Dear Nintendo:
Hi! Loyal fan here. Other than the Virtual Boy, I’ve owned every major console you all have put out. Yes, I was a little late to the Wii U party, but that’s OK as I’m here now. (To be fair, I was waiting to get Smash Brothers, but my wife decided to surprise me.)
I won’t pretend you’re hurting, we all know it to be true. I’m here to tell you why things happened they way they did, and to offer some friendly advice on how best to proceed.
I'm glad you decided against mobile gaming via cell phone applications, etc. I have a (3)DS for that. And to be frank, it’s pretty amazing. Not every game lends itself to a DS experience, and more often than not I’m just looking at a blown up map of the area on my second screen, but when games like Advance Wars come along, that always-on tactical information is pretty amazing. I know not everything can be turn-based, information-centric, but that’s the kind of innovation I bought into.
The same applies to your Wii U Gamepad. I knew trouble was on the horizon when New Super Mario Brothers U uses the Gamepad to display what I’m already seeing on my 60 inch television. It wastes battery and is a distraction. I’d love to see that turned off. I’m not really sure what a second screen could be used for in Mario anyway (outside of Boost Mode, but let’s not kid ourselves – that feature great for grieving and that’s about it). I can’t imagine your engineers sat around and decided to make a second screen to mirror the first. So step it up a notch. Now Ubisoft got it right with ZombiU, and I love what’s going in with Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 – that’s where your effort needs to be right now.
Let’s face it, you hoped that third party support would come in and lend a hand. News flash: you haven’t had third party support since the Super Nintendo (I’ll give you N64 too). That’s OK because your first party titles are amazing. Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pikmin are amazing games. Trust me when I tell you there’s no experience like it on any other console.
But those are your bread and butter games. So where are they? Star Fox, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Pilotwings… all are sadly missing from the Wii U library. Why? I mean, I’m not buying a Wii U for Arkham City: Armored Edition, so let’s figure out a way to keep the classics going, ok?
I’m happy you’re starting to focus on the Miiverse because that’s what people want right now: social experiences. You know: trophies, Twitch broadcasts, party chat, that sort of thing. I’m in the minority that doesn’t care about that stuff, so don’t beat us over the head with it – but it’s funny when a “Dear Bowser” letter slips through the filters on New Super Mario Brothers U with a picture of a wang on it. Yep, I’m immature. And people can draw very well with that stylus. Which reminds me, where’s Mario Paint again?
Let’s stop floundering. Don’t worry about your next console, it’s way too soon for that. And let’s drop the Wii name altogether. You confused people and the marketing was all over the place. Your best felling features (backwards capability, even with virtual store purchases!) took a back seat to everything. And you’re even DRM free! That’s sad that Microsoft made this a selling feature anymore, but I digress.
So get back to work. Make some must have games that will define this generation. Don’t expect anybody to find innovative purposes for the Gamepad. That falls to you now. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get some ports that send traffic your way, but I can promise that a majority of people playing Call of Duty aren’t doing so on your console.
I love you guys. I’ll stick with you to the bitter end. I know we aren't anywhere near that, either. It’s just sad to see you guys doing so poorly right now.
You are better than that; prove it to those of us who don’t know it yet.
Your Pal,
Jim
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