What Exactly Is The ‘Nintendo NX’?

A lot of Nintendo fans are hoping the Nintendo NX is a great home console. For all Nintendo’s fantastic and innovative ideas with the Wii U, it didn’t come off, despite having some impressive titles on the system like Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario Maker. While the 3DS has kept a lot of their fans happy, there’s nothing quite like a great home console. What Nintendo needs is a period of stability in the home console market and many hope the NX can provide this! But with some recent developments coming from multiple sources, can we be sure the NX is a home console anymore?

Could this be the face of the Nintendo NX?

Eurogamer has fueled a lot of speculation recently, suggesting that the NX is a mixture of both a handheld and a home console. This would be a concept the industry has never really seen before. Furthermore, it features the use of cartridges, detachable controllers and isn’t as powerful as current gen consoles. If this is all true (which is up for debate), this seems like a big risk from Nintendo. With the failure of the Wii U being so well documented, maybe it was time to go back to basics? Had Nintendo stuck to the traditional console formula seen from Sony and Microsoft’s hardware, many Nintendo fans might’ve been content.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, in fact, the NX sounds like a fascinating concept. The ability to play console-grade games on the go and then play them again on a TV sounds very exciting. While the power of the console is speculated to be lower, people are often too quick to jump to conclusions when it comes to console specifications. The Wii was technically inferior to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in many ways, but it went onto become one of the best-selling consoles of all time. Nintendo has also previously stated that they’re not interested in parity with rival consoles in terms of hardware. Furthermore, with the NX getting games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at launch, it has the games to back it up.

Zelda on the bus? Sign me up!

Now it seems like we have to play the waiting game to find out what the NX truly is. Nintendo can’t be riding off the success of the 3DS forever, but maybe it’s learned a valuable lesson from it; they’re good at making handheld devices. The company can take their success from their handheld systems, apply it to a home console and everyone could be appeased. Perhaps we’re actually seeing Nintendo transition into handhelds permanently and dropping traditional console gaming altogether, but who knows. The NX could be the smartest move the company has ever made, but it could also be a disaster if it’s not done right.

What would you like to see from the Nintendo NX? Leave a comment below or tweet me @pattydon101!