For the Love of Gaming

Why The Wii 2 needs to be announced ASAP

With 2010 coming to a close its time to start looking at the future and the year of 2011. Microsoft has Kinect, and Sony has Move, but what does Nintendo have to keep their console fresh in the eyes of the consumer? That’s a question that Nintendo needs to answer ASAP.

At E3 2010 the gaming community was shocked when Nintendo came out on stage and revealed that not only is a new Zelda coming, but a new Donkey Kong, Goldeneye, Kirby, and Metroid would be coming as well . Suddenly Nintendo was back in the picture for the 2010 Holiday season.

So now that 2010 is coming to a close and Christmas is right around the corner you can guarantee that gamers will be glued to their couches playing their home game consoles. So now picture this, it’s March 2011, and The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword has come and gone. Once again fans from Nintendo will be left in the dark to what games are coming to their Wii console, but unlike last year Nintendo doesn’t have the titles hidden in their arsenal to shock the world with.

By March of 2011 Nintendo will have released almost every big name title that they are known for. This leaves them in a very scary state. Last time this same thing happened in 2008 gamers got Wii Fit, and needless to say that is not what the hardcore wanted at all. Granted the 3DS will be releasing in the US Q1 next year, but Nintendo can’t forget all of the loyal home console fans that purchase their products.

With all of this in mind I can only see one way for Nintendo to come out off this alive. They have to announce the successor to the Wii aka Wii2. The Wii not having HD graphics wasn’t a huge problem a few years ago, but now that developers have the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 systems figured out completely the Wii is really showng its weak processor.

Goldeneye for Wii is a great example of a great game that was held back by the weakness of the Wii’s hardware. Goldeneye plays great, and is a fun game but there are parts where the games’ frame rate comes to a crawl even though the game doesn’t look amazing to begin with. There are even parts where paper cut out graphics are used in place of characters. In 2010 this is just not acceptable. Now I am not a graphics whore, I take gameplay over graphics every time. A game like Super Meat Boy is a fantastic game and doesn’t exactly push the polygon count to the limit, but the developers didn’t need a massive amount of horse power to make their vision come to life, but in a game like Goldeneye where environments and looks are an important part of the overall experience a game with paper cut out graphics just don’t cut it anymore.

The Spike Video game awards were home to amazing new titles such as Elder Scrolls V, SSX Deadly Descent, and Mass Effect 3. All titles coming to Xbox 360 and PS3, but not the Wii. I believe this is simply because the Wii just isn’t capable of the engines that these games are running. With the hottest game developers leaving out Nintendo it’s going to be very hard to keep the Wii on the market for too much longer. With the software support for the 3DS such as Capcom with Resident Evil, and Koniami with Metal Gear Solid it’s hard to believe that developers just don’t want to work with Nintendo but rather they just can’t work with their current hardware.

All of these reasons are why Nintendo needs to announced the Wii successor ASAP. Nintendo needs a console that is capable of HD graphics so developers can bring their creations to the House of Nintendo, and they can do it a new way that would cost very little.

Picture buying a console that looks almost identical to the current Wii, but the parts inside are all new and very powerful. The new console could fit exactly where you old ones goes and will play all your GameCube games as well as Wii games. It could even use your current Wii-Mote and nunchuck, but the back of the Wii 2 would be where you would find the key differences . HDMI for HD, and optical for 5.1 surround sound would be the new additions. HDMI would also provide up conversion for your old Wii games to view them in 720 and 1080p.

Price is key for this device. Asking gamers to upgrade their Wii just so they can finally play their Zelda in HD is still a tall order when then have the Xbox 360 and the PS3 sitting right next to it. With the theory I have above I see no reason why Nintendo can’t offer a new box for the low price of only $99. Simply take the new console and put it in a box with a new power supply and HDMI cable. Since it uses the old wii-mote and nunchuck there is no need to put them in the box. A bundle with controllers should also be available to those who want another controller obviously. With Microsoft selling the Xbox 360 for $199 I see no reason why an $99 dollar upgrade isn’t feasible .

If Nintendo doesn’t announce a new console very soon they will be doomed. There isn’t any way the Wii can go for another year on its own. As games like Gears of War 3, and Uncharted 3 are being shown with amazing visuals to make the experience much better for the gamers, Nintendo is slowly being crippled by their hardware and developers will quickly stop supporting their machine.

Nintendo is a great video game company and I really want to see them take all of their classic titles like Zelda and Mario to the HD realm, and see all of the 3rd part companies like Bethesda and 2K games bring their creations to the Nintendo platform.