In 2002, Nintendo released the Wavebird controller for their Gamecube console. The controller, a wireless take on their regular Gamecube controller minus the rumble, stands as one of my favorite video game input devices ever. In the Wavebird, Nintendo made the first wireless controller that worked as well as its wired counterpart and pushed the industry to make wireless inputs standard in subsequent console generations. But further to that, it also came from an era when I was actually passionate about Nintendo products. With Nintendo soon to debut its NX console in a bid to win back its many customers that jumped ship from the Wii and Wii U, hopefully they can take the following lessons from its groundbreaking controller to heart.

It Just Worked

The Wavebird was not the first wireless controller, but it was the first one that actually worked well. I imagine most people who were around for the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox days remember the countless third party controllers that never quite felt right or reliably worked with their consoles. Nintendo, on the other hand, focused on delivering a wireless controller that worked almost as reliably as its wired equivalent. In addition, the Wavebird was designed to squeeze countless hours of battery life from a pair of double AAs. Certainly, trade-offs had to be made, such as the lack of rumble and slightly bulky aesthetics, but that was offset by a controller that the player didn’t have to worry about. The result was gaming nirvana, as I was able to play countless hours of Wind Waker and Mario Golf in whatever position I found most comfortable. From the Wii onward, however, the controller no longer melted away to facilitate gaming. Instead it became the centerpiece, the thing that was the focus of the experience. I don’t think there’s been a Wii game (including even the sublime Super Mario Galaxy) where I didn’t have to fight against the motion controls or awkward form factor. This issue became more prevalent with the Wii U, as you literally had to split your attention between the controller and TV for many games. Whatever the design of the NX, it shouldn’t attempt to include innovation for innovation’s sake. Instead, Nintendo needs to ask the following question; will X feature improve the player’s experience? Granted, it’s tough to predict what features will or will not be useful to everyday players, but Nintendo needs to be more discriminating in the features that it decides to include. If that leads to a more conventional console design, then so be it.

It Did Just Enough

The brilliance of the Wavebird was that it didn’t overreach in its ambitions. Nintendo wanted to make a wireless version of their standard controller at a reasonable cost and did just that. Similarly, the NX should be focused on doing just enough to satisfy consumers. The system need not have best-in-class graphics or a wholly innovative input method to be successful. What it does need to do is address the software drought that’s plagued the Wii U and 3DS. To that end there needs to be more focus on ensuring the development pipeline is producing a steady stream of quality content. This doesn’t just have to be boxed $60 titles, but also experimental downloadable titles. In-house development can also be augmented by making it easy to port Unity-based indie titles onto the platform, and by Nintendo using their massive war chest to co-develop titles with third parties. Make the NX the premiere place to play lots of top-notch games with the patented Nintendo polish and they’ll have made a compelling piece of hardware.

It Shamelessly Stole Ideas

The Wavebird was hardly a surprise when it first released. As previously mentioned, stores were full of third party wireless controllers that used the same basic concepts at the time of the Wavebird’s release. Furthermore, the Wavebird and standard Gamecube controller both shamelessly stole their basic design from Sony’sDualShock controllers. I say this not to disparage Nintendo, but to emphasize the fact that learning from competitors and implementing those lessons is just good business. Nintendo needs to observe what Sony, Microsoft, and PC developers are doing well and incorporate these features where it makes sense. Nintendo would be well served by creating an online service like PSN or Xbox Live, a subscription service giving out games each month, or even a Netflix-like monthly charge to access the entirety of the Virtual Console. These features would not make the NX feel any less like a Nintendo console, but they would help to make the console appealing to a generation that grew up on Playstations and Xboxes.

Parting Thoughts

I’m writing this mostly to put on paper things that have been rattling around in my head and I make no claims that these ideas will turn around Nintendo’s flagging fortunes. My perspective is that of someone who grew up with Nintendo but drifted away when I realized that they weren’t catering to my wants as a consumer. Can Nintendo reinvent the wheel yet again and succeed? Absolutely. But part of me wants to see what they can do if they release a no-nonsense console that gets them back to making awesome games. Maybe I’m thinking too small, or that I’m focusing on my generation’s thoughts and experiences to design a dated console. In any case, I’m rooting for Nintendo to wow me like it has in the past. The NX is facing incredible expectations by both consumers and Nintendo itself, and who knows if it will live up to them. But Nintendo’s been on the ropes before and I can’t wait to see what they come out swinging with.

@darth_navster: "I’m writing this mostly to put on paper"

I don't know how to tell you this...but most people don't print out blog posts before reading.

Anyway, to engage substantively with what you're saying, I think it all makes sense but the Wavebird was just a controller. The Gamecube still had plenty of Nintendo Bad Ideas (tm) in it, chief among them the use of proprietary media, which both vastly reduced the space available to games and prevented the Gamecube from playing DVDs, which was a critical selling point for Sony's PS2. The button layout of the controller was also bonkers insane (which affected the Wavebird too of course.) To be fair it worked fine for genres like 3D platformers and racing games, but it made conventional fighting games (not including Smash) difficult to play on the system, and the yellow C-stick was less than ideal for FPS games (a genre that had helped define the Nintendo 64.)

The Wavebird was great, but it did not represent some Halcyon era when Nintendo was reasonable. Nintendo has, basically from the Nintendo 64 onward, insisted on doing things differently just to do them differently. Sometimes this results in huge successes (the DS and the Wii) and sometimes in flops (Virtual Boy and the Wii U.) With the NX I think Nintendo's going to keep being Nintendo. They're not just going to make a souped up Vita* (which was a moderate failure anyway) they're going to make something different, and I just hope it's good different instead of pointlessly different.

*Nintendo has said that the N-X will NOT replace the Wii U. Now maybe that's just "The DS will not replace the Gameboy Advance" marketing talk, but I think the N-X will be handheld focused more than anything. Handheld is the one market where Nintendo has been dominant since the 80's, and they don't appear to have another one in the pipeline despite the 3DS aging and flagging in sales.

The Wavebird was the controller I used on the Game Cube first since a wireless controller was more appealing than a wired. As someone who has bought his fair share of bad 3rd party PS3 controllers trying to find a replacement for DS3 the Wavebird was a good controller because it was designed very close to the wired Game Cube controllers and was a made of strong quality parts. My one gripe though is it would occasionally suffer wireless interference which affected button inputs.

D'oh, so that's what I'm doing wrong! Seriously though, I get what you're saying about Nintendo doing its own thing since the N64 era. But from my perspective, going back to the Nintendo of the Gamecube/N64 era would be the only move that keeps the company in business as a hardware maker. Casual fans that fueled the Wii have moved on to tablets and smartphones and I don't think most of them would be receptive to buying yet another console. Similarly, the industry has changed far too much for Nintendo to go back to the dominance of the NES or SNES, both of which were sustained by oodles of third party support. There's a chance that third party support comes back to the NX, but that's no longer a differentiator as game makers are increasingly reliant on multi-platform to turn a profit. So to me what's left is the N64/Gamecube era, where Nintendo was able to sustain their business with strong first and second party software that came out at a relatively steady clip.

I think it's smart that they're consolidating their home and portable divisions to focus on the NX, but I disagree that portable exclusively should be the way to go for them. Phones and tablets have become de facto portable consoles for most people (including kids) and both the 3DS and Vita felt the squeeze last time around. As such the only route I can foresee Nintendo taking is making a console that can be both portable and home based (perhaps through a dock that connects to a TV) that becomes the exclusive home for all Nintendo-developed video games. The audience to sustain this would likely be gaming enthusiasts such as ourselves along with families with parents who grew up with Nintendo. Would this market be as big as the one that bought the Wii? Likely not, but I think it would be sufficient to keep them in business as a hardware maker. But then again I'm just a guy on the internet speculating, and Nintendo may be working on something new and novel that completely changes the game.

I agree that the Wavebird wasn't perfect, but man oh man did it do enough things right. Something I didn't really touch on in my post was how good it felt in my hands. To this day I don't think I've felt a controller fit so snugly in my paws, although I fully admit personal preference on that. I'm definitely thinking about replaying a Gamecube game just to use the Wavebird again.

Considering the fact that the only NX game that they've confirmed to exist is a port of the Wii U Zelda, an open world definitively console style Zelda game, I think saying the NX will be primarily a handheld device is insane. The rumors all seem to point to it having some sort of handheld component, which I think is likely, but to suggest that the NX won't first and foremost be a home console seems like a real stretch.

The Wii U is more or less a 360 in terms of power. In 2017 you can make a handheld as powerful as a 360. Sony came close in 2012 with the Vita and we're talking 5 years later. Now I know there are rumors that the NX is as powerful as an Xbox One and super easy to port to etc... but those are unsubstantiated at this point. I think the NX is likely to be a handheld that can output to a TV, maybe with a docking component.

The fact of the matter is that if you have a handheld component and a console component you NEED to focus on the handheld component because while it's easy to output handheld games to a TV it's impossible to squeeze console games onto a handheld (unless you're talking streaming, but Nintendo of all companies won't require internet tethering.) You also can't force developers to make two versions of all their games (talk about killing third party support) so what you're left with is making a handheld that can output to a TV in some manner.

Plenty of console-designed Zeldas have run on handhelds already (both Ocarina and Majora have 3DS versions) so putting Zelda Wii U on an NX handheld wouldn't be anything new.

Some sensible suggestions there. I agree that Nintendo should not look at the NX as another chance to innovate for the sake of innovating, but look to provide us with an experience that satisfies (i.e. a console that plays high-end, quality Nintendo products).

I'm genuinely excited at the prospect of it being part handheld, part TV console though... I know the days of the handheld are numbered due to phones, but I still love my Vita and I would love there to be some successor to that.