Nintendo Switch: Thread 10

[wakka]

In terms of HDMI streaming technology this is the closest thing I've seen that fits the bill. The experience is almost zero latency.

Very interesting. It hadn't occurred to more before this conversation but I'm now of the opinion that an MMwave HDMI dongle feels not unlikely as a replacement for the dock with Switch 2.

[samanosuke]

The WiiU Gamepad is the worst Nintendo peripheral of all-time.

It was a crap idea back then and it would be a crap idea now. Best left dead.

Wow, this is the same company that brought us gems such as ROB the Robot, the Power Glove, and the wonderfully useless “Super” Scope… yet you choose to die on that hill.

[Asura]

Honestly I think [MENTION=2970]Nu-Eclipse[/MENTION] has a fair point, specifically on the GamePad being the worst peripheral - not because it was terrible in and of itself (it did what it was designed to do pretty well, even if Nintendo stiffed us on the battery) but what it was designed to do practically sank its host platform. The Power Glove and the Super Scope were bad but they didn't sink the NES or SNES.

[kryss]

They were optional accessories purchased separately, the GamePad wasn't. (i recently found you can play Smash without even having one connected, but that's beside the point)

[Neon Ignition]

Also... I don't think it was the GamePad that killed the WiiU

[CMcK]

It’s weird how the Wii was everywhere with even my folks owning one and yet I’ve never even had a shot of a WiiU. I think the name confused people a bit like HD-DVD.

[Neon Ignition]

I always found it confusing that people broadly thought the WiiU failed because it was mistaken as a Wii peripheral. The thing with the Wii was that it sold **** peripherals like utter gangbusters so a prominent new peripheral would have garnered loads of interest, certainly enough for people to have the two seconds more info required to find out it was the successor console. To me, the rot was already setting into the Wii brand by the time the WiiU was announced and was just another issue on top of all the ones the system and its concept added to the pile on top.

[Lebowski]

Also... I don't think it was the GamePad that killed the WiiU

The name and the confusion around what the Wiiu was killed it, the disastrous E3 showing where people used to these big tech events came away thinking this was a gamepad addon for the wii says it all.

https://www.ign.com/articles/new-nintendo-switch-split-pad-compact-pro-controller-pokemon

anyway back to the switch picked up a set of the above on sale just after crimbo for £38 i hate the chirp of the hd rumble on the joycons so always turn it off and rarely use the switch un-docked so these are perfect, stops me getting pins and needles in my hands after extended play too. they fit the switch a lot better than the fullsizes splitpad too and keep it pretty portable.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, but that's a communication issue, Nintendo were horrific at dealing with the clean up from that reveal as well. I don't think the idea of merging the perks of the Wii with the perks of the DS was a bad concept and even then a lot of good points of the Switch also apply to the WiiU. The Xbox One reveal was also a disaster but MS was able to claw it back in the following years to avoid the level of disaster the WiiU suffered from. With Nintendo the Wii was huge but in terms of effort Nintendo switched on Lazy Mode by the fourth year and that complacency set in the rot that led to numerous bad decisions.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Yep, but that's a communication issue, Nintendo were horrific at dealing with the clean up from that reveal as well.

Communication issue or not, there was still an obviously wrong perception amongst some of your average mainstream consumers (ironically many of whom had already brought well in to the Wii beforehand) that the WiiU was merely an add-on. Was it poor communication on Nintendo's part? Sure. Was it the only reason the WiiU failed? No. But it was still very much an issue.

The Gamepad should never have been mandatory for the WiiU. It should've clearly been an optional accessory to be sold separately. It would've allowed Nintendo to sell the WiiU for cheaper than it originally was out of the gate and would've allowed Nintendo to completely disown it once everybody saw it to be the clump of garbage that it always was.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Wow, this is the same company that brought us gems such as ROB the Robot, the Power Glove, and the wonderfully useless “Super” Scope… yet you choose to die on that hill.

You don't even know what you're talking about at this point!

You realise that R.O.B. is literally an iconic Nintendo piece of hardware, right?

The WiiU Gamepad is absolutely nowhere near R.O.B or the Super Scope. Both are so superior that it's laughable.

NES Power Glove was third-party (made by Mattel) so your use of it as an example here fails.

[Neon Ignition]

The Gamepad should never have been mandatory for the WiiU. It should've clearly been an optional accessory to be sold separately. It would've allowed Nintendo to sell the WiiU for cheaper than it originally was out of the gate and would've allowed Nintendo to completely disown it once everybody saw it to be the clump of garbage that it always was.

This was always a fascinating element of Nintendo's approach to the WiiU. Even if they were all in on the GamePad, there was a clear tipping point where it became clear that the system was severely underperforming and that games weren't making use of the pad. To remove the GamePad and replace it with a Pro Controller could have bolstered sales by introducing a cheaper SKU version of the machine. Yet, Nintendo never did anything. They never wiggled on trying to make the machine more commercial. They never made the Limited Editions they often to to drive sales etc or anything. With the WiiU Nintendo seemed to be phenomenally single minded in it existing in a single form regardless of how poorly its path went.

[samanosuke]

You don't even know what you're talking about at this point!

You realise that R.O.B. is literally an iconic Nintendo piece of hardware, right?

The WiiU Gamepad is absolutely nowhere near R.O.B or the Super Scope. Both are so superior that it's laughable.

NES Power Glove was third-party (made by Mattel) so your use of it as an example here fails.

Just because something is iconic that does not make it good. The Sinclair C5, for example.

It's been widely publicised that ROB was a marketing ploy to get department stores to take stock of the NES, with it being marketed as a toy in an attempt to distance it from the VCS. Did it work? Who knows - only the purchasing execs for said department stores would know whether it had any bearing on whether they took stock of it or not - but I would have thought the inclusion of the Zapper in the deluxe pack would've been a sufficient differentiator. I admit you are correct in that I don't know what I am talking about because I admit to having never played the two compatible games Stack-Up or Gyromite - maybe they are actually must haves, a couple of AAA titles which put the WiiU library to shame. They look bloody sh*te to me, though.

I can say with more assuredness that the Super Scope was a pile of crap though as I played it back in the day for all of ten minutes. Despite my best mate owning one, I don't think even he played it following those first ten minutes we both played it on his birthday. Even as a kid I wondered how the previous generation Zapper and SMS Lightgun could be so much better than this arse. Why did it require batteries? Why did it require a box under the telly? Why did it require calibration of the sight? And why the f*** was it so bloody unweildy?

Contrast these two abominations to the WiiU pad... yes it was useless insofar as games didn't take advantage of it, but it wasn't literally useless like the aforementioned peripherals. It could still be used as a normal controller and - more importantly - it offered a form of hybrid gaming, albeit a slightly limited/flawed experience. It has been mentioned how the pad was the downfall of the WiiU, but to look at it from another angle it also was the precursor to what has become one of the fastest selling and top selling consoles of all time. Can the same be said of ROB or Super Scope?

[Neon Ignition]

100% uncut, uncompromised console quality gaming on the toilet. The WiiU will always have that first unless someone installed a Dreamcast next to their log bowl.

[Lebowski]

Just because something is iconic that does not make it good. The Sinclair C5, for example.

It's been widely publicised that ROB was a marketing ploy to get department stores to take stock of the NES, with it being marketed as a toy in an attempt to distance it from the VCS. Did it work? Who knows - only the purchasing execs for said department stores would know whether it had any bearing on whether they took stock of it or not - but I would have thought the inclusion of the Zapper in the deluxe pack would've been a sufficient differentiator. I admit you are correct in that I don't know what I am talking about because I admit to having never played the two compatible games Stack-Up or Gyromite - maybe they are actually must haves, a couple of AAA titles which put the WiiU library to shame. They look bloody sh*te to me, though.

I can say with more assuredness that the Super Scope was a pile of crap though as I played it back in the day for all of ten minutes. Despite my best mate owning one, I don't think even he played it following those first ten minutes we both played it on his birthday. Even as a kid I wondered how the previous generation Zapper and SMS Lightgun could be so much better than this arse. Why did it require batteries? Why did it require a box under the telly? Why did it require calibration of the sight? And why the f*** was it so bloody unweildy?

Contrast these two abominations to the WiiU pad... yes it was useless insofar as games didn't take advantage of it, but it wasn't literally useless like the aforementioned peripherals. It could still be used as a normal controller and - more importantly - it offered a form of hybrid gaming, albeit a slightly limited/flawed experience. It has been mentioned how the pad was the downfall of the WiiU, but to look at it from another angle it also was the precursor to what has become one of the fastest selling and top selling consoles of all time. Can the same be said of ROB or Super Scope?

I remember seeing a NES pack with ROB in Boots and it fried my 8 year old brain, it was the terrible ninja turtles game that finally pushed me to nag my parents for a Nintendo though, i never did get that ROB or even consider it as i never saw it again in the uk.