Nintendo NX: 9 Things It Needs To Avoid Another Wii U Failure

Nintendo's form with console releases has been going through the motions of a yoyo since the SNES, with each subsequent model alternating between being a commercial failure and success. So far it's been N64 - success, GameCube - failure, Wii - success, Wii U - failure, and if this pattern was written in the stars to hint at some kind of cosmic design, then the upcoming Nintendo NX should be a guaranteed hit. Sadly for Nintendo, that's not really how the world works, and the legendary company will need to rely on its own pool of ingenuity - rather than the fact that the Wii U was a flop - if the NX is to get them back into the home console game. As it stands, the NX looks set to come out in 2016; just under four years after the Wii U launched. Not content to sit around in self pity over their failures, Nintendo are putting the Wii U behind them, but will need to tread carefully to ensure they don't repeat their last-gen mistakes. If the NX flops, then it could quite possibly knock them out of the home console market for good.

9. Hardware That Competes With Current-Gen Consoles

For the last couple of generations, Nintendo has been content to give up raw firepower in favour of quirky gimmicks that have been hit-and-miss in the most extreme possible way. The move controls made the Wii a sensation, while the dual-screen mumbo-jumbo just didn't cut it for the Wii U. Now, we know from the deceptively powerful GameCube that firepower does not always equate to success, but a year from now the current-gen consoles will look a hell of a lot less impressive than they do today, and being on par with them technically is the absolute minimum standard required if the NX isn't to be laughed out the room. Of course, Nintendo's core games have always been defined more by artistic brilliance than technical prowess, and even if the NX was technically 'weaker' than the PS4 and Xbox One, no one would mind if Zelda and Mario didn't have lifelike textures and lighting. But where strong hardware would pay off is with multi-platform games - which these days are subject to rigorous side-by-side performance comparisons between PS4 and XBO that are given huge weight in the gaming community. The NX needs to at least look competent in these side-by-sides if it's to get a wider audience's attention. The good news is that the latest rumours suggest the NX hardware will indeed be on a similar level to its rivals, though nothing's set in stone yet.