Stop Porting Wii U Games to Switch

Out with the old, in with the new

The Nintendo Switch is in a good place right now. The system is selling very well, the library of games is praised left, right, and center, and for once, the industry is fully behind Nintendo. Still, as I’ve railed against already, an unfortunate amount of Nintendo Switch content is borrowed from their previous console. Two of the ‘tentpole’ Switch releases, Mario Kart and Pokken, were pulled from the Wii U alone, and Breath of the Wild launched simultaneously on both consoles. Many people believe that the trove of Wii U games can and should be dipped back into in order to get more games on Switch. Personally, I see this as a lazy fallback to bolster the Switch’s library. Quantity over quality isn’t the right move for Nintendo, and ports come off as little more than filler.

Smash Bros. is one of the few Wii U games that could
benefit from an enhanced port on Switch

As with any rule, however, there’s always an exception. Certain games on Wii U could definitely be improved by a deluxe port, and could easily justify their release. Super Smash Bros. is ripe for that treatment. By wrapping the 3DS and Wii U content into one package, and adding a few new characters, Nintendo would be creating, essentially, a brand new game. Still, Super Smash Bros. as it stood was already a full experience. In the case of Mario Kart 8, that game was missing fundamental elements that make a Mario Kart game complete, namely a battle mode. Thus, when Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came around and rectified that, I felt that my purchase was justified. However, those are both evergreen, play as much as you like, titles. Single-player Nintendo games hardly have enough issues to benefit from the deluxe treatment. Perhaps the sole example, in my opinion, would be Star Fox Zero. That is a game so fundamentally flawed that another go-around could really benefit the title. Ironing out control and graphical issues could easily justify another purchase. On the other hand, a game like Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, would not benefit from being ported at all.

As it stands right now, Tropical Freeze is a damn near
perfect platformer

Launched in 2014 to glowing praise, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze stood as one of the finest platformers on Wii U. It was about as good as it could be. It suffers from next to no gameplay issues and, outside of long initial loading times, no technical issues either. Thus, why would it benefit in any way from being ported to the Switch? The core argument for Wii U ports for games like Tropical Freeze is that it sold poorly and deserved another chance. I simply disagree with this notion. Games aren’t released in a vacuum. When Nintendo green-lit Retro Studios to make another Donkey Kong Country game for the Wii U, they didn’t expect millions upon millions of sales. Every involved party knew what kind of ecosystem they were releasing the game into. The sales of Tropical Freeze are a direct result of the landscape at the time. 2014 Wii U figures were a drop in the bucket even compared to the measly lifetime sales of the console. In fact, if our chief concern as consumers, bafflingly, is the bottom line of Retro Studios, Nintendo already gave Tropical Freeze the shot in the arm it deserved. The game was repackaged and sold at $20 under the Nintendo selects line, further lowering the barrier to entry. If someone really wanted to play this game, they could.

For all the Wii U's problems, it had a great library of games

We can run circles around each other waxing about the poor sales of the Wii U console. We can fan the flames of the grassroots effort to turn the Nintendo Switch into a portable Wii U, but for some reason we can’t just tell people they should have bought a Wii U in the first place? It makes no sense to me why people believe that a consumer should be given ports of games they missed out on because they refused to buy the system in the first place. I’ve noticed that the only people really pining for Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze on Switch are the same people who evangelized it back in 2014. Try to go out and find a sizeable population of Switch owners who didn’t have a Wii U and are just dying to play Tropical Freeze. I don’t think you can. If these people truly wanted to play that game they would’ve bought a Wii U. It is as simple as that. Look at it this way, I own a PS4 but didn’t own a PS3. Should Sony cater to me and port their entire PS3 catalog over to the PS4? Of course not. If I really wanted to play those games I should’ve bought a PS3. You buy a console to play its games. You don’t buy a console to play the games that belong to a different system, especially not one that you didn’t want in the first place. I speak for myself and the rest of the hardcore Nintendo fans, not Nintendo as a company, and not the Switch owners who didn’t care about Wii U when we were in the trenches with that console. I’m not trying to disparage those new Nintendo fans who skipped the Wii U, because at the end of the day you do what is best for you. I don’t look down upon someone who avoided that console, but I’m not going to speak on behalf of that group's 'interests', nor do I think they’re entitled to the content they chose to skip out on.

Majora's Mask re-used Ocarina of Time assets
to be developed in half the time for half the cost

I also really dislike the notion that ports are easy. Yes, comparatively, it is easier to port Tropical Freeze then develop a new Donkey Kong Country game. However, it isn’t as simple as hitting a port button and, voila, the game is on the Switch. Nintendo has to pay an external studio to port, at least, the game and perhaps the engine to the Switch. Then Nintendo has to pay to advertise it. Pay to press it onto carts. Pay to ship it to stores. This isn’t negligible money. And then when it’s finally on store shelves, what does Nintendo end up with? A port subject to the will of the consumer. Invest that money into a new entry in the franchise that everyone can enjoy. Hell, re-use that Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze engine to make a brand new game. Recycling assets can be a great way to shave costs and have a great final product. Look at The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. That game reuses Ocarina of Time’s engine which allowed it to be developed for half the cost and in half the time. Majora’s Mask has become an absolute classic, and a landmark N64 title.

By the time New Super Mario Bros. 2 came out,
the community was feeling franchise fatigue

To that effect, some people think that Nintendo should release these ports as a way to drum up interest in a new entry in the franchise. That is in itself a flawed argument. By releasing a port, the potency of the new game is diluted. Releasing a new Donkey Kong game after a drought of several years makes the release day all that more special. Allowing a franchise to breathe does more for excitement and prospective sales than anything else. The New Super Mario Bros games, while all very solid platformers in their own right, suffered from releasing too close to each other. Over the span of eight years, we got four of them, and people cared less and less as more came out. The original New Super Mario Bros. game was beloved because it was the first 2D Mario in many years. The fourth, well, by then we’d been inundated with 2D Mario and just didn’t care as much. Same for the third, and to an extent, the second as well. The sheer quantity of these games made them much less special.

I feel that 3rd party ports are acceptable on Switch, and
I cannot wait for LA Noire

It isn’t wrong of me to expect Nintendo to pump out high-quality, fresh games. I bought a Nintendo Switch to experience the cutting edge of Nintendo creativity. I didn’t buy it to retread the same tired ground I’ve stomped for the past five years. I will concede that third party ports do have a place on the Switch, actually Rocket League and LA Noire are two games I’m hotly anticipating diving into this holiday. The difference there though is that neither games have hit Nintendo consoles before, and, perhaps, more importantly, third parties are understandably nervous about the viability of the Switch. Testing the waters with current-gen titles and remasters is a perfectly acceptable strategy at this point in the console’s life. On the other side of the coin, it’s Nintendo’s machine. All their eggs are in this basket. They need to bring their A game and continue to release console-defining experiences like Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild. Not every game can operate on that scope though, which is totally understandable. Still, that is the time to release entries in smaller franchises, such as Mario Party, Kirby, WarioWare, Rhythm Heaven, Star Fox, or another of Nintendo's vast library of IP. That isn't the time to regress back to the Wii U era. In my eyes, ports simply aren’t quality software. You could be porting one of the most creative and exciting games on Wii U, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, and it would still feel lackluster. No creative passion goes into porting a game, it’s a costly, time-consuming, drag and drop that boils down to little more than a paint-by-numbers exercise.

The Gamecube was committed to fresh ideas such as Pikmin

Logistically, there is simply no reason for Nintendo to spend significant time porting games. In the five years the Gamecube was on the market, forty five first party-titles were released. Not a single one was a port. Keep in mind, at this time Nintendo’s teams were split between Gamecube and Gameboy Advance. Now, Nintendo has consolidated their handheld and home console teams and they’re all focused on the Switch. That is an enormous and very talented stable of developers, who, when scheduled properly, can keep a steady, plentiful release calendar. These teams could surpass the Gamecube, and put out 65 brand-new games. Nintendo doesn’t have to worry about game droughts anymore. They don’t need to sneeze out ports in order to keep a game coming out every month. Nintendo should be tapping into the vast stable of development studios at their fingertips to churn out a string of must-play titles, not fumbling out re-hashes of games the hardcore has played already.

Nintendo needs to captivate the hardcore and casual Nintendo
fan with bold experiences like Super Mario Odyssey

So riddle me this: If a game’s content wouldn’t benefit, if it is already available elsewhere at a cheap price, if it isn’t that easy to pull off, the release calendar doesn’t need to be patched, and those same resources could be used elsewhere, should it be ported at all? I think the answer is a resounding no. The only group of people a port appeals to are those who didn’t buy the original game. Instead of catering to this group on their own, release brand new games that captivate the hardcore and casual Nintendo audience in one fell swoop. We need to kick this port crutch out from under Nintendo and force them to be better. If we lap up any port, we send Nintendo the message that any piece of software with their name on it will sell. We all love Nintendo for their creativity, their willingness and ability to release an experience that pushes the boundaries of gaming and eschews the norms of the current landscape. If we buy whatever game they push out, do they really have to try that hard? Do they have to keep innovating, evolving, appealing to the wallets and minds of gamers everywhere if their products sell on name recognition alone? I, for one, will keep holding Nintendo to a high standard because I know they’re capable of meeting it. I hope everyone else does too.