Nintendo Wii U

[BaronSqwelch]

Yeah, I enjoyed reading that article.

I'm definitely going to get mine now. NintendoLand, New SMB, ZombiU & TankTankTank!!! for sure but maybe another game too (Barman as I didn't do it on PS3 and the scanning mode looks sweet).

I'm sure it will succeed, and in time there'll be proper AAA games to sell it to the masses but I've owned every Nintendo system on Day 1 since the original GB so to not buy this.is.almost sacrilegious.

My love for Sony is fairly recent but deep down the Nintendo fanboy burns bright.

EDIT; Just read the P-A article. I might nit download the Day 1 patch. Not that bothered about online. Neither, it seems, are Nintendo. I'll just use the WiiU offline as a pure games machine.

Reading about the patch on NeoGaf apparently if you decline it and just play a game it downloads in the background! Obviously the install interrupts things tho...

And Party Boy, we could reverse your trolling moan and accuse you of sounding like a Nintendo shill/plant...it made the 3DS thread unbearable and now its rearing its head in here.

[Brad]

It's alright, I stopped taking you seriously ages ago!

I'll assume that remark was in jest and we'll make that the last word regarding trolling and get back on to discussing the WiiU.

[Party boy]

Reading about the patch on NeoGaf apparently if you decline it and just play a game it downloads in the background! Obviously the install interrupts things tho...

And Party Boy, we could reverse your trolling moan and accuse you of sounding like a Nintendo shill/plant...it made the 3DS thread unbearable and now its rearing its head in here.

So much for a friendly forum, at least I didn't name names or make it personal.

[Brad]

Whilst the new controller is obviously the highlight of the system, I don't agree they are putting all their eggs into one basket. There are plenty of games at launch that can use the Pro Controller, which admittedly are available on other platforms, but that doesn't mean that you have to be using the Gamepad all the time, there is a choice.

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. What I'm saying is - what does WiiU bring to the table? That new controller. With the Wii they said "Hey, power's not everything! What if you could play tennis like THIS!?" and they were right. They showed Sony and MS good and proper. They really did. They went for a different market and they got it. You could argue that they then lost this market toward the end of Wii's life but even if they didn't then, they have now. The new controller is even more complicated than the PS3 or 360's.

Nintendo's pitch for WiiU is "how do you feel about a Nintendo console with about the same grunt as the PS3 and 360 (it can't be much more powerful, Nintendo would have broken pattern and boasted as much) but with a touchscreen controller?" There are two things in that proposition: Nintendo games and that controller. If they'd had an impressive Zelda, Mario galaxy or a Metroid at launch then that two pronged attack might have done it for me. As it is it's just a single proposition at the moment - the controller. Basically I'm talking about their differentiator. I mean they do have some exclusives on there with ZombiU and the Mario game and I'm sure that, plus the promise of what's to come will be enough for a lot of people. I am really keen to have a go one at the very least.

EDIT: To provide some balance. Sony took an interesting strategy with the Vita. They basically gave every gamer the world over exactly what they asked for. Big, gorgeous screen, twin analog sticks, twice as many touch inputs as we were expecting, wifi, 3g if you want it and GPS. They just forgot to make sure there were enough games. I bought a Vita for its potential. So far it's mostly failed to deliver. If Nintendo deliver the games then all will be well I expect. The prospect of an HD Metroid Prime? I'm in as soon as that happens.

[EvilBoris]

For Me the Wii didn't sustain my interest, I'm kinda hoping some Wii HD games turn up so I can catch up with a few at some point. Even then I'm not entirely sure what I'd play

[Guts]

Not to mention the lack of any of their big hitting franchises ('New' SMB does not count)

Whether people like it or not, New Super Mario Bros. is probably Nintendo's biggest franchise at the moment (or maybe ever), so it does count. Maybe you hate it, but it's a system seller for a lot of people.

[noobish hat]

A sequel to Metroid Other M with no involvement from Sakamoto would pique my interest.

[originalbadboy]

What I'm saying is - what does WiiU bring to the table?

When the PS3 first came out you could easily have leveled the same criticism, which is why I didn't buy one at launch, yet the PS3 has still been a moderate success. The WiiU most certainly does bring new stuff to the table, whether its stuff that's actually worth playing and whether its a gimmick or not remains to be seen.

At least Nintendo are trying to bring something new to the table, I very much doubt the PS4 will, other than an updated DS Pad, and 4K support (which won't be for games, and is currently irrelevant).

I don't believe its all about the controller ...

[wakka]

Gonna play a Wii U on Wednesday at a special Nintendo event and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just not feeling this launch though. There's no way I'm buying one just to play games already available on other systems (that's just me, and I'm not really interested in most of the launch games no matter what system they're on).

But it really seems to be Nintendo's strategy to hold back their really big guns until at least later in the system's first year. It's a far better way of doing things than Sony with the Vita - that is, get a brilliant launch line up (IMO), then practically abandon it and rely on third parties to produce software for its first Christmas in the West.

All it's going to take is one really big title for me - like the suddenly rumoured Yoshi's Island U. If that is what it sounds like, I'm going to be gagging for one come the day of release. I just really love Nintendo games, and it doesn't take anything else to sell a Nintendo system to me. But they aren't there yet. NSMBU will be a nice backup again when I eventually do get one, probably around this time next year.

the PS3 has still been a moderate success

Moderate?! Yeah they only sold 70 million.

[Brad]

EDIT: I don't want to be in here putting the dampeners on the excitement of a console launch so have deleted my last essay.

I look forward to all the first impressions!!!

[teddymeow]

Reading about the patch on NeoGaf apparently if you decline it and just play a game it downloads in the background! Obviously the install interrupts things tho...

What if I no connecty to da intanetz thingy?!

[PaTaito]

Waiting until the price drops to ?200 ish for the 32gb model. And if it doesnt then i wont get one. The fact that microsoft released the 360 for less in 2005 really makes this launch somewhat cheeky. The 360 was cutting edge then, the WiiU is not now, and neither is the cheap controller.

Looks great and i am genuinely glad that NSMBU is by far the best entry in the series, with some real mario soul...but its just not enough for me.

Metroid or Zelda in HD will have me del boy'ing it on the street corner to raise funds for one though!

[originalbadboy]

The fact that microsoft released the 360 for less in 2005 really makes this launch somewhat cheeky.

It wasn't that much less, the non Arcade 20GB version was around the ?280 mark from what i remember , so not really all that different, and you get more in the box with the deluxe version of the WiiU that's for sure, an lets not even talk about the PS3.

Also we don't really know the true power of the WiiU, but its fair to say it will be more powerful than current gen consoles, as it would be practically impossible for it not to be.

You may be waiting a while for the price to drop, I really can't see it happening any time soon, and the only reason why it will is that if it dive bombs, in which case their won't be any games coming out on it anyway.

Also note that the basic WiiU package is ?250 so you are only really arguing over ?50, not exactly a huge amount of money in reality.

[Shozuki]

Whether people like it or not, New Super Mario Bros. is probably Nintendo's biggest franchise at the moment (or maybe ever), so it does count. Maybe you hate it, but it's a system seller for a lot of people.

In the context of us here, it really isn't. For the record I did like the DS original..

It's alright, I stopped taking you seriously ages ago!

Good stuff sir!

[sj33]

Also we don't really know the true power of the WiiU, but its fair to say it will be more powerful than current gen consoles, as it would be practically impossible for it not to be.

If the Digital Foundry review is accurate, the machine has 2GB of main RAM (compared with 256MB in the PS3, and 512MB in the 360 shared with the GPU). That by itself is a massive step up.