Although Nintendo’s future projects closely follow the Nintendo Switch, a dual-screen handheld console has its benefits too.
Nintendo has been through a lot of ups and downs over the decades as a game console developer. They’ve gone from big things like defining the mainstream gaming industry with the NES and capturing the mainstream market with the Wii to failed efforts like the Virtual Boy and Wii U. However, Nintendo has largely gotten there. success with handheld game consoles has a long history in both the market and homes.
Not every Nintendo handheld has been a huge hit, but being able to play games on the go has worked better for Nintendo than competitors like Sony, and so on. The power of Nintendo’s handheld game consoles seems to have been carried over to the Nintendo Switch. Having the option to play games at home or on the go could be a strategy Nintendo will roll out with the inevitable Nintendo Switch successor, but it could be very welcome if the next device turns around. back to the dual-screen design of past handheld game consoles.
Nintendo’s handheld game console history
While many people would think of the Game Boy as Nintendo’s first handheld gaming device, in fact the Game & Watch series of consoles were actually the first consoles the company made. These are simple machines, starting with the Silver Series in 1980 with machine names like Ball, Judge, and Fire. Each of the machines released comes with a single LCD display, although as their name suggests these devices can also function as a watch. The character Mr. Game & Watch by Super Smash Bros. will pay homage to these consoles, and special editions like the Legend of Zelda 35th Anniversary Game & Watch are still being released.
The Game Boy series that followed brought a number of popular series to the forefront of the industry, from Tetris and Super Mario Land games to Game Freak’s hit Pokemon series. Then, the Game Boy Advance family brought the pixelated graphics beloved of SNES titles into the handheld experience, represented by the Super Mario Advance line of games that transitioned from titles like Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island .
The Nintendo DS was a strange step forward, focusing on dual-screen design and touch controls rather than offering powerful graphics, but it ended up being a huge success. The Nintendo DS is currently the second best-selling console of all time behind Sony’s PlayStation 2, with sales of several tens of millions, surpassing the third best-selling Game Boy and Game Boy Color series. While the Nintendo 3DS grossed less, both of these dual-screen devices (and the adjacent ones like the Nintendo 2DS) were etched into Nintendo’s history, clearly a far cry from the two Game & Watch series. screen started with Oil Panic in 1982.
The benefits of having a dual-screen device
Although the Nintendo DS era was sometimes misguided because of its focus on casual non-gamers and the abundance of utility software (similar to the Wii), the benefits of this approach is very clear. Not only is the Nintendo DS popular, it also boasts an array of beloved games from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum to AlphaDream’s Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. The Nintendo 3DS continues this legacy with titles like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, A Link between Worlds, and Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Many games, especially the early games in the Nintendo DS’s life cycle, relied heavily on compelling promotional points like touch controls. While this facilitates a lot of cheap puzzle games or non-game utility software, its unique features also lead to more creative endeavors like Kirby: Canvas Curse or puzzle Impressive map quiz in Phantom Hourglass. The more subtle uses of the dual-screen setup are also notable, from displaying more information to instances like Pokemon Sun & Moon where the minimap can be seen by the player at all times. It can also be said that the legacy of the Nintendo DS has promoted titles with multiplayer modes via Wi-Fi and the DS Download Play system, although they are less well known today.
However, the games available on the DS and 3DS are still as popular as ever, especially when Nintendo announced that it will be shutting down the 3DS and Wii U eShops in 2023. A lot of games could disappear over time. space and franchises like Metroid would once again be incomplete without games like MercurySteam’s Samus Returns. Nintendo’s development of more dual-screen console systems could avoid the headache of adapting these titles to work on single-screen consoles, and the company’s years of experience which means new consoles will likely take advantage of dual-screen usage more aggressively.
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