Nintendo's Dreamcast Moment

By now, most people who follow video gaming news to some basic degree know that Nintendo is releasing a new console. It will be called the Wii U, and like its predecessor it will be a small, white box that Nintendo hopes will end up printing money. Also like the original Wii, there is a big focus on the system's controller, tentatively (and oh-so-originally) called the "New Controller". It resembles what can only be described as the bastard child of a traditional game controller and an iPad. I think it may end up being Nintendo's most important console ever. I don't make a statement like that very lightly. I never said it would be their best console, only that it will be the one that may very well define what path the company takes in the future.

It would be folly to make a statement like that without a little background, so here's some video gaming history for you. No falling asleep in the back of the classroom, you little miscreants! I've culled most of this info from Wikipedia, so don't accuse me of actually being knowledgeable about gaming history.

Where Wikipedia culled its gaming history info from.

Back in late 1999, Sega released the Dreamcast game system in North America. It was built because Sega's previous system, the Sega Saturn, was not doing so hot anymore in the States. Sony's original PlayStation system, launched around the same time as the Saturn, was beating the ever-loving shit out of it in sales, thanks to little games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. Also, Nintendo had recently released the Nintendo 64, which basically sucked the remaining air out of the room in terms of console buzz. Remember this video?

NINTENDO SIXTY-FOOOOOOUUUUUURRRRRR!!!1!@1!!!

Yeah. This was the kind of buzz the Saturn had to compete with. Despite being launched around the same time as the Saturn, the PlayStation ended up grabbing most of the older gamers, and the younger ones soon fell in the thrall of Nintendo's black money machine (which sounds like a Japanese recording studio that produces gangsta rap albums). Something had to be done. Sega collaborated with Microsoft on the system's OS, built some hardware that was more advanced than anything else at the time, and built a modem into their game machine for the first time. They constructed a unique controller that could hold specially built memory card / mini-game machine extensions called VMUs, which would display info during a game being played on the Dreamcast, as well as allow for separate functionality in some games independent of the main console.

In late 1999, about a year after a fitful Japanese launch, the Dreamcast hit American shores. It was really popular, selling several hundred thousand units via pre-order alone. Many great games were eventually released for the system, including Sonic Adventure, the much-lauded Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5, Dead or Alive 2, and a slew of others that went on to become classics. However, the "Party Like it's 1999" mentality didn't last too long. Sony had a nasty surprise up its sleeve.

This is one of the results I got doing a Google image search for "surprise."

Thanks, humanity! I'm going to bleach my eyeballs now.

In the year 2000, Sony unleashed the PlayStation 2 on the world. It hit Japan in March, and followed suit in North America in October. You know how in the previous generation there wasn't really any more room for Sega Saturn buzz? Soon there wouldn't be any more room for the Dreamcast, buzz or otherwise. The PlayStation 2 quickly muscled in on Sega's turf with games that used the new DVD format. This format would prove to be a boon to Sony not only in the game capacity department, but also because it allowed them to market the PS2 as a combination DVD player and game machine. Not everybody had DVD players, since the format had just launched a few years earlier, so this gave it a really big advantage in the marketing department. The Dreamcast couldn't play DVDs, because it used its own proprietary (and much smaller) storage format for games.

One of the smoking guns used in the infamous Dreamcast massacre.

The PS2 sounded the death knell for the Dreamcast in North America, which was arguably Sega's most important console market. The final nails in the coffin came in late 2000 when Nintendo announced the GameCube, and Microsoft announced the Xbox. The writing was on the wall: the Dreamcast was doomed. In January of 2001, Sega cancelled production of the Dreamcast in North America. While they would still be made in Japan until 2006, the loss of millions of potential American customers essentially relegated the Dreamcast to the dust bin of gaming history.

OK, you can all wake up now.

Why did I drag you through this lesson in gaming history? Because, as the old trope is so often repeated, history repeats itself. Look at the console market of today. There are 3 wildly successful consoles out there, but one (the Wii) doesn't have the luster it used to, so Nintendo is launching a new system (the Wii U) in mid-console cycle. The console will use a proprietary storage format and not play DVDs or Blu-ray movies. It has a controller that displays mini-games and can operate independently of the main console. Similarities to the Dreamcast abound.

It remains to be seen just how powerful this system will be. The original Wii was bashed for having hardware that was essentially like a slightly upgraded GameCube's. Unless the Wii U is substantially stronger than the Xbox360 and PS3 hardware-wise, it may fall into the same category. Also, the tricks that Nintendo used to gain so much buzz with the Wii will not work with the Wii U. Nintendo banked heavily on its motion controller, and it paid off big time. Nobody else had anything that could match it. That is, until Sony launched the Move and Microsoft launched the Kinect add-ons for their respective systems. Motion controls are now essentially old hat. They've been done before, and by everyone. Nintendo is now banking on another trick: a super-fancy touch-screen controller that essentially serves as a semi-parasitic mini-console, like the mutant Kuato from the movie Total Recall.

"Hello, my baby! Hello, my honey! Hello, my ragtime gal!"

To their credit, Nintendo says that this time they are more focused on 3rd-party games this time around, especially games that appeal to so-called "core gamers",  like Call of Duty, that have traditionally been stripped down to work on Nintendo's machines. Nintendo is also especially focused on developing a more user-friendly online experience; something more akin to the user account method of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, instead of the awkward friend-code system of the Wii. 

However, Nintendo's new trick might not be enough. They are at a major disadvantage. They have lost the element of surprise. Apple showed the world the potential of the touchscreen tablet. When they launched the iPad, they basically laid down ground rules for how such a machine should operate. With 2 iterations of the iPad under their belts, and more on the way soon, Nintendo will not have as much thunder when it unleashes its controller on the gaming public. Also, Nintendo's gaming network, whatever it is, will be playing catch-up with Microsoft and Sony, instead of leading the pack. The same can be said of 3rd-party games. When the next Call of Duty is released on the Wii U and looks as good as its competitors, instead of being wowed, some people will simply say, "took you long enough." Nintendo lives and dies by innovation, and it is walking a very thin line indeed with this console. We have yet to see its true potential, and selling the console short without concrete evidence would just be dumb. As stated earlier, Nintendo lives and dies by innovation, so undoubtedly they've got something crazy down the pipe that, like an Italian Plumber inexplicably doubling in size after eating a mushroom, may just surprise us all. Just because it isn't the iPad doesn't mean it can't be exciting. Knowing Nintendo, they will find some pretty cool ways to make use of the controller. Playing a game on 2 screens was a concept that proved to be a hit in the form of the Nintendo DS. This is the natural extension of that idea. The iPad, with a single screen, can't do stuff like that.

One sticking point for many people might be the new control scheme. The Wii U doesn't just re-use the Wii name, but also its control hardware. You will be able to use all your previous Wii controllers with the Wii U. Which is good! Buying new controllers sucks, especially now that they're so bloody expensive. However, until it is confirmed otherwise by Nintendo, the fancy new touchscreen controller will be a strictly single-player affair. One controller per console? Really? Not even the old NES had that kind of limitation on it. Hopefully it is just a temporary thing that can be solved by some clever game programming or a system firmware update, but the idea of a controller taking up so many system resources that only one of them can be used at a time is, frankly, bat-shit crazy. For a console that is supposed to unite casual and core gamers, a single-player system controller seems like a terrible first step. 

It doesn't help that the controller is basically an iPad with buttons and analog sticks. The result of having to put a proper screen into the controller is that the thing is fucking huge. It's positively elephantine, and may end up being the biggest dedicated 1st-party controller ever made. Yes, even bigger than the original Xbox controller, which was basically the size of a healthy newborn baby. I really can't think of another controller made by a game system maker that is or was that big. It may be a non-issue. Maybe it feels really good! Maybe you'll want to wake up every day and run your hands all over it first thing in the morning, which would be really creepy, but maybe it really works well!  Until more people get some literal hands-on time, the jury is still out. One thing I'm sure of: the new controller won't be cheap. There is basically no way it will be as cheap as current console controllers, which run around $50 bucks each. That pay wall won't deter the fanboys and early adopters, and if the "single controller per console" thing pans out it may be a sad moot point, but the bread and butter of console makers are middle-class folks who have at least a few friends, and want to play games with them. Making the controller too expensive may mean that these folks get left out in the cold. Not everything is bad about the new controller. It has a metric shit-ton of features, including a front-facing camera, tons of buttons, the aforementioned touch screen, a microphone, and a bunch of other bells and whistles. If Nintendo can keep the cost down, this controller that seems crazy might just be crazy enough to work.

The biggest elephant in the room is the emergence of app gaming. It will only get harder and harder for Nintendo (and Sony, and Microsoft) to convince people to plunk down 50-60 dollars on a game when thousands and thousands can be found in app stores for uber-cheap, many for free. Nintendo has been cagey on small, downloadable games so far. Sure, the Wii had WiiWare and the Virtual Console, but those were geared towards extremely small games that could fit on the Wii's limited internal memory. 

The Virtual Console was a bit of a disappointment for me personally, because when I bought the Wii, I was under the impression that at the very least I would be able to play most, if not all previous 1st-party Nintendo games. If I could download working ROMs illegally (and if anybody from Nintendo is reading this - I DON'T), then surely Nintendo with all its company resources could make them available to download. 

Didn't happen. I'm still waiting on motherfucking StarFox, Nintendo! It was one of your best games for the SNES! Oh sure, we got StarFox 64, but fuck that shit - I want the original, the classic. Despite the NES and SNES having at least 1,000 games between them, the Virtual Console, despite including old Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Neo-Geo, and TurboGrafx games AS WELL AS Super Nintendo and NES games, still only has a few hundred games available to buy. There are so many games that I will never be able to give Nintendo my money for, even though they have all the capability in the world to release them. Sure, some games can't be released due to licensing issues, and others are just not popular. However, those are the minority. Still, the selection of games that have actually been released for the VC is all over the place, with several popular games with unambiguous licenses being released right alongside shit nobody knew about even back in the day. Why? Only Nintendo, the Great and Powerful, knows for sure. 

All that being said, I would be a biased dick if I didn't say I had hours and hours of fun with the games I could download. Many of the classics were there, such as Gradius III and all the Donkey Kong Country games from the SNES, as well as games with timeless appeal like Super Mario Bros from the NES. Just being able to play these games without blowing into a cartridge was a big deal for me. 

Nintendo is slowly starting to open up more to the idea of downloadable games with the 3DS's download store. It's a step in the right direction, and hopefully the Wii U will continue the trend. But as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Nintendo needs to man the fuck up and smash the dam holding back the unstoppable deluge of its most precious possessions: games that tap into nostalgia. If Nintendo releases the majority of its back-catalog of games (which should now include GameCube games, since they max out at only 1.5 Gb or so, a relatively small download size, and anyway Wii U can't use the GC disks) they will be a force to be reckoned with. If they choose to hold back, it may end up going badly for them. One thing that still hasn't been confirmed is the size of the Wii U's storage for things like downloadable games. Early speculation for built-in storage was not promising, but maybe Nintendo will release some kind of external hard drive add on, like the Xbox360's, that will level the playing field. A modern console without any kind of hard drive capability is an anachronism, so I'm sure Nintendo will have something lined up. Again, I'll need more info to make a truly informed decision.

All this may be offset by the fact that Nintendo is launching the Wii U mid-console cycle. The Dreamcast had the misfortune to launch just a year or so before the PlayStation 2, but the Wii U will be launching in the clear in late 2011 or early 2012. Sony and Microsoft probably won't have their new consoles ready until at least 2014 (8 years or so after initial launch of the previous generation), so that leaves Nintendo with some breathing room to get prices down and fix any big issues. But they'd better make good use of their head start. Sony and Microsoft have deep pockets from being diverse corporations, and you'd better believe they will have cash to spare when it comes to marketing their new consoles.

So basically, the launch of the Wii U will be Nintendo's Dreamcast moment. Will Nintendo end up like Sega, cancelling the Wii U after 3 or 4 years and abandoning original hardware, becoming solely a software developer? It seemed an impossible fate for Sega at one time, but it did happen. Or will Nintendo's predictions come true, and the Wii U really ends up uniting casual Farmville players and Call of Duty fanatics? Usually I have a gut feeling about these types of things. That feeling is strangely absent right now. When I get more information, I'll be able to make a better-informed decision, but until that time I can't say anything about purchasing the Wii U one way or the other. One thing is for sure, though: this is the console that will define what Nintendo will become in the future.

UPDATE: In the name of clarification, I want to emphasize that the Wii U will not be a single-player console for multiplayer games played offline on one system. You will be able to play multiplayer games locally using the older Wii remote, nunchuck, and classic controller in various combinations. You can even play multiplayer games using the New Controller along with a bunch of older Wii controllers. You just won't be able to play local multiplayer games with 2 or more New Controllers in tandem on the same system. Nintendo may find a way around those limits in the future, but in all likelihood those are the only scenarios that will exist for local multiplayer.