The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

[miffy495]

...and the system is purchased. Doing a system update now. The Future Shop I walked into (had a $50 gift card left over from Christmas) was having a surprise unadvertised one-day promotion, so it was $50 off in addition to that gift card. I am a lucky person today. Can't wait to start playing the thing!

[tegan]

Hey, do the ones on the shelf now have the day 1 patch preinstalled? I remember that being a huge bummer; I spent three hours setting the damned thing up when I bought it on launch day. Doing the big patch next week will hopefully be pretty painless, at least. I think this is the same patch that's adding user-made communities for Miiverse, so are we gonna' make an Idle Thumbs Miiverse group? I hope Nintendo allows an LGBT group and doesn't pull a Microsoft.

 

By the way: Playing Kirby and not having to pause when I need to use the toilet is the best thing you guys.

[tegan]

So according to a thing put up on Nintendo's Facebook page yesterday, it looks like the big April firmware update is due out sometime today, with Virtual console services launching sometime tomorrow. Also, here's a handy list of games confirmed to be coming to VC at some time or another, since the video from last week's Nintendo Direct flashes them by so quickly.

 

Balloon Fight (already released as part of 30 cent deal, will likely be available tomorrow for full price)

Donkey Kong (to be released on July 15th as part of 30 cent deal)

Donkey Kong Jr.

EarthBound

Excitebike (confirmed to be launching alongside Virtual Console tomorrow)

F-Zero (already released as part of 30 cent deal, will likely be available tomorrow for full price)

Ice Climber (stongly hinted to be launching alongside Virtual Console tomorrow)

Kirby Super Star

Kirby's Adventure (currently available as part of 30 cent deal)

Kirby's Dream Course

Kirby's Dream Land 3

Mario Bros.

Mega Man

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (already released as part of 30 cent deal, will likely be available tomorrow for full price)

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario World

Super Metroid (to be released on May 15th as part of 30 cent deal)

Wrecking Crew

Yoshi (to be released on June 12th as part of 30 cent deal)

Yoshi's Cookie

 

And this seems like the perfect time to remind anyone who bought a Deluxe Wii U (any black model) that you should be tracking your digital purchases on this website. Deluxe owners are all included as part of a promotion where, until the end of 2014, 10% of the money you spend in the Wii U eshop goes back to you in the form of an eShop credit in increments of five dollars. It's going to be pretty useful with Virtual Console active, but you have to actively participate to take advantage of it.

[tegan]

Sorry for the false alarm yesterday, Nintendo had a listing on their website for Excitebike and the Wii U facebook page had a "two days" teaser that turned out to just be the reveal of the VC launch games: all of the games already released as part of the 30 cent offer; plus Donkey Kong Jr., Excitebike, Ice Climber, and Super Mario World.

 

Also, Pikmin 3 was given an official release date this week: August 4th. And one of the Japanese wallpapers has finally confirmed that Purple and White Pikmin are indeed returning. I'm glad, 'cause purples are my favourites.

[Frenetic Pony]

So when's the new Smash Bros coming out, and the Windwaker remake? And Pokemon Snap 2 using the tablet thing as an alternate reality camera? Those are the things that will make me buy this. Until then

[tegan]

Smash Bros. info is coming at E3 and the Windwaker Remake is probably not going to be until November or so. I know you're joking, but still.

I also want a Pokémon Snap 2 with the gamepad so bad.

 

 

So Miiversefor PCs and Smartphones is now live, although you can't post yet. Presumably that's coming with the system update, which is likely going live tonight. But right now, what you CAN do is easily screencap Wii U games!

 

[miffy495]

Has anyone done the Wii system transfer thing? I'm eyeing it, as I don't want to re-buy a bunch of stuff for the Wii U (at least not at full price), but am holding off for two very important reasons. Number one is that I'm afraid I'll lose access to my Donkey Kong Country trilogy, as they no longer sell it on the eShop and I play my SNES games on the Wii off of an SD card. The second is that I'd like to keep a copy of Sonic (at least 1 and 2) and Mario Party 2 on the Wii so that we can keep the Wii at the girlfriend's place. Those are pretty much the only games she's ever cared about, and having the Wii there so that she could play them would be nice. I'm aware that I'd transfer the licenses in the process, but would I be able to buy new ones for the old Wii? I'd be happy to cough up the $30 or whatever so that she could keep on playing them without me having to unhook and carry a Wii U over to her house if we wanted to hang out in her bed playing old games for an hour. Does anyone have answers to either of these problems? If you've done the transfer, would anyone be able to check if the original Wii would let you buy a game that you'd purchased and transferred off of the system a second time? If you moved your licenses, can you still download DKC even though it's not for sale anymore?

[tegan]

I haven't done the transfer (I want to keep Gamecube controller support for Smash Bros.), but I can answer that: The Donkey Kong Country games will indeed transfer, as will any other games that are no longer distributed on the Wii (ie: Ninja Turtles for NES). The old Wii is reformatted and will be seen as, for all intents and purposes, a new Wii. You'll be able to buy Sonic and Mario Party on the Wii again, but not DKC.

 

Also, for some reason Lost Winds doesn't transfer. Nobody is entirely certain why.

[tegan]

The update is live, and it's huge! Downloading as we speak! Go, before there's an official news story and the servers get hammered!

[Twig]

Also, for some reason Lost Winds doesn't transfer. Nobody is entirely certain why.

That's a shame. It was a neat game.

[miffy495]

I haven't done the transfer (I want to keep Gamecube controller support for Smash Bros.), but I can answer that: The Donkey Kong Country games will indeed transfer, as will any other games that are no longer distributed on the Wii (ie: Ninja Turtles for NES). The old Wii is reformatted and will be seen as, for all intents and purposes, a new Wii. You'll be able to buy Sonic and Mario Party on the Wii again, but not DKC.

 

That's fine, the girlfriend hates Donkey Kong. The noises that he makes annoy the hell out of her. He is always the AI enemy in Mario Party, just so she can mess with him. Good news then, as the Wii can live at her house and she'll be happy with it. Weird about Lost Winds, but oh well. I beat it within a week of its release and haven't really thought much about it since. Bought but only played the first chunk of the sequel as well, I wonder if that switches over. Good point about GCN controller support for Smash though. I hadn't thought about that. Oh well, no big. I've got classic pros for that, and they work acceptably well.

[Thrik]

Does she hate the DKC noises or just the shitty noises the Nintendo gave him though? It sounds so petty but I really hate the way they make him sound in all the newer games.

[Roderick]

Nintendo are not always smart with their noises. Mario has become a horrible string of 'let's a-go' and 'yahoo!' in especially the remakes of earlier games. I don't have a specific loathing for Donkey Kong aside from a general disliking of his design, but I do actively dislike Yoshi. Part of that is his design, part of it the flubbery noises he makes.

 

Of course Nintendo redeemed themselves in every way with Waluigi.

[tegan]

Yoshi and modern Donkey Kong are both horrible characters and I feel solidarity in knowing that I am not the only one who hates them.

 

The Mario series' character designs in general are really weird, often because they originate from a time when pallet swaps were a thing. It would be sacrilege to introduce a character like Luigi or Princess Daisy in any other medium. The weirdest for me is Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr., who are two distinct characters who just happen to look and sound identical to one another outside of the design on a single article of clothing.

 

 

As for sound, Toad shrieking every line of his dialogue is the funniest goddamned thing to me and I hope they never give him a "real" voice.

[shammack]

As for sound, Toad shrieking every line of his dialogue is the funniest goddamned thing to me and I hope they never give him a "real" voice.

 

I also love the way he makes little squeaky-toy noises as he runs around in Luigi's Mansion.

[tegan]

Virtual Console is live, you guys! I'm excited to see whet gets added in the coming weeks.

[miffy495]

Yoshi and modern Donkey Kong are both horrible characters and I feel solidarity in knowing that I am not the only one who hates them.

 

The Mario series' character designs in general are really weird, often because they originate from a time when pallet swaps were a thing. It would be sacrilege to introduce a character like Luigi or Princess Daisy in any other medium. The weirdest for me is Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr., who are two distinct characters who just happen to look and sound identical to one another outside of the design on a single article of clothing.

 

 

As for sound, Toad shrieking every line of his dialogue is the funniest goddamned thing to me and I hope they never give him a "real" voice.

 

That's kind of funny, the Toad thing is also a sticking point for her. She absolutely loves the N64 era Toad voice, but the newer incarnations where he got all raspy annoys the hell out of her. Mario Party 2 and Mario Kart 64 Toad is her favourite character ever, but sitting next to me while I play NSMBU the first thing she said was "Please tell me that sound isn't supposed to be Toad..."

[Twig]

Wario, Luigi, and Waluigi are the only good characters that exist in that universe.

 

Actually, I love Donkey Kong. Fuck all y'all. ;_;

 

Can't abide his inbred family, though.

[tegan]

I remember Jenn Frank walking about the extended Donkey Kong family on Retronauts once, and comparing them to the episodes of Scooby-Doo where they hung out with Scooby-Dum or Scooby-Dee or whatever. A truer comparison has never been made.

 

Crazy theory time: You know how all Yoshis look exactly the same and all Toads look exactly the same? What if, in Mario World, all humans look exactly the same? If you're a dude; you will inevitably get a crazy moustache, overalls and a dumb hat. If you're a lady, you get the same build as Peach.

[Sno]

I think it's a toss up between Star Fox's crew and DK's crew as to which is the worst stable of characters in Nintendo's franchise library.

Go check out those Star Fox Command endings.

Amazing.

Actually, thinking about it, it's Star Fox by a long shot. At least the DK games are generally good.

(It is my opinion that the original Star Fox is the only good Star Fox game.)

[Thrik]

Man what's up with you guys? I love the DK crew! Well, the ones in DKC. After that it got a bit excessive and redundant.

[tegan]

Candy Kong's appearance is completely unjustifiable.

 

[Thrik]

Haha, OK she was a bit iffy. They did away with her fairly quickly though.

[tegan]

Nnnnnnope!

 

Though she has been a non-playable character since her first appearance, she has her own action figure in Japan.

She appears in almost all Donkey Kong games to date, usually hosting minigames or helping the Kongs by selling things to them. She has also appeared in comics and in the official Donkey Kong Country cartoon.

[Twig]

Diddy is the most acceptable of the inbred Kong family (mostly 'cause he's fun to play as), but I'd still rather even he not exist ever again EVER.