So I got a Wii U for Christmas. (Nintendo discution)

The Game Room
1

I have, but haven’t played, Nintendo Land, I’ve played a little NSMBU, (which also came with the Luigi iteration), I played a lot of Super Mario 3D World.

Like I said, I didn’t play Nintendo Land at all, so perhaps there’s something I’m missing out on, but the way I see it, the game pad is SO unnecessary and just an added expense. The few levels that require the game pad in Mario are frustrating and lame. I wish they could have done what they did with 3DS’s “gimmick”, drop it and sell a machine that doesn’t offer it for less. They seem to be stuck with it though.

SM3DW is a great game.

I grew up with Nintendo, I have almost all their machines, but missed out on all other machines as well, SEGA, PS 1,2,3, X-Box Whatever…

This time around, I plan on not missing out on another generation of Nintendo-only hardware.

If in charge at Nintendo, I would have offered two models at launch, one with the screen, and one without.

As for what Nintendo should do right now, I have no idea. How long will the Wii U last? What do you see them doing next time? Start from scratch?

2

“So I got a Wii U for Christmas.”

Sorry.

:slight_smile:

What Nintendo should do and what they will do are probably a parsec apart. They are stubborn and they are high on their own farts. They’ve lost third parties for the WiiU and they’ll ride this thing out till it burns. Then they’ll [probably release new hardware and make the same mistakes.

3

The WiiU will last the normal ~5 year life cycle like usual. What Nintendo will probably do is also the usual, which is to be doomed and make money. The WiiU is likely to be fine, because

and Mario Kart and Smash Bros will be popular.

4

SM3DW IS a great game, but it’s no Super Mario Galaxy. IMHO

I’m not one of those, “Nintendo should go third party”, people. I’ve heard that for YEARS. I just read so many bad things about the WiiU’s financial performance, that coupled with the release of XBOne and PS4… I don’t know if a handful of great games are enough to get people on the Wii U bandwagon at the price they are selling it at.

Does anyone agree with me about the game pad?

5

My impression, which isn’t based on much, is that it sold decently well over Christmas. My guess is that its overall financial performance will be similar to the GameCube - not the leading console, but making money for the company.

I’ve played maybe halfway through 3D World, and I agree with your assessment regarding Galaxy so far. However, the best part of 3D Land on the 3DS came in its second half, so I’ll have to see the rest of 3D World.

The game pad is extremely useful for local multiplayer and for off-tv play. These aren’t features that everyone will use. For the other games I’ve played, it’s nice but not essential. Maps/inventory on the pad in Zelda and Assassin’s Creed are nice, and Lego City (which is fantastic) does some fun things with it.

6

Get Lego City and Rayman Legends. They are both amazing, fantastic games with a ton of content and awesome replay value.

7

Maybe Yahoo’s top stories aren’t the best source for video game news. I was reading terrible things… ‘How Much This Is Costing Nintendo’, and ‘Nintendo’s Failed At It’s Own Game?’

I know one friend that owns a Wii U.

8

Do you have children and/or a gaming partner? Being able to play on the gamepad while other people use the tv for something while everyone hangs out in the same room is a thing some families really enjoy. Similarly, the asymmetrical game play that the gamepad brings opens up a lot of new territory in games like Rayman - but it’s only obvious if you have someone to play with you all the time.

The Penny Arcade guys are pretty impressed the new design opportunities that the asymmetrical controls bring - maybe you want to look back at their podcasts. But I don’t have a wii u (or anyone to play it with) so I can’t really talk about it from experience. I wish I had one. I really want to play Pikmin.

I do think second screen gaming will be a big deal in the future. Sony is making it available via the PS4/Vita interplay. MS doesn’t have it yet - but I would be surprised if they weren’t working on something with the Surface or Windows Phone lines to enable it for xBox games as well.

As for Nintendo being d0med, well, sure. They’re always d0med. But they’re apparently less d0med than the Bone, atm.

9

Love my WiiU. Mind you, there’s been the occasional game drought since it was released, and I don’t have THAT many games for it. They’re pricey. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

**NintendoLand **- Bundled with my system at launch. Better game than you might think. The minigames are quite deep. The Donkey Kong Crash Course? Has FOUR levels, not one. The fourth one is quite challenging. If THAT’s not enough for you, there’s a special achievement if you can beat the first level while skipping 40 bananas. GOOD LUCK. No doubt I’ve sunk at least 40 hours into just that one minigame. Chase Mario and Sweet Day make for some really hilarious multiplayer fun. All the minigames are good, really… the octopus one didn’t hold my attention very long, admittedly.

**ZombiU **- the other game I got at launch. Terrifying, extremely terrifying, and did I mention, this game will scare you to death! I was shrieking like a little girl. And I was playing on Chicken Mode.

New Super Mario Bros. U - Pretty much what you’d expect from a NSMB game. Good, great at times.

Lego City Undercover - AWESOME! 10/10 Loved every minute of the 70 hours I spent getting this game to 100%. Ending of the game is EPIC and not to be missed.

**Pikmin 3 **- Great, amazing and fun game. My first time playing a Pikmin game. Loved the strategy aspect of it, beautiful graphics. Good replay value. I beat it, then felt obliged to start over and beat it again more efficiently.

Super Mario 3D World - Really enjoyable, seems like a kindred spirit to Super Mario 3D Land for 3DS. Love the cat powerup. It’s a bigger game than you might think, originally. I think I have uncovered the final level (though haven’t unlocked it yet). The difficulty keeps ramping up.

Disney Infinity - only Cross-Platform game I’ve gotten, so far. It’s pretty good, though rather expensive with all the different playsets and characters you will feel motivated to buy. The graphics are okay, the voice actors are not the originals, though some are above-average “soundalikes” others are just annoyingly bad.

I have a few indie games from the eShop, and most of those 30 cent Virtual Console games they were doing last year. But these are my retail releases, and really, I haven’t bought a game yet that I didn’t really like. But seven good retail games has seen me through the first year of the console’s life - not feeling any urges to go buy a PS4 or XBone so far.

10

I wouldn’t mind having a Wii U now that I have my PS4. I’ve kind of rekindled my appreciation for first party Nintendo games with my 3DS XL. I’d like to play the Marios and the Zeldas on the Wii U.

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The Wii U isn’t costing Nintendo anything. They don’t sell the system at a loss and the first-party software they produce always sells like hotcakes. The company will probably never be #1 again, but calling the Wii U a “failure” before it even has a Mario Kart of Zelda game is jumping the gun just a tad.

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Merneith No, I play alone… well, my brother did play some 3D World with me, so that was cool.

Sarabellum1976 I’m starting with Nintendo Land now. :slight_smile:

…(Hope you’re well BTW)…

Justin_Bailey I just saw another article about the Wii U being a disappointment. I would link to it, but I lost the site.

Just google “Wii U” and “disappointment”, there are plenty of articles

I agree with you that it’s not a “failure”, but I thought Nintendo was losing money with Wii U. I must be miss-informed.

13

We got a Wii U for Christmas as well and my son and I are loving it. We just finished the story mode of Lego City Undercover today and have started going around the city collecting misc. things. This game is seriously fun and infectious.

Nintendo Land has been enjoyable, but mostly as a diversion. Our family will occassionally break into few ronds of Mario Chase every so often.

14

Well, yeah, because they’re gamers who are really into their xboxes and playstations. The WiiU/Wii isn’t like those consoles. There’s some crossover but it’s not always the best. Nintendo really shines with games meant for newbie gamers, casual gamers and party gaming. If you’re not into things like Nintendo Land or Mario Party then the Wii probably isn’t a good fit for you.

My friends and I almost always end a night of hanging out with a good half hour of Mario Chase/Sweet Day. It’s pure dead fun.

15

I didn’t say they didn’t exist, I said there’s absolutely no truth in them. The Wii U isn’t losing money and there is a small handful of really great titles available for it. For a system that just completed its first year of availability, it’s doing fine.

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My only real complaint with the WiiU I got for Christmas was that instead of including the “bundled” Zelda game actually inside the box, they only put in a code to download it from the eshop – which promptly shit the bed and didn’t come back up for something like two days. Reminds me of the commercials from several years back with kids whose parents didn’t buy their presents at Toys R Us running around playing with their rainchecks.

If I’d been buying for myself I would’ve made sure to get the Mario bundle, as that includes New Super Mario Bros U (as well as New Super Luigi U) on disc rather than as an accursed download, but hey, it was a gift, whatcha gonna do?

Getting rid of the gamepad would require them to completely rewrite their user interface. You can’t even change the system settings without it. It would be less like getting rid of 3D to make a 2DS and more like getting rid of the touchscreen. Sure it would make it cheaper, but it would also wreck so much shit up.

Last night I got around to installing Devolution to the (hacked) Wii Mode, to run Gamecube games on it. There’s just something so cool about playing GC games with a Wii U. It’s a total pain to setup, though, since WiiU won’t take GC discs so you need to use an original backwards compatible Wii to validate the discs.

17

So this is hyperbolic, bad journalism?

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The numbers are accurate, the sentiment is hyperbolic.

YES, Nintendo did cut Wii U sales forecasts from 9 million in 2013/early 2014 to 2.8 million.

YES, Nintendo will likely post a loss for the year. But…

NO, the “future of Nintendo’s latest console is up in the air as a result” is a complete lie. Nintendo has $10 billion (with a B) in the bank. If they really wanted to, they could announce a PS4/Xbox One killer tomorrow and could sell it at a loss and blow both companies out of the water. But they’re not going to do that, because they’re Nintendo. They will continue to release a bunch of great games (at least 10 planned so far for 2014) and this slight misstep will be forgotten.

19

I know Nintendo’s sitting on a pile of cash.

My family deals with Birthdays and Christmas a little differently. We don’t always exchange gifts on the designated day. My folks just give me cash usually… (I think gift cards are scams… you may as well give cash). I, however, “nudged” them into giving me a BIG gift this year. They are probably seeing the same article titles now. I could have told them to hold off, and wait it out until after the holidays… I would hate for another price-cut this year, or Wii U 2 to come out sooner rather than later, (and it possibly having backward capability to WiiU), because my folks aren’t dummies.

To be honest, I’m not as “thrilled” with ‘Super Mario 3D World’ as I DESPERATLY wanted to be. I like the game a lot, but I would be very upset if that where Wii U’s only 3D Mario game. I gave it an 80 (out of 100) when I rated it after registering it with Nintendo, which is great, but not the system seller I had hoped for. It was ambitious to have four players. I’ve played multi-player at length only with my brother, and it’s quite neat, but… really I like playing on my own. The game CAN be beautiful, but can be a little “safe”…if not a little bland in rare occasions. It definitely lacks the spectacle that ‘Galaxy’ possessed, considering it’s on a more powerful machine.

I don’t know how you can top ‘Galaxy’ though. Some people are asking for another ‘Galaxy’ game, while others are asking for another Mario 64, and then there are those who are looking for something entirely, altogether different. I really wouldn’t mind any of those scenarios playing out to be honest. I know Nintendo can’t please everyone’s gaming desires. I really hope that ‘3D World’ is a fantastic “appetizer”, while I’m eagerly awaiting the “main course” of Mario on this system.

To be fair, I don’t have the funds for other games, and I’ve been trying to beat Mario for most of the time I’ve had the WiiU, so I can’t tell you what 'NSMBU" or ‘Nintendo Land’ is like very well either. I’m not trying to say that I’m not having fun with it, I just wonder if I should have waited even longer. I’m not complaining, I just have a lot invested in Nintendo.

‘Mario Kart’ is going to be a big seller… But I’m personally looking forward to ‘Donkey Kong Returns; Tropical Freeze’.

I’m cool.

If there’s any way you would suggest looking at anything differently, I’m open to hearing about it. :slight_smile:

20

I’m loving Super Mario 3D World, though I’m sadly nearly finished with it now.

That Champion Road level!! Whoa!! Took me so many tries to beat it, I lost count.