After five consoles and 29 years, it just may be time for Nintendo to hang up its fire flower and go gently into the quiet night – but certainly not if these indicators from its recently completed E3 showing are anything to go by.

In fact, it just may be that the Wii U will be able to soar where other Nintendo offerings have failed and not only define, but dominate, the next generation of gaming. Doubtful? Here are four reasons why we’re optimistic: 

A Little Something for Everyone

Although the company didn’t present them well enough (please, Nintendo, no more canned “banter” between Reggie and hapless heads of third-party developers), the big N delivered an unmistakable message to its diehard faithful: we have you covered.

Titles like Pikmin 3 and New Super Mario Bros. U are designed from the ground up to be deep, challenging, and rewarding experiences the likes of which many a gamer has literally grown up on – quite the opposite of more recent fare like Wii Play Motion or Mario Party 9. And, even better, third parties have started a strong, if somewhat tentative, string of support for the new system, prepping the likes of ZombiU, Mass Effect 3, and Assassin’s Creed III.

This last point is, perhaps, the most telling. Nintendo is working very hard to convince publishers to release (slightly) suped-up versions of past games that the Wii was forced to forego, thanks to limited control input and even more limited computational ability, and to release all new titles day-and-date with their Xbox and PlayStation brethren. While Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition is laughable in the eyes of 360 and PS3 enthusiasts, it underscores a commitment to offer a full range of gaming experiences – and that should be wonderfully reassuring to all gamers, as increased competition is never a bad thing.

And, yes, there is still that huge emphasis on the magical casual consumer, as well. Nintendo Land, Wii Fit U, SiNG, and Lego City: Undercover should cater to that group well, if Nintendo can convince all the grandmas of the country to upgrade to the Wii U. More important, though, is the balance between this lighter and the more hardcore entries that was struck at the E3 presser; it’s already light years beyond what we’ve seen during the Wii years, and it already seems primed for a much grander implementation over the next four or five years.

If Nintendo can nail this, it has gone a long way to nailing the next gen.
 

Embracing the Final Frontier: Online

There is no doubt that Xbox Live is the definitive online experience for console gamers, and there’s very little doubt that either Sony or Nintendo will be able to pry Microsoft’s iron grip from the crown (any time soon, at least). But Miiverse is actually a good step in the right direction, offering a full level of integration from the very first moment the Wii U is turned on, and even dipping into the social media space with Twitter-like postings and Facebook-like comments on, say, Mario U levels. (And having all previous Virtual Console and WiiWare games transfer over is definitely a boon.)

Then there’s the whole Mii implementation. Yes, Microsoft beat Nintendo to the punch with its Avatars, but the big N was obviously the originator of the trend, and it will assumedly have a trick up its virtual sleeve or two on how to more fully incorporate the cute little buggers into its games, online chats, and the like. Nintendo only wanted to do online until (a) it had no other choice and (b) it could find a way to make it its own, separate from Live or the PlayStation Network. This is the key to that approach.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll unlock everything! We still have to wait and see whether the dreaded Friend Code will make an unwanted return appearance…
 

The Hook

No, using a second screen is nothing new – the DS did that eight years ago, and even the Dreamcast was experimenting with it 13 years previously. And the touch screen is nowhere near as easy to explain or as intuitive to grasp as was the Wii’s angle, motion control, which might limit its appeal to the casual gamer crowd.

But, with all this aside, it looks to genuinely provide some interesting – not to mention unique – gameplay scenarios. The DS handhelds have already proved that having a dedicated map screen for games like Castlevania is a plus, and ZombiU is, even at this early stage, brimming with potential. What would a Metal Gear game look like with the added immersion? How would a Grand Theft Auto control? How would a Dead Space scare?

And the best part of the two-screen hook? Unlike the Wii, it can be sidestepped entirely, offering up just a normal console with a normal controller that can play normal games. This worked extremely well for the DS – and is starting to do so for the 3DS, also – and it just might be the Wii U’s Trojan horse. If Nintendo plays its cards right, hardcore types will pick up the system for its library of software and lineup of exclusives… and then almost accidentally get sucked up into the possibilities of using the GamePad’s touch screen, camera, and gyroscope.

Everyone Else Is Doing It

Microsoft – as you may have noticed during its own E3 conference – has a little initiative called Xbox SmartGlass, which fuses any random smart phone, tablet, or laptop into a dedicated second screen for the 360. And Sony, of course, has a growing fetish for linking its just-released PS Vita to the PS3, allowing users to, say, play together in titles like PlayStation All-stars.

As consoles take these baby steps from an isolated gaming pastime to an interconnected entertainment ecology, more gamers will come to expect to it, which will cause more developers to incorporate it – and incorporate it in (hopefully) more innovative, genre-defining ways – which will lead to an ever-more-ubiquitous format. This is nothing but good news for Nintendo, as it will reinforce the fundamental point of the system, on the one hand, and have its products be shaped in an increasingly competitive market, on the other.

And God knows Nintendo could stand to use some competition…
 

Marc N. Kleinhenz is the author of It Is Known: An Analysis of Thrones, Vol. I, which analyzes the hell out of HBO’s Game of Thrones and which features the likes of Time magazine’s James Poniewozik. Oh, he’s also written for 18 sites.