Nintendo WiiU : Thread 05

[Colin]

Will Devil's Third be a WiiU exclusive? I really love the look of that.

[teddymeow]

Will Devil's Third be a WiiU exclusive? I really love the look of that.

Yeah. Being published by Nintendo.

[dataDave]

Xenoblade?

[Neon Ignition]

Interesting thought:

The WiiU has been on the market for 2 and a half years with its software now drying up and a replacement system on the way. Now let's take a rough outline of the systems key popular titles that are championed (often rightfully by fans):

-Super Mario 3D World
-Pikmin 3
-Mario Kart 8
-Super Smash Bros WiiU
-ZombiU
-Pikmin 3
-The Wonderful 101
-New Super Mario Bros U
-Splatoon
-Bayonetta 2
-Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
-Lego City Undercover
-Xenoblade Chronicles X

Feel free to add to the list as I think the point will flex to incorporate anyway. But as most games have a 2-3 year dev cycle it raises a question as to what Nintendo has been doing since the WiiU was announced. Factoring in the various release dates all these games were in development before the system reached market and I think pretty much nothing bar third party franchises like Just Dance etc have received follow ups. The games we can probably safely assume were commissioned after the systems launch are stuff like:

-Mario Maker
-Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
-Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival
-Starfox Zero
-Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

All games that pretty much scream limited budget, quick turnaround. Honestly, it makes me wonder just how far back Nintendo internally pulled WiiU resources.

[Pikate]

Looking at my own Wii U library (all Nintendo first party titles) and assuming a gaming year runs E3 to E3 they've not really changed the frequency or changed budgets:

Launch Period:

Nintendo Land
New Super Mario Bros. U

Year 2:

New Super Luigi U
Pikmin 3
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
Super Mario 3D World
NES Remix
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Year 3:

Mario Kart 8 + DLC
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Kirby and the Rainbow Painbrush
Splatoon

Year 4:

Yoshi's Woolly World
Super Mario Maker
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Star Fox Zero
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash

I don't think they've changed strategy just started making really experimental or crappy games that they internally view as big news even if we don't. (Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is an amiibo-pushing experiment, Mario Maker is something I'm sure they see as a big deal, Star Fox Zero is bad decisions, not a lack of budget or no intent to make a good game, Mario Tennis looks like it's been in development a while and doesn't look like anything unusual for them to be making.

I honestly think they just misjudged the work that would go into HD games and their entire release calendar has slid and slid. Doesn't help they made such poor choices about what to show of the games they did at E3 or that they left Zelda footage out.

They've also published/pushed 1 "core" third party developed game every one of those same E3-E3 years and that's on course still 1) Zombi U 2) TW101 3) Bayonetta 2 4) Xenoblade X 5) SMT x FE

[Neon Ignition]

In my head when I run through the list though everything is either commissioned before the WiiU release, cheap budget quick turnaround or outsourced. I don't really see any evidence of Nintendo greenlighting anything resource or budget intensive post console release, we should be at a point now with the WiiU were it's just hitting it's stride just from Nintendo's output alone rather than wrapping up. They've staggered their big games very carefully to stretch the schedules as best they can but it's mostly a reflection how how long Nintendo spends developing than anything else.

[nakamura]

It's more remarkable when you consider they develop virtually the same content across two platforms.

[Brad]

Sony and Ms have been slow too, on the game front I mean. The difference is that the hardware is ready for what we now expect and they have good online infrastructure.

[Pikate]

In my head when I run through the list though everything is either commissioned before the WiiU release, cheap budget quick turnaround or outsourced. I don't really see any evidence of Nintendo greenlighting anything resource or budget intensive post console release, we should be at a point now with the WiiU were it's just hitting it's stride just from Nintendo's output alone rather than wrapping up. They've staggered their big games very carefully to stretch the schedules as best they can but it's mostly a reflection how how long Nintendo spends developing than anything else.

I think that's more a reflection of Zelda is going to miss it's original Q4 2015 release slot if Q3/Q4 looked like this:

Sep - Super Mario Maker
Oct - Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
Nov - The Legend of Zelda Wii U + Star Fox Zero + Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival

Most of us would consider that a strong line-up by Wii standards and I really do think the work of making HD games has taken Nintendo by surprise so everything is behind. After the constant negative PR of delays to things like Pikmin 3, DKC: Tropical Freeze, MK8, Smash Bros., Woolly World etc I think Nintendo have got really cautious showing things too early and given specific release dates to prematurely hence the weak E3.

I'm not saying NX isn't coming next year and all the big games aren't coming to that now, I just think you're possibly putting 2+2 together and making 5 if you're looking at the release calendar and assuming they've been making amazing NX games for the last 2 or 3 years. I think they're really just without a paddle or a firm hand on the tiller at this point.

[teddymeow]

Seeing as Nintendo are doing another Mario Tennis maybe they'll put ?50 in the kitty and do a Wii U version of Mario Smash Football.

[gunrock]

The Gamecube had a poorly designed controller, no dvd support which meant game sizes were limited and textures suffered badly and a childish look.

It was poorly designed despite actually being powerful.

Er, Resident Evil 4 wants a word...

[nakamura]

Er, Resident Evil 4 wants a word...

Sorry you're right I should have been clear. Discs hampered games and things like textures suffered unless multiple discs were used.

[gunrock]

Don't think that F-Zero GX or the Rogue Squadron games suffered graphically, neither did King Kong as far as I remember. Lack of storage was a bit pants as it always costs more to split a game over discs, but I think good developers would make it shine.

[nakamura]

F Zero had tremendously awful audio. One of the worst of the entire generation.

[teddymeow]

F Zero had tremendously awful audio. One of the worst of the entire generation.

Muffled to hell. I honestly thought the announcer was shouting "you've got moose power!!"