It's time for Nintendo to go 3rd party. Who gets what?

[Pyro as Bill]

As ex-Nintendo President, Hiroshi Yamauchi, once said and repeated again at GDC by Iwata

“The hardware is just a box you buy only because you want to play Mario games.”

With Nintendo software still blazing the charts whilst hardware sinks below PS3 levels, is it not logical for Nintendo to at least consider going 3rd party?

Some might say that Nintendo is the only company with a 30 year history of unrivalled first party software development due to their ability to combine hardware and software. This may have been true once but the competition is so fierce these days that Nintendo's ideas are copied and improved upon so quickly that Nintendo's hardware is soon made obsolete.

So that's it, Nintendo are going 3rd party. Obviously they will want to be moneyhatted and it would be unfair to give PS3 or 360 all the 20 million sellers so how should they be split?

Here's how.

1. 2D Mario 

Sony already has LBP so any PS3 user who wanted 2d Mario could just make it for themselves. 360 users on the other hand are currently being tricked into thinking games like Braid and Limbo are actual platformers. For this reason it's only fair that 2D Mario goes to the 360 so that they can play a platformer with neither a gimmicky mechanic or gimmicky artstyle.

Winner: 360

2. 3D Mario

With 360 getting 2d, the tripple has to get 3d. With added Move controls the tripple could easily replicate what made it the system seller it was. Everybody knows 3d Mario isn't as big as 2d Mario so Sony will have to have something extra. Perhaps Luigi's Mansion or something similar.

Winner: PS3

3. Zelda

This goes to PS3 again. MS has the Zelda-killer in Fable but that's not the only reason why Sony wins this one. Gamers respect their history. If there is one thing people remember about the PS1 era it's the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This would allow Sony to say they've added limited backwards compatbility and only Sony could recreate this gem in full HD glory.

Winner: PS3

4. Metroid

Easy. PS3. MS has their space shooter in first person and third. No Contest.

Winner: PS3

5. Wii Series

Wii Play comes with a controller so that wouldn't make sense. Wii Sports and Resort have been superceded by Sports Champions. Neither MS or Sony have a speaker in the controller so Wii Party is out due to no 'Hide n Hunt'. MS doesn't even have a wiimote so, by default, Sony takes the crown.

Winner: PS3

Result 4 - 1 to PS3

Nintendo should announce that they'll be releasing a game every 2 months for the rest of the year for the PS3. Without naming the games specifically, this should scare away 3rd parties such that Nintendo has nearly all of 2011s PS3 software sales for themselves and hopefully send PS3 to the levels it deserves.

Just so I don't get accused of being a fanboy I would have given Mario Kart to the 360. It would have to be changed to match 360s superior online capability and need to go from 2 players to at least 4 if not 8.