Topic: Touch Generations U

[Hyawatta]

People don’t seem to realize that Nintendo has told us their strategy for the future of the Wii U. I have seen a few articles lately that say things like, Nintendo’s games aren’t making innovative use of the GamePad, the games that Nintendo needs most aren’t coming out until 2014, and Nintendo needed to release new experiences instead of relying on safe franchises.
 
Here is the basic story of the Wii U. Nintendo decided to invest money into creating the GamePad as a second screen experience instead of putting that money into either making the system more powerful or making the system less expensive. When the 3DS started to struggle, Nintendo had to reallocate resources away from Wii U development onto the 3DS. Due to the limited resources available and the new HD technology, software development for the Wii U took much longer than Nintendo initially expected. Although there were over 30 games available at launch, including New Super Mario Bros U and Nintendo Land; somehow, nothing performed similarly to Wii Sports or New Super Mario Bros Wii.
 
As the 3DS recovered, the Wii U development slowly regained its resources. Because none of the initial launch window games took off or performed particularly well, Nintendo needed to revitalize the Wii U just as they did for the 3DS. They planned to do that by first releasing familiar Nintendo franchises of proven sellers in order to build sales momentum. Then, they would release games that make new and innovative use of the GamePad.
 
Nintendo has recouped their development resources back for the Wii U, they have gotten familiar with developing on HD hardware, and they are pushing forward with familiar franchises first, in order to revitalize sales. Once Mario Kart 8 has been released, prepare yourself for some of the best, most innovative games that Nintendo has ever developed. At this point, we will see the games that are meant to sell like the Touch Generations games did. These games will make great, inventive use of the GamePad, and they will be fresh new experiences that will likely include new IP instead of old franchises.
 
Nintendo is able to remain confident instead of being worried about the Wii U’s current predicament because they know that what they will be releasing, in the future, will be incredible. Nintendo has pretty much spelled all of this out for us already, just like with their Nintendo Direct at the beginning of the year, where they told us what they would be showing at E3. No one seems to be listening, and they will be shocked and amazed at the software that Nintendo will showcase after Mario Kart 8’s release.

[Agent-X-]

I really hope so. Nintendo Land felt like a brief sampling of a lot of unique experiences, but then every other game experience for Wii U has made Nintendo Land feel like the odd duck or the anomaly rather than the rule.


The Wii U has tremendous potential. There is still great opportunity to make an actual "fishing game" that a lot of people would have to buy just because it seems like such a natural and fun fit. Tag SEGA to make THAT game. Bass fishing is HUUUUGE in Japan anyway. I can just imagine all sorts of cool ways to use the Wii U Gamepad, ie. turn it into a fish finder while using Wii Motion Plus + nunchuk as rod and reel, have it become the tacklebox screen when switching rods/reels/lures, it becomes your livewell when putting in fish or culling fish (make this a manual effort rather than automatically always dropping the smallest fish), hold the Gamepad up in front of you when driving the boat -- the gamepad becomes your windshield AND steering wheel while triggers are the gas.


I can think of all sorts of different features for a quality hunting game. There are loads of new stuff to do with the Gamepad. The problem is that developers are both unwilling to extend the effort on Wii U and are mostly unwilling to extend the effort beyond mainstream tastes. Quality games in niche areas are just... a thing of the past these days. Looks like we'll continue to get the "Michael Bay" type experiences from here on out. F'n COD and Battlefield ALL THE WAY, woohoooo.


So yeah, bring on the familiar, and I truly hope 2014 is a Wii U Renaissance year for the more eclectic tastes. It worked remarkably well for the PS2 (to the point that no one even acknowledged the system was the weakling of the bunch), so let's have it!

[Wah]

Maybe Mario party (what number is it?) will do it!

[RedBlue]

I think a better name would be touch U generations