Topic: Staff Sez: If There Was One Non-Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/Metroid Announcement Nintendo Made at E3...

[Mop it up]

The problem with a 3DS player ala GBA Player for GC is that the Wii U can not do 3D graphics which would then seem to indicate or show that they are irrelevant which is one of the main selling points and, heck, reason for the name of the system.

I don't know, I haven't really seen Nintendo push the 3D anymore, plus there are games like NSMB2 which practically have no 3D whatsoever. Not to mention the 3DS XL, which makes it really difficult to find and maintain the 3D sweet spot. So, I'm not sure it's a feature that even Nintendo care about anymore.

[Ian Sane]

The problem with a 3DS player ala GBA Player for GC is that the Wii can not do 3D graphics which would then seem to indicate or show that they are irrelavent which is one of the main selling points and, heck, reason for the name of the system. I know a lot of people play without them but it runs counter to the current marketing strategy. A DS player, sure, maybe that could be done but DS games are being phased out with very few left on market and most having been relegated to second hand sales and the 3DS line taking over the shelf space.

I hate this way of thinking but it is dead-on with how Nintendo thinks.  I'm certain that many first party Wii games (DKC Returns being the perfect example) did not have traditional controls as an option, even when they easily could have, simply because if the option was available it suggested that motion controls were not the end-all-be-all.  Why would you need the option if motion controls were so obviously superior?  When the whole system's reason for existence relies on the concept of a new control scheme, to suggest that this new control scheme is optional or unnecessary or might not be the preferred way to play the game to some players effectively exposes the con.

So, yes, a 3DS Player suggests that 3D is optional, which it is and everyone deep down KNOWS this.  Unlike the Wii, the 3DS actually does offer a substancial improvement over its predecessor even without the 3D (the DS was the same way; take away the touchscreen and it's still a conventional update to the GBA) and if Nintendo were more confident in themselves and not prone to making idiotic anti-customer decisions based on stubbornness they would realize that the 3D marketing bullet-point didn't work and that there is no reason to deny the public a useful product over it.  But they won't.  It's too bad because I want a DS player badly.

The real solution is to just release a product that holds up on its own merits and doesn't have to forced to "prove" its worth.

Anyway, the one non-Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/Metroid announcement I want to see... is the next Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/Metroid.  I don't mean the next game in those series, I mean the next Nintendo IP that becomes as big of a deal as those series.  Nintendo creates new IP for the little quirky games or the casual stuff.  I want something that they expect to be their next big franchise.  I want them to be expecting Christmas to be carried by this game.  I want them to be relying on this game to sell systems.  I want their top talent working on this game and I want the development budget and marketing budget for this to be on par with their "big" releases.  I want something that suggests a philosophical shift in Nintendo from the cookie-cutter sequel milking of the Iwata era to something more akin to the "make every game count" philosophy of the Yamauchi era (which may have just been a coincidence due to the need to create valuable IP in the first place but, **** it, I want that to become their philosophy regardless).