The latest rumors floating around are telling us that EA has dropped support for the Nintendo Wii U to focus on the PlayStation 4 and NextBox. For me, this is not a big deal. There aren't many games from EA I am ever interested in. In fact, the only three titles from EA that I ever look forward to are Madden, NHL, and Tiger Woods. So, while it stinks that I will not be getting any more of those games in the foreseeable future, it actually gave me a great idea for how Nintendo could not only survive this easily, but actually turn it into something great.
I can give you the solution in three words: Nintendo Sports League.
Now, as we all know, Nintendo already has some established footholds in the sporting world. They have games for golf, tennis, baseball, soccer, racing, and even the Olympics. And with the Mario Sports Mix game, they added volleyball, hockey, and a second basketball game(there was even dodgeball, if you want to count that as a sport). All Nintendo needs to do with this base is to expand it a bit in two ways.
First, they need to add to the types of sports and grow what they already have. The games included in Mario Sports Mix were decent, but they also didn't really feel like full-fledged versions of the sports. I think if they were to take their basketball and hockey games and make them fuller like their other sports games and add online play, they could be something spectacular. On top of this, they would need to add at least one sport: American Football. If Nintendo could make a football title that was as entertaining as Mario Strikers, and I think that they could, they would have a sure-fire hit. It could almost be a re-birth of a style of gameplay similar to the old Mutant League games, only with fewer exploding bodies. I think Nintendo Sports League Football would be a great game.
You may notice that I didn't call it Mario Football, and that brings up the second thing they would need to do: expand the rosters. Go full on Smash Bros. with them and have characters and stadiums from other Nintendo franchises. The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Kirby, you could do so much with it! That way, instead of filling out your team with various colored toads and yoshis (yoshii?), you could even add in Hylian soldiers and characters of that nature. You could play a game of football on Skyloft, and if you fall out of bounds, that player is out for a play while being caught from their plummet by a Loftwing. I know I'm kind of fixating on LoZ stuff here, but I think you get the point. Nintendo could even try to bring in third-party characters like they got with Smash Bros. Brawl. They have already had multiple cross-over sporting titles with SEGA, so why not include Sonic characters? There would be so much potential!
The Mario-labeled sports games already sell like hotcakes as it is. If they added Link, Samus, Kirby, Pokemon, and other franchise stars to the mix, who knows what kind of sales records they would break or how many Wii U systems they could sell.
Nintendo, you know how to get a hold of me when you are ready to make this happen!
