This article is an opinion piece. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Real Otaku Gamer or the collective staff.
Yes, Its time for NX speculation. I like many others have thoughts on what the NX should be. Here are 7 things I think Nintendo needs to do with the NX.
- Move away from the Wii era: The Wii era of gaming was an interesting era of gaming since while the Wii did have many great games, most flew under the radar and weren’t well known. The Wii, for good or bad was associated with lesser gaming by most and that hurt the Wii U. In fact so many thought the Wii U was an add on for the Wii that it hurt sales. Moving away from the Wii brand would mark a great new direction for Nintendo.
- Large hard drive at launch: The Wii U came with 2 models, and 8 gb Hard Drive and a 32 gb Hard Drive. However in today’s gaming world, that just doesn’t work anymore seeing as some games are well over 30 gb and just getting bigger. With digital only titles like Fatal Frame and more as well as the Xenoblade data packs taking up several gb, Nintendo’s own titles show that there is a need for a much larger native hard drive. It should come with no less than 1 TB, with an option for a 2 TB model.
- Region Free: Nintendo is at present, the only console maker to region lock their consoles. This may not seem like much but the truth is, Region Free consoles are far more appealing to hardcore gamers than region locked ones. With region free, you could play games that normally just stay in Japan. Its something Nintendo must consider for the NX.
- An Expanded Retro Catalog: The Virtual Console has been a major attraction for the Wii and Wii U but the fact is that on Wii U the service is rather lacking. The NX needs to have a large retro catalogue of games at launch and soon after. They need Gamecube games, more Nintendo 64 games, more NES and SNES and GBA games. They need Sega systems games and Turbo grafx games and arcade games and Square-Enix games outside Japan. Further it would be good if games people bought on Wii or Wii U automatically were available on NX’s equivalent of the virtual console
- More New IPs: When Splatoon was revealed at E3 2014 most were taken aback. Contrary to what many thing, Nintendo has made many new IP in the last few years but they are usually either smaller downloadable IP or games made by external devs (i.e. The wonderful 101, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower). Splatoon turned many heads as the first major new EAD developed IP in several years. Many thought Splatoon would fail due to being an online multiplayer focused shooter on a Nintendo platform, but it ended up being a major System seller. Xenoblade is another recent internally developed new Nintendo IP (albeit not from an EAD studio) and these are a nice start but what they show is that there is major interest in what Nintendo has to offer. If Nintendo can continue creating new IP, maybe letting Retro Studios try their hand at one, then they can bring a lot more attention to the NX.
- Revive more older IPs: Nintendo has a major library of games, the majority of which many don’t know about. There are lesser known titles with a hardcore fanbase like F-Zero, and then there are Japan only games like Nazo No Murasame Jo, which would make a great action game on a modern console, For the Frog The Bell Tolls, a Zelda like adventure that Link’s Awakening was built on the engine of, and titles like Advance Wars which hasn’t been seen since the DS. In addition to making new IP, Nintendo could easily reboot a classic IP and make it seem like a brand new IP which will attract new fans.
- Backwards Compatibility: The sad fact is that not as many people have bought the Wii U as Nintendo would have liked. As such, Nintendo should make the NX backwards compatible, even if only digitally, to allow more people the chance to play these games, when and if they bring in a new audience to the NX.
- A strong launch lineup: The Wii U did not have a good launch lineup, lets get that out of the way. NSMBU was the 4th NSMB game and the 2nd in less than a year. It wasn’t anything new as an experience. The rest of the launch lineup was likewise lacking. The NX needs a strong launch lineup because if the games are not there, why would anyone have a reason to buy it?
But those are just my thoughts. Let me know yours and share your opinions in the comments.