When you think of Nintendo what comes to mind? Is it the originality in their mascots; the range of players they reach; or is it their continued focus on innovation? I like to think it’s all three. Whether it’s the fifth million Mario game that never fails to disappoint, or the Dual Screen handheld that took the world by storm – Nintendo shapes the gaming landscape with each and every idea that comes out of their Kyoto headquarters. But with 3D on the way, is it their own innovation they are representing, or is it just a hurdle that technologists just want to say they’ve jumped?
If someone asked me 15 years ago what the future of gaming would look like, I would’ve answered “realistic graphics”. And yes, we’ve gotten those – but with the rise in realism so have the cost and time it takes to develop and coordinate all those polygons. It’s my understanding that the Big N, after being last place in the console race during the Gamecube period, wasn’t too keen on spending millions of dollars on competing against giants like Microsoft and Sony, who were capable of throwing as much money as needed to develop the next big graphic heavy console. So what Nintendo decided to do was take another route, a new route, that would give them the means to not compete directly with them but still be in the market. And so the Revolution was born, or what we now call, the Wii.
And now here we are, in the wake of a new revolution, that of 3D – but is 3D the next step in gaming progression? After HD, after motion controls, were any of us expecting a jump back to the 80’s and the gimmick known as 3D? If anything we were hoping for a virtual world in which we can become one with the game (ala Nintendo ON). But then again that may be too big of a leap at the moment. So if 3D is where everything is headed then I’m more inclined to trust Nintendo than any other company right now, as their track record for innovation has led to more success than failure.
Sony’s PSP, on the other side of the handheld war, hasn’t come close the measure of success the DS has had worldwide. RPG’s have held it afloat in Japan, but as Nintendo continues to expand its reach over the globe, the Playstation Portable can’t keep up with a single genre alone. And if a digital overhaul of games distribution was Sony’s way of trying to push the industry in a new direction (PSP Go!) then they’ve fallen flat on their face. Sony and the Playstation brand have never gone out of their way to invent anything new or change the game in any way – they only keep producing what people expect, which is probably the reason why it’s taken them so long to even become noticeable this console generation. Even Microsoft sees that a facelift of their console’s audience perception had to change if it were to grab ahold more of the vast market Nintendo has created with the Wii and DS.
But what’s interesting is that Sony, although being in last place, has said that Nintendo is doing this all wrong. SCEA director of hardware and marketing commented that younger gamers wouldn’t care much for the new 3D technology and that it’s intended more for the older crowd, hence why they’re going to focus on bringing it to the PS3. I find it funny that Sony, of all people, wants to school Nintendo on what gamers want or do not want in their games or consoles. If history has taught us anything it’s that gamers will follow franchises like Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon on whatever console Nintendo decides to put them on. It’s the nature of their charm that not many third party companies can come close to copying – and it’s because of that reason alone that Nintendo has a big advantage over soul-less corporations like Sony and Microsoft.
The 3DS wasn’t anything many of us were expecting, not after hearing talks of an accelerometer being included in the “next DS”. Analysts and insiders were thinking that Nintendo was making a competitor to the iPhone instead of something that we would normally compare to the PSP. But instead what we got in a matter of a single image-less, press release was months and months of upcoming speculation of how Nintendo would utilize 3D technology without the use of those annoying glasses. Gaming has always tried to put you into a world separate from that of our own, so anything that is noticeably ditracting you from being in that world is a no-no. Naturally 3D glasses wouldn’t make much sense as they would become a barrier between you and the game, both physically and socially… I mean, can you imagine being on some sort of public transportation, and you’re there with your 3DS and some nerdy 3D glasses? Yeah… try talking to chicks while doing that. If the 3DS can do what it says it does, and truly offer a 3-Dimensional experience that games have yet to offer, then I think Nintendo’s pioneering efforts may move them ahead of the pack yet again. So while they are showing off the next step in gaming at this year’s E3, both Microsoft and Sony will be busy scratching at the doors of motion controls – doors whom which Nintendo first created.
Whether the 3DS is successful or not will be up to the experience players have with what Nintendo has purported to offer. But one thing is for sure: Nintendo will live and die by innovation, and that’s what makes me as a gamer respect them. Studios, hardware makers, and games have come and gone because of either lack of, or too much innovation, and yet Nintendo is still here. And not only have they simply survived it all, they’ve evolved and continued to be the number one leader in video games. The only question is: will the 3DS be another Virtual Boy, or can the Big N’s innovation take it the way of the Wii?
