The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

[Squid Division]

The Nintendo platforms lineup for the next month is pretty special - November has Layton, Zelda and 3D World, probably the most fun-looking game I've seen all year, and I am absurdly enthused for this despite being a fully-grown adult man.

 

I really hope Nintendo is able to do for the WiiU what they've done for the 3DS this year, because that was such a huge turnaround. It feels like old Nintendo, where's it's the same old franchises, in weird new games (in a good way).

[tegan]

The Nintendo platforms lineup for the next month is pretty special - November has Layton, Zelda and 3D World, probably the most fun-looking game I've seen all year, and I am absurdly enthused for this despite being a fully-grown adult man.

 

Super Mario 3D World, Zelda, and the Xbox one all launch on the same day. ...The same day that Tearaway comes out. Poor Vita just can't catch a break.

[Ucantalas]

I sometimes feel really bad for the Vita. I know a few people who have it, and they really like it. But hardly anyone (that I know, at least) has one. And no one I talk to about it want one.

[Larsen B]

I'd only played Pikmin 1 up until the very last mission and don\t really remember much about it but I adored Pikmin 3 in just about every way possible. It wasn't overly taxing but it was one of the most satisfying things I've played in ages. Eurogamer once described A World Of Keflings as "a thick winter warmer of a game, served with a toasted crusty roll" and I think that definitely applies to Pikmin 3.

 

I sometimes feel really bad for the Vita. I know a few people who have it, and they really like it. But hardly anyone (that I know, at least) has one. And no one I talk to about it want one.

 

My elder brother just bought both a Wii U and a Vita in the space of a fortnight after I repeatedly said how much fun I was having with both of them. Talk about rats joining sinking ships!

[Yasawas]

I really hope Nintendo is able to do for the WiiU what they've done for the 3DS this year, because that was such a huge turnaround. It feels like old Nintendo, where's it's the same old franchises, in weird new games (in a good way).

Me too, and the way they've turned the 3DS around from the state it was in 12-18 months ago is part of what inspired me to get a Wii U. Even if nobody else is making stuff for it Nintendo alone can make it worthwhile, and with Smash Bros, Donkey Kong Country and Mario Kart next year that's a strong start.

Now make an F-Zero please! It's been over ten years now.

[Squid Division]

Finally got picked up the Wind Waker bundle. Good lord this game is gorgeous. And good, I had only played through the first dungeon on the original game.

Kinda mad I had missed out on all the real cheap Virtual Console deals. Also, is it just me or is the Virtual console pretty lacking in general?

[tegan]

Kinda mad I had missed out on all the real cheap Virtual Console deals. Also, is it just me or is the Virtual console pretty lacking in general?

 

Totes. It's been a very slow drip. Still no word on when N64 or GBA games will hit.

[Roderick]

Nintendo doesn't have a good track record of filling up virtual consoles. If I recall, the Wii one was disappointing, and two years after the launch of the 3DS there still aren't that many things on offer. The hardware is clearly capable of handling it, they have systems in place to make it happen, but apparently the will isn't there.

[Sno]

I will argue that there is an incredible wealth of amazing games on Virtual Console. It was a slow drip feed, but it got there, and it's now offering up a huge chunk of gaming history.

It's terrible at a service level though, unquestionably.

[Roderick]

Granted, my knowledge is mostly about the 3DS shop, where I would say there's a dearth of classic games. Where are the SNES games? GBA? Only Capcom seems to be flushing the system with Mega Men.

[Sno]

The 3DS VC is in a real weird place right now. It seemed like the plan was to focus on emulating old handhelds, but along the way they appeared to realize that nobody was buying those, and so they're doing NES stuff too now.

On the Wii, the additions to the library started getting really interesting after the first couple years of its existence, they started getting into much rarer and less well known games, things that really deserved the attention. The emulation is rock solid too, though fairly featureless, but the former is more important than the latter.

[Thrik]

I was pretty satisfied with the Wii virtual console, in that it had every SNES game I was actually interested in playing. I was pretty disappointed when they decided to remove Donkey Kong Country 1–3 after some years though, as I hadn't yet gotten around buying #2 (but was just about to when I discovered this). Has it turned up on the Wii U's version?

 

One thing I don't like about the whole virtual console thing is the fact that it does seem like your purchases are locked to the platform you bought them on? It feels kind of shit that when building up a collection of old games for consoles that're ancient history, you're building the collection on a console that is itself one day going to become ancient history. And what if your console just dies? What happens to those purchases? Even if they can be restored, what about things that've been removed from the store like DKC?

 

Will the store even exist so things can be restored in 5–10 years? It's kind of weird to thing about things on this timescale, but with gaming (and us) becoming much older now that is a reality. I'm sometimes playing games that're 24 years old, so the whole 'How long will your collection last?' question is a concern. I don't want to keep buying the same old games again and again.

 

It seems like you're much better off just buying a laptop/box and running an emulator on it beneath your TV (easy to sync up with, say, PS3 pads nowadays). Sony is the only one that seems to have the right idea at the moment, by building a robust streaming service to play old games indefinitely that can theoretically work on any platform. And the beauty of it is that as the service ages and the hardware is improved, it'll become less demanding to run the older games.

[Sno]

You can transfer VC purchases from a Wii to a Wii U. (Where they'll run in the backwards compatible mode of the Wii U, and if you want to upgrade, you'll apparently also be offered a steeply discounted price whenever/if an updated Wii U-native emulation package becomes available for that VC game.)

The hardware-tied purchases is an incredibly obnoxious detail to navigate around, but Nintendo has given you paths for transferring content between systems.

As for things being removed from the store, and about whether or not that stuff will still "belong" to you in ten years, i don't know.

That's the big question for all of these digital services, we just don't know.

[Thrik]

The backwards compatibility thing is still limiting the purchase to at most two generations, so unless a native version is released and you buy it (albeit discounted) you're still stuck with either losing or re-buying. I think that's the biggest thing that grates me, as if I invest in a collection of classics I don't want it to just stop working. I know for a lot of people this is a 'so far away I don't care' kind of thing, but I don't want to keep buying classic games practically every time I get the urge to play them (which is usually every 5–10 years).

 

It is a big question indeed, and one that leaves us reliant on console manufacturers because they pretty much dictate how all this works. At least with things like Steam you can still happily play away on purchases you made on it back in 2004, which is a compelling point that makes the looming Steam Machine a very attractive choice — there is no longer the generational compatibility divide, your shit is yours forever.

 

Console manufacturers should be thinking about how to get a similar concept in place for their digital shops (admittedly, Sony already is by moving towards streaming legacy titles). Some PC games do stop working optimally over time, but usually they can be coerced to work. I'm used to this kind of persistence, which is what primarily puts me off these console-based things. It's just so much easier to install an emulator on my laptop and enjoy old games for as long as I want. And what do I care about the legality of it? I've bought most of the games once or twice before.

[Thrik]

Going back to GAMES, this long trailer for Super Mario 3D World is definitely making me want some Wii U:

 

 

Stop it games industry, I have no money at this time of year! 

 

Is it me or is that music at about 0:22 onwards a more upbeat Zelda's Lullaby?

[Twig]

I feel like, in terms of Virtual Console, they should just dump everything on there as fast as possible, and then run promotional specials to call attention to things they think can sell better. At least it'd make me happier, 'cause I wouldn't have to wait for shit to come out whenever they deem it should happen.

 

I've also heard from random people that they are planning on eventually tying digital purchases to an account, instead of to hardware. And there's this: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/05/nintendo-we-would-like-to-enrich-our-virtual-console-lineup

 

Which, really, doesn't mean a goddamn thing.

 

And this: http://mynintendonews.com/2013/08/28/nintendo-claims-we-havent-solved-the-unified-digital-account-problem-yet/

 

Which also, really, doesn't mean a goddamn thing. How have you not "solved" it when everyone else has?

[JonCole]

I honestly think that Nintendo is crazy for not basically making old games advertisements for new games. If they ran a special for the Super Mario Kart VC at $2 in the month ahead of Mario Kart U, how could the increased sales of Mario Kart U not make up for whatever losses they perceive by selling Super Mario Kart cheaper? For some reason, NIntendo still thinks of their old games as some massive commodity rather than their current platform or current software offerings. Sure, VC games have value and people are willing to buy them at big cost, but maybe Nintendo should fuel interests in products of the day by cashing in on the nostalgia of the past.

[Twig]

Yeah it's a little weird. I've long been of the opinion that if they even halved the cost of their VC games, they'd make more money than they do now. Obviously it's just conjecture, but I know I'd buy a hell of a lot more off the VC just to try it out if it was a lot cheaper, and I know a number of people who agree with me.

[Sno]

I kind of wish they'd provide a little context for the games they're selling on Virtual Console. At the bare minimum, a simple history of the product and its impact would be nice, and at the extreme, Nintendo's probably in a position to obtain a lot of new information about these things from long-standing industry contacts.

I mean, yeah, it would be kind of self-serving for Nintendo to tell you about how important a game was while trying to sell it to you, but why should that stop them from doing it? I mean, it's exactly why they should do it.

[Roderick]

I wouldn't find that self-serving to an unsavory degree. It's no different from putting all kinds of interesting trophies with backstories in Smash Bros Melee. I just get the feeling there are full on two people working at Nintendo in charge of the VC. They have no standing or pull in the company and they work from within the janitor's closet.

[Sno]

I mean, Recca went up on the 3DS VC with virtually no explanation when it's an incredibly rare piece of famicom history, a small technical marvel with tons of hidden secrets and a totally fascinating story behind it.

That kind of thing was repeated over and over on the Wii VC.

Hardcore types might know what's up, but casual eShop browsers are sure to just glaze over such an unfamiliar thing.

[tegan]

Advance Wars (Game Boy Advance; released September 10th, 2001)

"This first-ever English translation of the long-running Famicom Wars series has the most unfortunate release date of any Nintendo game ever released."

[Twig]

I kind of wish they'd provide a little context for the games they're selling on Virtual Console. At the bare minimum, a simple history of the product and its impact would be nice, and at the extreme, Nintendo's probably in a position to obtain a lot of new information about these things from long-standing industry contacts.

I mean, yeah, it would be kind of self-serving for Nintendo to tell you about how important a game was while trying to sell it to you, but why should that stop them from doing it? I mean, it's exactly why they should do it.

Yeah that kind of thing would be super cool and would take AT MOST a day's worth of work (perhaps spread out over time, while waiting for someone to respond to an email or whatever) per game for a single person. And I feel like that's overestimating it quite a bit.

[SecretAsianMan]

This is maybe a dumb question that's been asked and answered before, but is there a way to gift a game on the eShop besides just getting a prepaid card and giving them the code?  And is there a way to give funds without a card?  Can I just pay Nintendo some money and get a code without needing to buy a useless physical card?

[lobotomy42]

For whatever reason, it seems like Nintendo deliberately drip feeds the VC. Obviously they could just dump all their ROMs and titles at once and call it a day, but they don't. Maybe it's to give each title a week to a month to itself? It strikes me as something that seems sale-maximizing in the short term, but potentially damaging to the VC brand in the long-term.  The iTunes store became a standard place to buy music only once people became assured that *everything* would show up there.  Since that only barely happened with the Wii, and clearly won't happen with the 3DS, I have little incentive to start dabbling in the Wii U iteration of the VC.

 

But then again, I'm not the sort of person who buys a lot of old Super Nintendo games anyway.