For two decades, Nintendo was the undisputed ruler of the handheld market, and not for a lack of challengers. I want to take a few paragraphs and talk about why it worked for Nintendo, why it didn't work for anyone else, and why Nintendo is in danger of making some of those mistakes themselves. I'll take a a moment to ponder why smartphones as tablets as gaming devices are becoming popular.
When the GameBoy was first released, right out of the gate it did things differently from what the NES was doing. Games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda took hours of dedication to progress through. This was obviously not going to work on a handheld, as the idea was for the GameBoy to be a quick diversion while on the bus or riding in the back of the car. Nintendo focused much of the GameBoy's software lineup on quick games like Tetris and Dr Mario. You could play for five minutes and put it down. It was perfect. On top of that, the GameBoy focused on very simple graphics (it wasn't even in color) and sound, allowing for very low power consumption.
The Sega Game Gear dropped on the scene soon afterwards. It had a lit screen, pretty graphics and sound, and was basically a Sega Genesis Lite. This made for some pretty games, but by trying to bring the console experience to the hand held, they sacrificed everything necessary to make a good hand held. The games required extended periods of play time to make any real progress, and the extra power meant that battery life was terrible.
Sega had one more handheld, the Nomad, which was literally a portable Genesis. It played Genesis carts. It had a small install base, but suffered the same short comings that the Game Gear did, so it never really took off. Once Sega got out of the hand held market, Nintendo basically skated by uncontested. Nintendo continued to innovate in the handheld space, bu the lack of competition didn't exactly encourage them to really push forward. Sure, there were other contenders, but they're really not worth mentioning, as it would just be rehashing what I said above about Sega. Point is, handhelds are not consoles. The handheld experience and the console experience need to be different. The reason Sega and so many other failed is becuase they tried to bring the console experience to a handheld.
The GameBoy evolved into the GameBoy Advance in 2001. The system introduced Super Nintendo quality graphics and sound, but technology had advanced enough to allow for much better power management. A remodel, the GameBoy Advance SP, offered a much sleeker clam shell design, added a front light, and used a built in rechargeable battery. Even though games were now capable of matching a previous console generation, a first for a successful handheld, games remained portable friendly. You could jump in, play for a few minutes, save, jump out, and repeat as necessary.
In 2004, Sony entered the handheld market with the PlayStation Portable. They started off wrong right off the bat. Sony was merely bringing the console experience to their handheld. They over came one hurdle, and that was the battery life, but that doesn't solve the need to be able to jump in and out of games quickly. When you're on the bus or in the back of the car or walking down the street, you need to be able to stop at a moments notice. Having to look for a save point before you stop is not portable friendly. This is something Nintendo understood all those years of GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, and into the Nintendo DS.
But Nintendo is now beginning to turn their back on that philosophy. The Nintendo 3DS is fantastic device with fantastic software. But some of those great titles are The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64 3D, and Super Mario 3D Land. Two of those are literally console games. And it's not stopping there. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D is a console port. Monster Hunter Tri needs an added analog stick for dual analog control. All of these things point to the idea of bringing the console experience to a handheld.
Don't get me started on PlayStation VITA. The PlayStation Portable was no failure by any stretch of the imagination, but it was exactly a stellar performer. Sony didn't learn, and now Nintendo is walking down that path.
This is exactly why smartphone games are becoming so popular. They're easy to pick up and put down quickly. Sure, they're cheap and often times of low quality compared to what we're used to on dedicated handhelds, but they're quick, simple, and lot of times fun.
Sony, stop it. Nintendo, don't do it. Come back to what makes handheld games so much fun. I have a console for console games, thank you.
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