Nintendo made NES Remix and NES Remix 2 on Wii U and not Nintendo 3DS because the games required the increased hardware capabilities of the Wii U, said series director Koichi Hayashida in an interview with IGN.

Both NES Remix and NES Remix 2 (screenshot above) are compilations of NES games that break up those classic titles into bite-sized "remixed" segments. Many of the games that appear in the NES Remix franchise, including Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda, are already available on Wii U and 3DS as part of Nintendo's Virtual Console service. But the NES Remix titles are restricted to Wii U.

According to Hayashida, part of the reason for that is that he was already familiar with the Wii U's architecture from his time working on Super Mario 3D World. But there's a deeper explanation.

"In order to accomplish what we wanted with NES Remix, and get the effect we wanted out of it and the value that we wanted it to have, we needed some more machine power," said Hayashida. "It's just that the Wii U had the machine power we were looking for in order for us to build the software we envisioned from the get go."

He added that developing the games on 3DS "would have been much more difficult."

NES Remix was released in December on Wii U; NES Remix 2 launches this Friday, April 25. For more, check out our review of NES Remix and our recent preview of NES Remix 2, and watch our Overview video to see the game in action.