LogFAQs > #975985246

__starsnostars posted...

Like... who thought it was a good idea to focus on having a controller with a tiny screen within a decade after the entire world just converted to large wide-screen high definition televisions.

But it didn't focus on that. Streaming to that screen instead of using the actual TV was a feature, but when games actually focused on the gamepad it was to use it as a secondary display to free up HUD space. In that regard, it worked perfectly, even if relatively few games took full advantage of it (notable examples being WWHD and Xenoblade X, exploration-heavy games that were made so much more pleasant to play by not having to pause to see a full map).

__starsnostars posted...

And do you know what Nintendo typically had going for it that their competitors didn't really emphasize at the time. Couch co-op and playing with friends in person. Do you know what doesn't make sense, designing a system around a controller that only one person can use.

Quite the contrary: Very few games actually did it (I can really only think of Nintendoland, which was unironically a blast), but the gamepad enabled local asymmetrical multiplayer that no other console before or since has done. Only one person could use the gamepad at a time, but that's precisely what made it so great, because it meant that player could have a different view from everyone else in the room. In terms of local multiplayer, the only other way that's really possible is to hook up a bunch of PCs to LAN, which is significantly less practical than simply booting up a console.

And, of course, all of the games that didn't offer asymmetrical multiplayer offered exactly the same local multiplayer experience you'd get from any other system. Nothing was lost there, except that the gamepad was a bit unwieldy to use if you didn't have any use for the screen. I'm not sure why you're framing it as though Nintendo screwed over people who wanted local multiplayer.

Shrek posted...

it had built in remote play that worked flawlessly with imperceptible latency, something that bigger companies can't even achieve to this day.

While impressive, the fact that you pretty much had to be in the same room (or at least have a clear line of sight to the system and still not be more than ~15 feet away) kind of limited its utility. It was marketed as a way for people who live with others to not have to stop playing if somebody else was using the TV, and that was about the extent of it.