Roundtable: The Next Game Boy
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Now that we've gotten our DS lites, we're ready for the next Game Boy.
Sure, Electronic Gaming Monthly rumored in its April 2006 issue another
DS redesign was coming later this year, but that's not enough. We're
looking forward to what may be the headliner of E3 2007: a new, next
generation Game Boy.
Well-read Nintendo fans who have kept pace with handheld news are
probably aware of Nintendo's strongly asserted stance on the DS: the
two-screened handheld is not intended as a replacement for the Game Boy
line but is instead a "third pillar" that shares the hardware stage
with Nintendo's home consoles and the Game Boys. During E3 2006, even
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata firmly reasserted this after an initial
comment of his was misinterpreted as the final death knell of the Game
Boy series. If that's true, then what will the next Game Boy be? What
should it feature? How different should it be from not only the SP, but
the DS? How should its design and features compete with the Sony PSP?
We consider the possibilities below.
Chad Margetts
It must be said that I am not at all convinced by the "third pillar" PR
speak. I believe it was a way for Nintendo to hedge its bets in case
the DS became Virtual Boy 2.0. Because the DS has been extremely
successful, it has proven itself as the successor to the Game Boy
Advance platform. That said, I'm betting that Nintendo is working on a
handheld that will carry on in place of GBA and DS. I wouldn't be
surprised to see this new handheld co-exist with the DS for a while,
but the DS will fade away with time, just like the GBA is doing now.
That way the third pillar thing is not exactly a lie. I'm not even
convinced the next handheld will use the Game Boy brand, as Nintendo
has done just fine without it on DS.
So what do I want to see Nintendo do for its next handheld? While I
have been surprised by how well the DS two screen system works, I still
prefer a large, single wide screen. I expect Nintendo will compile the
best interface technology from the DS and Wii and roll it into a
next-gen handheld. That means, built in tilt sensors, rumble, mic, and
touch screen. An analog stick will finally appear, although if history
rings true, there will be only one. Strictly in terms of horsepower,
one could say the GBA is a portable Super NES, and DS is a portable
N64. That could mean the next handheld would be as powerful as the
GameCube. While I would love to see the Portable GameCube, I can't
imagine Nintendo going that route. I'm hoping Nintendo will utilize
Sharp's 3D parallax LCD technology. and add some basic multimedia
features in the mix. Is that too much to ask?
Paul Starke
I think a portable GameCube isn't too far-fetched, though it would
closely resemble a PSP. The PSP has shown that optical discs (moreover
discs the size of GameCube discs) can work in a handheld. They could
call it "Game Boy Cube." There are several advantages to this type of
system, starting with the reason GCN went to discs in the first place:
more storage and cheaper to manufacture than carts. GCN already has a
substantial library, plus any new games developed for the handheld
could also be played on Revolution via its GCN disc reader.
Or they just won't be in any rush to replace the Game Boy Advance.
Especially with the Micro on the market and Wii up next, I don't think
they'll be coming out with a new Game Boy for awhile yet. Say, maybe
within the first third of Wii's lifespan?
M. Noah Ward
I think one of the best ways for the next Game Boy to compete with PSP
is to ape a feature recently announced for Sony's handheld:
downloadable retro games. The framework is already there thanks to the
Wi-Fi Connection and Wii's Virtual Console. In fact, Nintendo should
open up Wii's entire Virtual Console library to the next Game Boy,
perhaps even allowing for transfer of downloaded games back and forth
between the console and handheld, to include your saved progress.
For instance, you could purchase and download Star Tropics on Wii, play
it for a week, then when you go on a car trip vacation with your
family, you could send the full game and your saved quest to your
next-gen Game Boy and continue your game on the road. When you get back
home, send everything back to your Wii. Sure, your parents may accuse
you of being anti-social during "family time," but we gamers can live
with that in the name of saving the world.
Functionality-wise, I could only ask for a dream hybrid any portable
fan may want post-DS and PSP, which was already been touched on by
Chad: a single, vivid widescreen display that's also touch sensitive, a
1 GB memory stick that acts as a "hard drive" that can move Wi-Fi
settings and saved games from Game Boy to Game Boy (or to Wii), and an
analog "disc" or "nub" control. Maybe the analog nub could even have a
snap-on, clickable D-Pad to attach over the nub, allowing pseudo-analog
control. I can't put anything past the Nintendo engineers at this
point.
As for game media, I still don't think discs like PSP's UMDs are yet
worthwhile due to the battery power they require. DS's card medium,
perhaps bulked up to a higher storage capacity to handle more cinemas
and crisp digital audio suits me just fine.
Dave Magliano
What I want to have in the next Game Boy and what I will have in the
next Game Boy are likely two separate things. What I like most from
GameCube to DS to GBA is that they all offer different experiences. The
PSP, and its oh-so-appropriate name, is little more than a portable
PlayStation and that's what turned me off to the system. The
portability of handhelds is a bonus, but they won't travel with me
without great games.
With that in mind, I would hate to see the next Game Boy become nothing
more than a GameCube portable. With 3D games dominating home consoles,
the GBA and, to a slightly lesser extent, the DS, handheld systems are
basically the only homes of gaming's 2D ancestors. More power is fine,
but I don't want the games to become too much like their console
counterparts.
What I do want is the clamshell design to keep that screen safe. An
analogue stick of some sort would be great for the inevitable 3D games,
and the transferability of Wii virtual console games would be
ever-so-cool, although I'd like to see that happen with the current DS.
It would appear that the future of all handheld gaming systems, be it
the next Game Boy, DS or PSP, is for touch screens to become standard.
But giving the next Game Boy a touch screen could crumble the pillar
between it and the DS. If Nintendo's not careful, it might end up
competing with itself.
Abraham Walters
Gyroscope + force feedback, allowing twisting resistance; one screen
that covers the entire GB, allowing Mario to run off the the front of
the GB, along its top and down its back side forcing the player to flip
it over to see what's going on; touch sensitivity + touch feedback to
at least two points simultaneously; movement sensors identical to those
in Wii's remote; and heart rate and blood pressure monitors, allowing
the player's excitement level to be used as in-game variables: these
will be the criteria of Nintendo's gaming on the go.
Anywhere the GB is touched, anyway it is moved and anytime you get
excited, the GB will respond, displaying sprites along any point on its
surface, resisting the player's movement through its gyroscopic twist,
slightly shocking a player where he touches the screen and
complementing the player's mood through increasing or decreasing its
onscreen insanity to match the player's blood rate.
Aaron Steinfeld
Nintendo has the inherent ability to succeed in the portable market.
Scratch that-- Nintendo dominates the portable market. Through
innovation and imagination, the Game Boy has continuously managed to
outmaneuver the competition through various incarnations. So what
should a modern Game Boy's attributes be?
As mentioned previously, Game Cube discs would make a wonderful choice
for software storage-- plus, if it had backward compatibility to the
GameCube that'd be fantastic. Secondly, I'd like to see DS
compatibility on some level. The DS cartridge slot could also be used
for a type of memory stick, which could be used to save game data or
download classic and/or archaic games from yesterday from Nintendo's
upcoming download service. I'd also like to see some type of USB
connectivity. With this, Nintendo could release one of their infamous
peripherals that would give the consumer the potential to insert a Game
Boy Advance or Game Boy Color game for an even larger library of games.
DVD playback isn't necessary and is financially risky, as seen with
Sony's UMD movies, which hardly struggle for shelf space today.
Gameplay would need to be different from current options. Sure, the
stylus is an interesting new way of controlling games, but let's face
it-- games like DS Monkey Ball are near impossible to play since one's
hand covers the entire screen. Nintendo needs to find a way to bring a
true 3-D experience to the portable marketplace, much like they did
with the N64.
All Nintendo needs is to unite their fruitful past with their promising
future and success will surely follow in any path they choose.
Matt McDaniel
While Abraham is very creative in his additions, I'm not comfortable
withmonkeying around with things that have proven extremely successful
for the GameBoy brand this far. There's little that I'd change about
the Game Boy, becauseit, and to an extent the DS, is the last platform
where 2D gaming is an integralpart of the library. That's not to say
that I don't like my Mario Kart DSor Metroid Prime Hunters, but they're
not too much different than theconsole ports that many Nintendo fans
ridicule the PSP owners for buying.
I don't know that there is a future for the Game Boy if Nintendo is
going tostick with their simple, innovative game play stance. Add more
inputs to theGame Boy and you lose the simplicity that makes it work so
well. Better graphicsalmost demands the movement into 3D, which adds
complexity. Changing the GameBoy Advance feature set would probably
eliminate its roles as an entry levelgaming device, which has been the
source of its incredibly profitable historyever since it was bundled
with Tetris.
I hate to say it, but the Game Boy Micro was the next-generation
GameBoy. Its relative failure in the face of its SP cousin bodes poorly
for theGame Boy brand. While Nintendo never said as much, my bet is
that they werehoping that the Micro would carry them forward into 2008.
We're begging for thefuture when it is sitting unsold on store shelves.
And when it dies, the GameBoy will (or should) die with it.
Aaron Roberts
So far, all the ideas I've heard for the next version of the GameBoy
sound remarkably similar to a PSP, save for the forced
multimediafunctions. What I don't think everyone's taking into account
isNintendo's constant desire to keep its portable systems
cheap,affordable, and most importantly, durable.
Assuming that there's going to be another Game Boy soon (which Ihaven't
really taken for granted), it's going to be smaller, cheaper,and
probably just not in line at all with what popular conceptionsare. For
instance, we might see a built-in gyroscope or motionsensor, which
would complement Wii's control scheme, or, keepyour fingers crossed for
this one, a functional portable analogcontrol solution. I'm looking at
the Saturn or the Neo Geo PocketColor inputs for inspiration, there.
Also, it won't play GameCube disks, and probably won't use diskmedia at
all. Expect some new kind of cartridge to be implementedhere. Not as
small as the DS cards, but something with a similarstorage capacity
(probably greater) and a little bigger than GBA GamePaks. Disks just
don't lend themselves to portable gaming: They areeasily broken and
loading time eats too much power. If we see anotherGame Boy, it's going
to be something really different.
Chris Boette
Simplicity, ease of play and fun seem the be the three points that
Nintendo has stuck with since the release of the Game Boy back in 1989.
A lot of what has been mentioned for ideas sound like they would more
appropriate for a DS 2. To deny owners of a back catalog spanning
nearly 30 years in the handheld's next iteration would be an
irreversible mistake for the Big N. Part of the Game Boy Advance's
success has been its compatibility with every game from the GB line.
The ability of the DS to play only GBA games leads one the believe that
Nintendo is targeting a different section of the market, in addition to
their die-hard fans.
That said, the next system would need to be able to play every game
from Tetris to the new Veggie Tales game. On top of that, a new
cartridge would need to be developed to hold the more complex games
that will inevitability be released. Nintendo would be wise to use only
one slot in this system, so as to keep confusion to a minimum because,
honestly, I believe that the GB line has been targeted towards a
younger group more so than the DS with its host of functions and
capabilities.
Whatever it is that Nintendo ends up doing, they need to stay
accessible, in the sense of ease of play and usage of all of their
previous releases. That and, of course, keeping everything fun for
everyone.
Bryan Cashman
I think we can all guess the more likely functions; they've all been
mentioned thus far. I'm going to take a different route and compare the
new Game Boy to my favorite new toy-- the iPod shuffle.
It's a music fan's dream: small, simple, great battery life, and a vast
library of content. It's exactly what we'd want from Game Boy, assuming
Nintendo plans to differentiate it from the larger and feature-laden
DS.
Similar to the Game Boy Micro, the iPod shuffle is small enough to go
with me anywhere. I wear it around my neck on the train and use it
whenever the monotonous sounds of rusted tracks get old. I sync it with
my computer to swap tracks every few days.
My new Game Boy would be just as portable, and I could easily hook it
up to either my computer or Wii to access Nintendo's own online store.
On those machines I'd have access to downloaded titles, classic
Nintendo games and new software innovations. And since the titles would
be smaller, I could fit several on my Game Boy at each time. The
compatibility with Revolution's downloaded games would be a major
selling point-- for both systems.
Game Boy has always been, as Matt clarified, an entry-level gaming
device for all users. Nintendo will do whatever it can to make the next
Game Boy inexpensive, easy to play, and hip. The inadequacies of Game
Boy Micro will surely be corrected next time around, and cartridges
will be abandoned instead for flash storage of multiple titles. The
future is digital content, even for Game Boy.