STACK #147 Jan 2017

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GAMES FEATURE

It’s 2017 and that can only mean one thing – we’re on the cusp of another new Nintendo console. Excitement is building for the release of the Nintendo Switch and to celebrate, we take a look at the console story so far. Let's-a go!

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Pulling resources from the success that Nintendo had enjoyed with arcade titles, focus moved back to the home console and in 1983 it unveiled the Famicom, later renamed for western markets as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Aussie gamers wouldn’t see the unit in stores until 1987.

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Nintendo began its gaming hardware journey with five consoles known as Color TV-Game. Released only in Japan between 1977 and 1980, games were pre-loaded and yes, it featured a version of Pong .

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It was ambitious. We’ll leave it at that.

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The company dived into the 16-bit era with the SNES. Arriving Down Under in 1992, while it was the most successful selling machine of its generation, it couldn’t quite match the sales numbers of its predecessor.

Released in Australia in 2002, the GameCube had been conceived to challenge PlayStation’s growing dominance in the marketplace. Although popular with gamers, the GameCube could never

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quite keep up with the competition and was finally phased out in 2007.

The N64 came to these shores in 1997. Ushering in 64-bit graphics for Nintendo, the console had

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a slew of quality titles that defined a generation in gaming. While it faced stiff competition from a new console on the block, the PlayStation, it still went on to sell nearly 33 million units.

The Wii U had some great ideas and was designed to recapture Nintendo’s core audience. It was released a full year before PS4 and Xbox One but felt part of an older generation in comparison, and suffered from a consistent lack of killer software. Production reportedly stopped in November last year.

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In 2006, Nintendo’s vision for its gaming future culminated in the revolutionary Wii, a console that extended a hand to a non-traditional gaming audience – the casual gamer was created. The Wii was a huge success and as of March 2016, it had sold 102 million units globally.

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History suggests that you’d be a fool to rule Nintendo out of the console race, and although we’re due to find out more about Switch this month, an early groundswell of positive press surrounding its new hardware bodes well for the Japanese gaming giant.

JANUARY 2017

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