The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

[dartmonkey]

I just read Jeremy Parish's article on it at usgamer which explains the lack of GBA titles on 3DS (save the ambassador titles). It seems ridiculous to me that 3DS would have trouble running a GBA emulator. It seems equally ridiculous that Nintendo lack the resources to make one, or get M2 on the job.

It's nice they're on Wii U, but they belong on 3DS too, no? The Ambassador exclusivity wasn't binding, just a 'no plans' thing.

Anyway, most importantly, is there a GBA surround onscreen if you choose 'proper' resolution?

[BigJKO]

I am ridiculously excited about Mario Kart 8, for some reason, after watching the latest trailer with Rainbow Road in it. It just.. I don't know.. suddenly it all looks really good to me. Maybe I'm just hungry for some Mario Kart again..

 

[tegan]

Anyway, most importantly, is there a GBA surround onscreen if you choose 'proper' resolution?

 

No, it scales it to the largest possible resolution while still being pixel-perfect, which happens to be nearly the same size as the TV screen anyway, so there's no room for the border.

[Thrik]

I am ridiculously excited about Mario Kart 8, for some reason, after watching the latest trailer with Rainbow Road in it. It just.. I don't know.. suddenly it all looks really good to me. Maybe I'm just hungry for some Mario Kart again..

 

 

There's no doubt that this trailer essentially sums up what I've been gagging for from Nintendo since 2006: a truly awesome-looking realisation of the Nintendo universe in HD. In all honesty other recent games like 3D World and Tropical Freeze have completely sold me, but we're now at the point where a historical Nintendo lover surely cannot resist this machine. It's a shame that we've had to wait so long because I could have really used this quite some years ago, but it should be worth it. If we can just get some new Zelda on the job, now...

[N1njaSquirrel]

I'm simultaneously excited and apprehensive of MK8.

 

I'm loving the tracks and the hover cart, and the new weapons look super fun too, but I feel it's got too many characters now. It's saturating the characters to a point where it doesn't make any difference which ones you choose. On top of which, they are really scraping the barrel for characters too. The Koopa Jrs? Really? Metal Mario? Idk, It's just that looking at the racing, all the characters  look like they are going at the same speed, and the characters are merely  just an aesthetic choice. replace them with a car brand and it's just another racing game. But with powerups. I know my point is made a bit moot by the way Mario just overtakes Bowser at the finish line, but it could just be a bad choice of kart for bowser. Now I'm just over-analysing a fucking trailer.

 

Also why the bikes? It's just another thing that isn't needed. I wish they would drop them. I have never lost a race and thought 'darn if only I was on a bike'. It's just another aesthetic that adds nothing to the game. I miss Double Dash's set-up. The cart and character combo was the best.

 

I'll stop moaning now. Either way I've already pre-ordered this game with the stupid blue shell fig and T-shirt like the die-hard Nintendo fan-boy I am.

[Roderick]

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, for me, really set the bar when it comes to crazy track designs. What I see in this trailer seems terribly ho-hum and straightforward. Where are the insane collapsing and morphing environments? (Though we haven't seen Bowser's Castle yet, which is usually a high point.)

[tegan]

Personally I've always been a fan of the Beetle Adventure Racing school of track design: include loads of secret alternate routes, with both aesthetic and strategic reasons to use them.

[Thrik]

The Rainbow Road music kicking activated too many nostalgia buttons for me to care about anything else.

 

I think that having plenty of characters and vehicles is a good thing. It provides a great incentive to beat tournaments and meet objectives, and assuming that Mario Kart 8 is online I'm guessing that there'll be a Team Fortress 2 hats-esque demand for ways to distinguish yourself. Hopefully some of the set-ups will be pretty difficult to unlock so that there's some actual status attached to, say, being Metal Mario.

 

I doubt that I'll ever be able to summon the stamina required to do things like achieve the gold car like I did back in the Double Dash days, though. God damn.

[BigJKO]

I don't think I ever realised that there was a difference between the characters in later Mario Karts..  Or.. wait, yes. I did realise the heavier characters were heavy and therefore slightly slower. Is Toad super fast, then? THERE'S AN EXTRA LAYER OF DEPTH I HAVE NEVER NOTICED?! 

[Thrik]

Dude, even the original SNES had a marked difference in handling between the big characters like Donkey Kong and Bowser, and the small characters like Koopa and Toad. If I remember correctly, each game has three main classes: light, medium, and heavy. Each has a higher top speed than the last but takes significantly longer to reach it, thus driving errors and weapon attacks can be far more damaging — they also get harder to handle due to a larger turning circle.

 

I suspect that Mario Kart 8 will stick to more or less the same system, although it could make things more interesting if there were additional nuanced differences to both the things above plus some arbitrary character-specific attributes (e.g. Donkey Kong can throw bananas further).

[BigJKO]

Yeah, I remember it from the old one, so I don't understand how I just never realised they were that different in the later ones.. :-/

[N1njaSquirrel]

I don't think I ever realised that there was a difference between the characters in later Mario Karts..  Or.. wait, yes. I did realise the heavier characters were heavy and therefore slightly slower. Is Toad super fast, then? THERE'S AN EXTRA LAYER OF DEPTH I HAVE NEVER NOTICED?! 

 

There was another layer of depth in Double Dash as well, as each character had a unique special weapon, so your character choice was even more important. My favourite combo was Toadette and Baby Bowser. They are both light class, and Bowser's Giant Shell was a great way to keep the rest of the pack at bay when you're in pole position, and was a pretty frequent item at pole position too. Toadette had the golden mushroom, which was a great way to get to the front.

 

Also heavier classes could push the lighter classes aside, another thing that has become moot thanks to what looks like the spin attack from F-Zero.

[BigJKO]

Wait, what Spin Attack is this? There is a new boost gained from running into players while the Gravity thing is enabled, is that what you're talking about?

[N1njaSquirrel]

Oh is that what it is? Yeah, I think that's what I'm talking about. My bad, I retract that statement.

[tegan]

War.

 

War never changes.

 

 

[JonCole]

War gets bigger.

[Cyborg771]

I'm loving the tracks and the hover cart, and the new weapons look super fun too, but I feel it's got too many characters now. It's saturating the characters to a point where it doesn't make any difference which ones you choose. On top of which, they are really scraping the barrel for characters too. The Koopa Jrs? Really? Metal Mario? Idk, It's just that looking at the racing, all the characters  look like they are going at the same speed, and the characters are merely  just an aesthetic choice. replace them with a car brand and it's just another racing game.

 

I think you're underselling the value of a purely aesthetic choice. For one thing I doubt they're going to drop the heavy/medium/light dynamic that the series has always had, but even if they hypothetically did I don't think that would make character choosing much less valuable.

[Thrik]

War.

 

War never changes.

 

 

 

Just to lower the tone for a moment, the guy in that art looks like he has a ginormous mechanical knob.

[syntheticgerbil]

Hey if you guys have a WiiU (or even if you are thinking of getting one), can you send a complaint to Nintendo about their stupid backup save function?

 

It's detailed on this reddit here: http://www.reddit.com/r/wiiu/comments/1zd7fz/write_nintendo_wii_u_save_files/

I'll put the quote here in case no one wants to click.

As of now, you cannot transfer save files from Wii U to Wii U. It appears to be locked down by your ID as well. Please write Nintendo to express your concern over their save file policy. Why would anyone play an RPG for the WiiU when there's a chance they could lose their save file for some BS reason? I called Nintendo Support for them to tell me to "start a new game." This should be fixed in the next update.

IMO, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. This is something that all members of this board should write to Nintendo about because it is an outdated policy that will kill the system. Please take a moment to write a quick email to Nintendo using the link below. Thanks for reading.

https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/webform/

 

But yeah I don't like the idea that my backup saves can only go to a USB stick formatted to one system. I've already had to transfer saves from two dead systems to a replacement with a flash drive in my life and it's no good to learn your backups are basically useless after it's too late. In fact, the Wii allowed you to back up saves on SD card, so Nintendo has gone a step backwards here (the SD slot on the WiiU is pictures only). It's some kind of stupid safety maneuver I'm guessing, but it's pointless.

 

The main reason I would ever back up my saves in the first place is just in case the system died. The only time I ever really make back up saves for games in progress is if there are known game stopping bugs.

[Thrik]

Man, that is bad. Having just had my PS3 drop dead with me near the end of GTA5 following dozens of hours of play, I'd be near throwing myself out a window if I were unable to restore my saved game backups. As it is, one quick purchase and restore later, and I'm back in business.

[prettyunsmart]

My wife and I have been playing Mario Kart together since we met, so with Mario Kart 8 coming out, I just ordered a Wii U. I also picked up a copy of Mario 3D World, and I'll probably get Wind Waker HD with the free game promotion thing they're doing with Mario Kart.

 

Besides those games, what have you been enjoying on your Wii U? What's worth checking out? Have I made a huge mistake?

 

EDIT: I suppose I could read the thread, but it is 28 pages long, and I figure people may have changed their minds about some of the games they played in the past.

[JonCole]

New Wii U bundle is pretty sweet, $329 for a Deluxe, Red Mario WiiMote, Mario Kart 8, and current Club Nintendo promo that gets you either Pikmin 3, Legend of Zelda: WWHD, or New Super Mario Bros. U for free digitally. Comes out in a month's time, really want it. =/

[tegan]

I'm sort of considering trading in my physical copy of Pikmin 3 for store credit, using it on an eshop card, buying MK8 with it, and using the free game to get a digital copy of Pikmin3 instead. This would be an incredibly dumb idea. Please help me.

[JonCole]

Do it. I do this all the time with digital games that are ludicrously cheap on PSN - trade-in to Amazon, buy PS credit, buy cheap digital thing.

 

Okay, actually trying to help now. Digital games take precious HDD space? That's all I got.

[N1njaSquirrel]

The only thing that'd be worth buying twice would be Mon Hun 3 - once for WiiU and again for 3DS.

 

I was impressed that you can upload clips of your race straight to youtube. I wonder if Nintendo are still going to take ad revenue from that? Or w/e the problem was people had with nintendo at that time.

 

You already own pikmin 3. Play... uhh... sonic? Out of the selection of 10, I don't own 3. Sonic, sonic and mario, and Wii U party. I'm leaning towards WiiU party, or the olympic games one. Any suggestions? Anyone actually played a  sonic game in the last 10 years that doesn't suck?