I was going to piggy back off an article on Forbes.com titled “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Nintendo” (thanks Lou) where the writer, Paul Tassi, tells us what he thinks Nintendo should do to bring themselves back to the top. He had a lot of really great ideas, most of which I agree with, but after a little thought, I think we have beat that topic enough. So instead, I thought it woudl be fun to do a little “What If”.
Over the years, there have been many console makers, and developers, that have come and gone. Many had some great games that we will never see again. For a retro gamer such as myself, I can say that I have some of those games still in my collection, but there are some that I do not and would love to find again…and I am sure I will. However, not everyone has the same collection of consoles that I do and will never have the opportunity to experience those games. So, what if Nintendo were to revive those old IPs, and maybe even create virtual consoles for many of the old defunct consoles?
In my opinion, I think this would be an amazing opportunity for Nintendo, especially with the multitude of games out there that we will never see again.
I would start out with Sega, sure they are still making games, but their consoles are dead and gone. Nintendo could start by creating a virtual console for each of their past systems and release the games for each. Now, instead of releasing them in small batches, I suggest releasing them all at once, then focus on smaller bundles of titles as a promotion each month. I have to believe that once the contractual dealings are through, the rest would be super easy to complete. The sheer number of games available for the Genesis alone would result in a huge profit for Nintendo. Of course, to really make this work Nintendo would be better off buying Sega out completely. It would also allow them to further franchises such as Sonic (I know, that is technically happening now), Bring back Joe Montana Football (to combat Madden), Bring Phantasy Star back to Nintendo to go up against Final Fantasy (I love both, but would love to see a good revival of Phantasy Star), and even Virtua Racing (with enhancements to make it go head to head with some of the newest racing games). While we are thinking about Sega, what about some Sega titles that were not developed by the company? Titles like Toe Jam and Earl (Who wouldn’t want to see those guys in a Smash Bros. or Mario Kart, or a brand new game).
And of course, there are other consoles such as the Turbo Grafix 16, Atari, etc… Each had some great games on them, as well as bad, and could bring a lot of money to Nintendo and a virtual console. Sure, you can get most of these games with ROMs, but for many it would be just as easy to own them legally on the console itself. It could be an amazing thing for us and Nintendo. Not to mention, if they bought the rights to some of the titles, we could see the games come back to life in the current generation and be revived!
Are there any old IPs that you would like to see Nintendo revive from defunct consoles and developers? I know that I have focused on some retro games, but there are a lot more that have come and gone since. Do you think that buying up those defunct IPs would help Nintendo, or hinder them? Share your thoughts.
