The Nintendo Wii U is Great Thread

[BusbyBerkeley]

If you play local multiplayer at all You owe it to yourself to grab a copy of Nintendo Land. It can be found on the cheap and the competitive games are hilarious and are the kind of thing you can only get on Wii U.

[Griddlelol]

I don't think there's any Uplay bullshit in ZombieU. I've been thinking about playing that again, I just can't be bothered to remove Mario Kart from the disc drive. I wish I had just gone all digital. 

[undermind9]

So, i really didn't like DKCR. I like Rare's original series well enough, but found that Retro's reboot kind of lost the things i liked most about those earlier games. (The tag-team mechanics, among other things.) With that context, do you still think i should look into Tropical Freeze?

 

I did not play DKCR so I cannot talk to its similarities or differences. I think the compare/contrast has come up before in this thread; surely someone has played both to give a better look at the venn diagram

[eRonin]

So who's gonna be playing in the Splatoon test fire? I'll be playing only a bit in the first hour since I need to go out, but hopefully in the 2nd hour I'll be able to stay the whole time. So excited! First time I'll be playing Splatoon.

[Sno]

I'm looking to give it a shot. Hopefully the "join friends" option will at least be available, if not an option for party matches, because it'd be cool to participate in this "beta" with some friends. The way they're running it though, three broken-up hours at some seriously inconvenient times, is kind of awful.

[Yasawas]

I'll be giving it a go, should be in for the second and third sessions. What a terrible idea. I am seemingly the only Nintendo enthusiast with zero interest in Splatoon so I'll be interested to see if this can sway me.

[Sno]

I was in there for the first hour.

A few tips to help people make the most of the next couple of windows:

- There's a bizarre motion control setup that you probably won't like. You'll have a sense of whether or not you want it by the end of the forced tutorial and then you can enable normal dual-stick controls via the motion control toggle in the options.

 

- Grenades and guns share ammo, but your super is charged by a separate meter that grows as you paint ground for your team. (Click the right stick for it.)

 

- The roller seems to by far be the most powerful and important weapon, and if you don't have at least two on your team, you'll probably lose. The held charge attack is an instant kill and covers a lot of ground very quickly for painting. The others pretty much need to maintain a height advantage and snipe from safety.

 

- Keep an eye on your map for any significant turf trades. If your team gets caught up in a big fight while they have one guy disengaged and going around with a roller, you're going to lose.

 

- Touch somebody's name on your tablet map to instantly teleport to them from the spawn point. (This only works from the spawn point... I think?)

 

- There's no way to join friends. Boo.

 

Based on what i played, it seems like a cool game. There's so little there that i can't really make any grand statements about the game's quality and I definitely still have concerns about a number of things, mainly pertaining to balance and matchmaking, but the foundation there was enjoyable enough that i want to play more of it. There's definitely something there.

[Tanukitsune]

I just played a few games and Splatoon was pretty fun and I LOATHE online games...

 

Paint rollers for the win! XD

[dartmonkey]

Just finished an hour of splatoonery - impressed! The basic core is great fun. Had a whiff of N64. I really like the split objectives of marking territory and splatting people. Lots of opportunity for different tactics and last second switcharoonies. The end-of-match tension between seeing the view of the splattered map and the actual percentage is a lovely little moment. Even with zero communication with my team I found myself punching the air. The paint rollers didn't dominate any of the matches I played in, though I made it a priority to neutralise them quicksmart. I had almost zero problems connecting. The online felt very much like Mario Kart 8's lobby system. The little 8-bit game on the Gamepad while you wait was a great touch. I switched off the motion controls (they only control the Y axis) and quickly found I was rubbish without them.

 

Obviously this is just a server-testing teaser, but my interest has been piqued. Impressed at this beta strategy from Nintendo too. It's crying out for Friend party chat in the finished product, especially with the lack of local multiplayer (I've got that right, right?) This would definitely justify getting a Pro controller, even if it only accommodated a 2-player. Thinking about it, they could just use a nunchuck and a Wiimote. They wouldn't even need the pointer - nunchuck as is, Y-axis motion on the remote, X-axis camera rotation on the D-pad, B to shoot, shake to throw a bomb. Boom! Bosh that in the August patch and I'm in.

[Twig]

There is local multiplayer. I think it's only two people.

[Griddlelol]

Holy shit Splatoon is good. I don't think I can add more than that yet, but I've noticed what seems to be weapon balance issues.

The roller and the charge gun are by far better than the two rapid fire splat guns. To the point that the other spatters feel useless.

[Sno]

I ended up doing best with the more accurate of the two rapid fire ones, i was actually going to come here and say that the snipe felt underpowered to me. (When you realize you can rapid fire it and still kill in around 3 hits, it starts working out better, but i certainly did the worst of any of the weapons with it.)

 

Anyways, i got in on all three windows for the demo.

 

The three weapon classes definitely shake out into fairly distinct and interesting roles, and the the interplay between those and the grenades, supers, and traversal mechanics all seemed really solid.

 

To my surprise, i actually ended up switching back to the motion control scheme. That little bit of extra control over my accuracy bolted on top of a dual-stick control scheme actually did make a big difference, once i got used to it.

 

I think there's a good foundation here, i like this game and i think it's something i could get pretty invested in.

 

I just don't know if i like what else Nintendo's been saying about it. Mainly the way they're promising lots of really extensive and wonky progression mechanics, it remains to be seen how that will affect things. (I really don't like progression mechanics in competitive games, because the best case scenario of how it's implemented is still terrible for the game, in that it's harder to get going for new players because entrenched fans are not just more skilled and more knowledgeable about the game, but they're also reinforced by way of those progression mechanics. Fighting against a stacked deck seems kind of antithetical to the sort of approachability Splatoon is aiming for, but hey, people sure love chasing those carrots.) I mean, and there's also the bizarrely impotent local play they're promising, the weirdness with how they're building their matchmaking, and the seemingly enormous chunk of the game that is tied up in amiibos.

 

On the up side, they're promising tons of post-release support, new maps and weapons and modes that will seemingly be delivered as free updates... hopefully. (I would also hope they're not needlessly holding things back from the retail box, but... I mean... Of course they are.)

 

I'm very hesitant to be excited about Splatoon, but i think i'm probably on board, i definitely like the core of what they have there.

[miffy495]

I really want to be interested in Splatoon, but I think it comes down to the quality of the single player aspect for me. I just don't play that many online games, and I can't see a Nintendo console sustaining the community it needs. Keeping an eye on it still though.

[Griddlelol]

I certainly did the worst with the charge gun, but some people were rocking with it. I personally favoured the splat jnr. I think that is the same one you mentioned. I started dominating with that as it was essentially a hard counter to the roller and charge gun - it splats before they have a chance to attack.

Anyone know if you'll be able to switch weapons in the main game? Having everyone with rollers or snipers leads to a really weak team, but swapping weapons constantly might be irritating. Just let me see who's picking what before I pick I guess.

[BigJKO]

The Direct made a big deal about how Regular Battles have a fixed map set that rotates regularly, so you should look at which maps are in rotation before you pick your weapon layout. So I don't think you can switch in-match.

[Sno]

No, it doesn't seem like you'll be able to swap weapons during a match.

 

You would hope for something like being able to set up a few builds in advance and select from them during pre-match setup, with the rest of your team's selected builds visible and not locked in until the match starts, but don't count on anything like that being present in Splatoon. I haven't seen anything that suggests that the game will be that smart about it, it seems like you'll probably always be going in blind.

They do have this notion of having a pair of vote-selected maps rotate in every few hours so you can go into a playlist with a build built around at least having a pretty good idea of where you're fighting, which... Honestly, that seems like a solution to a problem nobody ever has, while also creating a stagnancy issue, and further suggests that they haven't taken a more thought-through approach like what is suggested above.

 

Knowing now that the game has a pretty good foundation has suddenly made me really worried about the ways this game could go wrong, it could just be a terrible waste.

[dartmonkey]

There is local multiplayer. I think it's only two people.

 

I'd hope it's similar to MK8 where two people can go online but I'm having trouble finding details.

[BigJKO]

There was a Treehouse Live event thingie after E3. It wasn't entirely clear, but it seemed like one

of the guys was playing with the GamePad looking at his GamePad's screen while the other had a Pro Controller and looked at the TV. So no split-screen, which would be why it's only two player. I haven't read anything about this, though, so this might be entirely incorrect!

[eRonin]

So I had a great time playing Splatoon yesterday (didn't have time to write up my thoughts). I honestly feel like the weapons are reasonably well-balanced; they are just better suited to different tasks. It seems a lot of people think the Splat Charger is useless in a close confrontation, but you actually don't need to charge it up to fire; you can release at any time, making it perhaps more flexible than the other guns. The rapid-fire guns are best for taking out enemies, and the roller is best for covering a lot of ground with paint quickly. I gravitated towards the normal splattergun, since I couldn't make good use of the shield special of the jnr version.

 

I much preferred the oil rig map to the other since it was larger and had a lot more back and forth with retaking zones. The smaller map often felt like you were just fighting in one central area all the time, so it got a bit boring faster. Still, it was good that they included two very different maps. One misconception I am seeing a lot is that people think you can only super-jump from the spawn point. You can in fact super-jump at any point in the game. I found myself cleaning up one area, then super-jumping to an ally to help them with that area, then move on to another area. Movement seems to be absolutely crucial in this game since it's all about controlling zones. I only managed to play about an hour and a half, but I'm definitely looking forward to more!

[Griddlelol]

Ash man I loved the shield. I was consistently able to dupe people into ganging up on me and killing 2-3 at once by popping the shield.

Surprisingly my partner who hates video games had an absolute blast playing. We swapped the controller each match. She much preferred the roller because she was able to help the team in a meaningful way, as well as getting a decent number of kills.

I think Splatoon has potential, I have to agree with Sno though. Nintendo could so easily fuck it up.

[Sno]

I'd hope it's similar to MK8 where two people can go online but I'm having trouble finding details.

 

It isn't, it's a unique 2 player local game type, there is no party matchmaking in Splatoon.

[eRonin]

It isn't, it's a unique 2 player local game type, there is no party matchmaking in Splatoon.

 

Party matchmaking (not local) is being added to the game in August. Kinda bleh but I can wait.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Damn. All this Splatoon talk is making me regret not being able to go on on Saturday! I hope they do another test fire round soon!

 

I did not play DKCR so I cannot talk to its similarities or differences. I think the compare/contrast has come up before in this thread; surely someone has played both to give a better look at the venn diagram

 

I guess that'll be me then?

 

DK:TF is definitely a better game than DKCR. whilst I enjoyed DKCR, the control scheme was awful, and the areas are tied down a lot to the old game. I remember a lot of very flat levels, and whilst the secrets are cool and hard to find in some places, it did feel very much like a flat land with some set pieces. With DK:TF, it's off the rails pretty much from the get go. The game is astoundingly hard, and some of the levels are amazing. A particular highlight was the whole world that's set in a juice factory. 

 

As for the coop, the only downside to co-op is that p2 can't change ape mid game, which is annoying as hell, especially because some KONG letters and secret areas are on places that only cranky can get to. There's a tag-attack, which kills everything on the screen. And the choice between diddy, dixie and cranky is a weird one. Especially because Dixie is essentially a better version of Diddy, and cranky is only useful in about 4 levels.

 

For me, co-op took a real back bench. There's a lot of areas where it's essential that Dixie is on the back of DK, to get DK across, that I found I was always asking my GF to jump on my back, where she can't control jack and I'm racing through the levels. Eventually she stopped playing, as it was very clear that it's not really designed with co-op. If you could at least get the second person to change kong in level select, that wouldn't be so bad. But then again, why choose anyone else apart from Dixie? Also the tag attack is activated by being on the back of DK, I think. 

 

Still, excellent game, and worth every penny. Would whole-heartedly recommend it.

[Merus]

The key reason why you wouldn't be Dixie is because Dixie's jump is slow; if you're doing the time trials, Cranky is almost always the better choice.

 

There is no reason to take Diddy.

[Twig]

The key reason you wouldn't be Dixie is because she's fucking Dixie.

 

Ugh.

 

Cranky is the only acceptable Extended Kong Family Member.