Topic: Five Things I Want From Wii U

[NWR_DrewMG]

We've seen it... now what do we do with it?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/26674

Now that we've all seen Wii U, we're much in the same boat we were in the fall of 2005, wondering how exactly we're going to apply this new device to modern gaming. How is it going to change the way we play?  Is it a machine meant to enhance what's already there, invent something completely new, or a little bit of both? It's too early to know. Hell, it's really hard to answer that question about Wii, even 5 years after launch. Nonetheless, here are five things I want to see from Wii U.

1. Pac-Man Vs. Online at Launch

Back in 2003, Nintendo was touting "connectivity", a buzz word which referred to tethering a handheld system to a home console so that each player could have their own screen. It didn't really go over too well at the time, and despite a few really fun games like Crystal Chronicles and Four Swords Adventures, it seemed like Nintendo might have written it off as a failed experiment and forgotten all about it; until this week, that is.  Nintendo has designed their next home console entirely around connectivity, and it's time to take a look back at the games we saw in 2003 to get an idea of what's coming in 2012.

My personal favorite game from that era was Pac-Man Vs. The game featured one player using a GBA to play a game of Pac-Man, and the rest of the players would use split screen on the TV to play the roles of ghosts hunting down Pac-Man.  Although not many people played it with four players, it absolutely rivals Super Smash Bros. Melee as the best such game on the system. I played Pac-Man Vs. with four players at least a dozen times with probably over 20 people and every single one of them had an absolute blast.  It's time to take that idea, and bring it to Wii U to launch the next generation of WiIWare at console launch.

2. NFL Head Coach

The NFL Head Coach games have been around for a while, but they've been somewhat limited in scope. With the Wii U tablet, suddenly we have a virtual clipboard for play calling.  Imagine taking over the reins of an NFL team where you design an entire playbook from scratch, calling new plays on the fly by drawing them out.  This could be built into a new version of Madden, but I think that you could build an entire RPG around controlling an NFL or NCAA team from the ground up, and acting as the head coach, GM, and offensive coordinator. The game could be as easy or complex as you'd like, bringing the ultimate Football sim to Wii U.

3. Dreamcast and GameCube on Virtual Console

With Wii, we saw a lot of great Virtual Console games, but even the best N64 game looks a bit dated. With Wii U, the horsepower exists to emulate much more modern games, so I think it'd be great to have Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube games available for download. Of course, part of this is tied in with whatever storage solution Nintendo decides upon for the console, but with the availability of an external Hard Disk, unlimited potential exists for playing your favorite games from the 1999-2005 era on the new system.

This is especially important as GameCube compatibility is not being brought forward to the new Wii console, something that will certainly sadden the Rogue Squadron, Pikmin 2, Mario Sunshine, and Viewtiful Joe fans of the world. The GameCube was one of my favorite consoles of all time, and I'd love to see Nintendo celebrate the library of that system with a proper downloadable library.

4. Classic Controller Pro support

We've seen that the new Wii U controller has a Classic Controller style gamepad wrapped around the outside of it, but it's very important that gamers be allowed to use a more comfortable gamepad on their existing Virtual Console library, and games where the screen is not necessary. Hopefully the new controller won't completely replace the notion of a proper "traditional" style controller, and Nintendo will both allow *and support* the Wii Classic Controller Pro with releases going forward. If they're going to continue to develop games with the Wii Remote in mind, it doesn't seem like such a stretch that they support the other Wii peripherals as well. We've invested a lot of money in these plastic toys; saving money on new peripherals could be a major selling point for the new console.

5. Television independence

It's been made clear by Nintendo that the Wii U controller is *not* a handheld system, but this is a mixed message. If you can take the game from the TV and move it to your handheld controller, what separates the controller from your Nintendo handheld systems? The obvious answer is "the library of games". I do not expect the 3DS Virtual Console to have much in the way of console releases, except for the "Turbo Express" games, so if we want to play Zelda 2 or Castlevania III without monopolizing the Family TV, it's important that the Wii U controller be usable independent of the television.

A gamer should be able to pick up the controller, boot up the console, and be able to load up games without ever needing to turn on the television. Want to play a few rounds of Mario Golf while lying in bed before turning off the lights? Keep your Wii U controller on the night stand and it should be that simple.  While I don't expect to be able to store the games on the controller, as long as you are within Bluetooth range of your console, streaming the data into the controller's memory should be a breeze.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Points 1-4 make sense and are perfectly rational wishes. Point 5, I'm not really sure what you mean. The example you give is playing on the controller in your bedroom, so are you saying you just want it to be playable in different rooms of your house from where the console is situated? Personally, I don't really see much point in that, but to each his own. If we're talking about it being like a handheld system, well obviously you can't take it everywhere like you could a 3DS, unless there is some storage capacity in the controller for games.

[ShyGuy]

One thing I wonder about the television independence is if it will be on a game by game basis. They showed switching screens seamlessly with the mario game in the video and with the zelda tech demo on the show floor, but what about games that use the screen for a secondary display. Ghost Recon on the show floor was using it as a satellite tracking map of some sort. If you switch that off, the game will have to reconfigure how it displays things.

[Ceric]

*shrug* just being able to play a game as my wife watches TV be nice but, on the flip-side I totally ditch that to have the screen useful in games.

[Chozo Ghost]

5 things I want out of the Wii-U:

1) A better name for it than "Wii-U"
2) An internal 2.5" HDD of at least 250gb and/or support for adding in our own.
3) The ability to play with more than one Wii-U Tablet controller per console at a time.
4) If the above is not an option, then I want an official Wavebird GC controller which uses Bluetooth and comes with a rechargeable battery.
5) Make damn sure there isn't going to be a games drought on the console ever.

[gbuell]

Killer, I think Andy is trying to say that he wants to ability to pick up the controller and play Virtual Console or WiiWare games without turning on his TV - or, more importantly, without the TV turned to the Wii U input. This way he can play games he's downloaded to his console while other family members could watch TV shows or do other things with the TV. I think that would be really useful functionality. Obviously this wouldn't work for big retail games that use the controller screen in a specific, specialized way. I think Andy is just thinking about simpler downloadable stuff.

[4-D]

"If you can take the game from the TV and move it to your handheld controller, what separates the controller from your Nintendo handheld systems?"


GameTrailers.com already interviewed Reggie and he said that you cannot use the Wii U controller outside of the room with the main console, so this new tablet controller definitely won't be replacing Nintendo's DS market

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not outside of the room is probably a very conservative statement though

Remember how conservative they were with the Wavebird rage estimates.
I believe they said something like 10-15 ft when it was actually closer to 30feet and sometimes through walls.

[Ceric]

Not outside of the room is probably a very conservative statement though

Remember how conservative they were with the Wavebird rage estimates.
I believe they said something like 10-15 ft when it was actually closer to 30feet and sometimes through walls.

30ft? You got a defective one.  Mine could go through a cinderblock building with cement floors and water and stream pipes running over where the GameCube while also being 1 floor above where it was and then walking about 40 feet from being above it.

[Lady Mushroom]

I think point 5 will definitely be possible. By "not a handheld system" I think they just mean that the controller can't be used independently of the main console.


I think 4 will be possible too. They have already said that all peripherals that plug into the Wiimote can be used.


3 is probably dependent on the storage situation. Will there be enough storage for many of these games? Will they be prepared to release games that depend on users having their own storage solutions (USB HDD or SD cards)? I don't see why not as SD cards are easily available and it wouldn't be much different from users needing to buy extra GameCube memory cards if they played games with high storage demands (some games used up practically a whole card by themselves).

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not outside of the room is probably a very conservative statement though

Remember how conservative they were with the Wavebird rage estimates.
I believe they said something like 10-15 ft when it was actually closer to 30feet and sometimes through walls.

30ft? You got a defective one.  Mine could go through a cinderblock building with cement floors and water and stream pipes running over where the GameCube while also being 1 floor above where it was and then walking about 40 feet from being above it.

I didn't actually own one. Just citing reports from memory.
point being, I'm not writing down "same room" use as fact until we get some real world testing going on. I'm hoping for anywhere within my damn house and sometimes out in the yard too depending on where my system is located.

[Ceric]

Not outside of the room is probably a very conservative statement though

Remember how conservative they were with the Wavebird rage estimates.
I believe they said something like 10-15 ft when it was actually closer to 30feet and sometimes through walls.

30ft? You got a defective one.  Mine could go through a cinderblock building with cement floors and water and stream pipes running over where the GameCube while also being 1 floor above where it was and then walking about 40 feet from being above it.

I didn't actually own one. Just citing reports from memory.
point being, I'm not writing down "same room" use as fact until we get some real world testing going on. I'm hoping for anywhere within my damn house and sometimes out in the yard too depending on where my system is located.

You poor poor soul.

[Ceric]

I think point 5 will definitely be possible. By "not a handheld system" I think they just mean that the controller can't be used independently of the main console.


I think 4 will be possible too. They have already said that all peripherals that plug into the Wiimote can be used.


3 is probably dependent on the storage situation. Will there be enough storage for many of these games? Will they be prepared to release games that depend on users having their own storage solutions (USB HDD or SD cards)? I don't see why not as SD cards are easily available and it wouldn't be much different from users needing to buy extra GameCube memory cards if they played games with high storage demands (some games used up practically a whole card by themselves).

I don't think Nintendo will allow developers to make games that use more then the internal storage amount but, with the external option I think they will let developers use a larger chunk.

[Stogi]

Number 5 is sure to happen. Switching from the TV to handheld is just as important as switching from handheld to TV.

[NWR_DrewMG]

To clarify what I meant for the fifth point:


I think you should be able to pick up the controller from anywhere within range (a few rooms away, probably), fire on the console, select a game from your library (something simple like a VC game, probably) and play the game right there on the controller without ever having to fire on the TV.  Maybe the Wii U is sending a signal to the TV, but either your family is watching a movie, or you're lying in bed, or for whatever reason, you don't have the TV tuned into the console. You should still be able to load AND play certain games like VC games directly on the controller.    Then, when you're finished, you can turn the console and the controller off right from the controller.


I guess the only thing needed to make this a reality would be to allow use of the system menu from the controller.  That's not a big deal, right?

[BlackNMild2k1]

I would hope and assume that the Wuu system menu loads on both the TV and the uScreen at the moment of powering it on.

[sambskn]

After seeing the part of the presentation with the stylus, all I want is Photoshop on Wii U. It does support USB Externals and sd cards.

[Stogi]

I understood what you meant, Drew. It's not unreasonable at all and would only require some coding. In fact, once you boot, it could simply ask 'TV, Controller or Both?' (but of course in a nice graphically appealing way).

[BlackNMild2k1]

Here is what I want
1. Multi uScreen Local Multiplayer
2. USB 3.0 for faster data transfer for any peripheral hooked up to it.
3. Full VC support (GB --> GC all all other systems not made by Sony or MS)
4. Multi-tasked Wuu usage. (One person playing VC games on uScreen another watching Netflix on other uScreen)
5. Unbelievable Online presence & 3rd party support.

[Lady Mushroom]

I don't think Nintendo will allow developers to make games that use more then the internal storage amount but, with the external option I think they will let developers use a larger chunk.

Yes this is what I meant. I don't think they would let a download actually exceed the total internal storage, but they could let it hog large amounts of it on the basis that users can freely expand their storage capacity. Probably some warning would be given about the size of large downloads.

[Lady Mushroom]

Sorry for the double post - but on point 5 - doesn't the fact that you can access Wii Fit without the television screen imply that there will be a system menu available from the controller?

[Stogi]

Good point. Though in all honesty, I do not think we were actually worried it wouldn't be possible.

[Kytim89]

I want the system to launch in colors other than white.

[Stogi]

A slick burnt orange and gun metal preferably.

[Chozo Ghost]

I want Silver or Platinum. That's what my Gamecube was. If you have a hard time deciding between white or black, silver is an excellent compromise because its exactly in between, and it looks good in any living room.