What do you want from the next Nintendo Handheld?

[DanneSandin]

RolStoppable said:

DanneSandin said:

While an interesting read, why you write so loooong?! These "smart"phones are surprisingly stupid when quoting on vgc...

so, in short, you dont believe the portable market are in any immidiate danger? Most can and will be recrified next gen if done correctly? I would actually love to hear how you would handle nintendos next handheld.

I do agree that the "loyalty" program for the eShop is a great idea, and something nintendo should implement sooner rather than later. But that alone wont attract much more gamers/players. Its a great idea for those who already own a handheld, but I dont see it attracting a lot of first timers.

Playing on smartphones is so much easier, not because the games are better in any way, but because you already own a phone and mobile games are simply distractions for when you have 5 minutes over. I love SM3DL, but its not just a matter of pick up and play; theres a hell of a lot of button pushing before you actually boot up the gameplay, and youre more invested in it than you would be in like candy crush or ninja fruit.

There were several questions in your post and I had to explain my answers in a sufficient manner to not trigger more sub-questions. Be happy that I am not John Lucas who would have written a novel.

Indeed, I don't believe that the handheld market is doomed. PCs and home consoles have co-existed for so long that a co-existence between PCs and dedicated gaming machines should also be possible in the portable space. You've already read several posts of mine (in this thread and others) where I talked about things I want from Nintendo's next handheld, so I am not sure what else you want to hear.

I already conceded that the eShop alone won't sell the hardware. The retail software will have to do the lion share of the work. Nintendo has a bunch of surefire hits like Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Pokémon, toss in a few new IPs like a multiplayer-focused action RPG (think more top-down Zelda than Monster Hunter) and... I don't know, right now I can't think of anything else that isn't derivative of existing Nintendo IPs... anyway, it can't be that a company with Nintendo's talent and creativity will be unable to come up with games that can sell an affordable straight-forward handheld. 

Those big games have to sell the hardware and once that's done, the eShop can serve the needs for shorter game sessions. If Nintendo can't get people to play their games, then they are probably in the wrong business anyway.

I was only complaining because reading these things on a phone really sucks!

I think there's quite a difference between a PC and a phone though: most PC gamers built their own PC, while you don't have to do that with phones. Why PC gaming hasn't taken off more than it already has is kinda weird though, at least to me. But don't you think handhelds will become increasingly niche? And will it be big enough for Nintendo to focus on still, after a lot of the 3rd aprty support goes away to mobile?

I'd like just a short list of want you want to see on Nintendos next portable. Right now I kinda know more of the things you DON'T want to see; no more gimmicks (so that's 3D, probably dual screens, touch screens, and a second analog stick) and the bare minimum to be able to game. Right now it kinda sounds like you want the PSP. Or even the GBA. Maybe just throw in an analog stick for good measure. But I'm quite sure that's not what you really want?