Famicom Nation

In the face of declining market share, as well as changing conditions in the wider marketplace, Nintendo has been faced with a stark choice: continue down the beaten path and accept a third-place position in the living room or change focus dramatically and carve a new path. With Wii—much like Famicom—Nintendo is once again looking in a completely different direction than its competition.

As different as Wii and Famicom obviously are, they share a common idea. With Wii, Nintendo has invested heavily in some aspects of the machine and carefully scaled back other areas.

Wii's hardware is smaller and more powerful than GameCube, yet the system does not offer high-definition graphics. The difference is obvious for those consumers with a high-definition television but it is negligible for those running on standard-definition sets; particularly smaller screens.

On paper, Wii's glaring lack of high-definition display is a massive drawback compared to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. In reality, and especially outside the United States, the vast majority of TV owners are still using standard-definition televisions. This is particularly true of the non-traditional, less technically-savvy videogame audience that Nintendo is keen to focus on.

Other features have taken precedence over raw hardware power; perhaps the most obvious of these features would be the unique controller.

With the Wii Remote, Nintendo has offered not only an alternative to traditional designs but a genuinely new approach to videogame interaction. The end result is a product that is inherently simpler than traditional controllers, especially for first-time players. In the same way that Famicom introduced a new control system (along with games that took full advantage of it) Wii ushers in a completely redefined controller with several games that make full use of the design.

With Famicom, Nintendo concerned itself with various subtleties that were lost on its competitors. It wasn't just a question of how powerful the machine was or what kind of games it could play; there were other factors involved, such as industrial design, cost and interface. Nintendo didn't just want Famicom to feel different to competing platforms; they also wanted it to look different.

Wii also follows this philosophy in a number of ways. First and foremost, Wii is significantly smaller and lighter than competing platforms; it is, arguably, a more convenient and less intimidating machine for a communal space in the family home.

In the same vein as the console housing, the Wii Remote's design has advantages that extend beyond its function: it looks simple and inviting and is reminiscent of a television remote control. The industrial design is both functional and psychologically appealing (or at least somewhat familiar and less intimidating for first-time players).

This approach also extends to visual interface. The Wii Menu features large buttons, easily-readable text and a simplified layout, which tends to show only immediately-necessary information.

Nintendo removed several potential features from Famicom that were considered largely unnecessary, including keyboards and other peripherals that competing platforms offered. In their place, Nintendo included an expansion connector which would have the potential to open up Famicom to many different kinds of peripherals that could be designed and manufactured as they were needed.

This same approach has been used with Wii, particularly with the Wii Remote controller. The Wii Remote does not have as many button-centric functions as its contemporaries (many of which it seeks to replace with gestures), but it is not inherently limited by its design; the controller's expansion connector ensures that various peripherals can be added to complement the Remote's core functionality. In this way, Nintendo avoids the need to produce a complicated device that must be entirely "future-proof" and can instead introduce peripherals as the need arises.

As Nintendo's Wii quickly progresses from being a quaint oddity to an industry-leading, market-creating powerhouse, the common link between it and its great-grandfather become even clearer.

In many respects, Famicom is just what the industry at large needed. It was a wake-up call that effectively demonstrated the validity of a different path. Perhaps Wii, too, will act as a strong dose of the right stuff for a modern industry that broadly lacks innovative ideas and the will to bring them to market.


Research supported by Game Over and Glen Bayer.