April 28, 2016 by Paul Curtin
We here at MediaStinger have never been shy about our feelings towards Nintendo over the years. The Japanese console manufacturer, developer, and publisher has always held a special place in our hearts — just like it has for many young adults who grew up playing the NES, SNES, and N64… yet, every new system since those golden years has seemed to get worse and worse for Nintendo. And while the Wii had huge success bringing video games with revolutionary motion controls to the casual gaming masses, it’s successor the Wii U failed at bringing the same casual gaming audience back to play.
That’s not to say everything from Nintendo has been bad over the past decade. There have been some great games on the Wii U and we actually just awarded Mario Kart 8 our award for Game of the Year in 2014… but relying on outdated technology and mostly new Mario games hasn’t been enough for Nintendo to stay up-to-date with the competition year after year.
Now, with a little over a month until E3 2016, Nintendo has confirmed that the rumors are true: They are in fact working on a brand new console and it is currently codenamed the NX as many leaked reports had suggested. Nintendo has also confirmed that the repeatedly-delayed Zelda for Wii U is now planned to finally be released in March 2017 on Wii U and also on NX when it too launches March 2017. Good or bad news for fans depending on how you look at it… On one hand Zelda fans are sure to be happy to get their hands on the game soon. On the other, many fan’s decision to buy a Wii U for Zelda years ago have to question that decision now that NX is around the corner and will certainly be more powerful and hopefully offer the better gaming experience.
How powerful will the NX actually be? That’s the real question everyone is dying to know. Nintendo’s Wii U announcement generated just as much hype with many hoping it would blow away Microsoft and Sony, but with Nintendo currently withholding the potential processing power info even from developers, there’s some concern that history may be about to repeat itself with another big Nintendo let down. We’d hope that’s not the case… but oddly, Nintendo won’t even be trying to steal E3 this year and have already confirmed the NX won’t be at the show and rather will “be unveiled later this year.”
