Top 10 Things Nintendo Needs To Do With The NX

Nintendo may be gaming giants, but they don’t get everything right with their home consoles. Welcome to Watchmojo.com, and today we’re bringing you the Top 10 Things We'd Like To See In Nintendo's Next Console, The NX Just to be clear, this list isn’t meant to be blind criticism to Nintendo or the Wii U. As while it may not have been a mass seller, there’s no denying its first party lineup is top notch. This is just a bit of constructive criticism going forward.

Nintendo has always been a company that is very keen on innovation. With that in mind, perhaps it’s time to come up with new branding for their consoles. This tactic backfired on Nintendo, as the Wii U’s resemblance to its predecessor led a lot of casual gamers to not realise that it was an entirely new console. The Wii had by this point become known for its gimmicky motion controls that many people stopped playing after the fad wore off, which turned away a lot of potential customers. Plus, naming conventions seem to be a sticking point for Nintendo. Just look at the 3ds, 3ds XL, the 2ds, the New 3DS and the New 3ds XL….for example.

Rightly or wrongly, these days most controllers have the same basic shape. While we like innovation, we feel that it would be great to stick with the controller shape that has become the standard. They already have the Pro Controller, but it doesn’t come with the console. For the NX we’d suggest that they package a simple controller with the console, something that will appeal to hardcore gamers who didn’t think controllers needed to be improved upon in the first place. Obviously you can still have your unique flair, but a back to basics approach might be more widely adopted by consumers.

#8: Options For A Virtual Reality Controller Attachment

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Though it may bring back bad memories of the infamous Virtual Boy flop, the time is right to bring virtual reality back to Nintendo consoles, or at least offer it as an option for those who want to play that way. We can do more than two colors now, remember. The 3DS has already employed augmented reality to great success and feels like a step in the right direction. With the slow burn introduction of systems like the Oculus Rift or Project Mobius, virtual reality gaming is about to take off in a huge way and Nintendo have the potential to be on the front line once again.

Let’s Play videos and Streaming gamecasts are one of the biggest trends in gaming, and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so naturally Nintendo’s recent decision to monetise the videos of these content creators has been met with much criticism. Nintendo has to realize that this is entirely free advertising for their games. Considering how it’s often the simplest and silliest of games that get the most traction in this medium, it seems like a perfect fit for Nintendo – with their overall emphasis on fun being one of their core values. Do you think all those let’s plays actually HURT the sales of 5 Nights at Freddy’s?

These days, downloadable AAA titles can come in anywhere from 20-50GB of hard drive space. And that’s not even taking into account DLC and patches, which take up more space. On the Xbox and Playstation which can store 500GB each, that’s not much of a problem … yet. But the Wii U hard-drives come in two sizes: the basic size is 8GB and the premium is 32GB. The Wii U’s storage can be increased, but it’s annoying that we have to buy another hard-drive just to fit the games that we paid for. Considering how fast things are moving, in order to stay relevant for a decent amount of time, the NX should probably sport no less than a full terabyte of storage.

#5: Graphics And Specs On Par With Their Competitors

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Nintendo have got one of the better handhelds out there in the form of the 3DS, but they are far outclassed on home consoles. We’ve already mentioned their hard-drive issues but looking at the specs, it’s clear they fall short. Even if you don’t count the second screen sapping a lot of the processing power, the CPU and GPU’s featured in Nintendo current console are far behind what’s offered by Sony and Microsoft. Even the competitors are having a tough time hitting 1080p at 60 frames per second, so the NX is gonna need a major boost to meet today’s brutal demand for graphics.

#4: A Stronger Launch Line-Up

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A console is only as good as the games it can play, so why buy a new console with no good new games? In the past, they’ve had some extremely strong launch titles like Super Mario Bros, World & 64 that were not only system sellers, but ground-breaking in their own right. Compare that to the Wii U, where strong titles like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8 weren’t released until 18 months after launch. You gotta have a reason to line up to buy this thing on launch day, and Nintendo definitely has the names, they just need the games.

#3: Either A Good Port Or None At All

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When developers have to port a game to a system with inferior specs or alterations, sometimes the end results make the customer wish they hadn’t bothered. Titles like Watch Dogs were not only released much later than their counterparts on the other systems, they had missing content. These late releases often lacked the DLC missions and some games, like Sniper Elite V2 and Batman Arkham Origins, lacked the multiplayer modes found on other platforms. This relates to our point about stronger hardware – if you can keep up with the other consoles, you can have a lot of the same games.

#2: More New Intellectual Properties

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Splatoon is a good step in the right direction, but waiting for 5 years for a new Zelda or Mario game is not enough to build a strong console community with. While these games will always sell, the gaming powerhouse needs to come up with more reasons to buy the console, and for that they need stronger exclusive titles. People who don’t like Mario, Zelda and maybe Metroid in the first place won’t get excited for the next release in those franchises – you’ve got to make some new fans too, not just cling desperately to the old ones. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions… 4K support Nintendo need to implement their own achievement system Blu-ray and multimedia support No region locks A massively expanded back catalogue of retro games

#1: Better Online Ecosystem

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Sometimes it’s good to say what Nintendo does right: it’s great that they offer a subscription-free online gaming service. While this is admirable, it’s hard to deny that their online presence needs an overhaul. At the moment, their eShop needs a major revision. Shopping and purchasing need to be made much easier and more intuitive. Buying the Smash Bros. add on content, for example, is a needlessly complex process. They also need to implement key features, like messaging your friends and setting up groups or partiers to join with, features which are much simpler on the competing consoles. While succeeding in this area will give the 126-year-old company a new lease of life, they must not let this focus stomp all over their desire to create genuinely good games. After all, the games are the reasons we come back to Nintendo. Do you agree with our list? How do you think Nintendo needs to improve their game? For more gaming top 10s, published every day, be sure to subscribe to Watchmojo.com.