The Ten Things I Would Like From Nintendo In 2013

2012 has been a strong year for Nintendo with the 3DS going from strength to strength and the newly launched WiiU proving very popular during the last month of the year. But what could Nintendo do over the next twelve months that would build on these strengths? Here are my ten suggestions for a cracking 2013!

 

Expand the Nintendo ID and WiiU firmware onto the 3DS and Wii

 

With both Nintendo’s current handheld and previous home console both able to have updatable firmware, getting the Nintendo ID onto both devices would be great, something that has been promised. This would mean you could access the Miiverse and all your records on the go and 3DS games could be rolled into the service retrospectively. On top of that if the Wii could be updated to include a, probably scaled down, version, then the community will expand quickly.

 Sharing IDs between devices mean all your records on the devices could be shared and make the community even more thriving.

Plus, with the 3DS sharing much of the technology in the GamePad and the Wii, with WiiSpeak included pretty much there, then WiiU chat could be possible on all three devices.

 Expand Miiverse into social networking

It has already been proposed by Nintendo that the Miiverse will come to smartphones eventually, which would be a great inclusion. The social networking side of Miiverse is great and adds to games, but having the ability to Tweet or Facebook achievements and screenshots would add to the appeal and promote the WiiU wider than the console itself, which feels at the moment to be a bit of a closed garden.

 Though I’m not sure about Instragram pictures of Mario everywhere...

 Photo Gallery and Music Player

 With the Wii you could put photos on an SD card and show them on the television. It would be great to have a new version of this for the WiiU alongside a player to be able to play music or video files from a connected hard drive, turning the WiiU into a more all-round entertainment hub.

 iPlayer app and other bits of catch-up TV

 Though you can get the iPlayer through the dedicated Wii app, it has yet to make an appearance on the WiiU. Hopefully, when the TVii service launches later this year iPlayer, alongside ITV Player, 4OD and Demand Five will be included and if these services could be viewed just on the GamePad even better, so whilst your parents or other half are watching Pointless on TV, you can enjoy re-runs of the Super Mario Supershow on the GamePad with headphones!

Better Integration between the Wii and WiiU

The ability to emulate the Wii on its successor is great but it needs to be incorporated within the main dashboard. I don’t want to have to constantly reboot the console to play old Wii games. Virtual console games should appear on the main panel and if the Wii could distinguish between Wii discs and Gamecube ones, surely the WiiU could tell which generation the game is? Plus, being able to play virtual console games on the GamePad would be useful.

Also, though GameCube emulation was removed from the WiiU due to the lack of controller ports, would there not be a way around it by using the ProController so we can still enjoy our smaller, but still enjoyable, GC discs?

GameCube downloads and more virtual console games

Speaking of GameCube games, isn’t it about time they appeared on the WiiU eStore? Plus, with a general quietness on the gaming love for the N64 and older consoles, can Nintendo speed up the uploading of classic games?

Finally, they need to sort out the cost of digital games. The idea of downloading ‘ZombiU’ or ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’ is a brilliant one to avoid changing discs, but I wouldn’t pay more than the shop price for the privilege!

Embrace the 3DS

As mentioned above, the 3DS is practically a smaller, two-screen GamePad. As shown by Microsoft and Sony’s ventures into the possibilities with ideas like ‘Smartglass’, could the 3DS be updated to become a GamePad so your friends can bring their consoles round to your house and get the same abilities, albeit on a smaller screen. Let’s not have to wait until the Super Smash Bros tie-in to get more handheld to home console integration.

Downloadable Content

Though gamers have a love / hate relationship with DLC it does have many positives. Whilst games like NSMBU are crammed with lots of challenges even more would be better and a steady stream of them would bring gamers back to the game. I for one would love to see more multiplayer maps or extra levels for ZombiU or extra attractions in NintendoLand, and would be happy to pay something for them.

Bring out some new sequels!

Though it’s great to get new games, there are some sequels crying out to be made. The Gamepad is crying out for a new ‘Mario Paint’ game to take advantage of the large touchscreen, picking up the baton from the Wii’s ‘UDraw’. Plus, the music creation software of that game could make a worthwhile Wii Music follow-up.

Away from the unique abilities of the GamePad, I for one would already like a sequel to the incredible ‘ZombiU’ but also follow-ups to ‘Donkey Kong Country Returns’ and ‘Super Mario Galaxy’.

 And finally, port over some more games!

 With the WiiU we are finally getting some big hitters coming to a Nintendo console but there are few others that have so far escaped the net. A WiiU version of ‘Minecraft’, I’m sure, would be greeted with applause but also seeing upcoming games like ‘Grand Theft Auto 5’ and the new ‘Tomb Raider’ on the console would be amazing.

 I would also like to see Nintendo expanding the virtual console out a bit more to bringing PC ports back from the dead. Who wouldn’t want to see old Bullfrog games like ‘Theme Hospital’ or LucasArts point-and-click classics like ‘Grim Fandango’ brought to the touch-screen of either the WiiU or 3DS?

Those are my ideas for Nintendo in 2013. What are yours?

Must be something in the curry...

"Bradford residents ‘have more sex than anywhere else in UK’ – survey" reveals the Metro today (http://metro.co.uk/2012/03/12/bradford-residents-have-more-sex-than-anywhere-else-in-uk-survey-349210/). Well when you have a rapidly depleting city centre and cold weather, what else is there to do?

Just don't have a curry before hand.

Licence To Kill Revoked

"James Bond games pulled from digital platforms" reveals an article this morning (http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/007_legends/news/james_bond_games_pulled_from_digital_platforms.html) as various Bond games disappear from some game estores, but not all.

Has Bond's licence to thrill been revoked? Or maybe the video game company didn't pay a big enough bond?

Has Terrestrial Television Lost Out To Digital Channels?

This week it was revealed, in an article on the BBC's very own news site, that "BBC 'missed out' on Yes, Prime Minister comeback" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20908049) with the creators saying that they refused to film a pilot of their new version of the classic BBC sitcom thus taking the show to UKTV's 'Gold' instead, a trend happening more and more with digital stations getting big hitters appearing on their channels.

Now whilst I think the writer's refusal to film a pilot smacks a little of 'do you not know who I am' syndrome and the BBC needs to see if the show, in its new format, will actually be funny, they do have a point in that the show was very successful on the BBC and in the recent stage show, which this new version is based on, and if UKTV, with a vastly smaller budget than the Beeb can take the risk, why can't they?

Comedy on the BBC is in a strange place. My favourite sitcom on television at the moment 'Not Going Out' - soon coming back for a sixth series - was cancelled and saved not so long ago in a frankly ridiculous decision, and comedy shows I'd expect, if not on the BBC, at least on "terrestrial" television, have appeared on digital channels, in particular on Sky channels who seem to be showcasing lots of great new shows, one being the hilarious 'A Touch of Cloth' two-parter, co-written by Charlie Brooker, a regular contributor to shows on the BBC and Channel 4. I'm not privvy to the negotiations - and the money offered - that got the show onto Sky, but it would have been a perfect addition to either of those mentioned channel's line-ups.

This isn't to say the BBC isn't still doing great comedy shows. Their 'Bleak Old Shop of Stuff' from 2011 was a great commission, as was Brooker's series of 'Wipe' shows including the most recent one this week, and they are still mostly unrivaled when it comes to comedy panel shows, but there seems to be a lack of risk taking in comedy. Only last year Channel 4 showed a pilot of Milton Jones' 'House of Rooms', an absolutely hilarious thirty-minutes, that has still not been commissioned.

And even when they do have some great comedy they don't capitalise on it. 'John Bishop's Britain', a brilliant show, good enough to get a second series, is still not available on DVD. I, for one, want to own that. The BBC has a large gold mine of old comedies that should see the light of day again or at least get a DVD release. Who remembers Al Murray's great but short lived sketch show from a few years back, still not available to take home?

In short, the BBC and its terrestrial cousins are doing some great things with comedy but needs to do more. If these relatively small-fry digital television stations can commission whole series that stand up to  their originals (Gold and 'Yes, Prime Minster', Watch and its major contributions to Primeval Series' four and five, and showing off its new Canadian spin-off, Dave and 'Red Dwarf) then why cannot the big hitters? If they're not careful they will drive more and more viewers over to these small channels.

Shows like 'A Touch of Cloth', 'Red Dwarf', 'Primeval', 'Yes! Prime Minister' and more should have been jumped on by the big four traditional networks to show. They need to take more risks and make bigger comedy shows or instead of making jokes about 'Dave' in their shows, they'll be losing out to them.

The End of the Printed Word?

"Sales of printed books fell by almost £74m in the UK last year, according to data from Nielsen BookScan" reveals a BBC article today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20908048), a 4.6% fall from the previous year with 14% of book sales now in the form of e-books. Now, no longer do people have to hide what they're reading behind another like a copy of '50 Shades of Grey' behind the Beano or grab an adult version of a Harry Potter book, now their reading matter can be as private as the music you listen to on your phone or .mp3 player.

Personally, I still like a physical book but, like CDs to MP3s, the printed word is going to continue to shift into eBooks and the world of reading going through the changes that the music industry did ten years ago.

Jack Whitehall, confused police and old people

The news has been alight today with all manner of stories, with the practically unanimous complaints about the rise of train fares finally subsiding (I had a return already so I've got the shout of astonishment to come when I find out how expensive my regular journey will become) as weary commuters resign themselves to the inevitable that they have to spend more money to get to work to earn money to pay for getting to work to earn money in the first place. I still can't understand how I can get to London return - granted on a coach - for £21.50 whereas it costs me £16 to get to York. How is that sensible?

With trains still being unreliable and over-crowded we still need to get some evidence that the money paid is improving the rail network, that doesn't involve spending millions of pounds on a high-speed rail link that knocks - whoopdedo - a whole twenty minutes off a journey.

(To be honest I'd be happier them spending the money on a large taser so everytime some chav with a pair of metal cutters and a deathwish steals the copper from Micklefield and causing delays they can get a nasty shock from the Fat Controller with an S&M addiction.)

Elsewhere in the news we get "Blue Christmas lights cause 'difficulties' for police helicopters" so criminals no longer have to be great at hide and seek, just need to find a willing accomplice with a portable generator and Wilkinsons' finest Christmas lights. I'm looking forward to the Christmas special of 'Police, Camera, Action' where a policeman curses the festive season for keeping Burglar Bill on the streets. Imagine how annoyed Santa must be when looking for chimneys.

"Adam spends his last £500 on billboard begging for work" reveals the Sun (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4724965/Unemployed-graduate-buys-billboard-begging-for-work.html) showing Adam Pacitti's great billboard asking for a job. Either that or he just has a big ego. I'd like to do a similar thing but I can't afford a huge billboard. I've bought a sandwich board and an airhorn instead. I wonder if the Sun will cover me doing that like a walking vuvuzela?

In more serious news "'Target winter fuel benefit to pay for elderly care'" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20887547) was a topic not out of the news today at all. There's been a lot of criticism of the proposal but I, to a point, agree with that. For 99% of the people in the country they should still get the winter fuel allowance. But if, as a pensioner, you have a massive pension or loads of money saved up, it's cheeky to apply for that. The mooney could be, as suggested, used for better care home care for the elderly. (Though if Cameron / Clegg got their fingers out and started chasing up all the multinationals dodging tax, maybe we wouldn't be even having this conversation!)

Also revealed today was that 2012 was the second wettest year ever since records began, only stopped beating 2000 by Scotland having milder weather than England for a nice change. No wonder the econmy is in such a state as we've all spent our money saved for a raining day.

In entertainment "Television Awards refute claims Jack Whitehall is under pressure to stand down amid Big Quiz of the Year controversy" (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/television-awards-refute-claims-jack-whitehall-is-under-pressure-to-stand-down-amid-big-quiz-of-the-year-controversy-8436531.html) in possibly the most ridiculous story of the day. A comedian is told off for making a joke that, whilst possibly a little distasteful, is no worse than have ever been on any of these shows and was in context. People need to lighten up and not take things so seriously and I hope it doesn't impact on Jack Whitehall's promising career. If anything, the sue should be controversial as it was completely unfunny. A show I was looking forward to seeing it, I hadn't laughed once in the first half hour. Thankfully Charlie Brooker's summary of the year didn't disappoint.

And, finally, "Jim Davidson To Miss Celebrity Big Brother". Lucky git.

iOS 6 Hit By Do Not Disturb Bug

The Millennium Bug has hit! OK, it's thirteen years too late and it's dramatic effect has been to stop some people spending all their lives on their iPhone. The bug (http://www.slashgear.com/ios-6-do-not-disturb-bug-getting-fixed-on-january-7-02262829/) stopped the feature, which activates a sort of airplane mode but then doesn't deactivate now due to a bug affected by the move to 2013. Therefore, I assume, people went ages without getting prompted to draw something, who is poking them on Facebook or that someone wants to speak to them on 'What's App'. In other words, people actually probably became more productive.