Latest Nintendo Direct Had Us Pumped, And Concerned
I wasn’t expecting much from the September 1st Nintendo Direct. After all, it was focusing on the Nintendo 3DS, a five year old handheld whose best days I figured were behind it. Then Nintendo went on to announce five new titles for the 3DS, which is the opposite of the 20 minutes of Pokémon I was forecasting.
On one hand, this is great news. Nintendo clearly has a much stronger line-up for the near future than I thought they did. I loved every single announcement that the Japanese publisher made today. A sidescrolling Pikmin game? Sign me up! A portable version of Super Mario Maker with barely any online play? Well, I’m not quite as enthusiastic about that, but I’m still excited to play Mario Maker on the go. I’m even more excited for the other announcements that included Mario Sports Superstars, an enhanced version of Yoshi’s Woolly World, and a wicked looking tank combat game called Tank Troopers.
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“I’m even more excited for the other announcements that included Mario Sports Superstars, an enhanced version of Yoshi’s Woolly World, and a wicked looking tank combat game called Tank Troopers.”
I feel confident that all of these titles will do well on the 3DS, and I have no doubt they would’ve been amazing additions if they had arrived a year or two earlier. The fact that all of these high profile titles are coming in 2017 (with the exception of Super Mario Maker which has a December 2016 release) worries me. 2017 is supposed to be the year of NX, the mysterious next console from Nintendo, so why is the 3DS line-up this strong?
While there have been a lot of different rumors about the console, most of them agree on one thing: the Nintendo NX is a console/handheld hybrid. As someone who loves Nintendo’s games (especially on handhelds), this has been a dream come true for me. So, if the console/handheld hybrid is going to be releasing next year, then why are all of these great looking titles coming to the 3DS? It would make more sense to allow them to use enhanced hardware and position them as NX launch titles. After all, the NX launch would naturally be bolstered if it launched with a portable Mario Maker, a fantastic Mario Sports title that had five different games in it, and an enhanced version of one of 2015’s best platformers.
The only reason I can really understand this line-up is if the Nintendo NX is launching later than the expected Spring 2017 release date. Otherwise, Nintendo would be undercutting a system that they simply need to succeed. Nintendo has never needed to go all-in on a console like they will with the NX, especially if it’s supposed to serve both the home console and handheld markets. This strong 3DS line-up screams to me that the NX will launch in the back half of 2017, which basically leaves the Wii U as a dead console for over a year. That’s not exactly the best financial plan, but at least every Wii U owner would be more than ready to move on at that point.
If there’s any hope, it’s that a lot of today’s announcements seem to be building upon existing games. Both Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World and Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS are ports, and thus aren’t requiring the full force that an original release would require. Mario Sports Superstars is only really adding one new sport to the mix (horse racing), while the other sports have a formula that the developer can look at and adapt. The only newly announced retail 3DS title that seems to be a fully fledged new game is Pikmin.
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“This strong 3DS line-up screams to me that the NX will launch in the back half of 2017, which basically leaves the Wii U as a dead console for over a year.”Â
This hopefully means that Nintendo has most of their first-party developers, and other partners, working exclusively on NX games. It would be a disaster if the console only launched with two or three first-party titles, as Nintendo will need to show that they have a must-buy console from the get-go. They simply can’t have a repeat of the 3DS or Wii U launches which released without a killer app, and they also need to have more than just Zelda.
Regardless of these worries, I do know one thing for certain. Nintendo will continue to make fantastic games just like they have since the 1980s. Even during the company’s weakest years, they still put out some great offerings. I know I’m going to have a great time playing these newly announced 3DS games, but I’m also a bit more worried for Nintendo’s future than I was a day before the latest Nintendo Direct.