Topic: Wii U - e3 is over... now what?

[ThePerm]

it would be awesome if monolith showed some mind blowing rpg at e3, i dont even like RPGs

[iamangel]

People can make fun of the name all they want like when the original name (Wii) was released. Eventually that will wear off and people will realize that Nintendo packs some of the best games under one roof! Yeah, last gen they kinda dissed the hardcore gamers. But now they are trying to do them right. They made a big mistake - because it is the hardcore gamers that will help keep their business sustainable. After all, they are the ones who will continually buy quality games -- not the casual gamers!

[Morari]

The novelty of the Wii name still hasn't wore off. The WiiU is an even worse off name. There's more to a name than just branding, after all. Besides, I'm still not convinced that Nintendo knows how to cater to the "hardcore" crowd. They didn't really show off anything that they were personally developing to fill the criteria. If they're going to rely entirely on third-parties for that, then I don't see much of a lure to choose their console over any of the other ones.

[ThePerm]

ok so list of Excited/interested Developers

Ubisoft
EA
Square Enix
Epic Games
Valve
Activision

so all we need is Capcom and Konami

[BlackNMild2k1]

THQ, Tecmo & Capcom have all alluded to the WiiU before it was announced, but all 3 of them have been silent since E3.

[ThePerm]

well Tecmo..i mean they showed Ninja Gaiden...so they must be on board. I'm sure capcom will be on board, hopefully its with something good. THQ....err what do they currently make thats good?

[BlackNMild2k1]

I forgot Tecmo had announced Ninja Gaiden 3

I also forgot that THQ announced Metro & Darksiders 2
(THQ also has the WWE license, Warhammer & UFC license)
Itagaki also hinted at Devil's Third coming to WiiU too

So that just leaves Capcom who hinted that SSFIV3DS would connect to a console, and we all know that it won't be Wii(or 360 or PS3), so it has to be WiiU. We just have to wait for that official announcement.

[ThePerm]

that leaves Konami, who have had iffy Nintendo support since the n64 days. I like Metal Gear, Castlevania is Iffy, and I love Mystical Ninja. If they would make an ambitious Mystical Ninja game again that would be awesome.

[ThePerm]

Mark Rein (Epic Games) is excited by this news too
http://twitter.com/#!/MarkRein/status/83671040521285632

Valve likes the WiiU -- the idea of having full Steam support on WiiU excites me quite a bit! Valve rocks!

Speculation or Insider Info!?
Probably speculation since he links to the same article I did above, but it would be pretty great and definitely something to get excited over.

Mark Rein is still tweeting about WiiU

RT @developonline Valve raises interest in Wii U development http://bit.ly/kuy5Np <--I'm very excited about Steam potentially coming to WiiU

Yes @Ste_Hicky @stephentotilo SD cards are fast, cheap and portable. I use a USB stick as my primary Xbox360 storage device now. Works well.

Epic must have something nice planned for WiiU

bwahahahahh

i just found this

http://pietriots.com/2011/05/15/stolen-from-tomorrows-headlines/

[mac<censored>]

If they're going to rely entirely on third-parties for that, then I don't see much of a lure to choose their console over any of the other ones.

3rd parties don't want to "choose," they want to make portable games that run on all the consoles.  To make them "choose," either a big bundle of cash or a huge user-base advantage is required.

Still, as a player, I don't care at all about exclusivity, I just want cool games.  If I buy a wiiu, and it has lots of cool games, I'm happy as a clam; that xbox users may also enjoy those games doesn't hurt me...

[Morari]

Still, as a player, I don't care at all about exclusivity, I just want cool games.

Except that some of the coolest games could be exclusive. In this case, you will benefit from all of Nintendo's games being exclusive. What games are available where are a huge deciding factor for those of us who can't afford to own three redundantly similar systems.

[NWR_insanolord]

Third party exclusives are rare these days on any platform. Well, not on Wii, but that's out of necessity. Once Wii U is out most third party games will be available across all systems, simply because it will be fairly easy to port between them and it increases the potential audience. You'll still have first party exclusives, and whatever titles Microsoft decides to moneyhat, but other than that most things will be on everything.

[Caterkiller]

Third party exclusives are rare these days on any platform. Well, not on Wii, but that's out of necessity. Once Wii U is out most third party games will be available across all systems, simply because it will be fairly easy to port between them and it increases the potential audience. You'll still have first party exclusives, and whatever titles Microsoft decides to moneyhat, but other than that most things will be on everything.

I remember Nintendo wanted this ideal utopia on the Gamecube. With no online and smaller disc space as excuse of course it never happened. But now it looks more and more like Nintendo will have lots of the good stuff and Nintendo stuff, I ask again why are people still unhappy? Oh right, because you didn't actually see Pikmin 3, inevitable Mario, etc even though we all know they are being worked on.

[NWR_insanolord]

That's absolutely right, but that's really on Nintendo. If they'd showed more stuff (read: any real first party game) there would be a lot less complaining. The more stuff they'd have shown, the less time people would be whining about the name instead of focusing on the gameplay.

[Morari]

Third party exclusives are rare these days on any platform. Well, not on Wii, but that's out of necessity. Once Wii U is out most third party games will be available across all systems, simply because it will be fairly easy to port between them and it increases the potential audience. You'll still have first party exclusives, and whatever titles Microsoft decides to moneyhat, but other than that most things will be on everything.

I remember Nintendo wanted this ideal utopia on the Gamecube. With no online and smaller disc space as excuse of course it never happened. But now it looks more and more like Nintendo will have lots of the good stuff and Nintendo stuff, I ask again why are people still unhappy? Oh right, because you didn't actually see Pikmin 3, inevitable Mario, etc even though we all know they are being worked on.

Because they've still based their entire hardware design around a gimmick that will really only factor positively into a handful of first party games?

[NWR_insanolord]

The first part of that's true; it's far too early to tell on the second. Regardless, the system also includes all the traditional control mechanisms as well as support for all Wii peripherals.

There were plenty of DS games that didn't or couldn't use touch control effectively, but that didn't matter because developers had other control options. That's what the Wii U will be.

[Mop it up]

I ask again why are people still unhappy?

Because I don't want to control my console games with a handheld. Plus, people wanted to see something of any kind of substance so I don't blame anyone for having concerns. I won't speak for anyone else, but what I want to see is that Nintendo will actually put the new features to good use. Will the inevitable Mario game actually use the controller, unlike Super Mario Galaxy? Okay so the starbits thing was kind of neat, but the game would be virtually unchanged without it. The fact that Nintendo isn't planning on using the screen controller for multiplayer games doesn't bode well for their ideas with it. Although it is nice to know that this time, even if a game doesn't use the new features, it will still be a game not possible on the previous system due to the increase in processing.

I don't think anyone is swearing off the Wii U at this point in time, but there are definitely reasons to be concerned with it.

[Caterkiller]

@ Morari - This pad is so close to a traditional controller with all the necessary buttons I don't see your cause for concern. Now if a developer goes 100% touch buttons then yeah, but chances are 3rd parties will just wait until Nintendo to comes up with something epic and just make their games with a traditional control scheme. Would you rather the controller just be a classic controller pro?
 
@ Mop it Up - Galaxy 1 with the pointer I thought felt great pulling Mario to object to object with the gravity system. Still though I didn't think the control was totally worth it for that. Galaxy 2 with that plus Yoshi a totally different story, the pointer worked amazingly for Yoshi's tongue and I would hate to go back to Sunshines auto lock tongue. As a matter of fact I don't think the way Yoshi was done in Galaxy 2 could be done with a normal control scheme, not when you have to pick and choose very nearby objects to lock on to when avoiding obsticles and enemies.
 
I for one can not wait to use this thing for playing games. I remember getting excited for the Wii, but even then I knew deep down there wouldn't be real motion controls for most games. With motion plus/resort/skyward sword I feel the anitial hype is finally justified, ultra late but its there. The thing with this is that there is so much less room for error in traditional games I truely believe the final result in some games are going to be a grand slam and will come much earlier in the U's life than the Wii's. I guess I am just insanely optomistic so much that I am blinded by what ever everyone else sees as negative. Now if the thing was coming at the end of the year I would be really concerned and maybe in the same camp of everyone else, but Nintendo with real power and an awesome new controller excite me to no end.

[Morari]

@ Morari - This pad is so close to a traditional controller with all the necessary buttons I don't see your cause for concern. Now if a developer goes 100% touch buttons then yeah, but chances are 3rd parties will just wait until Nintendo to comes up with something epic and just make their games with a traditional control scheme. Would you rather the controller just be a classic controller pro?

The analog sticks and the buttons both look to be flimsy and cheaply made. The sheer size of the controller is ridiculous, and the added "features" will prove to be useless in the long run. I fell for the Wii's promises, I'm not going to do that again. If developers are just going to use traditional controls anyway, why not just make a traditional fucking controller? Nintendo wants to be different, so they've thrown out yet another gimmick that will be completely underutilized, completely unneeded for 99% of the games out there, and probably actually end up hindering the mechanics of a lot of titles. Just like the N64 controller, just like the DS, just like the Wii, and just like the 3DS. I'd rather the controller simply be an updated Wavebird, because the aforementioned Classic Controller might as well be a glorified SNES pad.

Personally, I'll wait three or four years before contemplating a purchase. By then the system will be good as dead and I can get one for cheap if the software library proves to be worth it. If the Wii is any indication though, it could easily go either way.

[Mop it up]

Galaxy 2 with that plus Yoshi a totally different story, the pointer worked amazingly for Yoshi's tongue and I would hate to go back to Sunshines auto lock tongue. As a matter of fact I don't think the way Yoshi was done in Galaxy 2 could be done with a normal control scheme, not when you have to pick and choose very nearby objects to lock on to when avoiding obsticles and enemies.

That's true, it would have been really clunky if it used a second stick or something. I can think of no better way for it to work in 3D. But, that game came about four years into the Wii, so I'm not expecting a new Mario game near the launch of the system. That just doesn't seem to happen anymore, so I won't be buying one at launch.

There's nothing wrong with being optimistic, in fact I like your enthusiasm. I just don't share it because I like to know what will be instead of what could be.

[NWR_insanolord]

@ Morari - This pad is so close to a traditional controller with all the necessary buttons I don't see your cause for concern. Now if a developer goes 100% touch buttons then yeah, but chances are 3rd parties will just wait until Nintendo to comes up with something epic and just make their games with a traditional control scheme. Would you rather the controller just be a classic controller pro?

The analog sticks and the buttons both look to be flimsy and cheaply made. The sheer size of the controller is ridiculous, and the added "features" will prove to be useless in the long run. I fell for the Wii's promises, I'm not going to do that again. If developers are just going to use traditional controls anyway, why not just make a traditional fucking controller? Nintendo wants to be different, so they've thrown out yet another gimmick that will be completely underutilized, completely unneeded for 99% of the games out there, and probably actually end up hindering the mechanics of a lot of titles. Just like the N64 controller, just like the DS, just like the Wii, and just like the 3DS. I'd rather the controller simply be an updated Wavebird, because the aforementioned Classic Controller might as well be a glorified SNES pad.

Personally, I'll wait three or four years before contemplating a purchase. By then the system will be good as dead and I can get one for cheap if the software library proves to be worth it. If the Wii is any indication though, it could easily go either way.

I'm not sure what gimmick you're talking about with the N64 controller, and I'd like an example of how the gimmick hindered the experience with the DS or so far with the 3DS. And the DS is the one to be looking at, as the Wii U is basically a DS with two sticks and two extra shoulder buttons in terms of controls.

[Morari]

The N64 controller was a horrible monstrosity. Surely no one can debate that? It assumed you had three hands to hold it with. The introduction of the analog stick was the only thing that controller did right.

The DS? The touchscreen. Outside of a few games where drawing was fun, it's mostly made a hindrance. Even something as simple as navigating menus is usually a bigger pain than it needs to be because you're often forced to pull out the stylus and use it. The microphone also proved to be little more than a gimmick when it came games... the few that it was used in at all.

Do I really need to explain the 3DS? It's in 3D, which has got to be the most worthless gimmick of them all. It's useless in films and it's useless in video games. At best it adds nothing. At worse it makes your eyes bleed. No one can complain though, because no one owns it... It's too expensive.

What Nintendo has done is jumped on the tablet bandwagon. It's a gimmick market, and Nintendo likes gimmicks. The idea has some merit when paired with the TV, but it won't be utilized enough or prominently enough to justify basing an entire system around it... especially at the expense of having a real controller. Why make customers pay for something that's not needed? It's stupid. It's just Nintendo doing what they always do: being different just for the sake of being different.

[NWR_insanolord]

First off, the 3D cannot be considered a hindrance, as it can be easily disabled at a hardware level.

Second, it's stupid to argue that the N64 controller is designed to be used with three hands. You use two of the handles, ignoring the third. I'd argue it's the best solution anyone's ever come up with for designing a controller to be used with either the d-pad or analog stick as the primary directional input. It may look stupid, but it functions well (apart from the lousy quality of the analog stick).

As for the DS, I'm not sure you can blame the design of the system for those as much as bad game design. With waggle on the Wii you can blame the hardware to an extent because it doesn't offer enough physical buttons, but those developers ignored the traditional option that was there. You're basically arguing against giving developers more options because some of them will use them badly.

[Caterkiller]

Morari, your soul is coated in the darkest tar that ever oozed from the earth. I just hope Nintendo can make even you satisfied.

[bustin98]

I LOVE the N64 controller. Going back to it, the analog is not as precise as today's controllers, but after a couple of hours with it I'd get back in the swing of things. I'd argue that you're a crusty old stick in the mud if you lack the imagination to properly use the N64 controller.