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The Super Gameboy is one of the greatest ideas to be thought up by video game hardware designers. This adapter, in the form of a Super Nintendo cartridge, converted Gameboy games onto the television screen, which meant gamers didn’t have to waste four double-A batteries if they were immersed in an adventure they couldn’t put down. The reverse was also a considerable feature; the adventure consuming the life of the gamer didn’t have to be interrupted when the gamer was required to leave his/her television. The luxury of sharing the adventure between console and handheld might just be a legend people tell their children. It shouldn’t be this way. This concept needs to make a reappearance.
With handheld technology gradually improving to the point where The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past can be played on Gameboy Advance as well as Super Mario 64 on Nintendo DS, it’s a mystery why no hardware exists to make these ports interchangeable between handheld and console. These games, while not fresh new releases, can already be enjoyed on the choice between console and handheld, but gamers should not have to choose. With the exception of unemployed gamers who live in their parent’s basements, not everyone has an infinite amount of time to waste away at a television screen to level up their character for the final boss. Video game hardware designers might have thought of this idea already, but it would be nice to be able to transfer game data from a console to a handheld and back to the console after coming back home.
The Wii Virtual Console, another great idea, brings the availability of classics from NES to Nintendo 64 as well as old Sega games to the console. The games that appear on the Virtual Console are by no means too technologically advanced to be played on a handheld system. Nintendo, who has the Virtual Console rights and who dominates the handheld market, has a perfect opportunity to bring this idea of handheld/console connectivity to life. If only they would incorporate a feature where saved data from The Legend of Zelda bought on the Wii Shop Channel could be transferred to a Nintendo DS.
On the subject of Wii Shop Channel, Nintendo could improve sales of games available on their online store if they would only unify the shop channels on Wii and DS. Again, it’s not like technology would not allow most, if not all, games available on the Wii Shop Channel to be played on a DS. The reverse could be said as well. DS games are not so technologically superior that they wouldn’t be able to be played on the Wii. However, that might actually be a bad business move on Nintendo’s part considering hardware sales would go down, but for an outdated handheld systems such as the original Gameboy, this could be an advantage, since people aren’t going to spend money on a twenty year old piece of hardware.
Whether the concept of handhelds and consoles sharing the same game file will be just a legend people tell their children, only time will tell. With as many genius minds working for Nintendo, they would be a likely candidate to make this idea available to their fans. They might have already thought of this. If so, it would be a mistake to not pursue this idea as many gamers would benefit and enjoy a concept such as shared files between handheld systems and consoles.
