Wii U Catch-All

Saw a bunch of the deluxe model this morning at the store. I was able to make the saving throw and kept from picking one up.

By the way, does the Wii U enhance the resolution if Wii games at all?

obirano wrote:

Saw a bunch of the deluxe model this morning at the store. I was able to make the saving throw and kept from picking one up.

Are people seeing this everywhere? I'm in for a deluxe but no way I am buying the white one. Did Nintendo purposefully make another deluxe shipment for today? (if so, talk about screwing early adopters, wow) Debating whether I want to go brave the retail today...

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Apple (which is what a lot of people say will kill the traditional video game business)

Their touch based games have very little chance at replacing button/traditional style video gaming. Just like Certis said on this weeks podcast, all these touch games are just time wasters comparatively. I spent a bunch of time this morning playing said games, but that was only because I was fixing my computer setup, and so stuck in front of a useless machine, but needed to look up at it occasionally.

DSGamer wrote:

By the way, does the Wii U enhance the resolution if Wii games at all?

No.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Apple (which is what a lot of people say will kill the traditional video game business)

Their touch based games have very little chance at replacing button/traditional style video gaming. Just like Certis said on this weeks podcast, all these touch games are just time wasters comparatively. I spent a bunch of time this morning playing said games, but that was only because I was fixing my computer setup, and so stuck in front of a useless machine, but needed to look up at it occasionally.

You're totally right but one can't deny that while mobile stuff is going up, sales of "traditional" games are going off a cliff right now and developers of those games are closing left and right. The true reasons for that aren't known and I'm not one who is making the claims that Apple's killing it, it's just what I see written in many places. A lot of people think that sales are down because people are waiting for new systems. I hope that's true and that the WiiU reinvigorates that market. I think there's amazing potential in this machine if some creative developers with real budgets get in on it.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Did anyone pick up Scribblenauts Unlimited? I had it ordered through Amazon because it was $10 and I'm curious about how the franchise has evolved, but after watching a few more gameplay videos and reading a few of the more negative reviews I decided to cancel. I'm not sure how much it'll offer outside of the sandbox ridiculousness.

I tried a demo and its more of the same, but I suppose this would be the ultimate version of Scribblenauts. Include the Nitendo fan service and it looks like fun. However, I also canceled my preorder, for financial reasons. Might pick it up later if the price comes down on the eShop.

Other games: holy moly Nano Assault Neo is stupidly fun. Looks gorgeous too. Easy $10 buy.

I was standing in line last night waiting for the doors to Best Buy to open and they were handing out tickets for the Basic and Deluxe editions of the Nintendo Wii-U. And no one was grabbing them. The guy passed by more times than any of the cell phone or tablet ticket guys.

So on one hand, I felt bad because I didn't have the cash. On the other, Certis tweeted on Sunday that he feels there's an artificial scarcity going on, and I have to agree if a huge line of people outside a Best Buy at the beginning of Christmas season aren't snatching up tickets for a Wii-U. I mean, if I hadn't spent about $350 on maintenance for my car alone this week I'd probably have been all over it. No one else around me in the line seemed excited enough about it, some of them weren't sure what it was, and two of Nintendo's target demographic thought the 3DS was silly and didn't see any reason to grab it because they hated 3D, and the Wii-U just seemed pointless.

Okay, so maybe not Nintendo's target demographic since they were a bit more informed, but they had no interest in Xbox or Playstation.

As for me, I only got a few brief minutes with the Wii-U pad myself at the store. I'd like to go back and try again, but I want them to have more than a Rayman game available. As it was the Rayman game felt a bit awkward to play, but then again so did Kid Icarus at first and that's one of my favorite games this year.

"some of them weren't sure what it was"

Yes yes yes.

This is the biggest problem facing Nintendo on top of a poor economy. They should never have called this a Wii. The mainstream just don't know/care enough to look into it further. From a gamer perspective, there are cool ideas here...for my brother (who owns a Wii and 360 but no "gamer" himself), it doesn't even register.

I agree with the "what is it?" issue. It's not helped by confusion over the name, but worse still, the non-Gamepad Wii Remote Plus controllers are the same ones from the old console and you'll want to keep them for non-Gamepad play...unless you're looking at Classic/Classic Pro controllers, which are apparently just for select Wii/VC games and which are not compatible with Wii U titles (you'll want the new Pro controller).

Really, I'm not even sure I've got the bit on the Classic/Classic Pro/Pro controllers completely straight, and I've done a crapton of reading and have my console on the way already. How hellish must the controller question alone be for someone just glancing at the thing? It's almost needlessly complex.

PXA, if I came off as dismissive I apologize. This part of your post:

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

It's honestly enough to make even me think twice now and I'm usually the first person to say that people who complain about minor account headaches whine too much.

Made me think you were voicing your concern strictly in regards to your own purchase, so I responded with the best consumer advice I can give: wait it out. I agree that Nintendo should have done better, but they didn't. My instinct is that the account situation won't be that big a deal to most people, but that is independent of other issues that the system has or may later face (poor product understanding, possible technology gap, mainstream abandonment and core alienation).

I'll admit stating "Don't buy it! Simple!" is a bit glib, my bad. I think we're cool now.

DSGamer, parsing the rest isn't worth the time. That is how my dismissive reads.

I don't know if Wii U is a bad name, but they could've been a lot more clear in the marketing for it. Especially after the confusion after the first round of marketing.

The controller issue doesn't sound that bad though.

Wiimotes are used by the Wii U. Everything else that already exited is backwards compatibility only. Am I missing something?

MisterStatic wrote:

"some of them weren't sure what it was"

Yes yes yes.

This is the biggest problem facing Nintendo on top of a poor economy. They should never have called this a Wii. The mainstream just don't know/care enough to look into it further. From a gamer perspective, there are cool ideas here...for my brother (who owns a Wii and 360 but no "gamer" himself), it doesn't even register.

I can't agree that they should have taken out the Wii part of it. You don't totally rebrand after the most successful home console in a company's history. Wii 2 almost definitely would have been a better name, but apparently marketers wouldn't have liked the "2" next to the Playstation "4" on store shelves.

Blind_Evil wrote:

PXA, if I came off as dismissive I apologize. This part of your post:

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

It's honestly enough to make even me think twice now and I'm usually the first person to say that people who complain about minor account headaches whine too much.

Made me think you were voicing your concern strictly in regards to your own purchase, so I responded with the best consumer advice I can give: wait it out. I agree that Nintendo should have done better, but they didn't. My instinct is that the account situation won't be that big a deal to most people, but that is independent of other issues that the system has or may later face (poor product understanding, possible technology gap, mainstream abandonment and core alienation).

I'll admit stating "Don't buy it! Simple!" is a bit glib, my bad. I think we're cool now.

DSGamer, parsing the rest isn't worth the time. That is how my dismissive reads.

I rather like this post B_E. Cools things down a bit. *High Five*

The more I think about it, the less I'm convinced there's a good way for marketing to successfully explain that a next-step console is not only compatible with but is partially dependent upon hardware from the manufacturer's previous console. It doesn't allow for a "this is all new" clean break approach, and yet is at severe risk of running into the "is it really any different?" trap of the non-informed consumer. Nintendo may be dropping the ball on this simply because there aren't any easy or concise ways to explain that it's a new console but you won't want to get rid of most of your old stuff.

ianunderhill wrote:

The more I think about it, the less I'm convinced there's a good way for marketing to successfully explain that a next-step console is not only compatible with but is partially dependent upon hardware from the manufacturer's previous console. It doesn't allow for a "this is all new" clean break approach, and yet is at severe risk of running into the "is it really any different?" trap of the non-informed consumer. Nintendo may be dropping the ball on this simply because there aren't any easy or concise ways to explain that it's a new console but you won't want to get rid of most of your old stuff.

Agreed, I feel like Nintendo is in a damned-if-you-do state in a lot of ways this generation. Try to attract hardcore gamers and they're accused of ignoring the Wii fan base and told they'll fail. Go casual and they're ignoring the hardcore gamers and will fail because casual gamers won't upgrade.

It's an interesting situation and I'm excited to watch it all play it out. Personally I think the gamepad will end up being a lot more revolutionary than people think.

Blind_Evil wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:

"some of them weren't sure what it was"

Yes yes yes.

This is the biggest problem facing Nintendo on top of a poor economy. They should never have called this a Wii. The mainstream just don't know/care enough to look into it further. From a gamer perspective, there are cool ideas here...for my brother (who owns a Wii and 360 but no "gamer" himself), it doesn't even register.

I can't agree that they should have taken out the Wii part of it. You don't totally rebrand after the most successful home console in a company's history. Wii 2 almost definitely would have been a better name, but apparently marketers wouldn't have liked the "2" next to the Playstation "4" on store shelves.

I'll give you that, Wii 2 would have been much better. Folks understand that.

MisterStatic wrote:

I'll give you that, Wii 2 would have been much better. Folks understand that.

They understand it, but at the same time understand that marketing isn't going to want your system with a lower number next to another new console. Wii 2 versus the Playstation 3.

It's one of the reasons I imagine Microsoft chose Xbox 360 rather than Xbox 2.

Just had my first hard lock. I was trying to access the friends list. No game going or anything. Just that orange smiley face staring at me. Had to pull power too.

ccesarano wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:

I'll give you that, Wii 2 would have been much better. Folks understand that.

They understand it, but at the same time understand that marketing isn't going to want your system with a lower number next to another new console. Wii 2 versus the Playstation 3.

It's one of the reasons I imagine Microsoft chose Xbox 360 rather than Xbox 2.

They should have called it Wii 4 All then. :p

Whatever. Just something to get people to know it's another system. I can't tell you how many regular people, aka non-gamers, I have heard this week think it's just some Wii add-on like Wii Fit, if they've even heard of it at all...

I really don't think it has anything to do with the name though, it's all about how they present it. Show 4 people playing a New Super Mario Bros game with 1 person using a gamepad and the rest using Wiimotes and you'll think it's the Wii plus a new peripheral or maybe a full handheld system that can interact with the Wii. Totally reasonably conclusion and the one are I do think Nintendo dropped the ball on.

That said, this generation is a whole new world from previous ones. Wii Fit, Kinect, Move, etc have all changed the way systems work*. Previously you heard a company like Nintendo or Sony had a new device and you assumed it was a new system. Now there are so many add-ons that the entire line is blurred. Nintendo is the first to wade into these waters.

*Well, except for the Genesis with Sega CD and 32X. Interesting that we've come back to that kind of model again.

If 360 was chosen to match up with PS 3, do you think if the next Xbox is 720 that the Playstation will be the PS 7, I wonder?

I think the important part is that you show people the gameplay, and even if they think it's just an add on, they'll still at least know its a Wii U. If it interests them, they'll find out soon enough that its a console.

Worse case scenario, someone thinks its a peripheral, wants to buy, but is put off by the price. They weren't going to buy a new console anyway, so you're not losing a sale.

I dunno, I'm not a marketer, just my thoughts, FWIW.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'll admit stating "Don't buy it! Simple!" is a bit glib, my bad. I think we're cool now.

It's all good duder. Yeah, I was speaking more of the problem Nintendo's facing with the larger mainstream consumer base. To people like us, most of these issues don't matter, especially those about awareness of what the system is. I also agree that the Bombcast seems to have already cemented their position as down on the WiiU and they're overstating the seriousness of the issues they have. But I was stunned by how many people at my work I've queried about this who had no idea Nintendo was even making a new system, much less what the WiiU was all about. They may very well have an epic marketing push set up for December and I really hope they do because they've got a lot of hearts and minds to turn. I want this thing to be a massive success, I just hope Nintendo can make it so.

A lot of people think that sales are down because people are waiting for new systems.

My suspicion is that it's just that people are kinda bored with console games, because they've hardly changed. Here near the end of the console lifecycle, the games that we're seeing are better than they were at the beginning, but they aren't wildly different beasts. There's nothing really exciting going on, just endless refinements of the same ideas from 2006.

I think they've basically stripmined gamers, and haven't been doing the proper exploratory digging for new gameplay seams.

Glad you didn't slip on the stairs and break your neck for it.

My Wii U just arrived. I had to jump out of the shower, throw on clothes while still wet, and run down the stairs dripping to catch the postal carrier before she left, but it's here! Patch time report and everything will be posted in short order. I'm hoping speeds are a little better since it's nearly a week after launch but we'll see. So excited!

EDIT: Things are still abysmally slow for the patch download - took me a good eighty minutes or so.

I may have just wandered out of a store with a deluxe version.

Don't judge. My wife wants to play Mario.

Glad to see more folks picking one up. More of you need to buy ZombiU and friend me up so I can loot your zombie corpses for supplies.

Just spent several hours playing NintendoLand after getting the system setup, accounts created, etc. I had a friend visit for a good three hours and it was filled with checking out all the multiplayer minigames. I'm honestly a bit tired and won't go into significant detail for now, but I will say I am not disappointed in the slightest - this is an already fun system that has a crazy amount of potential. Here's hoping developers and designers figure out all sorts of great stuff to do with the hardware (and that those long-ass load times are something that can be fixed by updates from Nintendo - it's my only complaint!).

Tomorrow, I will be spending time with ZombiU and Scribblenauts Unlimited. NSMBU is still in the mail.

Ian, when I search for you in Miiverse it doesn't turn up any results, but when I sent you the less-friendly FR (you'd have to enter my ID), it worked. It's probably a privacy setting somewhere.