With such an impressive reception for its original launch on the Wii U, Nintendo realized the untapped potential for sales of the title in their impressive mobile player base. So, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors is to be ported to the 3DS. The latest development in the process, however, is a reminder of just how close Nintendo is cutting it when attempting to balance a minimal price range for the most relatively powerful hardware.
To be clear, Hyrule Warriors‘ 3DS port will only be capable of actual 3D on the New 3DS, not the original, according to an interview with the game’s creator conducted by Japanese site 4games.net. As has happened before, Nintendo has made yet another game that runs on the brink of the limits of the physical hardware found in the 3DS.
Other instances of the 3DS’s hardware coming up short are abundant. Sheik and Zelda are only separate characters because of the 3DS hardware’s shortcoming. The processor couldn’t handle a character with two separate sets of moves. This all has to do with Nintendo’s overall hardware philosophy, involving the willingness of Nintendo to sacrifice hardware potency for a more affordable machine. This was revealed by Shigeru Miyamoto in an interview with NPR:
…[R]ather than going after the high-end tech spec race and trying to create the most powerful console, really what we want to do is try to find a console that has the best balance of features with the best interface that anyone can use.
Limitations were also brushed against in Pokemon X & Y, where there was a noticeable drop in framerate anytime two or more Pokemon were shown onscreen at once.
The point is, Nintendo has been brushing up against the hardware limitations of the 3DS for a while now, and the end of the line for the hardware therein is nigh. At this point, the hardware to be unveiled as Project NX is overdue, and Nintendo will need more powerful mobile hardware in order to keep up with the market as it stands here in 2015.