Wii can play not only Wii and GameCube games but also just about every game ever made for any 8 or 16-bit system, far beyond the scope of anything Nintendo ever even fathomed for the e-Shop. Complete Sega Master System library? Check. Complete Sega Genesis library? Check. Atari 2600, 7800, and ColecoVision? Check, check, check! Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom in all their original DOS glory? You betcha!
Homebrew software development has turned the Wii into an all-in-one retro gaming dream machine and I'd love to see homebrew developers be able to do the same for the 3DS, but Nintendo sure isn't making it easy for the talented people who dedicate so much of their free time and energy to making dreams like this come true. Ah well, with any luck once the NX rolls out Nintendo will stop putting out software updates for the 3DS; at which point the homebrew developers will be left in peace to do their thing.
Re: Talking Point: 3DS Homebrew Development Causes Another Game Takedown as Nintendo Maintains Its Tight Grip
@BensonUii
Of course some people will use homebrew software to pirate games, that's just the way it goes. However, the small percentage of people who do use said software to pirate games generally aren't willing to pay full retail price for games anyway so it's not as if Nintendo is going to lose any sales on their account. Again, Nintendo needs to relax and stop punishing software developers in the name of maintaining an unrealistically iron clad grip on the hardware they produce long after it's left store shelves and they've made their money off it. No other electronics manufacturer goes to such asinine lengths to prevent users from enjoying their products in whatever way they please. It's just kind of ridiculous.
Re: Talking Point: 3DS Homebrew Development Causes Another Game Takedown as Nintendo Maintains Its Tight Grip
Nintendo really needs to relax and just let the Homebrew developers do their thing. Yeah I know, intellectual property ownership rights yada yada yada, but come on! 3DS owners already shelled out $200 for their system and Nintendo got paid, just let the people do whatever they want with their systems at that point. It's like buying a computer and then having Microsoft/Apple/Whoever forcing updates on you and deleting your software to prevent you from downloading torrents and pirating movies or music on it. Those computer manufacturers get their money for the hardware sale then leave their customers to do as they please with the device, and you don't see them complaining. Chill out Nintendo.
Re: Video: Play Nintendo Channel Releases Debut 'Bragg Report'
Wow... that kid is seriously insufferable.
Re: A Wii U Homebrew Channel Opens Up New Possibilities for Some Cheeky Gamers
I've always found one of the best things about the original Wii to be the Homebrew Channel, giving it the ability to play backups of nearly every game from the 8 and 16-bit eras. From the Atari 2600 and 7800 to the NES, SNES, Master System, Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, PC Engine, Game Boy / Color, and to some extent even the Game Boy Advance. Once I learned my way around the Homebew Channel the Wii really became my ultimate All-In-One gaming device, and it would be really cool to see the Wii U get the same treatment as a swan song to a largely underappreciated console. =)
Re: Super Smash Bros. Fans Petition the White House To Secure Visa Rights for eSports Competitors
Signed. I'm not usually one for doing petitions, but in this case I think if someone needs to travel abroad to compete in whatever sort of entertainment events they compete in for a living then they should be able to get the visa to do so.
Re: 14 Titles Across Wii U and 3DS Were Million Sellers in the Last Year
@arronishere
@JustJulyo
Buying the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle was the only way to get the smaller regular sized New 3DS in North America until the special edition Pokémon Red/Blue New 3DS was released over here. And now, since those special edition systems promptly sold out everywhere, the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer bundle continues to be the only way to get a New 3DS in the North American region. I kinda doubt that most people who bought the bundle actually wanted Happy Home Designer, but if they wanted the regular sized New 3DS then buying the game was the only way to get it.
Re: Nintendo NX Will Be Launched Globally in March 2017
So they're not going to release the NX during the holidays when everyone and their grandmother would want one, and instead they're going to wait until a couple months afterwards when everyone is paying bills and won't be interested in spending large amounts of money on new hardware? Are they daft?
Re: Poll: The Utterly Charming Animal Crossing Series Is 15 Today, But Which Is Your Favourite?
Definitely Wild World for me. I tried to get into New Leaf, but there was just way too much to do in it and I felt like that took a lot away from the relaxing simplicity of the Animal Crossing series. I also found that being able to buy items from the houses of other players you met over Street Pass made it way too easy to build the perfect house with everything I wanted in it, which resulted in me losing interest in the game after a few months rather than the couple years that I played Wild World for.
Re: Nintendo of America Opens the Teaser Site for Metroid Prime: Federation Force
Bundle Metroid Prime: Federation Force with the regular sized black New 3DS that North America has been wishing they could have for over a year and I'll buy it.
Re: Video: The Star Fox Zero Puppets Return in a New TV Commercial
This really reminded me of the early 90's game commercials that I grew up with. Totally hokey, but kinda awesome!
Re: Random: We Show You How to Make a "Fake NX Leak", For No Real Reason
I would have believed it if it wasn't for the fact that the garlic clove wasn't peeled first. Nintendo would totally peel their garlic before stealthily hiding it inside the controller. Oh, wait... Nintendo is having all their consoles produced in China to cut costs these days, and you know how those Chinese factories are when it comes to quality control. I'm calling "legit" on this one!
Re: Random: Someone Hacked The Original Sonic To Include Sonic Boom's Annoying Chatter
To quote Sega's best voice acting endeavor, The House of the Dead 2:
"My God. Who could do such a thing!?"
Re: The Nintendo DSi Shop Shuts Down Next Year
This is why I don't buy digital download games. Eventually, once a system is a couple generations old and the company running the system's servers is no longer making a profit off it, the servers will shut down and your ability to reacquire the games you bought should something bad happen to your system or it's SD card disappears. Of course, this is the perspective of a retro game collector who likes playing 20+ year old games and I'm sure there's a lot of people who simply wouldn't care that they might not be able to play the games they downloaded today in 20 years time. For me though it's physical media or nothing.
Re: Rumour: New Nintendo NX Controller Images Surface and Set the Web Alight
You know, when I first saw this and pondered the possibility of it being real I was a little upset. A gaming system without physical face buttons just doesn't seem right to me. But then I thought about it a bit more and said to myself "Hey, it's Nintendo. No matter how the controls are designed the games are still going to be good." So, I'm not worried. If it's fake then that's fine, and if it's real that's cool too. Either way the NX is sure to have a lot of games that I'm going to want to play on it. =)
Re: Live Blog: Watch Sonic the Hedgehog's 25th Anniversary SXSW Panel and its 'Special Reveal' - Live!
An announcement to announce a future announcement? How... odd.
Re: Feature: Exciting Wii U and 3DS Games to Play in Spring and Summer 2016
@Sticker
That's actually the game I'm most looking forward to of any on the list, seeing as how the 3DS is nearing the end of it's life cycle and it has exactly zero quality (physical media) first person shooters on it.
Re: Live Blog: Watch the North American March 2016 Nintendo Direct - Live!
So they demo 3DS games on a background that looks like the black regular sized New 3DS, then make no announcements about the black New 3DS being released in North America? What a bunch of teases. I guess it's alwhite. =P
Re: Talking Point: It's Catch-Up Time for Nintendo Direct, With North America and Europe Having Different Priorities
Come on black New 3DS for North America! There's plenty of good games out on the 3DS already, I just want a good looking system to play them on. =D
Re: Rumour Buster: Let's Clarify Some Issues With Those Recent Nintendo NX Predictions
@NaturalGus Nintendo's hardware has always stuck with their former employee Gunpei Yokoi's development philosophy of "Lateral thinking with withered technology". It's what works for them and keeps production costs (and thus system prices) down to a level that will make them substantially more budget friendly than their competition. Taking older technology and putting some unique twist on it to make it new and innovative is just what Nintendo does, and those "twists" combined with strong first party games are what sells systems. The only time Nintendo ever had the most graphically powerful system on the market was during the Super Nintendo era, and even then Sega still had the edge up on them in the processing department.
In short, whatever the NX is, it's not going to be a more powerful system than anything currently on the market. That's just not what Nintendo does.
Re: Rumour Buster: Let's Clarify Some Issues With Those Recent Nintendo NX Predictions
Most of the predictions seem to make logical sense as far as where Nintendo wants to go in the marketplace (social connectivity and a proprietary OS that's easy for 3rd parties to develop for mainly) but the supposed power level of the system crammed into a handheld does seem a little far fetched. We'll probably have to wait 3 and a half months until e3 to see what Nintendo really has up their sleeves with the NX, but I can imagine a few of these predictions being accurate.
Re: Talking Point: The New 3DS Can Revive the Portable Family With Help From Pokémon and amiibo
@Tops I'm in the same boat. I've been waiting until the regular sized black New 3DS comes out in North America to jump on the 3DS bandwagon. I had a New 3DS XL for a month or so when it first came out, but it was way too heavy for the carpal tunnel in my left hand to deal with so that got returned and I've just been waiting for the smaller black one to be released since then. I'll buy it on day 1 if it's ever released on this side of the pond.
Re: Feature: Looking Back at the New 3DS Launch, Nintendo's Perfect Valentine's Day Gift
I picked up a black XL size one on launch day but ended up returning it because it was too heavy for my carpal tunnel to handle. Now I'm holding out for the black regular sized New 3DS to be released in North America before I buy another, since I'm not a fan of white handhelds.