STACK January 2017 Issue 147

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44 JANUARY 2017
GAMES
FEATURE
It’s 2017 and that can only mean one thing – we’re on the cusp of another new
Nintendo console. Excitement is building for the release of the Nintendo Switch and
to celebrate, we take a look at the console story so far. Let's-a go!
Nintendo
began its gaming hardware journey with
five consoles known as Color TV-Game.
Released only in Japan between 1977 and
1980, games were pre-loaded and yes, it
featured a version of Pong.
Pulling resources from
the success that Nintendo had enjoyed
with arcade titles, focus moved back to
the home console and in 1983 it unveiled
the Famicom, later renamed for western
markets as the Nintendo Entertainment
System. Aussie gamers wouldn’t see the
unit in stores until 1987.
The company dived into
the 16-bit era with the SNES. Arriving
Down Under in 1992, while it was the
most successful selling machine of its
generation, it couldn’t quite match the
sales numbers of its predecessor.
It was ambitious.
We’ll leave it at that.
The N64 came to these
shores in 1997. Ushering
in 64-bit graphics for
Nintendo, the console had
a slew of quality titles that defined a generation in
gaming. While it faced stiff competition from a new
console on the block, the PlayStation, it still went on
to sell nearly 33 million units.
Released in Australia in 2002, the GameCube
had been conceived to challenge PlayStation’s
growing dominance in the marketplace.
Although popular with gamers, the
GameCube could never
quite keep up with
the competition and
was finally phased
out in 2007.
In 2006, Nintendo’s
vision for its gaming
future culminated in the
revolutionary Wii, a console
that extended a hand to a
non-traditional gaming
audience – the casual
gamer was created. The
Wii was a huge success
and as of March 2016, it
had sold 102 million units
globally.
The Wii U had some great ideas and
was designed to recapture Nintendo’s
core audience. It was released a full year
before PS4 and Xbox One but felt
part of an older generation
in comparison, and
suffered from a consistent
lack of killer software.
Production reportedly stopped in
November last year.
History suggests
that you’d be a fool to rule Nintendo out of the
console race, and although we’re due to find out
more about Switch this month, an early groundswell
of positive press surrounding its new hardware
bodes well for the Japanese gaming giant.
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