Six of the best Nintendo Wii U games All new consoles need the right line-up of games to make them a success. The Wii U, however, finds itself in the unusual position of not only having brand new games built for it at launch, but also having numerous games ported over from Xbox 360 and PS3. Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders 2, Assassin’s Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, …
If these are the best games on the Wii U right now I'm glad I haven't bought one. Mario Bros and ZombiU I'd be interested in. But the rest either don't interest me (nintendo land) or I can grab on a console I already own (batman arkham city / Darksiders 2.)
I'll admit that the WiiU has a strong launch lineup (when compared to previous consoles) but it hasn't wowed me. I mean lets face it, half the lineup are ports from the current gen. All they're selling is a PS3 / 360 gen console with a tablet controller on it.
I know the console is more powerful, but I just don't see that power being used by third parties. Why rewrite their engines and develop for the WiiU when that will be dwarfed in power in 2013 (possibly 2014) when they can keep making games for cheaper on the PS3 / 360 with its larger market share, and then port over to Wii U.
Until devs start to actually make use of the hardware in the WiiU fully, I just don't see any point getting it when I have my current consoles.
"If these are the best games on the Wii U right now I'm glad I haven't bought one. Mario Bros and ZombiU I'd be interested in. But the rest either don't interest me (nintendo land) or I can grab on a console I already own (batman arkham city / Darksiders 2.)"
If only Nintendo had asked you first. Then they wouldn't have had to go to the expense of designing, manufacturing and selling a new console.
I do hope you've written to Sony and Microsoft to prevent them from making the same mistake with *their* next consoles. I'd hate for them to go to the effort of releasing the PS4 & neXBox if they don't interest you.
"Until devs start to actually make use of the hardware in the WiiU fully, I just don't see any point getting it when I have my current consoles."
Which devs? Me, I'm think Android, Linux and PC hackers. If I can use a Wii U Controller with them... cool. My wee Galaxy can sit in my pocket while benefitting from a bigger screen and proper game controls, or pipe my Skype between the controller and the net. And when I get home I can do the exact same thing with my PC. At work, I could use it with dual-screen on my PC to control presentations with more finesse, previewing the next slide before announcing it and changing the order of slides on the fly to respond better to my audience and cover subjects that repeat without having to copy slides (and risk versioning problems when I start editing).
ZombiU has had pretty favourable reviews and looks interesting not just for the game itself but perhaps a turn in direction for Nintendo to offer a more "hard core" game.
But most of the ports have been met with "bleh". They're not especially bad but neither do they demonstrate any advantage over the original games. Case in point would be Arkham City which has be criticised for poor frame and for releasing at a time when the game is in the bargain bin on other platforms. E.g. it's turning up on PSN+ next month as that month's main free download.
I think it's absolutely obvious that the Wii U was designed to bring it up to the current console generation tier but absolutely no further than the bare minimum. There are enough comments from developers to suggest that the CPU in particular is pretty weedy even in comparison to the 360 and PS3 which let's not forget are 5 years old.
Given that the previous Wii console also put some sounds through a "tinny" speaker on the game controller, I'd guess you were equally disappointed with that too, so you wouldn't really be the target market (and I don't know of anyone who complains about the noise through the controllers, to be honest - that's there for secondary sounds related to that particular player usually, not the main game action).
And the number of people with a £2000 7.1 amplifier setup AND who like playing Wii are probably lost in the intersection of the Venn diagram rather than a huge portion of the market.
Similarly, when I buy a laptop, the sound quality on it is pretty much irrelevant so long as it's loud enough. There aren't many people who hook up their laptops to the hifi either because that tends to be the audiophiles only anyway. And my TV has speakers on the back that are good enough that I don't even *OWN* a hifi or amplified speaker any more.
Never forget: Most people are happy with laptop speakers, iPod headphones, integrated TV speakers, and the little cheap plug-in iPod "speakers" that run on AA's. You are in the minority here, seriously.
quite a few people on AVF are looking into them and most of those guys have a decent 5.1-7.1 setup.
you would be surprised how many people have HC these days. dont forget that for the time being the Wii-u is the most powerful console so a few people are getting one. i must admit after buying a wii a few years ago i wont be making that mistake again.
Unless the IPC of the PPC core has increased by over 250% since the 360 was released, then the 1.2 GHz 3-core CPU is only 1/3 - 1/2 as powerful as a 3.3GHz 3-core 360, which will make porting some games challenging, despite the slightly better GPU.
If it's like Nintendo's previous system, you can adjust the volume of the sound from the controller. The lower you set it, the louder it will be on the TV. At 100%, it won't come through the TV at all. If you turn it all the way down, the sound will come through the TV at full volume instead.
This is handy for those who play using closed headphones where hearing the controller would be difficult.
The Wii U version of Arkham City isn't the best version according to Eurogamer:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-batman-arkham-city-wii-u-face-off
"It's Arkham City, and by default a good game, but the basic reality is that we'd take any of the older - and now cheaper - versions of this excellent title ahead of the underwhelming Wii U port."
They bring old games over to a new system to test the water, and when those old games don't sell well as the majority of the people who wanted it already have it on the original systems over a year ago have it already, they will say there is no market on the new Wii U, and screw it over for games.
I've seen this on the Wii, and other other systems they bring a old, and terrible edition of a game from japan over it bombs they cancel the good release in the US as there is no market.
As for people judging a system on the 1st round of games... seriously when has a game system even been remotely pushed at all when they 1st came out. I don't think I can recall a launch game really push any system or show what they can do.
Nintendo know that their market are fanbois and casual gamers (hence the "We only need to sell one game to be profitable" statement) so releasing an upgrade on the Wii with another gimmick that Microsoft have already managed to clone with Smart Glass seems odd.
Nintendo are always behind the curve technologically, at least since the N64, and this gimmick isn't anything like as ground breaking as the Wii was. Can I see all the casual Wii gamers binning it off for a Wii-U? Nope.
Less of the selfish thinking.
The Wii U will be perfect for the young lads and lasses who are coming up to video-game owning age.
Why would they care what has gone before or what graphically superior versions of COD or Need for Speed are available on the next gen? Millions of parents will be making some of the big decisions and importantly handing over the credit card.
The Wii is still selling well and is still an ideal first console if you can weed out the gems. Gems which tend to be unavailable on other platforms.
To existing console owners, the Wii U should probably be considered more of an upgrade (something PC owners have never had a problem with) to a unique platform rather than next gen technology designed with bragging rights and I wouldn't be surprised if MS and Sony abandon big, noisy powerful boxes next time.
Tablets are all the rage at the moment and get people excited, including the people piling up the money. Nintendo turn a cheap one into a controller, genius.
As for the price, it's the same as the 80s and 90s consoles with inflation, offers much more than the did and still cheaper than most of the top gadgets kids have been desiring of late.
Of course the platform is at the mercy of Nintendo's tightness, quirkiness and often stubbornness. Support for 2TB USB drives is a reasonably good sign though.
Accept Nintendo arn't going to do it perfectly and have some fun.
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