Among the slew of announcements to come out of Nintendo yesterday, one is leaving more than a few fans frustrated.
Nintendo announced that classic Super Nintendo games like Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country and more would finally be coming to the Nintendo 3DS eShop. While many of these same games are available on the Wii U, the 3DS is a perfect home for some of Nintendo's best SNES games.
However, they are only available on the New Nintendo 3DS. Those in possession of older 3DS models, whether it be the original, the XL or the 2DS, found themselves to be out of luck.
This isn't going over too well in many gaming circles, as the vast majority of 3DS owners don't own a New Nintendo 3DS. For context, the original 3DS launched in 2011. The New Nintendo 3DS, on the other hand, released barely a year ago (at least in North America).
One might think that exposing the SNES games to a wider fanbase would result in more money for Nintendo. After all, more 3DS owners, more potential eShop customers, right? However, it seems Nintendo is instead banking on the rather bizarre notion that the ability to buy SNES games will somehow convince players to upgrade from their old machines to the new system.
Of course, that isn't what the company is actually saying. During yesterday's Nintendo Direct, Nintendo stated that playing on the New Nintendo 3DS (which has slightly more power than the original models) would allow gamers to play in "perfect pixel" mode, which displays each SNES game in its original resolution.
The fact that Nintendo is attempting to sell the idea of the original 3DS not being able to handle SNES games is absurd. The original console can play upgraded Nintendo 64 games like Star Fox 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so there is absolutely no way it's not equipped to handle Super Mario World.
On gaming forum NeoGAF, people are more than a little upset.
"i just don't understand like ... how the 3DS can't play SNES games when PSP 10 years ago could play PS1 games," writes one user.
The answer to that might be a little complicated. Multiple users report that those attempting to emulate SNES games on the 3DS years ago could never get the games to run quite as perfectly as they would like. This may be Nintendo's reasoning for requiring the new hardware. While older 3DS systems could certainly handle SNES games, they possibly wouldn't be running at the high standard Nintendo sets for itself.
Even if that is the case, the fact that Nintendo still doesn't allow for cross-buy functionality between the 3DS and Wii U has an equal number of fans scratching their heads. Nintendo has always had a peculiar way of doing things, and this latest announcement just goes to show that some things never change.
