If Nintendo make a switch 2 that only improves processing and screen resolution, it will be the least innovative console generation they ever had.
…No. The SNES existed. Compared to its predecessor the NES, the SNES was considerably more powerful with 16 bit architecture, more RAM, a faster, more powerful processor etc. It could run at overall higher resolutions, it had a larger overall and simultaneous onscreen color palette, it could do larger and more colorful sprites, and it had a MUCH more capable sound chip, but…compare Super Mario 3 on the NES to Super Mario World on the SNES. Or Metroid to Super Metroid. They really didn’t innovate that much, they added more buttons to the controller and made the graphics and sound more impressive.
To a lesser extent I’ll also point to the GameCube, whose design is “A more powerful disc-based N64 that is objectively not as good as the PS2.”
But, I think in certain ways the SNES and GameCube hold up where the more innovative N64 and Wii don’t. It’s easier to develop for “It’s like the last one, but more capable” than “It’s got this really weird new kind of controller no one has ever used before.” I remember people talking about the SNES mini and what games they would add to the existing lineup, and then talking about a theoretical N64 mini and struggling to even name 20 N64 games they want to play again.
Then there’s the case of the Wii U. The Wii U is their second worst console after the Virtual Boy (which I would argue is the most innovative console they ever made) and it’s not because of the Wii U itself. 1. The marketing was absolute crap. The previous “Wii Would Like To Play” campaign was excellent, because they showed off what the Wii was about. They held the controller up for the camera to see, then they showed people playing the games, both gameplay and people handling the controller. You knew what a Wii was when you went to the store to buy one. And it sold like chocolate covered hotcakes. Meanwhile the Wii U showed gameplay that could plausibly exist on the Wii, they showed pictures of the screen controller with very Wii-like design language so many people thought it was an addon to the Wii…Especially since it wasn’t called the Wii 2 or the Super Wii so it didn’t feel like a new console…then they spent 94% of the console’s life releasing basically no games for the thing, and the long-awaited, Zelda game was delayed so long that most people think of it as a Switch game; Breath of the Wild was developed for Wii U and ported to the Switch, but as a launch title for the Switch it outsold the Wii U version 13 to 1. By comparison, the Wii version of Twilight princess outsold the original GameCube version by ~4 to 1.
…No. The SNES existed. Compared to its predecessor the NES, the SNES was considerably more powerful with 16 bit architecture, more RAM, a faster, more powerful processor etc. It could run at overall higher resolutions, it had a larger overall and simultaneous onscreen color palette, it could do larger and more colorful sprites, and it had a MUCH more capable sound chip, but…compare Super Mario 3 on the NES to Super Mario World on the SNES. Or Metroid to Super Metroid. They really didn’t innovate that much, they added more buttons to the controller and made the graphics and sound more impressive.
To a lesser extent I’ll also point to the GameCube, whose design is “A more powerful disc-based N64 that is objectively not as good as the PS2.”
But, I think in certain ways the SNES and GameCube hold up where the more innovative N64 and Wii don’t. It’s easier to develop for “It’s like the last one, but more capable” than “It’s got this really weird new kind of controller no one has ever used before.” I remember people talking about the SNES mini and what games they would add to the existing lineup, and then talking about a theoretical N64 mini and struggling to even name 20 N64 games they want to play again.
Then there’s the case of the Wii U. The Wii U is their second worst console after the Virtual Boy (which I would argue is the most innovative console they ever made) and it’s not because of the Wii U itself. 1. The marketing was absolute crap. The previous “Wii Would Like To Play” campaign was excellent, because they showed off what the Wii was about. They held the controller up for the camera to see, then they showed people playing the games, both gameplay and people handling the controller. You knew what a Wii was when you went to the store to buy one. And it sold like chocolate covered hotcakes. Meanwhile the Wii U showed gameplay that could plausibly exist on the Wii, they showed pictures of the screen controller with very Wii-like design language so many people thought it was an addon to the Wii…Especially since it wasn’t called the Wii 2 or the Super Wii so it didn’t feel like a new console…then they spent 94% of the console’s life releasing basically no games for the thing, and the long-awaited, Zelda game was delayed so long that most people think of it as a Switch game; Breath of the Wild was developed for Wii U and ported to the Switch, but as a launch title for the Switch it outsold the Wii U version 13 to 1. By comparison, the Wii version of Twilight princess outsold the original GameCube version by ~4 to 1.
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