Nintendo DS TV - now that is something I would buy in a heartbeat.

Being a little behind in the news front, I have only recently learned about PS Vita TV. I did a little reseaarch to try and understand what it was and I have come away very impressed. So impressed, I would easily buy Vita TV over an actual Vita console, especially at a possible $100 US price if released.

I am sure you all know what it is, but for clarity I will cover a few points; it is a Vita without everything except what makes it run, a micro console that supports HDMI, accepts Vita game cards and plays a major catalogue of games via download, including PSP. There is also Cloud built into it, will stream PS4 games and operates with a PS3 controller, meaning touch games wouldn't be compatible.

Now, forget the Vita TV for a moment and think just how awesome a DS TV would be. Same concept (and I don't care if Nintendo copied Sony for a change) with a micro 3DS console without the screen, that would allow for all DS and 3DS games to be played on it, as well as downloads. What would potentially make it truly awesome is that you would use the Wii U Controller. Everything that is on the bottom screen of 3/DS games would be on the Wii U controller and the buttons would apply as well (meaning some buttons would be redundant).

This would be the most awesome console ever in my view and finally eclipse the still greatness that is the GameBoy Player on the Gamecube. I still use mine and all the games, right back to the original GameBoy games look perfectly fine on my 110cm television. There is no way that DS and 3DS games are going to look worse. Sure, they won't be perfect, but who cares, the games are still awesome.

The biggest reason I don't see Nintendo doing something like this is because they are trying to control old games and force us to repurchase them digitally. It makes sense from a business perspective, but if they were to create and market such a product, it would have an enormous amount of potential to bring in many, many more WiiU owners and that in itself is a good business reason.

You would hardly ever get me off a DS TV if I could play Pokemon X/Y through my television. ANyone else got thoughts they would like to share?

Sorry oldschool I all ready brought this up, somewhere else on the forum.

masofdas wrote:

Sorry oldschool I all ready brought this up, somewhere else on the forum.

Well then, I will search for it ............. looked again, must be well hidden. Oh well.

While I think Vita TV has little chance of success in the mass market (given how closely priced it is to a PS3, once you factor in memory card purchases and the weak software lineup), I too really like the idea.

I think Apple TV is a better implementation personally, in terms of how Vita TV is literally a Vita missing functionality due to the different form factor, whereas Apple TV sees iOS be reworked to fit the TV format.

I was been thinking a while back about how amazing it would be if Nintendo were to make some sort of affordable gaming platform, either on the TV as you mentioned, or as a handheld (bring back the GameBoy brand?).

Just something that acts as a portal to play their back catalogue (not so sure about the current catalogue due to how specialised the hardware is for the 3DS and DS) quickly and efficiently. Given the tiny size of the older games it could ship with a minimal amount of storage that would still be sufficient for all the VC downloads we'd get on it.

I'm guessing they haven't pursued this because it may compete with Nintendo's own current products (the 3DS is already in competition with the Wii U for first-time sales of consumers who don't own either yet, offering many substitutes to Wii U content within similar franchises), and that Nintendo likes to make hardware for the purpose of bringing certain gameplay ideas to life.

But I certainly would welcome a small Nintendo box or a new GameBoy...

I also like the idea of VITA TV, I think it might sell on the PS4 function to family's the PS4 is in the front room and a VITA TV is in the kids bedroom or something. Yeah I agree VITA's library on it's own is weak but like Sony's PR says it can play indie titles, psp and psone from downloads and of course has netflix etc like which does make it a cheap streaming box for $100.

Back to 3DS, I think i brought it up in the 2DS board when that was 1st announced there was jokes on interweb, about 1DS be next, and on Nintendo Life someone had done a mock up of something cross between wii u game-pad and 2DS called 1DS which had one screen which you plugged into your TV, the mock up showed mario kart 7 map on 1DS and actual game on TV.

My idea after seeing that Nintendo makes a 3DS / DS player for Wii U that plugs into usb port on the console, the gamepad acts bottom screen , TV acts as top and the Wii U can do 3D, so the 3D part wouldn't be a problem.