The Wii U has arrived with a respectable launch offering: not only have Nintendo sensibly put a Mario videogame in a home console line-up for the first time since the legendary Super Mario 64, but they’ve published the console’s manifesto in the form of Nintendo Land, made a commitment to mature gaming with ZombiU and even brought Nintendo loyalists up to speed with some recent hits like Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City.
Still, a strong launch needs to be backed-up with an equally impressive long-term commitment, especially considering that this time next year we may be looking at a Wii U that is up against Microsoft and Sony line-ups that offer a quantum leap in terms of hardware. So here, Steph Wood looks at the games we hope we’ll see announced in the game shows of tomorrow:
A 3D Super Mario Game
as there are “Old” ones. Innovation and perfection in design seem to be reserved for the 3D series: for the 64s, Galaxies and 3D Lands of this world. A 3D Mario is definitely a title we want to see Nintendo – presumably with Miyamoto as the lead – take their time on. We’re also expecting to see the Wii U’s dual-screen and touchscreen capabilities used in some unique way, but certainly, the Super Mario Galaxy videogames will be tough acts to follow.
The Legend of Zelda
puzzles. How they improve upon the Wii Remote based control scheme of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be interesting though: touchscreen pinches and swipes are all very well and good, but even with motion sensing capabilities the GamePad could be a step backwards in immersion terms.
The Return of F-Zero
F-Zero videogame on a home console, and F-Zero is more important to Nintendo than simply as another popular IP to exploit. The original established the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) as a technical innovator on the cutting edge of technology, and whilst the Wii U is never going to pump out the polygons, a speedy, 60 FPS F-Zero title would be an impressive sight that reaffirms the Wii U’s ability to put out experiences worth having.
Wii U Wars
DS. Advance Wars: Dual Strike already demonstrated that two screen, touch-based strategy was an obvious way forward. With high-definition (HD) graphics and a touchscreen interface, ‘Wii U Wars’ would be in very real danger of finally bringing a PC quality (or perhaps, better than PC) strategy experience to the living room.
The Nintendo DS has already demonstrated that PC experiences could be made into touchscreen videogames (Age of Empires, Sim City 2000), but imagine would could be achieved with a decently sized tablet and a contemporary graphics chip. Perhaps revolutionary versions of Starcraft II, SimCity and Civilization V could follow.
A Big Series Exclusive
After the success of the Wii, it’s easy to forget what it was exactly that the GameCube did right back from its third-place position. But surely top of the list of GameCube successes was its Resident Evil exclusivity deal: remakes, ports and two solid bespoke titles (Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 4). Deals like this ensured that everyone wanted a GameCube even 
if they’d already got one of Nintendo’s competitors – and Nintendo has thrived on a similar “everyone’s second favourite console” ever since.
Very few third party developers seem to be committing to putting entire series on a single platform, and perhaps this won’t change. But Nintendo are probably the best horse to back in terms of exclusives, and sometimes, the benefits are mutual. Perhaps this is slightly spurious reasoning, but single-platform Resident Evil revitalised a flagging series that went sour the second it went multi-platform again.
I’m not sure that a Resident Evil 7 exclusive is all that important at this stage, but what about other struggling series? Perhaps even:
Final Fantasy
The golden years of the Final Fantasy series are far behind it. All three numbered titles of the PlayStation 2 era were deeply polarising titles at best and the multi-platform years have had moments of outright disaster. The franchise has slipped into irrelevance, and the immediate future doesn’t seem promising. The Agni’s Philosophy tech demo from
this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) just went to show that the company is still in danger of chasing style over substance into another generation of disappointing videogames.
Final Fantasy was better when it was simpler and the team’s cutting edge technologies were being put towards ways of expanding worlds and narratives, not texture maps. For all the interaction opportunities the Wii U GamePad may bring, I’m more excited about the idea that Square Enix could put the brakes on the lifeless graphical fluff and use the big budgets to make great stories and interesting worlds again. The Wii U could be the perfect venue to do that economically.
A Realistic Racing Game Series
There’s a tendency to equate ‘mature’ titles with guns and violence, but how many adults do you know who’re equally likely to pounce on sports and driving titles? Nintendo has done itself few favours in the past on this front: yes, we all 
love Mario Kart, but driving videogames on their consoles are as far from simulation (and therefore, aspiration) as they could possibly be. What Nintendo needs is its own Forza or Gran Turismo: a photo realistic racer with motion controlled steering, a rear-view mirror on the device and up to five players gathered around the TV.
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Steph Wood writes for a vehicle leasing company called Nationwide Vehicle Contracts and is a PC and console gamer interested to see how the Wii U could create gaming experiences that offer everything great about the last console generation in one place.
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