So I moved to an apartment recently and one of the first things that I demanded that I would be able to take with me from my parent’s place is the Super Nintendo. It sounds trivial, but my SNES still works fine and has a plethora of spectacular games that still stand the test of time (and still unbelievably work). As a matter of fact, most of what I think are the greatest games of all-time (Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi’s Island, NBA Jam) come from that system. And lastly, since 1998, I was so sure that the Super Nintendo was the greatest system in the history of gaming.
But.
It has heavy competition.
That was then, and this is now. This recent generation has been undeniably spectacular in terms of progression, technology, innovation, and lastly software. Each of the big three systems have released games that can arguably be placed amongst the 25 best games of all-time. The XBox 360 in my opinion had the most games with their superior versions of the original Modern Warfare, Bioshock, Skyrim, Mass Effect, and Portal. But the real draw has been their ability to look back. The XBox 360 has that excellent download service, which allows gamers to access previous masterpiece titles from the 90s and early 2000s. The PS3 and the Wii followed similar trends by crating instant classic games (The Wii….not as much) while at the same time glimpsing into the past with their download service.
So what if the greatest system of all-time is totally transferred to another system? Would that make the new system the best of all-time? Because it has all the masterpiece titles from the older system and then some? How can you deny the greatness of a system if it makes new great games and also doubles its game list by re-releasing classics?
WiiU, this is your chance.
Your Virtual Console service needs to explode to new heights.
The WiiU has the perfect opportunity here to create the best system of the main three coming up. Nintendo is boasting how powerful the system is---so now the goal is to go through with this potential. While the download service of the PS3 and XBox 360 have been very good, they are eerily similar sometimes and lack the first-party depth of Nintendo’s lineup. Nintendo has always been the best at preserving the past to re-release to the future, but now they can really deliver something special. And before you bring up the innovention of the new controller, expect the competition to copy the technique.
If I were running the show, I would do my absolute best to ensure that the WiiU becomes totally, fully, truly, madly, deeply backwards-compatible as soon after launch as possible. And I mean not just with the Gamecube, but bring back the N64, SNES, and NES games. I would make the WiiU the ultimate Nintendo system by giving gamers full access to all previous console masterpieces and classics that had graced a Nintendo console. Can you imagine on the same day purchasing Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3 to put on the same system? Can you imagine purchasing Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 2, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Ghouls n’ Ghosts on the same day? How about the entire Donkey Kong Country trilogy, as well as DK 64? Can you imagine purchasing Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, Link to the Past, and Zelda II on the same day?
Can you imagine if Nintendo created gaming packages involving games in all the previous Nintendo systems? I had spit this idea a long time ago but it can actually work with the WiiU because of the much more powerful machinery and (hopefully) better online service. I don’t know about you, but I would pay top dollar for Zelda, Mario, Resident Evil, Metroid, and/or other collections that chronicle you through multiple generations of Nintendo’s history. Nintendo has arguably the best system ever created, the Super Nintendo. So what better way to give the WiiU an awesome start than having N64, SNES, and Gamecube games available at launch?
Third-party companies aren’t as atrociously negligent towards Nintendo as they used to be, so I can see companies like Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, LucasArts, Ubisoft, and maybe even EA Games opening up their old-school libraries to help Nintendo. And if we push the bar even further with a little convincing maybe they can even release games that weren’t originally for the older Nintendo systems like Kingdom Hearts, Burnout 3, Soul Calibur, and the Tekken games. While that idea is a bit of a long-shot, third-party companies over the years have realized that Nintendo can indeed make you good money---the Just Dance franchise has sold over 23 million copies on the Wii alone.
Bottom Line: The WiiU needs to take advantage of the incredible and deep history of Nintendo and turn their next system into a gaming hybrid of sorts. The WiiU is already-backwards compatible with the Wii games and all the Wiimotes and secondary controllers. So why not increase the fun by digging into the thousands of games released over the years and re-release a slew of them at launch? You can do HD collections of Nintendo’s most lucrative franchises like Mario World, Zelda, Pokemon, and Mario Kart (idea sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), while also releasing some of the better NES, SNES, N64, and Gamecube games throughout its history. Now, nothing has been confirmed as to the online whereabouts of the WiiU, but if they really wanted to distance themselves from the competition, they will deliver an old-school lineup so extensive, so massive, and so full of quality; you have no choice but to purchase the system to partake in the whimsical insanity.
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