“But the cut in price, while welcome, still fails to solve the single most fundamental issue with the 3DS as of July 2011: There are no damn games. The last legitimate hit was The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, but even that wasn’t enough to move a sizable number of consoles. Throughout the history of game consoles, one thing has remained true above all others: A game console without games is no game console at all.”
Ricardo Bilton’s absolutely right. A fair number of Apple pundits have used the price cut to crow about how this is a sign that Apple is superior to Nintendo, and that the iPad and iPhone are better gaming systems – that’s misguided, at best. The 3DS is a fine game system in terms of hardware, but Nintendo’s major failure here has been to get a good library together out the gate. And that’s somewhere Apple has succeeded greatly – in getting together a huge software ecosystem for its iOS hardware.
I wish Nintendo would just start developing games for iOS. How sick would that be?
Won’t happen. Nintendo makes software for its own hardware platforms, period.
Actually, Nintendo is shipping a Pokemon themed iOS game – likely to test the waters. Though I don’t expect to see a Zelda or Mario title any time soon.
No, Nintendo isn’t “testing the waters,” and they’ve said as much unequivocally. This Pokemon rhythm game that’s coming out in Japan is something developed by The Pokemon Co., which is shipping this game, not Nintendo. It’s also clearly a very derivative game – not a “true” Pokemon game, like what you’d find on a 3DS.
While they’re a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo, they’re *not* the same thing. Back in the last decade The Pokemon Co. regularly released educational titles based around Pokemon that ran on Macs and PCs, so this isn’t new.
It is all about the games. Whilst the 3DS is a technically impressive handheld (3D regardless) – right now you can count the must own titles on one hand. To be more precise we are talking about Zelda. However with a Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Animal Crossing and Luigis Mansion all on the horizon there will be other reasons to own this device. Unfortunately they are all too far off to sustain the interests of the masses before PS Vita comes online. Oh well – roll on WiiU with a Zelda launch title.