Nintendo has reclaimed their status as the top game hardware company in the world thanks to the Wii and DS. Despite all of the success Nintendo has enjoyed these past 5 years, they have one major problem that continues to plague their company: piracy.

I could spend several posts trying to come up with methods to combat piracy, but for now I’ll offer up one solution a company like Nintendo could attempt: release a variety of handheld systems, each bundled with a different collection of 8-bit and 16-bit games. All of these games could be first party, as Nintendo has amassed a library of games these past 25 years.

Technology has advanced to the point that Nintendo could release several different kinds of handheld systems at an inexpensive price point. Much like a company by the name of Tiger Electronics did in the 90′s.

Tiger is probably not the best example - their games were crap. But their success stemmed from being able to offer a cheap alternative of name brand games. A kid who couldn’t afford a $50 Double Dragon Genesis cartridge could pick up the Tiger Electronics equivalent for half that.

Another great example are the controllers that plug directly into a TV that are preloaded with classic Arcade games. That is also something Nintendo could look at, but my preference is to release a handheld, which are more flexible for the end user to enjoy.

A Nintendo Legacy System would come preloaded with an assortment of games, some even specific to brand, like the depicted Mario and Zelda units here. The system would not have a port for cartridges, nor is there a way to extract the games that are stored within. Possibly one port for a game-link, like the one used from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance, to help enable multiplayer - this would save on installing a WiFi device. If costs weren’t an issue, I’d include a TV-out port.

These old-school games are ideal for a no-frills device. They’d be more at home here than perhaps under-utilizing a DS/3DS or even a Wii.

And bundles these days have so much appeal. Valve’s Steam store makes a killing selling bundled deals that are too hard to resist. If Nintendo could release a 100-game handheld for around $100, that would be extremely tough to resist, and appeals to those conditioned to iTunes pricing.

With all the games already made, Nintendo just needs to create an inexpensive hardware platform. Ironically, Nintendo could swipe the ROMs that have populated the internet to comprise these collections.The profit margins would have to be made on the hardware itself.

Would this be an answer to Piracy? Not entirely, but a step in the right direction. By releasing these collections, Nintendo is keeping their property active, making it hard for people to argue it is ‘abondonware’. And in a time of value pricing and no shortage of games, this approach would be a welcome one, especially for nostalgic gamers like myself.