To be fair, Nintendo had a pretty easy 2007. It rode the crest of an unstoppable wave, pushed on by the momentum of a mammoth marketing campaign that brought gaming to our mums and dads. 2008, however, could be a different story...
From the online modes to the battery life right through to the much-hated Friend Codes, Nintendo has a long way to go before making Wii as intuitive and accessible as its marketing campaigns suggest. For a start our parents wouldn't have a clue, but maybe that's just ours.
Because we love Wii, we'd thought we'd give Nintendo a little push in the right direction and suggest five things that need to be done in 2008.
Friend's Codes
The debate is over, Nintendo. The Friend's Codes need to go, or at least be revamped. Giving someone a twelve digit number is laborious. Giving them an email address isn't.
Nintendo's reasoning all along has been the safety of children and that's admirable. But aside from making it almost impossible to share your Friend's Code with anyone, we fail to see how it protects children more than say, assigning an email address to each console.
In addition, the restrictions on adding friends need to be lifted. It shouldn't take two people, each with each others Friend's Code, to link two Wii's together. If my friend inputs my Friend's Code, I should be able to accept or decline his friendship over WFC. I shouldn't need to add his Friend's Code in to get it all to work.
Rechargeable Wii Remotes
An official rechargeable battery for Wii Remotes needs to be in the offering in 2008. Last year, Nintendo forced us to increase our carbon footprints by adding to landfills and swipe AA batteries from friends when they weren't looking. Third-parties released alternative solutions that, unfortunately, had a tendency to heat up, forcing owners to either tempt fate with dodgy unofficial peripherals or hand over a fiver every time they entered a newsagent.
Buying disposable batteries feels a bit dirty, in the same way that still smoking after the ban does. You can almost feel the cashier eyeing you with contempt, as if you plan to infect his precious planet with your environmentally unfriendly gaming.
No wonder Greenpeace isn't happy with Nintendo. As much as we hate to veer towards territory even further left than The Guardian, it's time for Nintendo to go green, and save our wallets in the process.
DS Connectivity
Remember 2003's E3? When Sony was talking about the PSP and Microsoft was talking Halo 2 and the future was all about digital entertainment solutions? Remember Nintendo talking about connecting a GameBoy Advance to a GameCube via a cable?
Nintendo must have spent millions experimenting with connectivity, and the obsession with the subject baffled us a little. But with the coming of wireless broadband, Nintendo's intuition about its importance seemed right on the money.
But this makes it doubly frustrating that Nintendo appears to be shying away from the idea. Sure, Iwata recently talked about moving beyond gaming with the DS and experiments have taken place with Baseball matches in Seattle, but it all seems like the whimsical experimenting of the R&D department, rather than real progress.
DS connectivity and the mass-market penetration of the Wii provide Nintendo with the unique opportunity to change the way portable devices work. A Nintendo DS game card can only store up to 256MB, which is nothing in terms of a broadband download.
Using WFC, the option to buy full DS games needs to be implemented this year. With a digital distribution method, prices for DS games could come down to something that approaches reasonable. £30 for a portable game is ridiculous in this day and age, especially when some Wii titles are going on sale at £20.
More people would be able to purchase titles on the spur of the moment, so an impromptu train journey would never need to be as boring again.
Of course, downloadable games require storage space, and the Wii has very little at the moment. Speaking of which...
Wii External Hard Drive
Nintendo has some very ambitious plans for 2008. Between beefing up the Virtual Console, introducing the Wii Ware channel and delivering DS Demos wirelessly, a wealth of content will soon be pumped down your broadband pipe straight into your Wii.
Where it will go once it arrives is a matter of contention, though. The Wii currently offers less than 300MB of practical onboard storage - the equivalent of a few Xbox Live Arcade titles.
Throughout history, Nintendo has made a serious of tactical blunders when it comes to incorporating new technology into its systems. It stuck to cartridges when Sony moved on to CDs. It dispensed with DVD playback when everyone else included it as a given.
Nintendo has blazed its own path through this generation, but even a trend setter needs to acknowledge there are certain universal truths to be followed when making a console. It needs a controller to play games. It should somehow connect to the internet. It requires a power button to switch it on.
Storage is fundamental before you offer a downloadable service of any kind. If we are to believe Nintendo when it says there are no plans to release an external hard drive, these plans need to be reversed.
Third-Party Support
Support for third party developers has always brought with is different issues but for Nintendo it's been a curse.
Being both the hardware manufacture and the biggest publisher of games on its systems, Nintendo has had to fight the notion that publishing third party games on a Nintendo system is bad business sense.
Currently, Nintendo is in a unique position. It's the primary videogame console manufacturer, but developers are hesitant to develop for it. Instead, they prefer to work on the known quantities of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Third parties need more than technical support and development advice from Nintendo. In order to feel confident about releasing titles on Wii, Nintendo has to provide marketing and advertising help, working with developers to promote titles other than the big three - Mario, Zelda, Samus - on the Wii.
Hey chris, I believe what you say, except for the stuff about third party support. This has been greatly improved this gen for nintendo, and as for the PS3... They have a pretty poor third party offering this time round (especially compared to PS2) And as for exclusives, where are they? Almost all of the third party stuff on PS3 is also on 360. this means - for instance- 80% of the copies sold of a console game will be on the far, far mare popular 360.
1) I don't see that was any debate here, was there? The Wii has parental controls already, so why spoil the online side of things (the numbers have 16 digits, by the way) in an attempt to control what little Johnny can and can't see? The 360 has done it without attracting a case of 'tabloid attack', so what is Nintendo afraid of? Wusses.
2) I use rechargeables anyway, actually, but an official rechargeable battery pack to plug into the DS, complete with recharge station, would be nice.
3) I'm none too concerned about this one. I can see how it would work, but Nintendo should concentrate on the other four first. What I would like to see is more stuff in the DS release schedule, which is looking a tad empty currently.
4) This is going to become a problem that Nintendo will be forced to address very soon. I don't think that there's any way they can avoid it. Nonetheless, if it can be done...
5) I'd love to see games like Mass Effect, Blue Dragon and Okami (oh wait) on the Wii, but this isn't a major problem for me. The other consoles' killers apps. (APART FROM the first two above) mostly seem to be pedestrian shooters, and the only games of that genre I've ever liked are the Metroid Prime series. In addition, Nintendo produce my favourite games regardless, and most people who do like shooters probably own a 360. A bigger problem for others than me, then, but still something I'd like Nintendo to address from the perspective of the Nintendo fanboy who wants 'his' console to be unequivocally the best.
1) I don't see that was any debate here, was there? The Wii has parental controls already, so why spoil the online side of things (the numbers have 16 digits, by the way) in an attempt to control what little Johnny can and can't see? The 360 has done it without attracting a case of 'tabloid attack', so what is Nintendo afraid of? Wusses.
2) I use rechargeables anyway, actually, but an official rechargeable battery pack to plug into the DS, complete with recharge station, would be nice.
3) I'm none too concerned about this one. I can see how it would work, but Nintendo should concentrate on the other four first. What I would like to see is more stuff in the DS release schedule, which is looking a tad empty currently.
4) This is going to become a problem that Nintendo will be forced to address very soon. I don't think that there's any way they can avoid it. Nonetheless, if it can be done...
5) I'd love to see games like Mass Effect, Blue Dragon and Okami (oh wait) on the Wii, but this isn't a major problem for me. The other consoles' killers apps. (the first two above) mostly seem to be pedestrian shooters, and the only games of that genre I've ever liked are the Metroid Prime series. In addition, Nintendo produce my favourite games regardless, and most people who do like shooters probably own a 360. A bigger problem for others than me, then, but still something I'd like Nintendo to address from the perspective of the Nintendo fanboy who wants 'his' console to be unequivocally the best.
Good post that i completely agree on apart from 1 point. Can you see it? No? Ive highlighted it... youve found it? Good. The two games yiou mentioned are story based RPG's. Blue Dragon has actualy got no shooting at all throughout its 40-50 hour quest. In fact its a game that would be right at home on Wii. & Mass Effect has shooting basicly tacked on for its combat. But its mainly a RPG/Adventure with a hell of a lot of talking.
But apart from the odd choice of games your right the 360 is mainly for shooters - although its AAA ones are not pedestrian
ARGH! Goes to show, the smallest mistake can make nonsense of a post. There was meant to be an 'apart from' in there, which will be edited in now. I'd love to have ME and BD on the Wii.
And by 'pedestrian' I meant on foot. I love Lylat Wars.
The truth has been spoken but Nintendo aren't exactly known for listening to outside advice or following trends. Really wish they would read this though and take note. Time to pray
It would also be good if Nintendo told developers when it planned to release its first party titles so that developers can fill in any gaping holes in the release schedule and keep gamers even more happy and third parties alike.
These are the exact things Nintendo need to do. Especially for external Hard Drive and 3rd Party support. I honestly don't know what was going through their head when they gave the Wii a pitiful 512MB internal flash memory, even with the knowledge that the console would be used to download VC games and software. I would have been happy with 10GB or maybe even 5GB at the very least!
As for 3rd party titles, oddly, it's the Gamecube all over again. Pre-release, hype and 3rd parties all onboard. Release, Nice selection of 3rd party titles. Later on, only Nintendo's flagship titles keeping the system going for Nintendo fans. Although this time round they depend heavily on casual gamers to buy into games such as the "Touch generations" series. What I predict, is the day casual gamers simply aren't bothered when they realise it's just the same mini-game/quiz compilation's being released. History repeats itslef sadly.
Doing the things mentioned is the right move, by far. Wii numbers are a joke.
The truth has been spoken but Nintendo aren't exactly known for listening to outside advice or following trends. Really wish they would read this though and take note. Time to pray
This time with the HDD I think Nintendo really do need to listen. Its ridiculous. They shouldnt be this stubborn over such a small addition that all gamers want
Not gonna happen, Nintendo are one of the most stubborn companies ever. Since the Wii is number one right now they'll try to mould the market how they see fit like they did with the NES. Difference is consumers have a lot more places to go and we've seen before that mistrust on the consumer side can quickly kill even a legendary brand off in an instant.
All they frigging need to do is update the firmware so that wii's can run stuff straight off the SD cards - ie you can save virtual console games onto an SD and run them from the damn card. That way I can shove my 2gb SD card in and just buy a new one if I fill it up.
It's cheap, it's easy and it's the least hassle. Shame it'll never happen
All this "but then people will steal the games and put them on other peoples wii's!!!" is a load of rubbish, surely it can't be that hard to code downloads to only run on a specific console.
Yes, it is realy easy to code a download to run on a specific console. But, for some people its extremely easy to decode the downloads. Then eventually video game piracy crops up.
Has anyone at C&VG ever heard of recharchable batteries? They are a brand spanking new technology that allows you to put power back in to your AA batteries (other battery sizes are available) and use them again and again!
Seriously I do not want the wiimotes to become rechargeble as I have far too many recharge adaptors already! Rechargeable AA batteries are by far the bes solution.
I find it funny that apparently Nintendo use the friend code system to keep little Timmy from getting bummed online. Yet go look in our very own Nintendo forums (thanks ONM etc.) and see how many 12-18 year olds whore their codes out to everyone and anyone. If a paedo wants to groom some kid all he needs is a DS, a copy of Pokemon D/P and access to this site.
Well done Nintendo and well done to the parents of the kids who broadcast their F/C with such enthusiasm on the internet.
I use rechargables in my Wii remotes too. Forget recharge battery packs, i want Nintendo to go one better and give us Wii remotes that you plug in to charge (like a GB micro or DS)
I agree. Friend codes need to be dumped quickly. I don't think there needs to be a hardrive, they could just be saved to a high storage SD card. Then be ran when you insert the SD card into your Wii.
FC's are annoyingly painful what was nintendo thinking? there is no point in rechargeable stations for wii cuz theylle cost Ł20 and the rechargeably batteries cost about Ł5 the lack of first person online shooters! we nned something like halo or gears of war! i dont mind about HD but why is there no CD and DVD playback?!?!?!? i think after the gamecube failed, thats what was needed. i want to know when the wii will be become good enough for hardcore gamers. Our hardcore at the moment is Scarface! you may think im being harsh but come on nintendo u can do better than that!!!!
1) I have no problems with being forced to swap Friend Codes with other people. My problem is the fact that every game has a different code. It will probably never be fixed for the DS, but it can be easily fixed for the Wii. Wii Friends? It's not like they have done it before (see Big Brain Academy and Metroid Prime 3).
2) If you want recharageable batteries, use rechargeable batteries and a charager. I'm not too bothered by this.
3) Again, not very concerned. Demos via the Wii is nice, but not essential. Beats walking to my local GAME to download some out of date demos.
4) Agreed. I don't mind how they do it- enabling stuff to be run from a SD card or a full hard drive- but they seriously need to expand the Wii's memory.
5) As long as the Wii doesn't get flooded with identikit games, third party support would be essential. However, I think that the sheer sales would force developers risk developing for the Wii regardless of their experience. Wii sells = Nintendo profits = Third party wants bit of profit = Third party develops game.
For those who've been gaming for a long time, the Wii is absolutely rubbish for multiplayer gaming. If it's not minigame collections, it's shallow or seemingly unfinished. Yes, Smash Bros is coming, but where the hell are the quality first person shooters and racing games?
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