With nothing more than the promise of an announcement, the gaming community has been left to speculate about the future of the Wii 2. From its unofficial codename (Project Café) to its potentially groundbreaking controller, Wii 2 is already the talk of the town.
This June, we’ll know if the sequel to the Wii (a console once known as Project Revolution) is indeed a revolution. Until then, let’s speculate on the future of the system and the amazing games and features that might be unveiled.
Could this be the new consoles design?
E3 Predictions: Nintendo Wii 2 Announcements
New Peripheral(s): Aside from the rumored touch screen controller, Wii 2 is sure to have new peripherals. Expect one of them to be unveiled at Nintendo’s upcoming press conference.
More Than One Standard Controller: If there’s one thing Nintendo hates, it’s conventional game development. When the rest of the industry replaced expensive game cartridges with compact discs, how did Nintendo respond? By releasing another cartridge-based console.
If the Wii 2 does indeed have a touch screen controller, I find it hard to believe that it will be the only controller Nintendo will make. In fact, the Wii 2 will have two default controllers at launch: one with a touch screen and one that mirrors the Wii remote.
Actually, it might not be two distinctly different controllers, but instead just one controller that features multiple attachments (such as a touch screen).
Wii Sports: Wii Sports quickly became the poster child for Wii hype. It was the game you couldn’t escape. Upon release, it became the game that wound up in schools, nursing homes, and other unexpected places.
When hyping the Wii’s long-awaited successor, Nintendo is bound to leverage the Wii Sports brand. And while the publisher could do that with an impressive tech demo, it is more likely that the Wii Sports game we see at E3 2011 will be the same game we’re playing in 2012.
Pikmin: I already wrote about this in my Wii 2 wish list, but it is worth reiterating here. Simply put, Nintendo would be crazy not to kick off E3 with a Pikmin-related announcement for Wii 2. At this point, it would be surprising if Nintendo chose to release Pikmin 3 on the original Wii instead.
Mario-Related Tech Demo: Nintendo has the bad habit of not unveiling new Mario games with new consoles and handhelds. Thus, we probably won’t see the Wii 2 Mario until E3 2012. Still, you can bet he’ll star in a tech demo or two, just like the infamous 128 Marios demo that was used to hype the GameCube.
New Franchises: With nearly every new console, Nintendo introduces at least one franchise. Donkey Kong Country, Wave Race 64, Pikmin and Wii Fit all debuted on different Nintendo machines. While not all of these games proved to be retail record-breakers, they share one thing in common: they were very innovative releases.
What new franchise will debut on Wii 2? That’s impossible to predict. But whatever it is, I’m sure it will be nothing less than a groundbreaking masterpiece.
App Store Clone: Nintendo has repeatedly dropped the ball in the area of online gaming/downloads. While I am not 100% convinced that Nintendo will get it right this time around, it would be crazy for the publisher to launch another new console–especially one with a touch screen controller–without a clone of the App Store. If Nintendo is ever going to enter this market, it will do so at the launch of Wii 2.
