Nintendo Wii U

[Neon Ignition]

It's like a demo of Crash Time!! Nice free viewing, wouldn't be much use but continues to reaffirm my view that claims the WiiU will be too underpowered don't add up to much.

[Brad]

It still smells of this is our tech, how can we make games that use it? to me. Nintendo of old would no doubt pull it off no problem but the current day Nintendo aren't what they once were so I can't help but be skeptical.

[Golgo]

It still smells of this is our tech, how can we make games that use it? to me. Nintendo of old would no doubt pull it off no problem but the current day Nintendo aren't what they once were so I can't help but be skeptical.

Could you expand on that? I'm not sure I follow.

[Brad]

Well, with Wii Nintendo said "All these buttons confuse people. What if we let them move around, point at stuff, make gestures and had fewer buttons?". The result was the Wii and, more importantly, Wii sports. Tennis, bowling and golf were all amazing and gamers and non-gamers alike saw that and were suitably impressed. It was great. I saw the point immediately, even before trying it out myself.

This however... Hey we can display graphics on 2 displays at once. Ok.
We can detect movement of the controller (which now has as many buttons as previous console AND another screen) and based on where the player is facing we can display somethign different to what's on the mains screen. Ok.
We'll only give you one of these types of controllers though, the other controllers will be wii remotes. erm, ok.

After seeing all the above I just simply do no see where the hell they are going with all of this. The system now looks like the most complicated system ever devised and has the power of consoles released 5 years ago. I just don't get it. If someone else does then please explain.

EDIT: To elaborate a bit more:

With Wii I can imagine (not saying this is how it happened) someone saying "wouldn't it be good if golf games didn't consist of pressing a button 3 times with the correct timing? Imagine if you could actually swing a golf club? With Wii U I haven't seen the current videogaming problem that caused Nintendo to say "Hey, this problem would be solved by one player having a special controller that involved them looking away from their TV and onto a smaller screen instead for a bit".

[Neon Ignition]

I think this will be Nintendo's attempt to try to bridge between the casual audience and those expecting deeper experiences than much of what the Wii saw released. At the moment it's a bit fuddled as they've communicated it across poorly then gone quiet but I expect at E3 they'll (after the 3DS kerfuffle) have a clear message and approach to it. In the end it'll end up ignoring the Wiimote and using standard controls I'm betting. Techwise it's more a money thing. We're at a point now where hardware tech is becoming massively incremental and they've little reason to make an expensive next gen system. The current systems are old now but that doesn't stop some stunning looking games arriving. I think many people are going to be deeply disappointed by the graphics of the next gen machines.

[Cornflakes]

Don't think they were trying to solve a non-existing problem, but rather trying to translate the success of the NDS to the home environment. But with dual screen gaming on a home console you have to go beyond just showing stats and map on one screen and action on the other, that is just my take on why nintendo designed the wii u.

[Golgo]

@FSW: yeah, I see what you mean now. I guess the Wii U does look a lot more confusing in terms of what it's capable of/mashing together, and it is quite concerning that - despite the relatively more straighforward tech of motion control in the Wii - it is still only Nintendo who have managed to do anything interesting with it (and even then, not very much). Most developers never got beyond the initial beanfeast stage of thinking that spraying waggle on inane party-games would result in megabucks. Hmmm...maybe they need to focus on the new screenie at E3 in order not to over-complicate.

[Brad]

Yeah, I'm not saying it won't be a success or there won't be any good games for it. I'm just saying that last time with the Wii I saw the logic. I got it. This time I don't. The power of a PS3? Consumers have had that option for 5 years now. A controller with a screen built in? Show me why that's a good thing and also how you're going to sell me second controllers at a reasonable price. As CTN says, it may just be a failure to communicate and maybe they'll address that soon. I hope so, I want a reason to continue console gaming.

[Neon Ignition]

Mario Kart 8... where the controller screen shows your rear view so you manually avoid red shells

[Brad]

Yep. you could use it for that.
... or you could render a rear-view mirror on the TV :-)

With Wii I could see how it could be used and that was how is was used. No devs ever did anything with the tech that surprised me. That was fine though. This time though I am relying on devs to surprise me and they have a history of not doing that.

[Neon Ignition]

The only other thing I can think of is using it to simulate real life scenarios like it's night, your tired and your driving down the boulavard in GTA5. You're eyes are drawn to the controller screen which is showing a spoof Come Dine with Me special as though it's an in-car TV screen. You're wondering whether Naked George's suffle will singe his dipper when CRASH. Your dead.

[nakamura]

After seeing all the above I just simply do no see where the hell they are going with all of this.

This one little line sums it up for me. Yet at the same time it has me the most interested for the very same reason. We are probably all expecting the next Sony and MS consoles to be just a step up from current, yet Nintendo are making a machine that we have no idea how it works!

[Brad]

Well yes, I would absolutely love for Nintendo to make us all go "oooooooohhhhhhhhh!!!!! Now I see!!!", even if right now I'm expecting the actual response to be the shortened version of the above "oh".

[Synthesthesia]

I'm getting one on day 1 if there is a Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero or Mario game to go with it. I might bend for Pikmin. Otherwise I'm waiting.

True about the 360 and PS3, I find it's a bit pointless owning both unless you absolutely must play both Halo and Uncharted. All the other exclusives are asscraxx. One of them is essential however.

Demon's Souls made the PS3 essential to me before dark souls came out, and even now if I hadn't played it I'd still want to. But it is the speciality machine for me. The 360 is the general use box.

[Neon Ignition]

Most peeps have a fave between PS3 and 360 but it's very interchangable between them as 95% of releases are the same. With Nintendo consoles there's a distinct difference in software which makes it the better secondary machine