They will figure something out. And that something may be a weaker handheld. It won't, under absolutely any circumstances what-so-ever, be a single screen handheld. That's not happening. They're not regressing after two generations like that.

You need the tablet to have 1:1 compatability with the handheld. The games are going to be virtually identical experiences, and that means two screens on both. If a game has action on the TV and a map and inventory on the bottom screen, Nintendo isn't going to have the handheld unable to replicate that when the two handheld generations prior had the bottom screen that could.

And, in case you weren't aware, mainstream dual screen handhelds are a newer thing than single screen ones. There's nothing to "get with."

I know your feeling :(

Although I wouldn't assume it is the new NX controller, it could be a new kind of Wii U controller that is compatible with NX.

Tell me one game that makes decent use of the two screens with the 3DS. None of the games I own need it (although it does make Zelda games more streamlined).

They should ditch it and go for a more powerful/bigger HH, that far outweighs the benefits of having a second screen. I hope they ditch the useless 3D effect as well, does that even impress anyone? It ain't selling them HH units, that's for sure. It just increases the price and makes the graphics worse.

Exactly. IMO they should go with a AMD equivalent chip to what the Apple A9x or the Tegra X1 is. Portable should be able to run this:

That's the PS4 version of Dragon Quest XI. If portable NX can run engines like that at 960x540 (1/4th the pixels of 1080P), they're going to get a lot of Japanese support at least. If that's what it is, then it doesn't surprise me that Square-Enix was so eager to announce the NX version, because I could easily see that outselling the PS4 version which will be home console-only whereas with NX it could be portable. Which do you think the Japanese will choose?

You could still have backwards compatibility as a secondary feature in the vertical position, for people who want to play 10 year old ugly ass DS games for whatever reason, let them buy a controller cradle that adds physical controls to the sides when the unit is positioned vertically. It would just be a piece of plastic should it could be cheap. 

But yeah, no other manufacturer is making dual screen devices, because no one wants them. Everyone wants larger screens for bigger experiences, even Apple has figured out that having small screen iPhones was holding them back. And a HUD should be on the main screen, that's the whole damn point of a HUD -- HUD is an avaition term, the reason the HUD was invented was so pilots could see vital information while still having the view of the cockpit and not having to do things like look down and thus being a safety danger. Having to look away from the main screen to look at your HUD defeats the whole point of the HUD. 

That's part of why the Wii U (TV/screen) concept is stupid, forcing the player to look away from the main display was never going to be a popular feature and wouldn't you know it, it hasn't caught on at all. Have a screen on the controller, OK, but only to be able to properly emulate touch panel games, but the whole "look up at the TV! Now look down at your controller! Now back to the TV!" was a monumental failure. It's just a feature that has such niche appeal, no one but an extremely small portion of the audience is going to buy a system for that type of functionality. 

ALBW does. That's such a silly point to make. Just about every 3DS game makes good use of the second screen. That's like saying "name me one game that makes decent use of the right analog stick" and then rolling your eyes when someone gives an answer like "Assassin's Creed" or "Call of Duty," as if a game needs to bend space and time with some abstract analog stick gimmick in order to constitute as making "good use" of it.

And frankly, it doesn't matter if you personally don't think the games need it. It's ingrained into the dna of their hardware now. You need it for BC of two of their handhelds, on top of cross compatability with the NX. They aren't simply going to give all that up for stronger hardware. That's never been what Nintendo, as a company, was about. It doesn't matter whether they "should" ditch them or not anymore, because all signs point to them not. Getting into arguments over whether they should ditch dual screens or not at this point is moot, because they aren't ditching it.

They're ditching it :). 

You don't need two screens for backwards compatibility, this patent itself shows the screen can be reoriented vertically. In that case, all you need is a controller cradle type for the vertical config for people who want backwards compatibility (which I'm guessing is no more than 15% of NX owners anyway).

NX will change a lot of "sacred" rules Nintendo fans think can't be broken too I'd bet. Nintendo has no choice but to make changes, they can't keep going the way they are right now otherwise there will be basically a smartphone app company in 3-4 years. I think Iwata knew this too, they had to change some central tenants of their traditional hardware to become more like other companies (he specifically cited Apple), otherwise their future as a hardware maker looks fairly bleak. 

How on earth did ALBW use the second screen in any sort of meaningful way?

If they actually want success next-gen they should ditch it. Hasn't this gen taught you that nobody gives a shit about BC?

I don't think two screens are vital for backwards compatibility, they handled DS games on Wii U VC just fine. As long as it's a touch screen, it's good. 

There's a pretty easy way to do it it anyway. This patent shows the portable can be repositioned vertically here:

But you can't hit all the buttons vertically obviously. What they could do is this, allow a controller "wings" to be attached when the system is vertical like that (or make it like a cradle, could even be included for free since it would just be a piece of plastic). 

Kinda like this concept for an Apple NES style controller, but just imagine the device being vertical rather than horizontal:

To be honest most people don't even use the backwards compatibility anyway and Nintendo is already making DS games available on the single screen Wii U and they play just fine. But for people who just need to it have done just so, that would be another way of doing it.