How much should you expect to pay for Nintendo's October Wii U games?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35029
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is currently listed for $49.99 on Amazon while Wii Party U is listed for $39.99.
While the prices could change between now and both games' October releases, generally Amazon's price listings have been accurate. For example, Game & Wario's $40 price point was revealed on Amazon and other retailers' sites before Nintendo confirmed it.
Wind Waker HD is a remake of the 2003 GameCube classic, and if the price holds, it will actually debut at the same price it did 10 years ago. The original Wii Party, released in 2010, was $50 game when it launched, though it was dropped to $40 six months after launch.
For comparison, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101, two upcoming Nintendo-published Wii U titles, are set to be priced at $59.99.
The work that went into this is substantial... Its all new art and assets... the backgrounds are new, the world also has shadows/shading and dynamic lighting.... I can't to pick this up, $50 is a steal.But the market in general has says that amount of work is worth $40.
And remember, this is the same company that re-released remakes of Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 as full-priced 3DS titles. And Star Fox bombed (I think), but OoT 3D sold very well. The only reason Wind Waker won't do the same, as far as I'm concerned, is because of the Wii U's current install base, not the price.
The two approaches seem inconsistent and contradictory. It also seems to be up to the whims of Nintendo, with no clearly defined objective (besides money). You never know how Nintendo will re-release a game and on what platform.
It isn't like they muck with old movies (George Lucas' insanity being the exception) or albums or books. No one would ever suggest re-releasing old Beatles albums with remixes and re-recordings that better cater to today's listeners, while leaving the original versions out-of-print but with videogames that seems normal. Hollywood likes their remakes but they don't shove the original in the vault forever.
I also find it rather ridiculous that the Wii U struggles with jack **** for games and one of Nintendo's top priorities was to assign a team to remake an old game, when they already don't seem to have enough manpower to make enough NEW games for the console.
Wind Waker was a great game with some minor flaws
Wind Waker was a great game with some minor flaws
Fixed that for you.
Ocarina of Time 3D also included Master Quest which is something that Nintendo didn't have to do, but was certainly appreciated. If Wind Waker HD has an unlockable remixed quest, that would definitely help justify the price.Wind Waker has a second quest but it's barely different, so it'd be cool if they mixed some stuff around in this release. I wonder if they had planned to do more with the second quest but just didn't have the time...