Call of duty coming to Nintendo platforms. At least that’s what Microsoft would have us believe.
As part of their proposed buyout of Activision Blizzard, the US console maker has promised to offer a franchise to Nintendo gamers in an effort to allay market regulators’ concerns about anti-competition and monopolization. And because they love money.
So Call of Duty on that kid’s console with all the Mario games? It’s totally-unheard-of, never-been-done-before, uncharted territory, right? Well no, actually. You imbecile. You’re a liar.
Stretching back almost 20 years and a whopping 15 entries, the series actually has a full, flirtatious and often fascinating history with the Big N. That is, as long as you find things like DS Download Play and external Wii ports fascinating. And of course you know – why else would you be here?!
Where it all began
Our journey begins with the Nintendo GameCube, and if the recent releases Metroid Prime Remastered and Resident Evil 4 taught the internet something, it’s that Nintendo’s little purple lunchbox was actually quite the beast.
Despite initial misgivings, the quirky little cube outperformed the PlayStation 2 on most performance metrics, a fact aptly demonstrated in 2004 when the GameCube version of Call of Duty: Finest Hour not only looked better than Sony’s machine, but also ran twice as fast as the frame rate.
Performance was great, but Nintendo’s reluctance to embrace the Internet – a trend that arguably still exists today in some capacity – meant that the GameCube missed out on the all-important online multiplayer mode. Meanwhile, Xbox Live users enjoyed 32-player deathmatches, forming communities and ultimately laying the groundwork for what the series would become.
By the time Call of Duty 2: Big Red One came out in 2005, poor old ‘Cube was pretty much dead and buried. As a result, the GameCube version doesn’t seem to have been a top priority for Activision – it was a serviceable port, but clearly didn’t get the same level of optimization that the first game enjoyed. We wouldn’t have to wait long to see the series on Nintendo’s console again though…
The golden age
Wii Remote & Nunchuk is the best FPS control scheme ever to grace a home console. It is an objective fact and a hill on which this writer is more than willing to die. The combination of pixel-perfect pointer controls and intuitive gestures added a layer of precision, immersion and immediacy that simply can’t be replicated with traditional controllers.
The Nunchuk’s motion-sensing capabilities also offered quick reloads and even the ability to tilt and peak behind cover, a feature that wouldn’t become standard on console shooters for some time. To this day, it’s a mechanic that has never been mapped so gracefully to a gamepad.
Starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops, tilting the Wii Remote to its side also allowed you to hold a sidearm gangsta style. Of course, the divisive title Red Steel did it first, but it’s still a super cool addition that still feels great to this day.
American studio Treyarch handled all five Wii entries, starting with the somewhat lackluster launch title Call of Duty 3 in 2006 and ending in 2011 with the much more accomplished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The developer really got to grips with the Wii hardware and scheme. controls during those five years, and the improvement in quality from game to game is obvious.
The only significant absence of Wii owners during the 7th generation was in 2009 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, seemingly the result of Infinity Ward not caring about Nintendo’s motion sense. When that title dropped on other platforms, Wii owners were instead treated to a remastered port of the original Modern Warfare game – which initially skipped the console in 2007 – developed by Treyarch and known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition .
With the World at War port arriving in 2008, the Wii was the last Nintendo home console to receive such extensive support, and Call of Duty essentially dropped every year the system was properly supported. Sure, they were compromised in some ways – lower graphical fidelity and reduced online players to name a couple – but it was still arguably the golden age of this series’ involvement with Nintendo.
Portable warfare
If you’re one of those people who thinks that running Call of Duty on the Nintendo Switch would require some kind of voodoo magic, you might be surprised to learn that Activision has released no less than five – count ’em, five
These portable games — Modern Warfare (2007), World at War (2008), Modern Warfare: Mobilized (2009), Black Ops (2010) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011) — were pretty far removed from their counterparts. HD consoles, of course, but they still featured fully voiced campaigns, local wireless multiplayer and, in most cases, online play. All this on a console that was essentially an improved N64.
While these versions weren’t graphically stunning, of course, they weren’t just a cynical cash grab either; developer nSpace – known for Geist – has done a pretty great job, making sure to include extra features like Download Play so four friends can control wirelessly using just one copy of the game. (Please bring this feature back, Nintendo. I’m begging you.)
Somewhat unsurprisingly for a system that has exactly zero analog sticks, the control scheme was a bit off. Earlier games exclusively used the touch screen for aiming – according to Metroid Prime Hunters – which made doing a bunch of other actions pretty cumbersome. A later control scheme assigned your aim to the ABXY keys, which was as clunky and imprecise as it sounds.
Interestingly, the series skipped the 3DS entirely, despite it being much better equipped to handle FPS games. As a result, 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the last CoD ever released for Nintendo’s handheld. We are starving. STARVING, I say!
Wii U tour
The ill-fated Wii U was the last time we saw the franchise on any Nintendo console, and presumably the poor sales of these installments (Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Ghosts) made Activision wary of backing any future hardware endeavors from the Big N .
Even at launch, Wii U lobbies were sparsely populated, with player numbers often peaking in the hundreds rather than the thousands. However, those who braved it were rewarded with two very solid ports that boasted HD visuals – a first for Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms – as well as some pretty compelling upgrades over the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
The first of course was the pointer control scheme that returned from the Wii release, and now felt better than ever thanks to the improved frame rate. By 2013, Treyarch knew the Wii Remote better than perhaps any other third-party developer, and the pixel-perfect controls are an absolute dream on the Wii U.
But perhaps the biggest advantage of these versions was the asymmetric multiplayer. This feature allowed one player to play on the TV screen as usual, while the other had their own dedicated screen in the form of a Wii U GamePad, i.e. achieving split-screen multiplayer without the need to split the screen.
That is? Well, you should have a basic knowledge of Latin if you read Nintendo Life.
With the Wii U struggling to find a foothold in the market, its lackluster sales led Activision to abandon the console entirely, and 2013’s Ghosts marked a full decade since we’d seen the Juggernaut series on a Nintendo platform. And that brings us to the present day.
A triumphant return?
At the time of writing, no Call of Duty title has been released or announced for Nintendo’s hybrid console, which is somewhat of a surprise given its incredible sales success and relatively older player demographic.
If Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through, that could all change very soon, but a release on Nintendo’s as-yet-unannounced next-gen machine might make more sense. It all depends on how long this whole saga will last.
Do you have any fond memories of playing Call of Duty: World at War on the Wii until the wee hours or is it just us? Let us know in the comments below!
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