Wii-U thoughts so far

[AppleQueso]

I want more Miiverse! I enjoy the integration in NSMBU and 3D World. I get disappointed when games have weak integration like Lego City (just allows sending photos to friends) or Pikmin (no integration).

Wind Waker HD's integration rules.

[isiolia]

I want more Miiverse! I enjoy the integration in NSMBU and 3D World. I get disappointed when games have weak integration like Lego City (just allows sending photos to friends) or Pikmin (no integration).

Main thing I don't like is the big social hub that pops up when you turn the system on, which I haven't seen a way to disable. Games seem to let you turn the features on or off, versus the system forcing me to see the "tweets" from random people that could just as well be auto-generated ads.

[fastbilly1]

Main thing I don't like is the big social hub that pops up when you turn the system on, which I haven't seen a way to disable.

I really wish I could turn that off aswell.

[SpaceBooger]

I want more Miiverse! I enjoy the integration in NSMBU and 3D World. I get disappointed when games have weak integration like Lego City (just allows sending photos to friends) or Pikmin (no integration).

I still don't get what to do with the Miiverse. I am enjoying collecting bottles in Wind Waker.

I still think, from reading these posts, Nintendo cares about games and experience not bringing in tons of cash on a single item (game or hardware).
Am I wrong, didn't Sony or MS (maybe both) take hits in hardware and relied on software sales - i.e. shaver/blade concept - and Nintendo makes some profit on all items?

[emwearz]

Miiverse is at its best in Mario 3D World, the comments at the end of levels (or people asking for help) is pretty awesome.

[mjmjr25]

@dsh; games i'm enjoying:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: Essentially this is Monster Hunter 3, but with more...everything. A gorgeous game and again, the gamepad, gimmick or not, completely changes this game. A game like this with huge item inventory benefits so much from the 2nd screen. tbh, this where i'm lost - people will talk about the graphics not being as good or as powerful on wii u, maybe my eyes are old, this game (and others on wii u) look brilliant, the cel shading is phenomenal and colors have exceptional contrast. Most excuslive nintendo games are going to be colorful as they are often geared toward kids, older adults and females - they aren't supposed to be gritty and 1,000 shades of gray. Maybe that means "less powerful" or something, but I don't think that is the aim of Nintendo. (not to say some of those folks don't enjoy bio-shock, but far more of them enjoy Mario Party).

The Wonderful 101: Again, beautiful to look at. The first 90 seconds of this game was the most fun i've had with a new game in honestly about 15 years. The voiceover work is spot on, the colors are magnificent, the gamepad has touch controls, and it's just immersive gameplay. Puzzle solving, hack n' slash, and literally controlling 100 characters, of which each has a unique skill that you'll need to advance and complete different missions. They've completed a super hero universe from thin air with this game. It's brilliant.

NintendoLand: This is essentially Mario Party, without the plodding around of the gameboard and instead of 10 second mini-games, they last a few minutes. Repeating myself, but astute use of the gamepad, particularly games like Mario Chase and Lugi's Mansion. My wife - who plays nothing, actually sat and played with us as a 5th player and enjoyed it.

Were also enjoying cross platform games Swap Force and Lego Marvel, but as I pointed out earlier, both are better w/use of the gamepad dynamic.

Wii Party, Pimin 3, and the Scribblenauts games all look really good as well and have recieved very good reviews.

Haven't even dipped into the new Mario Bros or Mario 3D games yet, not too mention the Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze or the eventual Zelda games.

And speaking of power - I guess again i'm lost, something like Mass Effect 3, which to me looks and feels like the Playstation audience, has amazing reviews on Wii U, yet has middle to poor reviews on Playstation and PC.

I think there are easily 15 games that warrant a purchase at this time and the number is growing.

Lastly, and I won't pretend to have the knowledge of most you guys about this stuff, but aren't console sales really a poor barometer of a consoles viability. As I recall, consoles are usually little to not profit, and again, iirc, the original xbox was moving so slowly when it launched they sold them at a net loss in order to push the software, which is where the money is made.

To the point, I own 2 360's, 1 PS3...and a combined 15 games between them, whereas I own 1 Wii and 75 games. Dunno, rambling now, I guess...

[isiolia]

I still think, from reading these posts, Nintendo cares about games and experience not bringing in tons of cash on a single item (game or hardware).
Am I wrong, didn't Sony or MS (maybe both) take hits in hardware and relied on software sales - i.e. shaver/blade concept - and Nintendo makes some profit on all items?

In the case of the Wii U, Nintendo is (or was) taking a small loss on the hardware - though basically any add-on sale puts them in the black. The PS4 and XBox One are either similarly close when all expenses are considered, or are slightly profitable to start with. The PS3 and 360, on the other hand, did use the "make the money back on software" model during the initial revisions of the hardware (they've not sold at a loss for a while at this point). The PS3, in particular, was very expensive to build.

One consideration would be that Nintendo is putting a bit of their costs into the Gamepad, versus actual processing power, storage, RAM, and that kind of thing. For that to be worth it, it really needs to justify itself in gameplay, which I haven't seen yet. Occasionally, sure, it might be, but the hit the rest of the system takes to include it is a gamble at best.

To me, it's less that Nintendo just cares about games, and more that they only care about their games. They seem to make platform decisions based on whatever gimmick the in-house teams want that month, versus what would make a solid, appealing platform for developers across the globe.

[dsheinem]

@dsh; games i'm enjoying:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate: Essentially this is Monster Hunter 3, but with more...everything. A gorgeous game and again, the gamepad, gimmick or not, completely changes this game. A game like this with huge item inventory benefits so much from the 2nd screen. tbh, this where i'm lost - people will talk about the graphics not being as good or as powerful on wii u, maybe my eyes are old, this game (and others on wii u) look brilliant, the cel shading is phenomenal and colors have exceptional contrast. Most excuslive nintendo games are going to be colorful as they are often geared toward kids, older adults and females - they aren't supposed to be gritty and 1,000 shades of gray. Maybe that means "less powerful" or something, but I don't think that is the aim of Nintendo. (not to say some of those folks don't enjoy bio-shock, but far more of them enjoy Mario Party).

The Wonderful 101: Again, beautiful to look at. The first 90 seconds of this game was the most fun i've had with a new game in honestly about 15 years. The voiceover work is spot on, the colors are magnificent, the gamepad has touch controls, and it's just immersive gameplay. Puzzle solving, hack n' slash, and literally controlling 100 characters, of which each has a unique skill that you'll need to advance and complete different missions. They've completed a super hero universe from thin air with this game. It's brilliant.

NintendoLand: This is essentially Mario Party, without the plodding around of the gameboard and instead of 10 second mini-games, they last a few minutes. Repeating myself, but astute use of the gamepad, particularly games like Mario Chase and Lugi's Mansion. My wife - who plays nothing, actually sat and played with us as a 5th player and enjoyed it.

Were also enjoying cross platform games Swap Force and Lego Marvel, but as I pointed out earlier, both are better w/use of the gamepad dynamic.

Wii Party, Pimin 3, and the Scribblenauts games all look really good as well and have recieved very good reviews.

Haven't even dipped into the new Mario Bros or Mario 3D games yet, not too mention the Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze or the eventual Zelda games.

And speaking of power - I guess again i'm lost, something like Mass Effect 3, which to me looks and feels like the Playstation audience, has amazing reviews on Wii U, yet has middle to poor reviews on Playstation and PC.

I think there are easily 15 games that warrant a purchase at this time and the number is growing.

Lastly, and I won't pretend to have the knowledge of most you guys about this stuff, but aren't console sales really a poor barometer of a consoles viability. As I recall, consoles are usually little to not profit, and again, iirc, the original xbox was moving so slowly when it launched they sold them at a net loss in order to push the software, which is where the money is made.

To the point, I own 2 360's, 1 PS3...and a combined 15 games between them, whereas I own 1 Wii and 75 games. Dunno, rambling now, I guess...

Thanks for the reply. Monster Hunter is not my thing, Wonderful 101 I lost interest in when it reviewed poorly, and my time with Nintendoland hasn't been especially interesting. Still, I am glad you are enjoying them.

While stuff like Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex HR, or other "mature" games might be great on the Wii U they are coming to that console well after they were on other systems and most of the interested players had played them. And ME3 has a lower Metacritic score on Wii U compared to its other ports...

You are right that console sales figures mean little in terms of direct profit. What they do tell you is the install base, and a larger install base makes it likely that software will be more profitable, more software will be released, a wider variety of interests will be represented by owners, etc.

As for the visuals, yes - Wii U games look good. As do PS3 and 360 games. They don't/won't look near as good as PS4/Xbox One games or PC games that come out now/in the near future. Eurogamer comparisons (which are meticulous with software details) will bear this out for you (here's one for AC4, for example).

[RyaNtheSlayA]

You really should play The Wonderful 101 Dave, regardless of reviews, I think you'd probably enjoy the game a lot (especially if you enjoy other Platinum stuff). It takes a bit to grow on you and it can be a bit confusing to control for the first hour or so but once it "clicks" it becomes an incredibly satisfying and fluid brawler.

[dsheinem]

You really should play The Wonderful 101 Dave, regardless of reviews, I think you'd probably enjoy the game a lot (especially if you enjoy other Platinum stuff). It takes a bit to grow on you and it can be a bit confusing to control for the first hour or so but once it "clicks" it becomes an incredibly satisfying and fluid brawler.

It is one that I'd likely pick up when I do get a Wii U. Hopefully for under $20