It’s December, 2006. This christmas, a sensation will erupt into stores globally, breaking sales records all over the place and generally making one company a lot of money. This sensation is a games console, packed with amazing, innovative new features, and a stellar launch lineup with the promise of even more in a matter of weeks. The company? Nintendo. The sensation? This thing. According to Nintendo’s figures, the Wii has sold almost 90 million units, a figure they’ll surely break come Christmas time. Being a long time fan of Nintendo, I was hoping they’d replicate earlier successes and got one for christmas.
It was a great gift, and I spent an awesome time playing Red Steel and Zelda. Fast forward five years. We’re back in the present, and just like five years ago, Nintendo have a brand new piece of kit in stores. I couldn’t wait for christmas, so instead I picked one up a short while after it launched, and have since been enjoying it quite a bit. It’s called a 3DS, and I can’t be bothered explaining what it is so just click here if you don’t already know. However, there are one or two major differences between this time and last time.
The first difference is simple: The Wii was aimed at a completely different audience. The Wii was designed very much with casual audiences in mind, and as a result it managed to take record sales because it’s target market had suddenly tripled in size. At the time, it was great, because now Nintendo had a lot of extra money that they could use to invest in their hardcore games, maybe start taking some risks. Things like hiring new talent or acquiring smaller developers, and generally throw money around a lot more. But this wasn’t to be. Nintendo DID make some good games on that console, but nothing like good enough compared to the alternatives.
And that’s the second problem. This time around, Nintendo have hardly any hardcore gamers left. There’s a few fanboys, and a few people hoping it’ll get better, but it hasn’t really. It could have with the 3DS – they seemed to have a lot of 3rd party support, and some good hardware to run it all on, but they’ve really fumbled the delivery. The fact that games like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Monster Hunter will all require the second analog stick has really screwed over anyone who adopted the hardware early. Even if the attachment is free, it’s going to make the 3DS a lot bigger, and that’s crucial for a handheld.
They seem to at least be trying to pull their act together by releasing another 3DS with a second circle pad (and, to be honest, they’d do well to throw a bit more power in there while they’re at it), that’s really even worse for early adopters. I’m just going to sell my 3DS and buy one with the second pad as soon as they announce a launch date. If, for whatever reason that launch date doesn’t come, then I’ll probably just get a Vita. The Wii U had better be amazing.