Official Wii U Discussion Thread

RudyC3 said:
I sorta solved my Wi-Fi reception problem by setting up a Wi-Fi USB dongle as an access point, with my laptop, to sort of amplify the signal. (I'm in the attic too btw, just like you Flynnie). It's a pain in the strudel to have to leave the laptop running just so my WiiU can get a clear signal, but I don't really have a choice.

You should invest in some powerline adapters. The wired ones aren't that expensive and if you have any spare routers around you could turn it into a bridge and create another access point in your room.

You can get wireless powerline adapters as well though they tend to be a bit more expensive than standard adapters. In saying that they are probably easier to set up and less expensive than buying another router if you don't have access to any spare ones.

( Edited 12.12.2012 03:25 by Mr James2t3 )

Wii U needs a Skype app! It has this wonderful camera for chats, but you can only chat with other Wii U owners... And they have to close their game for it. Now that just sucks.

Does anyone else miss the Mii Channel of the Wii? The U version is so boring!! And you can't sort them the way you could on the Wii. I also miss the weather and news channel... Bring those back please!

Not related to anything in particular, but I had to share this. A list of nearly all Development Studios that have shut their doors since the start of 6th gen
I'm sure there'll be many more with those powerful expensive new machines that arrive next year. ^^

Phoenom said:
I'm sure there'll be many more with those powerful expensive new machines that arrive next year. ^^

It's sort of their fault after all if all these studios went out of business over the last 5 or 6 years... for making machines that requires millions and an army of developers to develop for... and gamers' fault as well for wanting visuals over gameplay and interesting concepts.

That's not to say that only games with bad gameplay were released on HD consoles, but frankly the gameplay remained pretty much unchanged from the previous generation on PS3 and 360, save for some little truly innovative exceptions. QTEs galore, corridor games and so many expensive cinematics that there's little left to be played.... isn't exactly what I'd call a gameplay revolution.

Jacob4000 said:
Whahey, who would have thought that a full-sized system with four times the RAM and a higher clocked, more capable CPU would be able to load web pages faster! Sorry for the sarcastic tone, but it shouldn't be that surprising that its speedier than an iTouch...

Actually good browsers on consoles are still a novelty methinks (Vita's is pretty good too).

Also; that business aspect is what makes me wonder about how powerful exactly the next consoles will get. I mean, new technology does get easier to use, but extremely complex visuals are never going to be very easy or accessible. This is why I'm happy about the rise of Indie devs lately, we're seeing so much variety from Indie games compared to blockbuster games (though there have been some great original games there too).

I mean half of Destructoid's (pretty respectable) choices for GOTY are Indie games.

Jacob4000 said:

Whahey, who would have thought that a full-sized system with four times the RAM and a higher clocked, more capable CPU would be able to load web pages faster! Sorry for the sarcastic tone, but it shouldn't be that surprising that its speedier than an iTouch...

I was thinking more along the lines of Mobile Safari existing for half a decade and still being unable to perform basic tasks vs. a brand new proprietary browser. The iPod Touch 5 has near-identical specs to the iPad, which is touted as being able to "replace home computers" and the Wii U outperforms it in this department, so I thought it was worth mentioning. For what it's worth, my Xbox 360 can't keep up with my iPod Touch (not to mention not even having a browser until a few months ago).

That, and this is Nintendo, who like to take things that are market standard and very easy to create (i.e. internet browsing) and somehow bungle them and cripple them until there's no point remembering they even exist (see the Wii's internet browser, Wii U's inability to upscale Wii games or play DVDs etc.). So yeah, I'm surprised the Wii U's browser is as good as it is.

As someone else mentioned, HTML5 support or Flash support would be really cool though.

http://kotaku.com/5967668/most-of-early-2013s-biggest-games-seem-to-be-skipping-wii-u

Games Skipping the Wii U

• Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
  
• BioShock Infinite
  
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2
  
• Crysis 3
  
• Dead Island Riptide
  
• Dead Space 3
  
• DmC
  
• Fuse
  
• Grand Theft Auto V
  
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
  
• Metro Last Light
  
• Remember Me
  
• South Park: The Stick of Truth
  
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist
  
• Tomb Raider
  

Games Coming to the Wii U

Pikmin 3
Lego City: Undercover
Game and Wario
Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate
Rayman Legends
The Wonderful 101
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Injustice: God's Among Us


( Edited 12.12.2012 21:30 by Linkyshinks )

I've been thinking about exactly this recently, it's pretty weak that Nintendo have tried to 'assure' us that their third party support is good and yet there's nothing to back this up beyond launch day's decent support. Now all the big third party games on the horizon still aren't coming to WiiU, very worrying indeed.

Try harder Nintendo, for the love of god, if you're marketing the console on the strong third party support to begin with then at least prove you have strong third party support.

I know it's very early days, and I'm sure many Wii U owners will tell me to give it some time yet, but I'm concerned about this, like many others are. Firstly, no one in their right mind should be relying on a Wii U if they want to play the best of the third party games. But they've essentially released a console here that's pretty much on par (people will argue it's better, but not by much) with PS3 and Xbox, when these consoles are approaching the last year of their lives. Now, I can't predict the future, but I would be shocked and appalled if the next consoles from Sony and MS were not much more powerful than the current ones, and in turn much more powerful than Wii U. If games designed for current HD consoles are not even being made for Wii U now, what makes anyone think games being developed right now for PS4/Xbox 3 will even be made for it, too, or even run on it for that matter?

I don't feel like the Wii U is going to be anywhere near as successful as the Wii. I don't think it will be the same sort of system that everyone wants in their homes for mums and daughters, or next to the average gamer's Xbox. And it certainly will never replace Xbox/PS as average Joe's main system. Guaranteed the Wii U will get third party games, and great ones at that. Even innovative ones that make use of the GamePad, I'm sure. But I just have this feeling that it's not going to be a success, and could be a big problem in a couple of years time. And I'm not sure any amount of first party or exclusive games can change that. But this depends on what Nintendo deem a "success" for Wii U (I know they recently said they don't use that word, but you know what I mean). They have to know this will not top the original Wii, but at what point will they be able to say the Wii U has done them really well?

I'm sure many will roll their eyes for expressing this opinion. I keep telling myself to wait and see what happens before running my mouth, too. But I dunno. I haven't had this sort of impression on a Nintendo home console before. And yet when the Wii was coming out, I could feel it was going to be a success - to the point where I bet money with a mate on the Wii selling more than PS3, which I won. I would not bet that same bet again now.

Contrary to what many might think, I do want Nintendo to do well. I care because I grew up on these guys. I love what they gave to me. But I'd be lying if I said part of me didn't want them to get a big fucking kick up the arse and have the Wii U do quite poorly. I was a fanboy for bloody years, and I love many of their games to this day. But the path they've taken with Wii and Wii U is not what I was hoping for. And if Wii U goes on to become a success, they won't give a shit if old-timers like me that have been playing Nintendo for years don't ever buy a console from them again. But it's no lie that they've lost a lot of players' hearts who grew up on them over the years, and they still aren't offering enough to entice them to come back.

And that's my Nintendo love story.

I'm starting to feel that after major successes, consoles and their devs go through a phase of attempting to ride solely on that success without making a real effort to adapt to the market, this happened with the PS3 launch and Sony has thankfully helped it to be closer to what the PS2 was, it obviously won't match the PS2's success but after 6 years it's adapted to its own comfortable place in the gen and is enjoying 'success' from the installbase's point of view.

The problem with the 3DS, and soon the WiiU, is that it's obvious Nintendo are riding upon the success of their predecessors too much if you ask me. I love both the 3DS and the WiiU, but their support leaves stuff to be desired. 3DS was too expensive, they lowered the price and that caused a ripple in both Nintendo and their fans, luckily it's performing better now but its support still isn't amazing and its features aren't as handy as they could be. The WiiU has the promise of a core market that Nintendo doesn't seem to be seeing through, eShop is barren and next year is thus far barren despite what they've said. They're relying, again, on the Wii's success as a brand to sell it, just as Sony did initially with PS3.

It's my hope that future firmware and Nintendo finally swallowing their pride will turn the WiiU's situation around in time, it'll never be as powerful as other 8th gen systems but it's powerful enough to give an experience, and the likely painful development costs of the more powerful 8th gen games will be something a lot of developers simply can't risk, meaning WiiU support is definite for those games they just can't afford to create. We've lost so many key developers over the last few years, THQ and SEGA are just about out of the picture too, do you really think either of them have the resources to develop AAA titles for systems multiple times more powerful than the PS360U? (as of this year, SEGA can only develop a non-Sonic title on the WiiU due to Nintendo's own financing, Bayonetta 2, all else they can manage is indie games.)

Kotaku said this about the WiiU's poor display so far for 2013:

Timing and business are the key factors. Nintendo and the companies making these games have to want these games to be on the Wii U. They have to make the effort.

These are all huge games, pretty far into development- a lot of devs probably just don't want to work on a new console when they have pre-set deadlines to meet. Yes, this doesn't mean that Nintendo shouldn't have approached them about said ports long in the past and really I definitely think Nintendo need to try harder to put their foot in the door. Nintendo should have known about Bioshock Infinite before it was confirmed, everyone knew it'd be a trilogy, why didn't they shoot for support in the game's pre-planning stages? I guess I can't claim to know what Nintendo have or haven't tried to do yet, but Nintendo has had issues with third party support since the early 90s- it's not gonna fix overnight. Even if the WiiU has better support than the Wii (and I'm confident it will), it still won't be satisfactory unless Nintendo continue to push for support for many years to come.

Also as a tangent point, the 3DS has much more support than the Vita thus far despite using tech nearer to PSP, that's Nintendo's angle and their always-successful handhelds prove it works.. but whether or not they can replicate that on home systems, giving them great but weaker titles, remains to be seen.

tl;dr, please back up your claims over the next few years Nintendo, even if your startup is slow like the PS3's it could still turn out great in the end, WiiU and 3DS need better integration with each other, more convenience and apps and such.

Long post came from the void.

( Edited 12.12.2012 22:47 by SuperLink )

Perhaps lack of 3rd party support will push Nintendo to makes us a N64 out of it, with excellent 1st and 2nd party exclusives that make the best use of the system. I wouldn't be against it at all, personally, and since they finally have a capable piece of kit to play around with, it's totally possible for them to do so.

The N64 was the most profittable piece of hardware they ever made, as far as I can remember, thanks to the fact they and their 2nd party developers were pretty much alone in making games for it.

SirLink said:
Has anyone with Nintendo Land played the game a lot so far, particularly the multiplayer? I'm surprised by how great it is and the multiplayer sessions I've had were some of the best local multiplayer I've ever experienced. 

I actually took my Wii round to my friends house on the weekend and they thought the games were repetitive. According to them they weren't fun and the ones that were, were just too easy. They won't be playing Nintendo Land again....

Strangely my female housemates loved playing Mario Chase the other day so its interesting that they like it....although they are really shit...

I don't mind Nintendo Land, tons of potential but unfortunately i don't think it has the same quick appeal of Wii Sports.

Nonetheless I like it and that is what matters!

SirLink said:

 
This should be an official Wii U commercial.

I would do chores to please her!!!

Jacob4000 said:

The Wii U blew Mobile Safari out the window. It loaded everything way faster, let me close the ads way faster, and opened tabs in the background (Mobile Safari opens new tabs and then automatically takes you to them) but left the little Xs up for easy closing. I'm really impressed with this thing's internet browser. I rarely use it though, and rarely will (just can't beat having the internet in my pocket at all times).

Whahey, who would have thought that a full-sized system with four times the RAM and a higher clocked, more capable CPU would be able to load web pages faster! Sorry for the sarcastic tone, but it shouldn't be that surprising that its speedier than an iTouch...

I have actually been using my Wii U browser actually. My iPhone frustrates me how slow it can be to load a page but its so lightening quick on the Wii Browser and i also like how the extra tab opens up as well! Although it is a nice touch i too didn't expect Nintendo (or rather Opera) to make such a decent browser, usually a tacked on feature.

Canyarion said:
Wii U needs a Skype app! It has this wonderful camera for chats, but you can only chat with other Wii U owners... And they have to close their game for it. Now that just sucks.

Does anyone else miss the Mii Channel of the Wii? The U version is so boring!! And you can't sort them the way you could on the Wii. I also miss the weather and news channel... Bring those back please!

I am hoping that the number of channels increases otherwise those screens will look a little barren, i am hoping that Sky, ITV, 4OD and BBC all put their respective services into the TVii app or at least as channels. Would be useful to have Twitter, Facebook as well, or just other apps in general.

I doubt Skype will happen due to the Microsoft buyout....but then i think its available on the Vita so maybe it will appeart?

Some good points raised.

Like you say, PS3 had a slow start. It took it maybe two, even three, years before people realised it was a console well worth owning based on the games it offered. With the high cost of developing next-gen games, too, it might be a couple of years or so before people come to a point where they think "ok, it's time to buy a PS4/Xbox 3 now; there's finally great games worth owning." In the meantime, devs can be making stuff for Wii U. And, if devs can't afford to make stuff for those two consoles, they could well end up making games primarily on Wii U, too. It could potentially build up its own great collection of games that won't be on the other consoles.

But this will only happen based on what happens with the launch of the next two Sony/MS consoles. At this point in time, porting games to Wii U is not easy, and it's not cheap. And of course, with the not-so-great start in terms of sales of Wii U, right now there is no intention for publishers to bother spending that effort and money if they won't even sell.

Only once some devs find it difficult to afford to make PS4/etc games, and if the consoles don't get off to a great start, will they then start to make games on Wii U.

I think you pretty much have to completely erase thoughts of getting current gen ports from third parties on Wii U out, completely. If you get anything at all, whether it's GTAV, or Tomb Raider, or BioShock, or any of them, consider that a bonus. But I don't think the real support will come until maybe one or two years down the line, based on how the next two systems perform, and whether devs can afford to develop for it. Otherwise, it may go the opposite way to what I originally thought, and Wii U may suffer.

RudyC3 said:
Perhaps lack of 3rd party support will push Nintendo to makes us a N64 out of it, with excellent 1st and 2nd party exclusives that make the best use of the system. I wouldn't be against it at all, personally, and since they finally have a capable piece of kit to play around with, it's totally possible for them to do so.

The N64 was the most profittable piece of hardware they ever made, as far as I can remember, thanks to the fact they and their 2nd party developers were pretty much alone in making games for it.

Although, I don't think this will actually ever be possible to turn Wii U into N64, the more I think about it. It was a great time for Nintendo exclusives, however. Although the support compared to PS was abysmal.

Edit: Not sure if it was most profitable? Quick Google search says it made Nintendo $1.2b, whilst SNES era made them $1.25b. Game Boy profit isn't told how it factored in to this, though; whether it contributed to that $1.2b during N64 or not.

( Edited 12.12.2012 23:04 by Azuardo )

RudyC3 said:
The N64 was the most profittable piece of hardware they ever made, as far as I can remember, thanks to the fact they and their 2nd party developers were pretty much alone in making games for it.

But Nintendo's 2nd parties aren't what they used to be, Nintendo is one developer trying to cater to 2 unfortunately fissured demographics at once now.

Also agreed that it needs a Skype app, it works amazingly on Vita.

I doubt Skype will happen due to the Microsoft buyout....but then i think its available on the Vita so maybe it will appeart?

EDIT @ Az:
Unless the WiiU's software sales improve then yeah there's no reason for ports to be made, unless they are cheap and/or easy. I've heard most reports say it's easy to learn to develop for, which contrasts what was once said about the PS3. Not wanting to figure out the WiiU's GPGPU is fair enough to devs on a deadline, but I'm hoping it'll pick up support a little faster than the PS3 did simply because the ports thus far are better and less problematic than early PS3 ports. Maybe once the next 'season' of big titles has come, we'll start to see more multiconsole games going to WiiU.

And, if the other 8th gen consoles are as powerful (read: expensive) as some expect, they too will almost certainly have slow starts. No one wants to buy consoles that are too expensive around launch, case in point PS3, 3DS, and WiiU.

I think it'll be interesting to see if MS and Sony go for powerhouses, or affordability. Either way they'll be more powerful than the WiiU, but they must have realised by now that making a console affordable is a very important factor in sales, success, and early attach rate.

( Edited 12.12.2012 23:08 by SuperLink )

You're probably right Az, that's just an impression I had. My point was that the N64 era shows that Nintendo is quite capable or remaining a healthy business without third party support... AND Nintendo now has far more 2nd party developers under their hood than they did in the days of the N64, so they HAVE the manpower to churn out a decent amount of great titles if they really try.

Whether they'd want to with their current policy or not is another story... Hiroshi Yamauchi isn't there anymore and that guy was capable of handling things on his own much better than Iwata methinks... These days it sounds like their main concern is too please their share holders, whereas in the N64 days it would have been more like "fuck these idiots, we'll do things our own way, and we'll kick ass with our games, no matter what". That's pretty much Yamauchi for you.

On the topic of 2nd parties not being what they used to be, I'd say if Nintendo was wise enough to shout out to all those once great designers who went solo over the years, such as Matsuno, Inafune, Sakaguchi, etc... and asked them to direct games in colaboration with their 2nd parties, it could produce some great things... It's not like Nintendo doesn't have the money to do this after all... But again, the company is pretty much run by share holders who might not agree with this.

( Edited 12.12.2012 23:32 by RudyC3 )

Whether they'd want to with their current policy or not is another story...

Of course they could absolutely go it alone and deliver cracking first and second party games on their console, just like the N64 days, whilst still getting some decent third party stuff, like the GC days. But will they do it? As proven with the Wii, no.

They've taken that approach to focus at the same time on the casual audience now, too, and it's put me right off. I know they've managed to still churn out some great first party stuff on the Wii, but it was not the Nintendo of old. There is no doubt that catering to other demographics hurts those hardcore fans because they simply can't make enough or as good quality first party content like they used to. And, not to sound like Vorash when he's talking about "greedy SOny and M$" here (I may edit that; it looks disgusting), but Nintendo is a business and they have made a fucking wad of cash with the Wii. I doubt they'll sacrifice much of that casual stuff to try and make more first party titles like in the SNES/64/GC days. However, they have been saying since the build up to Wii U that they wanna get the hardcore gamer back. So it's another case of "wait and see," I guess. I just don't have many feelings right now of seeing that same rate of awesome first and second party content like they used to deliver. I know we'll get big names like Metroid etc eventually, but it has to be more than that. Right now, Metroid and Zelda isn't gonna quite be enough.

Maybe I'm getting impatient. I need some announcements where Nintendo say "Oi, you fucking Sony convert ex-Nintendo fanboy! Here's a shitload of fucking awesome games like we used to make! Buy a fucking Wii U!"

D: ok.

On the topic of 2nd parties not being what they used to be, I'd say if Nintendo was wise enough to shout out to all those once great designers who went solo over the years, such as Matsuno, Inafune, Sakaguchi, etc... and asked them to direct games in colaboration with their 2nd parties, it could produce some great things... It's not like Nintendo doesn't have the money to do this after all... But again, the company is pretty much run by share holders who might not agree with this.

The case in point with myself and probably all of you hear is that not one Nintendo console has dissapointed me, sure things could have been better but when i look back on all my owned Nintendo consoles retrospectively i appreciate everything they have ever brought to the field.

I love them all, (i've never owned a Virtual Boy or  3DS) but all the others have had some amazing exclusives or amazing 1st party games.

We live in an oversaturated market place, there are too many AAA titles around and not enough time to play them all properly. I don't know where on earth some of you guys get the time to play some of these long RPG's while meanwhile going through the latest FPS or the newest Mario game or whatever is out. It's like you have cloned yourself and sat in a room and not moved for years on end. 

The Wii was regarded as weak but when i think back to games like Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Metroid Prime Triology, Mario Galaxy's , Legend of Zelda's , various Kirby games , Sonic Colours and a ton of other games that i just can't think of right now i would say there are not enough hours in a generation to appreciate them all! I will miss out on playing games like Pandoras Tower, Xenoblade Chronicles and many many more because the Wii U is here now and i am already behind on games!

If the Wii U could release at least one of all their first party IP's i would be happy. Zelda, Pikmin and Mario are a given and when the new Donkey Kong, Metroid, Starfox, Kirby,Fire Emblem, Waverace, Fzero, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon and an exclusive Sonic game are released i will be more than happy because that is all i need from my Nintendo consoles!

That's a good point, the Wii is underrated in terms of first/second party content, and while it may not have the magic that we may have felt playing the N64 and GC as kids, who's to say that younger gamers don't feel that sort of magic from these games? I certainly felt Nintendo magic from Mario Galaxy and Skyward Sword, it seems like with younger players there are a lot of other games on the Wii that may be considered 'classics' when they get a bit older.

Still I think the Wii did lose out in terms of power and space, Nintendo's games had always been evolving and getting bigger and experimenting by pushing their genres and gameplay styles, the Wii was largely another 6 years of Gamecube games with some sometimes great controls while other systems got bigger experiences that sometimes changed a lot. That can't be generalised for every great Wii game of course, but..

A lot of Nintendo fans miss Nintendo games being something unique that keeps changing. I hope the WiiU can achieve that by giving us Nintendo games a lot bigger and experimental than we've seen the last few years.

Kid Icarus is a great example, totally original gameplay, practically fresh IP, amazing results all around.

Let's take a look at it from a more positive angle: at least the WIIU still has FULL support from Nintendo, a company known for its stellar long-runnin franchises, innovative and refreshing gameplay, and brilliant games that are just flat out fun t play through. Plus, Nintendo have stated on numerous occassions they'll develop a lot of EXCLUSIVE games for the system.

Now imagine wiiu lost that support. THAT is the day to despair. Until then, wiiu will live on. In our lives, in our hearts, and in our minds.
Now do the Mario, and stop this doom and gloomery! Friends

The forecast isn't looking great on the third-party front. I'll leave a little bit of room for hope though (Black Ops 2 wasn't confirmed for Wii U until like two weeks before it came out, for example, despite Treyarch giving the same "no announcements to make" lines we're seeing here).

That said, I can survive on the first- and second-party content for a while. Nintendo's first-party games have been a little weak, but nine times out of ten a weak first-party Nintendo game is better than 80% of the strong third-party games out there.

I may skip out on the "next gen" entirely. Xbox is going for built-in Kinect support and an "innovative" new controller I'm sure won't be a ripoff of the GamePad at all, and Playstation has never had the exclusives to make it worth owning for me (though it has gotten close as of late, and it has nowhere to go but up). I think Bethesda has the ability to change my mind on this; if they put Fallout 4 / Elder Scrolls VI on Xbox 720 but not Wii U I might need to invest in a new Xbox... but more likely I'll just go for the PC versions. Same with Valve's games.

E3 can't come quick enough. lt's like they've focused a bit too much on the launch (which is very good, to say the least) but left nothing else to keep us interested.

Thankfully we know Nintendo and come May we'll all be pretty pumped up again and looking forward to the next wave, but l'd really love to see even a wee stream of announcements before then. ls there anything even announced for Q1 yet?!

lt's all good having a nice launch, but a rolling stone and all that...

Oh come on guys, there's a bunch of stuff for Q1. Rayman Legends. LEGO City Undercover. Game & Wario (I think). Aliens: Colonial Marines. Monster Hunter 3 U. The Wonderful 101 (I think).

For Q2 there's Pikmin 3, Wii Fit U.
By then, E3 has come and we'll probably have some of the surprise games Reggie talked about. Yoshi's Land maybe?

I'm also worried about the lack of announced games, but I also think Nintendo realises they're running dry at the moment. It's one of the reasons they delayed Pikmin 3 and some other games, to spread them out.
We'll see. For the moment I'll have more than enough games to play.

Let's not forget about Bayonetta 2... Please folks... Let's not...

( Edited 13.12.2012 23:17 by RudyC3 )

WiiU's initial lineup isn't half bad, definitely much better than the PS3's first year.  Plus, I think everyone's a little disappointed that it's missing out on these blockbuster games that are hitting up every other system.

But you're right, Q1 isn't looking that bad. Rayman and MH will definitely be great, LEGO looks good fun too and Wonderful 101 hopefully won't take long.

Thing you have to remember about Monster Hunter is that each game is content based, MH3U is pretty different to the Wii game and shouldn't really be treated as a port - it's a pretty big release for so close to launch, it's Capcom's biggest moneymaker too.

Let's hope DraQue 10 eventually arrives here as well. Let's hope so...