The 12 Days of Switchmas: Day 3 – Switch On The Innovation!

With anticipation high for the upcoming Nintendo Switch, the staff here at Geekscape shared their thoughts and wishes for Nintendo’s new system… and we’re doing it over 12 days: The 12 Days of Switchmas! Read Adam and Natalie‘s first two pieces now!

As for me, if there’s one thing that Nintendo does better than the competition, it’s innovation. They rarely have the hottest running specs or most advanced tech but it’s always clear with each system that Nintendo puts a lot of thought into pushing the envelope with new ideas and innovations. I still remember the year that the Wii came out and surprised everyone with its motion controls. Microsoft and Sony were late to the game and paid for it as they saw the Wii install base skyrocket.

And I also remember those first days with my WiiU. Most of my time was spent playing Nintendoland, a pretty fun way of exploring the systems different capabilities, from blowing into the gamepad to using the dual thumbsticks, gyroscope or touchpad to control your player. And I still stand by ZombieU being one of the best horror titles around because of the gamepad’s integration. Sadly, as time went on, less and less developers (or even Nintendo itself) wanted to implement the system’s features in interesting ways. The games started looking like more of the same.

If anything, this is what I’m hoping that the Nintendo Switch avoids. The ability to take your games on the go, share them with friends, combine them with other systems and more lends itself to so many great ideas (and i’m not just talking head to head multiplayer or coop). It really allows for players to do more than just shoot or punch each other on multiple screens or in multiple places. What about games that combine two different game types entirely? A driving game where one player takes the wheel while another goes FPS in clearing the road of baddies and threats? Or a massive RPG or RTS game that breaks into real time events that are different for everyone in the game?

I feel like the DS and 3DS (other innovative systems from Nintendo) can show us clues to those capabilities. Games like Phantom Hourglass used the ability to shut your DS to solve puzzles. The mobility of the systems opened Pokemon and Street Passing up for social events like meetups and tournaments.  Would playing a game from different locations around town or even the world unlock different features in your game? How about creating a diverse friends list and climbing the leader boards? And how will switching between the portable version of the system and TV work its way into our titles? And will any of this inject new life into our Amiibo collections?

Whatever the implementation, I’m confident that Nintendo will come out of the gate with new features that blow our minds. All I ask is that after the first initial months of innovation, they finally deliver a system where these cool new ideas permanently redefine gaming rather than just give us the latest trend.