Nintendo Direct caused a fervor a couple of weeks ago with the announcement of "Link to the Past 2." As an avid Zelda fan I couldn't resist a slight twinge of excitement, but sequel fever and nuanced rehashes seem to be all-too-familiar trends in the Nintendo software space.
To be fair, Nintendo is the same company who managed to repeatedly sell me the same games numerous times through rereleases and virtual consoles. So maybe I'm the gullible one here.
But yet another symptom surfaced this week with "New Super Luigi U."
It's fully apparent what Nintendo is doing- stirring support for the Wii U and 3DS by pulling out all the stops and giving us what we all want: first party Nintendo games with all the names we know and love. But can this strategy sustain yet another system? It effectively perpetuated the Gamecube and Wii to reasonable successes, so the track record looks good.
My fear is in an attempt to quickly usher these titles out the high quality of many Nintendo first party games may suffer. Long-time fans of Nintendo games and characters are partially nostalgic because the games were well made and, for the most part, the core franchises have remained that way.
I have confidence in Nintendo. The company is financially stable. But with powerful third party developers like EA saying they have no games presently in development for the Wii U, the reality of Nintendo exiting the hardware market may be closer than we think.
