Recently, it was revealed in Nintendo's latest financial results that the Wii U's successor, code named the Nintendo NX, is currently scheduled to be released March 2017. Furthermore, it was stated that the previously much-hyped and much-anticipated Zelda Wii U which was scheduled to be Nintendo's killer app for the 2016 holiday season has been pushed back even further. While the official press-release states that it is being done for the purposes of quality, it is no doubt being done so that the title can launch simultaneously for the Wii U and the NX. Furthermore, there are also mentions of production for the Wii U ending in 2018 which ultimately bugs me.
Nintendo has not done a good job of supporting the Wii U. While early on in the console's lifespan it saw alot of support from third-party developers, most of this was in the form of ports of PS3 and Xbox 360 games with tacked on features to take advantage of the gamepad. As time went on, however, third-party support eased off and now we're lucky if we get any kind of information on a new Wii U game that isn't published by Nintendo and isn't exclusive to the e-shop. First-party support has been just as barren, which is odd given the fact that Nintendo will frequently go to great lengths to differentiate themselves from the competition. Even worse is how few killer app titles are on the console. There is no equivalent to Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime and even what looked to be the best reason for owning a Wii U is going to be ported to the NX. So few big name titles have even been developed for this console it makes me wonder why Nintendo even bothered to put it out on the market. But then when I looked closer, and the answer became simpler.
Developing for a handheld is not only more cost-efficient, but it also allows for more experimentation with little risk. Hence why there are more original and creative titles on the Nintendo 3DS handheld. But as a result, I feel that many of these titles, while still excellently done, suffer from the lack of power that they could have otherwise benefited from where they on a powerful console. The titles that stand out in particular are Kid Icarus Uprising, which could have benefited from a more fluid control scheme, Fire Emblem Fates which could have featured all three story lines on one disc as opposed to having to spread them across one cartridge and finally Super Smash Bros., which not only could have utilized the development time towards more interesting features, additional characters, improved physics, but also could have added smash run to the console version.
Now don't get me wrong, I love my 2DS (I'm about 15 hours into Pokemon X and I plan to have review up eventually), bu I feel that one of Nintendo's biggest strengths in the past was knowing how to balance portable and console titles. While some may disagree with me, I feel like in past generations, if a year went by without any notable titles on consoles, there would usually be a title on handhelds to keep us occupied. However, it seems that ever since the 3DS and the Wii U have been released, the entire focus has been on making sure that the 3DS has the unique and varied titles with the third-party support, while the Wii U has been left to languish in the dust with barely a mention.
Overall, this announcement has made me skeptical of Nintendo's plans for the future and I'm hesitant to say whether I'm excited for the new console. All I can say is that Nintendo needs to plan for the future better and they need to have a better outline as to what it is that they're going to be doing if they don't want a repeat of the Wii U or, worse yet, another Virtual Boy.
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