Any of you youngsters out there remember when Sega made actual video game consoles? No? Well let me spin you a yarn about a time of days gone by…
Sega had a good run with consoles in the late 80′s/early 90′s with the Master System and later on with the Genesis. I was always more of a Nintendo type of kid back in the day (especially when The Wizard came out! Super Mario Bros. 3 for life!) but the Genesis won me over when the original Mortal Kombat came to my living room (Protip: ABACABB). Aside from the Sega CD and 32X, which the latter of the two really wasn’t that good, Sega had a “surprise” launch of the Saturn. As it turns out, launching a console by surprise five months before the launch date doesn’t work that well for sales, so the Saturn struggled. That was followed by the Dreamcast, which was awesome, but didn’t really catch on like it should of (even though it was ahead of it’s time with many things including online play) and by 2001 Sega decided to become a software only company.
So where am I headed with this? For some reason I’ve been playing a crap-ton of the original Super Mario Galaxy lately and I’m loving the hell out of it. That got me thinking about Nintendo developed games in general. Nintendo’s first party games generally sit on the fantastic side of the fence with titles like Mario, Zelda and Super Smash Brothers but, hardware wise, sometimes they are a little behind the curve.
Now I’m not talking about their handhelds. As of right now they are in the lead with that but, I think, that may change next year. I’m talking about their home consoles. The original NES and the SNES were two of the best systems ever but Nintendo kind of started stumbling with the Nintendo 64. By the time the N64 was coming out it was in competition with the Sony Playstation and the Sega Saturn. Both Sony and Sega had switched formats to the more cost effective CD-ROM format but Niintendo stuck with their tried and true cartridge format. Because of that N64 games tended to be and average of $20 more expensive, had some serious hazy visuals and gave birth to one of the worst games ever made that’s not named E.T.: Superman 64.
Then came “the little lunchbox that could, the Gamecube. I owned a happy lunchbox of fun and that system had some seriously awesome games. The Metroid Prime series, Mario Sunshine and Eternal Darkness. Holy crapsticks Eternal Darkness. That game would mess with your mind in real life. When you go to save a game and your system screws with your mind and tells you that it’s DELETING your save? Yeah, that is a scream inducing moment.
So what was the Gamecube’s problem? Lack of a DVD drive and a lack of third party support mostly. And those cute little minidisks.
And then along came the Wii. I will say this for the Wii, it got people up off their asses and moving around playing games. It ushered in the age of motion control but a lot of people thought it was a pretty bonehead move not releasing an HD enabled system in the age of Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. And, again, a lack of a DVD drive was a little surprising too. And do not get me started with their “online” system and those “friend codes”. Worst online idea EVER! At E3 this year Nintendo announced the WiiU which is, well, we don’t exactly know what it is. It’s a new system with a tablet controller and that’s about all we know.
But wrap your head around this picture for a moment and tell me that you wouldn’t lose your mind if you say this on the shelf:
intendo would have nothing to lose and everything to gain by making the move to a third party developer. Their games already print money without breaking a sweat, they just would be able to reach more people. If they made the move, imagine the online capabilities. No more Friend Codes! A better online system, with voice chat! Not to mention the improvement in the graphics. The Legend of Zelda would look amazing! Imagine all of the other possibilities:
Animal Crossing Online with 8-16 players in a village. Havoc and hilarity would ensue…
Mario Kart Online with real time trash talking!
Online, 4 player co-op Super Mario Bros. Nuff Said.
Online Mario Party would probably have many scream inducing moments…
Online Pokemon battles with real time updated stats and chatting!
Nintendo would be making money hand over fist if they made the move to third party developer. They just have to have enough vision to see that this would be the way to go.