From NES to WII U: A Look Back at Nintendo Game Consoles - Wall Street Journal (blog)

By Matthew Lynley

Nintendo’s next shot at taking control of the living room, the Wii U, launches this weekend and is priced at around $300.

Even at that price, Nintendo’s Wii U is still competitive with existing videogame consoles, sticking to Nintendo’s strategy of selling a system that is cheaper than rivals’ offerings. Like the Wii, which was the first major console to sport motion-controlled gaming with a remote-like controller, the Wii U comes with a hook: a tablet-like controller that works as a second screen.

(Related reading: Nintendo’s Wii U Puts Hardware Strategy to the Test)

Nintendo’s hardware often includes an innovative hardware component, but the competition is stiffer this time around. There are tens of millions of mobile devices in the forms of iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and even consoles like the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.

Nintendo will have to justify the cost of buying a game console with a second screen at a time when consumers can buy a similar-priced tablet like the iPad Mini and gain access to what seems like much more.

Nintendo has succeeded throughout the years with a number of innovative game consoles. Here’s a look at some of the previous launches:

Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)

The NES was one of the first homes for Nintendo’s videogame franchises like Metroid, a series that featured an open world where players sought to find new tools to explore even deeper and deeper regions, and Zelda, an adventure game where players tried to rescue a princess with a sword, shield and a big batch of tools. More notably was the game “Super Mario Bros.,” one of the best-selling videogames of all time that was accompanied with the NES’s launch in North America in 1985.

With “Super Mario Bros.,” the NES standardized the idea of a side-scrolling action game that demanded precise movement and reactions with Mario. The game was hard enough to be challenging, but simple enough to be accessible to a wide audience â€" players run to the right, and jump to avoid death-traps and obstacles.

A brick-like device in its original form, this handheld brought Nintendo’s game-development prowess to a small grayscale screen powered by AA batteries. It became the best-selling handheld of all time. The Game Boy would see a number of updates, like the Game Boy Pocket and the Game Boy Color (a Game Boy that supported colored games as well as the original Game Boy games), before Nintendo made the leap to next-generation technology.

The Game Boy platform is notable for another reason: It was one of the first platforms where the Pokemon series â€" one of Nintendo’s most successful franchises â€" made an appearance.

Super Nintendo (1990)

An upgrade to the NES in almost all aspects, the Super Nintendo was defined by games like “Super Mario World,” “Chrono Trigger” and early versions of the “Final Fantasy” and “Street Fighter” series. Console games were acquiring a level of depth that made them powerful vehicles for delivering stories and narrative. Some games, like the early 3D-ish “Star Fox,” also pushed the system to its limits in producing impressive technical performance.

This console boosted both performance and playability, introducing 3-D  graphics and an “analog stick” on the controller that enabled players to move in more than just eight directions â€" specifically in the areas in between. The Nintendo 64 took gaming to a new level. “Super Mario 64,” for example, helped set the standard for games where you moved about in a 3-D world and jumped from platform to platform. “Goldeneye” saw the world through James Bond’s eyes, gunning down enemies and setting standards for how first-person shooting games work. And “Smash Bros,” a four-player all-stars style game that pit many Nintendo characters against each other, set the tone for true “party” games.

Even before the iPhone and Android phones made mobile gaming omnipresent, the Game Boy Advance gave gamers’ some computing power for their pockets. In addition to a few remakes of popular Super Nintendo games, the Game Boy Advance saw a reboot of the classic “Metroid” and “Castlevania” franchises, which went on to some of the highest-rated games on the console, along with a new take on the “Mario” and “Zelda” franchises. “Pokemon” remained a mainstay, and the “Game Boy Advance” became a centerpiece in Nintendo’s arsenal. In addition, the follow-up version, the “Gameboy Advance SP,” basically standardized the presence of an internal battery and a back-lit screen on mobile gaming devices.

GameCube (2001)

The GameCube set an important precedent for Nintendo: It’s okay to release a less powerful console as long as it’s more accessible and cheaper. The GameCube had several top-tier games like “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” a follow-up to the first version on the Nintendo 64, in addition to a new “Legend of Zelda” game that broke several of the series’ original tropes with a cartoonish look. Also of note, Nintendo handed the keys to its “Metroid” franchise to a studio to produce the “Metroid Prime” series, a radical departure from its typical form that ended up being a critical success.

Nintendo’s next handheld console introduced two screens to the mobile gaming world, instead of one. The bottom screen of the device, more importantly, featured a touch interface that could be controlled with a thumb-covered pad or with a Stylus (or fingers, if the player was feeling brave). This was a time when touch controls weren’t exactly omnipresent.

It’s not surprising that the Nintendo DS was one of its better-selling devices. Nintendo would later release in 2011 the 3DS, which included hardware that gave the illusion of 3-D gameplay without the need to wear specialized glasses. But with the proliferation of the iPhone and other mobile gaming devices, it has become much more challenging to make a dent in the market.

Wii  (2006)

The Wii brought gaming to the mainstream outside the realm of hardcore shooters and role-playing games. The Nintendo Wii jump-started a move toward motion-controlled video games. Microsoft followed the Wii with the Kinect â€" a camera that tracks your motions and uses your movements to control games and software on the Xbox 360 video game console â€" and Sony has its own motion controller for the PlayStation 3 game console. The Wii’s controls are about as simple as it gets: Players move the controller as if they are swinging a tennis racket or punching with boxing gloves.

Nintendo is still forecasting decent Wii sales, especially after dropping the price. But according to research firm Wedbush Securities, the Wii’s annual sales have fallen rapidly in the past few years, from a peak of 21.4 million units sold to 11.2 million in 2011.

Wii U (2012)

This Sunday Nintendo will launch its first videogame console in six years. The Wii U, in development for three years, will give players a second screen other than the TV. Since Apple’s iPad launched, the game industry has embraced the idea of a “second screen” experience â€" one where players interact with what’s happening on your television with a tablet-like device. Nintendo looks to lap Microsoft, Sony and other game-makers again.

But even aside from that, Nintendo is also working with third-party developers to ensure that the Wii U has a healthy launch line-up with all the possible hallmarks. A big question for Nintendo is whether it can thrive with separate hardware rather than developing software for tablets and smartphones.