The Ten Things I Would Like From Nintendo In 2013

2012 has been a strong year for Nintendo with the 3DS going from strength to strength and the newly launched WiiU proving very popular during the last month of the year. But what could Nintendo do over the next twelve months that would build on these strengths? Here are my ten suggestions for a cracking 2013!

 

Expand the Nintendo ID and WiiU firmware onto the 3DS and Wii

 

With both Nintendo’s current handheld and previous home console both able to have updatable firmware, getting the Nintendo ID onto both devices would be great, something that has been promised. This would mean you could access the Miiverse and all your records on the go and 3DS games could be rolled into the service retrospectively. On top of that if the Wii could be updated to include a, probably scaled down, version, then the community will expand quickly.

 Sharing IDs between devices mean all your records on the devices could be shared and make the community even more thriving.

Plus, with the 3DS sharing much of the technology in the GamePad and the Wii, with WiiSpeak included pretty much there, then WiiU chat could be possible on all three devices.

 Expand Miiverse into social networking

It has already been proposed by Nintendo that the Miiverse will come to smartphones eventually, which would be a great inclusion. The social networking side of Miiverse is great and adds to games, but having the ability to Tweet or Facebook achievements and screenshots would add to the appeal and promote the WiiU wider than the console itself, which feels at the moment to be a bit of a closed garden.

 Though I’m not sure about Instragram pictures of Mario everywhere...

 Photo Gallery and Music Player

 With the Wii you could put photos on an SD card and show them on the television. It would be great to have a new version of this for the WiiU alongside a player to be able to play music or video files from a connected hard drive, turning the WiiU into a more all-round entertainment hub.

 iPlayer app and other bits of catch-up TV

 Though you can get the iPlayer through the dedicated Wii app, it has yet to make an appearance on the WiiU. Hopefully, when the TVii service launches later this year iPlayer, alongside ITV Player, 4OD and Demand Five will be included and if these services could be viewed just on the GamePad even better, so whilst your parents or other half are watching Pointless on TV, you can enjoy re-runs of the Super Mario Supershow on the GamePad with headphones!

Better Integration between the Wii and WiiU

The ability to emulate the Wii on its successor is great but it needs to be incorporated within the main dashboard. I don’t want to have to constantly reboot the console to play old Wii games. Virtual console games should appear on the main panel and if the Wii could distinguish between Wii discs and Gamecube ones, surely the WiiU could tell which generation the game is? Plus, being able to play virtual console games on the GamePad would be useful.

Also, though GameCube emulation was removed from the WiiU due to the lack of controller ports, would there not be a way around it by using the ProController so we can still enjoy our smaller, but still enjoyable, GC discs?

GameCube downloads and more virtual console games

Speaking of GameCube games, isn’t it about time they appeared on the WiiU eStore? Plus, with a general quietness on the gaming love for the N64 and older consoles, can Nintendo speed up the uploading of classic games?

Finally, they need to sort out the cost of digital games. The idea of downloading ‘ZombiU’ or ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’ is a brilliant one to avoid changing discs, but I wouldn’t pay more than the shop price for the privilege!

Embrace the 3DS

As mentioned above, the 3DS is practically a smaller, two-screen GamePad. As shown by Microsoft and Sony’s ventures into the possibilities with ideas like ‘Smartglass’, could the 3DS be updated to become a GamePad so your friends can bring their consoles round to your house and get the same abilities, albeit on a smaller screen. Let’s not have to wait until the Super Smash Bros tie-in to get more handheld to home console integration.

Downloadable Content

Though gamers have a love / hate relationship with DLC it does have many positives. Whilst games like NSMBU are crammed with lots of challenges even more would be better and a steady stream of them would bring gamers back to the game. I for one would love to see more multiplayer maps or extra levels for ZombiU or extra attractions in NintendoLand, and would be happy to pay something for them.

Bring out some new sequels!

Though it’s great to get new games, there are some sequels crying out to be made. The Gamepad is crying out for a new ‘Mario Paint’ game to take advantage of the large touchscreen, picking up the baton from the Wii’s ‘UDraw’. Plus, the music creation software of that game could make a worthwhile Wii Music follow-up.

Away from the unique abilities of the GamePad, I for one would already like a sequel to the incredible ‘ZombiU’ but also follow-ups to ‘Donkey Kong Country Returns’ and ‘Super Mario Galaxy’.

 And finally, port over some more games!

 With the WiiU we are finally getting some big hitters coming to a Nintendo console but there are few others that have so far escaped the net. A WiiU version of ‘Minecraft’, I’m sure, would be greeted with applause but also seeing upcoming games like ‘Grand Theft Auto 5’ and the new ‘Tomb Raider’ on the console would be amazing.

 I would also like to see Nintendo expanding the virtual console out a bit more to bringing PC ports back from the dead. Who wouldn’t want to see old Bullfrog games like ‘Theme Hospital’ or LucasArts point-and-click classics like ‘Grim Fandango’ brought to the touch-screen of either the WiiU or 3DS?

Those are my ideas for Nintendo in 2013. What are yours?