Wii-U thoughts so far

[RyaNtheSlayA]

A few retailers in Australia have stopped stocking the Wii U, some Nintendo all together.

Because of this I have picked up a few games (like Luigi U) for $10 a piece, is this happening in the states as well?

Not at all. The Wii U is hanging on pretty okay here actually. It's flopping hard in the PAL and J regions though.

[Reprise]

In the UK, there was a thing the other week about how 3D Mario World sold really poorly and that "even Knack" sold more. It's a shame that despite the games library picking up, sales still seem to be not great.

And if that really bothers you, just get rechargeable batteries for the Wiimote. There's even an official Nintendo one now. I drop my four Wiimotes in a charging cradle, I haven't had to fiddle with replacing AA batteries for a while now.

Is the official charging cradle out? I hadn't heard of one until now, but I just looked it up and it seems it's only released in Japan so far? And the third-party/unofficial ones seem to get mixed reviews (or in the case of some, aren't even compatible with Wii U, due to not plugging into the mains, but the Wii console).

Edit: Never mind, just found it. £35? Ouch.

[Ziggy]

Is the official charging cradle out? I hadn't heard of one until now, but I just looked it up and it seems it's only released in Japan so far? And the third-party/unofficial ones seem to get mixed reviews (or in the case of some, aren't even compatible with Wii U, due to not plugging into the mains, but the Wii console).

Edit: Never mind, just found it. £35? Ouch.

Yeah, I haven't seen it at any retailers, not that I was looking, but I've seen it on the Nintendo online store: http://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/st ... Preference

$40 USD for the battery and cradle. Considering there's third party ones that will give you more batteries and charge more than one remote at a time for about the same money or less, yeah it's a little steep I guess. But then again, third party shit is always cheaper.

As for the quality of the third party ones, I've had two for the life of my Wii. The first one I got was branded "Energizer" but whatever. It had two batteries and would charge two remotes at a time. It worked well, but after about a year the batteries wouldn't stay charge for long. After that, at least 3 if not more years ago now, my brother got me a new one as a Christmas gift. Another "Energizer" one, but this one holds four remotes. I've used it since then, and never had a problem with it. I don't have a problem with the batteries dying quickly. I also rotate through them, and not just constantly using only one.

So if you wanna buy a third party one, I guess just roll the dice or cross your fingers or whatever and hope you get a good one.

[Ziggy]

Oh I thought they ran off magic...

Well you have to be specific. There's third party controllers for the Wii that don't use batteries and run off magic. They don't fucking tell you on the box though that they don't come charged. You need at least three people (in order to form a circle around the remote) and say a little chant to get the remote working. They also don't tell you on the box that you need a couple of candles, but at least the instructions are clear and let you know you need to do it after dark and gives you the words to the chant. After you get it running, it lasts for about 500 hours. But after that, you have to do the chant again to get it working for another 500 hours. So yeah, I always check the box now. If it says "works on magic!" I stay away, I'll only get one that says "batteries not included!" on it.

[emwearz]

The above seriously had me in stitches.

Made me think of this.

[Xeogred]

I get it, I figured it was obvious what I meant but I'll be more specific next time.

ie I like when I don't have to keep buying AA batteries for stuff.

[Ziggy]

OK, OK, let's get back on topic!

[emwearz]

Does anyone's TV have issues with Wii games having a thick (like 1 inch) black boarder around the whole thing when playing them on the Wii U? I don't know why it happens, but it bugs me out, I can fix it by changing the Wii U's resolution to 480P, but as my TV does not have a on the fly overscan button, it is a pain.

[RCBH928]

Not at all. The Wii U is hanging on pretty okay here actually. It's flopping hard in the PAL and J regions though.

This is surprising since Japan is a the land of Nintendo, it always sold extremely well over there. Monster Hunter is on Wii U , and as I understand, is a very popular title . I thought it was flopping in PAL and US , not PAL and Japan (I hope by J you meant Japan)

[isiolia]

This is surprising since Japan is a the land of Nintendo, it always sold extremely well over there. Monster Hunter is on Wii U , and as I understand, is a very popular title . I thought it was flopping in PAL and US , not PAL and Japan (I hope by J you meant Japan)

Monster Hunter is also on 3DS. In more recent years, Japan has skewed far more towards portables. Additionally, as I understand it, a big factor in Monster Hunter's popularity there is ad-hoc wifi multiplayer with the portable versions.

Relatively speaking, the Wii U is flopping everywhere. Month by month it might have better sales in one region or another, but global sales are still fairly weak. It has around 4 million total sales after about a year. Sony has sold over 2 million PS4s in less than a month.

Thing is, the 3DS was in a similar situation and stronger releases turned that around. It could still happen for the Wii U...though I doubt it'll see Wii level sales.