How Nintendo Could Win It All

ElFozzie writes "In a huge piece on mobile gaming, Pocket Gamer reports on the latest battles in the handheld console market and reveals why Nintendo might just have the right strategy to win this war. From the article: 'Let's go back the beginning, the games. It's all about the games, Nintendo's faithful fans will argue, and the DS has great, mad and unique games where the PSP so far has, at best, competent-to-very-good PS2-lite fare. Yes, but it's not that simple. See, I was there in the mid '90s playing the genre-defining Mario 64 and the breathtaking Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, perhaps the two greatest games of their generation, on the Nintendo 64. And I remember Sony going on to win that war, and PlayStation becoming the de facto shorthand for 'video games'."

Comments

Some things that will help

[Dark Paladin]

I've been talking about this with my wife, who is actually interested in seeing the Wii in action (she's hooked on the Brain Games).

Some things that I think would help cement Nintendo:

1. DVD player - I believe word is that the DVD player aspects are a "plug in" - I'm assuming something like the original Xbox codec plug in device to enable DVD playback. Personally, I'd just as soon see it just built in - bite the bullet on the cost, Nintendo, and people will go "Hm - $200, and it plays games *and* my DVD movies", instead of "Hm - $200, but I have to spend another $30 to play movies? Eh."

2. Push the online gaming. While I'm a single player gaming whore, I still think that online is the way to go. I'm very disappointed that Tecmo is bringing Pangya Golf to the Wii, but not the online play! Maybe they feel it won't matter much, but I think the difference can be crucial. Nintendo should make it clear in cases like these that online play is to be built in - or the game doesn't get ported. I'm not saying they should make online play when it doesn't exist - but in clear cases like this, but the sucker in.

3. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Advertise the sports games during Oprah for exercise. Advertise "Red Steel" during "24" and such. Get the word out, and don't just show the game - show how people play it. Let people see that controller until there isn't a person in the world who doesn't go "Oh - that's that Wii thing - looks interesting."

We'll have to see what happens, but Nintendo could take back a lot of market. So far, I'd say their making a lot of the right moves.

Thid-party support is getting better

[LKM]

most of them available from Nintendo themself like Zelda, Mario, Nintendo Dogs, and other Nintendo produced titles.

The title is not "Nintendo Dogs". It's Nintendogs. Had you ever actually played it, you'd know this.

Now lets take a look at the "good" titles of this new ds New Super Mario Bros Nintendo Dogs Metroid Hunters Animal Crossing Castlevania Mario & Luigi Partners in Time Mario Kart DS Get the point? most of these hit titles are directly produced by Nintendo itself.

Castlevania isn't a Nintendo game. Why don't we talk about the awesome DS games from third-party developers? You've already mentioned Castlevania, but there's also Meteos, Sonic Rush, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Sk8land (at last a fresh Tony Hawk's game), Viewtiful Joe, Feel the Magic, Pac Pix or Trauma Center. Nintendo had trouble with third-party support on the N64 and on the Cube, but on the DS, it's changing, and they're investing a lot to get third-parties on board with the Wii.

Although I must admit that I do not care too much. It's great having third-party support, but I'd buy a Wii if only Nintendo made games for it: They're always top notch and a lot of fun.