Nintendo Wii U

[Swifthom]

It took a while, but in the end there were some quality RPGs for the Wii. Based on that I'm hoping for some good ones on the Wii U.

Two Brothers will be an excellent start.

My worry is Pier Solar Wii U won't happen, I wasn't interested in backing it for PC or Xbox, I wanted a console port that I'm more likely to own.

[EC2151]

Also, if anyone's interested in getting a great game on the Wii U (or any other console), check this out:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/573261866/pier-solar-hd-an-rpg-for-xbox360-pc-mac-linux-and

Typical indie stupidity: Let's combine hand-drawn HD backgrounds (by far the hardest part of updating a game's visuals) with the same lo-res blocky pixel sprites to have an inglorious mess, and foist it off as original!

Why not just make all the visuals HD?

This is depressing because Pier Solar already had fantastic visuals (fantastic everything), and the HD stuff looks genuinely nice. But mixed together looks lazy. And ugly. Lol, there's a reason "no one has ever mixed the two" before.

[Thalzon]

I dunno. It doesn't look AWFUL, just weird.

[Dhsu]

Ugh, I honestly would rather just have a Virtual Console or Steam version of the original game. I just want to play it without having to spend $100+ for the game+soundtrack alone, and THEN having to hunt for and buy additional hardware. Just to play it. If they would just rely on the quality of the game instead of retro hardware gimmicks and just let people who aren't mega-nerds experience it at a reasonable price, they probably wouldn't have even needed the Kickstarter to fund the HD version. Sigh.

[/rant]

Edit: I am glad this is coming to Android and OUYA though.

Edit 2: Crap, that's a stretch goal.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Dhsu

[Doulifée]

posting from my wii u !!

id is doulifee.

[Crowbar Man]

Alright so progress report on the Wii U:

Apparently worse off then originally anticipated.

Black Ops 2 and Darksiders 2 are doing the same "less than 720p but upscaled to HD" as the other versions. Worse the Wii U version of BO2 has terrible FPS issues instead of increased FPS as expected for new hardware even if they kept the resolution tricks the same.

Mass Effect 3 (native 720p on all consoles) performs much better than the PS3 version but sometimes hiccups compared to the 360 version.

Batman AC is the only ported game to improve visuals (native 720p on all consoles, but Wii U has FXAA, 360/PS3 have none) but has some strange performance issues and seems very unpolished.

One of the main issues it seems is the Wii U's CPU looks like it is basically an overclocked (1.25 Ghz) / modified Wii CPU turned triple core (which the Wii's CPU was an over clocked / modified GameCube CPU) . Its GPU seems just fine for current gen games (and has enough left over to handle the 2nd screen) but the CPU seems to be a bottleneck.

Now these are all probably very quick ports for a quick cash grab on the Wii U launch, and situation could improve later. But its never fun to see something stumble out of the gate. This happened with PS3, and PS3 ports on average still under perform visually and performance wise.

So the whole "Well 3rd party games will look better on Wii U" seems like that is out the window until devs get more familiar with it the hardware. (If they bother :/)

Now on the flip side: Nintendo's games look great! I can't wait until they make more of them, as that is the real reason to buy any Nintendo console anyways. I'd like to see something use the style used in Nintendo Land as a full game instead of a minigame collection.

Also, while it doesn't change the Wii's native resolution, the Wii U does apparently upscale Wii games to 720p/1080p (on top of the option benefit of running Wii games though HDMI) giving slightly sharper image than most HDTVs can give trying to do the upscale themselves.

[Thalzon]

Guys, guys.

GUYS.

A full-fledged Find Mii RPG.

(*o*)

[Calpis]

I'm getting a little sick of listening to what all these sites are saying about how bad the ports are. I keep trying to look up videos that compare Wii U to the other 2, and cannot see the differences between the three. They need to do the Pepsi Challenge on these reviewers because I would be willing to bet they wouldn't be able to tell them apart. I haven't even noticed these so-called fps drops, and doing that is actually part of my job. Occasionally going down to 40 from 60 fps is par for the course in game development.

I know that a small population of gamers do care about those issues, but it feels like we're now caring way too much about differences that are too small to notice without squinting at a side-by-side comparison video.

[Nabeel Ansari]

If you're only picky about the small things, it means you have nothing big to gripe about.

[Bleck]

I've heard bad things about all of the ports, but then again, the only good game out of all of the ports is Arkham City, so.

[ocre]

Half-hearted, non-optimized, third party 'demographic test' ports? Psh, it's ALL about NSMBU, ZombiU and Nintendo Land.

(And that expands to Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Rayman Legends and Bayonetta 2 in the near future.)

Edited December 1, 2012 by ocre

[EC2151]

Ugh, I honestly would rather just have a Virtual Console or Steam version of the original game. I just want to play it without having to spend $100+ for the game+soundtrack alone, and THEN having to hunt for and buy additional hardware. Just to play it. If they would just rely on the quality of the game instead of retro hardware gimmicks and just let people who aren't mega-nerds experience it at a reasonable price, they probably wouldn't have even needed the Kickstarter to fund the HD version. Sigh.

[/rant]

Edit: I am glad this is coming to Android and OUYA though.

Edit 2: Crap, that's a stretch goal.

NG DEV TEAM makes their entire living on selling highly-expensive game cartridges to fans of the Neo Geo AES (the premium of premium consoles), so some folks can definitely make a living off of it.

Though their games are

with

, and they have never needed to resort to crowd-funding for their ventures.

Half-hearted, non-optimized, third party 'demographic test' ports?

The thing I am disappointed in is how Nintendo chose to launch its newest system with these aforesaid half-assed ports.

[linkspast]

The thing I am disappointed in is how Nintendo chose to launch its newest system with these aforesaid half-assed ports.

[Overflow]

Guys, guys.

GUYS.

A full-fledged Find Mii RPG.

(*o*)

Dude I had that idea YEARS ago.

It would a full on, Dragon Quest style RPG. When you start a new file, the game would randomly select 3 of your pre-created miis and randomly assign them each one of 6 or so personalities and classes, so every time you play it would be different (One time you might have a friendly mage Hitler join your party, another time it would be an aggressive monk Santa Claus). The towns you visit will be populated by even more mii's you've made (or maybe streetpassed. Imagine an entire village filled with people you've streetpassed?). The story and battle system would be relatively simple, but I think the novelty of playing such a game would encourage people to play multiple times

[The Derrit]

The thing I am disappointed in is how Nintendo chose to launch its newest system with these aforesaid half-assed ports.

nintendo did indeed choose to have well known developers put their incredibly well known and critically acclaimed games on their system. what jerks.

nintendo didn't make these ports. other companies did. how that is that something you can blame nintendo for is beyond me

Edited December 2, 2012 by The Derrit

[Brushfire]

You can blame Nintendo for their lack of Quality Assurance for the game put on their system.

[Tensei]

The thing about the ports is that modern console game devs typically have to 'cheat' by upscaling from a lower resolution and skimping on AA/textures to get an 'acceptable' framerate (which can go as low as 20) for their games.

My assumption was that the Wii U, while not strictly a next gen console, would at least be able to run the current ports at a much more acceptable pace (i.e. 720p and at least a steady 30 FPS if not more). I'm not asking for PC-level graphical fidelity, but as of now there doesn't really seem to be any indication that a Wii U can handle ports much better than its 6 year old competitors. I think that's the issue people are having.

[EC2151]

nintendo did indeed choose to have well known developers put their incredibly well known and critically acclaimed games on their system. what jerks.

nintendo didn't make these ports. other companies did. how that is that something you can blame nintendo for is beyond me

So nintendo doesn't have a say in what they launch their system with? That's a pretty odd bent for them to take!

Who is even going to buy these ports? Ninja Gaiden 3 sucked, for one. The people who played these games aren't really going to be the ones that pick up a Wii U to play them again, and the consumer-at-large doesn't care about them - only game journalists and people on game forums do! That's hardly a market worth focusing on, lol. Critical acclaim doesn't move hardware.

Exclusives are the only reason people buy consoles at launch. And in that regard nintendo fucked up.

[ocre]

NSMBU, ZombiU, Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3, Bayonetta 2, Rayman Legends, Lego City Undercover, and The Wonderful 101 seem like a good start to me, as far as exclusives in the first few months.

I won't deny that a lot of those third party offerings you guys are talking about have been shoddy efforts but don't act like those games are the only thing Nintendo has in their hand. It's been out for 2 weeks, guys. lol

That said, if Bioshock Infinite and GTA V don't hit the system with competent versions, I'm gonna be miffed.

Edited December 2, 2012 by ocre

[Mirby]

all i'm seeing when i read these posts is the same thing i've been seeing since 2006: "NINTENDO FUCKED UP RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE"

seriously, i never understood getting so irritated about this stuff. then again, i'm don't require super-nice graphics and perfect frame rate and super-awesome 1080p HD. as long as it plays i'm happy. *shrugs*

and somehow i don't think i'm the only one who feels this way.

to me, this seems to be the same deal as that huffpost article in the wreck-it ralph thread, in that you're all looking for something to get outraged over, something to mar nintendo's name so you can get up in arms over it. but here's the thing: nintendo has never cared about that stuff. they've always been quality over quantity. sure, the ports may not run as well as the originals, but getting furious at nintendo for that is rather inane. i mean, yeah they have QA but if it runs bad the blame still falls on the developers for not making it run as well as it could. QA had nothing to do with the shoddiness of the port. and if they'd said no to these ports, y'all would be bitching about WII U HAS NO THIRD-PARTY GAMES WHY COULDN'T THEY PORT SOME STUFF OVER?!?

see, this is like telling a story to a crowd of people where one side is always heckling and the other is respectful. as the story goes on, the storyteller slowly turns to face the respectful crowd and turns their back to the hecklers instinctively. in this analogy, the storyteller is nintendo; they're appealing to those who don't worry about these things, to those who just want to play fun games. not to those who require a system with the most high-end everything and would probably still complain about it even then, a system that would probably have cost far more than they wanted. after all, they wanted it to be affordable for the price, and they're still selling the system at a loss.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Mirby

[Nabeel Ansari]

The thing here is cost, Mirbz.

Why pay $350 for a Wii U to play Batman when you can get an Xbox 360 to play Batman for $200 with the same performance?

That's the question posed by the people who are hating on the system because of its (apparently lackluster) 3rd party ports.

If you cite the first party games as a reason to get the system, you're just slapped in the face with "they suck", so you can't really win the argument here.

So rather than try and disprove haters, it's better to spend your time enjoying your own Wii U.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Neblix

[Tensei]

Except nobody is saying Nintendo fucked up.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Except nobody is saying Nintendo fucked up.

The thing I am disappointed in is how Nintendo chose to launch its newest system with these aforesaid half-assed ports.

You can blame Nintendo for their lack of Quality Assurance for the game put on their system.

...? are they not

[Mirby]

y'all posted before my edit was done

@Neblix: exactly. it's better to spend time enjoying the system.

[EC2151]

Well, it doesn't take a genius to look at the sales numbers, where the DS outsold the 3DS this black-Friday, and the WiiU only sold 100,000 more copies than its predecessor.

I think that speaks to some serious market confusion (indifference?), as well as a lack of concerted advertising on Nintendo's part. The Wii launched with wii sports, the game everyone wanted to play, and Twilight Princess, the game that nintendo fans wanted to play.

Trying to siphon off the gamers who play games like Assassin's Creed, Ninja Gaiden, and Black Ops is just a waste of time, because it won't generate any significant sales. However, wii sports generated sales. New Super Mario Bros Wii generated sales. I don't think Nintendo Land will have a similar effect as far as sales go - it doesn't have as broad appeal as SPORTS. Which leaves NSMB U, which many consumers will see and ask how it is different than the previous iteration (I haven't seen a significant difference aside from the inclusion of Miis). The fact that NSMB U and Nintendo Land do not have the same appeal as Wii Sports and NSMBWii means that the Wii U's launch will stumble (at the least be nowhere near as successful as the Wii) until it picks up actual, worthwhile exclusives that everyone wants to play. Not ports.

If you can't discuss without resorting to saying "aw your jus' hatin'" maybe you should think before you post. Nor can someone really say I'm "furious" at these ports. I just think the sales will speak for themselves. Nintendo mishandled the launch, and furthermore, this is personally the first nintendo console my brother and I (life-long nintendo kids) feel indifferent towards at launch, because of the shortage of worthwhile games.

What I think should be done is Nintendo to start reviving dormant IPs. Low-devcost games that are cheap, very accessible and fun to play. You know, like a new Ice Climbers (where there can only be improvement because Ice Climbers sucked). Or something for the VN-crowd: a new Famicom Tantei/Detective Club. Or a new Mach Rider as a new racer. Hell, why not a new StarTropics, since the Zelda series has been pretty disagreeable with most consumers as of late. Take a chance with old IPs, and leave established IPs for things that sell. Like NSMB. Or WarioWare.

These are just thoughts. I'm curious as to where the direction of the WiiU will go, but I don't want it to be another glorified competitor with Sony and Microsoft with a touch-pad controller. The reason the GC and N64 failed is because they were competitors.