Wii U Catch-All

breander wrote:
Ulairi wrote:
breander wrote:
Ulairi wrote:
breander wrote:

So 3 months of nothing...

Rayman, Lego, and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for me. That's pretty damn good.

I didn't actually do the math correct in my head for those games but it will have been pretty much a 3 month drought since the launch of the system. Hopefully things pick up toward the fall of this year. I feel like Nintendo rushed this out the door a little to soon. The O.S. wasn't even done until literally the night before launch day. TVii functionally didn't come till a month later and is still incomplete. Healthy list of launch games but then practically 3 months of nothing. Nintendo again talked a big game about big third party support but is not getting any major third party game coming out this spring except I think aliens. Not hating on the system I like it but I just cleaned a layer of dust off my gamepad when cleaning my house the other day. Get your stuff together Nintendo.

How many new games do you want to buy every month? I think when people say "there is nothing to play!" I don't know what they actually mean. I own: New Super Mario Brothers U, Zombi U, Assassins Creed 3, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, and Nintendo Land for the Wii U. Those are all launch games. Within the first quarter, I'll be buying 3 more games. That will bring the total games that I have played on the Wii U up to 9 games within the first 4 months of release. 3 games in the first quarter averages to one new game a month. I think Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Lego City Undercover, and Rayman are a good slate of games for what I want to play. That doesn't even include the new Aliens game which from what developers have said will be the best on the Wii U. I think the drought will be here over the summer but we are due for a new Nintendo Direct focused on the Wii U next month. If Nintendo can release Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, and something else for the summer I'll be happy with that slate.

What are you expectations?

Ideally I would like to see at least a trickle of games. 1 or 2 games every week or every other. With this the idea is that some of those games I would be interested in and some I would not but would be of interest to others. Right now the only games I have is Mario and Nintendo Land. I might get Zombie U when the price comes down a bit, I was kinda meh on the demo but otherwise I have played all those other games that I was interested in on other consoles months ago. My expectations are a steady release of content. I'm looking forward to Rayman and Pikman. But its still another month and a half until Rayman comes out and another month and a half of dust settling on the gamepad screen.

Something else I remember from listening to all the game of the year podcasts just a few weeks ago and even on the GWJ Conference call. I remember someone had to speak up and mention oh hey the Wii U came out this year and everyone else was like oh yeah it did didn't it. Literally a month later people who basically live and breathe video games and even owned the system forgot it existed.

The gaming intelligentsia has ignored Nintendo for decades. This isn't new. With the Wii, it wasn't uncommon to hear someone on a gaming podcast say "I'd really like to play this game but I don't want to play it on the Wii". I think the people that live and breathe video games, often are the ones, who want to apologize for video games. See why everyone has jumped up and down over the Walking Dead.

I think you've lost perspective on how console launches work, breander. Let's take a look.

Xbox360 came out in mid November 2005. From December 2005 to the end of February 2006, three whole games came out.

PS3 came out in November 2006. December 2006 to February 2006, six games came out. None were exclusive.

Actually quite a few games came out for the Wii in it's first three months post-launch. Only one was worth a damn, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.

We've come a long way since it was cool to launch in June with Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 and not see another game til September (Wave Race 64). Post-launch periods will always be a little dry because everyone rushes to get everything they have out the door in time for day-one sales.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I think you've lost perspective on how console launches work, breander. Let's take a look.

Xbox360 came out in mid November 2005. From December 2005 to the end of February 2006, three whole games came out.

PS3 came out in November 2006. December 2006 to February 2006, six games came out. None were exclusive.

Actually quite a few games came out for the Wii in it's first three months post-launch. Only one was worth a damn, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves.

We've come a long way since it was cool to launch in June with Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 and not see another game til September (Wave Race 64). Post-launch periods will always be a little dry because everyone rushes to get everything they have out the door in time for day-one sales.

I would argue that just because that is how it was last generation that does not mean that is how it should be. All I'm asking for is like 3 -5 games per month with the hopes that I would at least be interested in at least 1 or 2. But it is what it is and I know there will eventually be some awesome games to play on it.

I agree, things could be better, but I wouldn't feel right holding the Wii U to standards that nobody ever meets. I have a 360, 3DS, Vita, and I'm getting a PS3 soon. I have no shortage of things to play while the Wii U establishes a niche for itself. If it can pull the same weight my Wii did (6-8 good games per year) I'll be totally happy.

The difficulty with a trickle of games is that no one who has a game ready for launch wants to wait, everyone wants their game at launch to boost their own sales. So it's hard to establish that kind of thing right around launch. I don't think there's any way around it, it's just the nature of the beast.

I'm pleased with launch, I've not finished the launch games I bought yet, and I'm actually playing through some Wii games on my Wii U right now, so I don't need a new game every week.

Ulairi wrote:

See why everyone has jumped up and down over the Walking Dead.

Wait...what? You mean because they like it? That made no sense.

Farscry wrote:
Ulairi wrote:

See why everyone has jumped up and down over the Walking Dead.

Wait...what? You mean because they like it? That made no sense.

I'm not saying they don't like it. I don't want to derail this thread and since my feeling on the game is so contrary to what a lot of other people here I want to keep it to myself. What I mean is this, when we listen to podcasters they have ignored and marginalized Nintendo since the Super Nintendo. The games Nintendo makes are not in vogue with the gaming intelligentsia. Nintendo doesn't make "interactive cinematic experiences" so I don't think podcasters are a very good barometer on what most consumers want to buy.

I've always wanted to get into the Monster Hunter series.. hopefully the WiiU version gets me hooked, esp. if there's a demo coming out. By the way feel free to add me on your friends list, Carlbear95.

Carlbear95 wrote:

I've always wanted to get into the Monster Hunter series.. hopefully the WiiU version gets me hooked, esp. if there's a demo coming out. By the way feel free to add me on your friends list, Carlbear95.

Welcome to Monster Hunter, it's a great game, especially with friends. There's also a thread for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

There was a pretty interesting article at gamasutra today about the launch games and their spread over the launch window.

While the Wii U has a greater total number of games released during the window than either the PS3 or Xbox 360, the difficulty is in spreading them out over that time. So post-launch doldrums seems to be a problem of frequency rather than quantity.

breander wrote:

So 3 months of nothing...

I'm with you man, where are the 1st party games? How did Nintendo release this thing and not have their signature stuff on display or at least 4-6 months after launch? Don't give me "oh new super mario brothers!" Yeah that game has came out like 4 times in the past 2 years. Give me something new.

Gumbie wrote:

Don't give me "oh new super mario brothers!" Yeah that game has came out like 4 times in the past 2 years

Nintendo Land is new, and Nintendo Land is good. Almost everyone here that's played it agrees, so dismiss it at your own discretion. ZombiU is also high quality, unique, and made quite a few GOTY lists. Does it not count because it's not first party developed?

Regarding NSMB U, it's the best of the "new" games by a longshot in my eyes, though I haven't played NSMB2. Doing it best is just as good as doing it first, I think. I also think that expecting a ton of new franchises from Nintendo after 25ish years of getting one or two per generation is folly. And even when they do make new franchises, nobody buys them. At least not core gamers.

New super mario brothers is the best of the new super mario brothers series but I still finding my self wanting to break out my NES or SNES and play the mario games on there. There is just something about those older games that these new ones just are not quite getting. I fire up New Super Mario Bros Wii U and I just feel very meh about it, but I can't really quite say why. Everything about it screams that it should be awesome but it just isn't. It's good for sure but it's not great like a Mario game should be.

I do agree that Nintendo Land is great though!

Well, there's stuff I'm interested in at least...

Lego City: Undercover - I am ALL over this shizzle.
Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate - Always thought I should give this series a try, so I think I shall.
Aliens: Colonial Marines - If they do some really cool stuff with the pad I might actually consider getting this version. Maybe
Rayman® Legends - looks pretty neat, it's on the list.

Tomorrow's Nintendo Direct (9 AM EST) will supposedly include new game announcements for the Wii U.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Tomorrow's Nintendo Direct (9 AM EST) will supposedly include new game announcements for the Wii U.

If I wish really hard will it make Smash Bros come true?

^ yes I believe it will.

Demyx wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Tomorrow's Nintendo Direct (9 AM EST) will supposedly include new game announcements for the Wii U.

If I wish really hard will it make Smash Bros come true?

It'd be a hell of a November title, but I don't think it'd be announced before E3 if it were coming.

Demyx wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Tomorrow's Nintendo Direct (9 AM EST) will supposedly include new game announcements for the Wii U.

If I wish really hard will it make Smash Bros come true?

Probably not, but maybe we'll learn of Retro's new project.

I'm moving soon and my family will be needing a replacement for my Wii. I'm considering getting a Wii-U a lot sooner than expected. I might be able to manage it since my future roommate and I got first month's rent free in our new apartment. This Nintendo Direct may push me in the direction of "buy soon".

The Nintendo Direct is happening right now. I don't have sound, so no idea what's happening. I'd appreciate a report of what's covered.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

The Nintendo Direct is happening right now. I don't have sound, so no idea what's happening. I'd appreciate a report of what's covered. :D

Based on the Joystiq front page they dropped some interesting news:

SMT x Fire Emblem (I'm guessing Devil Survivor here?)
New 3D Mario (playable at E3) EDIT: Not sure if this is a 3DS game as it's from the 3D Land team.
New Mario Kart (right on schedule, also at E3)
Wind Waker HD
New Zelda Game in the works (I think this was a given)
Spring Firmware Update
Native Virtual Console after Spring Update

Haven't read the articles as I'm at work, but that's the headlines so far

shoptroll wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

The Nintendo Direct is happening right now. I don't have sound, so no idea what's happening. I'd appreciate a report of what's covered. :D

Based on the Joystiq front page they dropped some interesting news:

SMT x Fire Emblem (I'm guessing Devil Survivor here?)
New 3D Mario (playable at E3)
New Mario Kart (right on schedule, also at E3)
Wind Waker HD
New Zelda Game in the works (I think this was a given)
Spring Firmware Update
Native Virtual Console after Spring Update

Haven't read the articles as I'm at work, but that's the headlines so far

All very good stuff!

shoptroll wrote:

Wind Waker HD

Since it's cell-shaded, isn't that just a matter of rendering everything at the higher resolution? It's not like they need to spend a lot of time on high-res textures.

Not that I think this approach is a cop out. I still think Wind Waker is the best looking game in the series. The animation is so smooth and expressive…

Nice to see they're picking low hanging fruit like that.

And Dtoid is saying there's a Yoshi's Epic Yarn coming, and they teased something "Xeno" related from Monolith.

EDIT: If they're getting this all out of the way now, I really wonder what they're going to do during their E3 keynote.

Let's dig into my twitters and see what I can recover...

Spring and Summer updates for the system that will speed up the OS's operation.

Updates to the Miiverse to allow things like communities and multiple official communities for game titles. So we could get a GamersWithJobs Miiverse community going, theoretically. Trying to make it more organized so people don't get so lost when they post something or go unheard.

WiiU will be getting its own Virtual Console starting with NES and SNES, and GameBoyAdvance will be added to it. If you bought a VC game for the Wii, you get to repurchase it for WiiU at a reduced price (about $1-$1.50) (I think this is a bad move. You don't tell someone they have to buy a product twice but because they get it cheap they're getting a deal). Before the Virtual Console is official, they will be releasing 30 virtual console titles for 30 cents, each being available for 30 days (because it's the original Famicom's 30th anniversay I think they said?). Balloon Fight will be the first title, but I can't recall any others but Super Metroid.

Virtual Console games will be getting back-up save data like VC games on 3DS, and they will also get Miiverse communities. I cannot remember if they mentioned being able to play it on your tablet, but I don't see why not.

There was some mention of Miiverse functionality in Pikmin 3 and WiiFitU, but I can't remember any of it.

Then they started showing games and the video feed became sh*tty.

Wonderful 101 was the first game they showed off, and it looks awesomely Japanese including 80's cartoon quality voice acting.

They announced they'll reveal more info about the next Smash Bros., Mario and Mario Kart games at E3.

They didn't show an official trailer of Bayonetta 2, just developers discussing it and character and environment models. They want "the first encounter to feel like it could be the last boss and maintain that the whole way through", to paraphrase. Basically, looks like more Bayonetta.

They didn't title it that I could hear, but they're basically making Yoshi's Epic Yarn.

Atlus is developing a crossover title Shin Megami Tensai X Fire Emblem. No idea what to expect from that.

Monolithsoft is making a new Xeno game of sort that at first reminded me of a sort of Monster Hunter style game. Then the guy hopped in a Mech and sh*t got crazy. No official title yet.

EDIT: Ah, ShopTroll reminded me. They're releasing a report? of Wind Waker in the Fall. They said it's not just better graphics, but they'll also be trying to fine-tune it.

As for the New Zelda, they had Aonuma announce the two philosophies driving the game. How to approach dungeons and "playing alone". It sounds like they want to make the game more open-ended and less linear, but they didn't detail what they're trying to adjust when it comes to "playing alone".

ccesarano wrote:

(I think this is a bad move. You don't tell someone they have to buy a product twice but because they get it cheap they're getting a deal).

It worked for the Vita didn't it?

EDIT: MOTHER 2 ON JAPANESE WII U VIRTUAL CONSOLE. YAY!

Don't know if this has been mentioned but I saw this morning that they are redoing "Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" Should have HD graphics and be out in the fall!

ccesarano wrote:

Virtual Console games will be getting back-up save data like VC games on 3DS, and they will also get Miiverse communities. I cannot remember if they mentioned being able to play it on your tablet, but I don't see why not.

Gamepad playability was touted as a specific feature for Wii U VC releases, along with save states. For me, this alone makes $1-$1.50 an acceptable price for repurchase. (It's worth noting some small bias here as I don't have many to repurchase - I didn't have a Wii, so I'll be holding off on buying any further Wii VC titles between now and spring.)

shoptroll wrote:

EDIT: MOTHER 2 ON JAPANESE WII U VIRTUAL CONSOLE. YAY!

Mother 2 is also on the Japanese Wii VC. Still not available in the US.

farley3k wrote:

Don't know if this has been mentioned but I saw this morning that they are redoing "Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" Should have HD graphics and be out in the fall!

Filthy skimmer! *shakin' a fist!*

ianunderhill wrote:

Gamepad playability was touted as a specific feature for Wii U VC releases, along with save states. For me, this alone makes $1-$1.50 an acceptable price for repurchase. (It's worth noting some small bias here as I don't have many to repurchase - I didn't have a Wii, so I'll be holding off on buying any further Wii VC titles between now and spring.)

I have a few. Lemme see if I can count 'em. Ice Hockey, Super Metroid, Kirby's Dreamland (which I probably won't repurchase), Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III. So basically about $4 or $5 total, so not TOO bad.

Though I just realized I DID grab Phoenix Wright 3 for Wii. Hrm.

That's beautiful.