Here's a breakdown of the Nintendo conference.
What are your thoughts on the new Nintendo machine? I was really pretty excited to see what they would bring out and they showed an HD Wii that plays the games my PS3 does as well.
I was watching the Live Blog on Kotaku and when they typed it was called "Wii U" I was waiting for the punchline because that's the worst name I've ever heard. Virtual Boy is better than Wii U! Game and Watch is a better name! Wii U?!
Admittedly, it looks like it can do some neat things, but those neat things can't possibly translate into a core game that's multiplatform! Get ready for inventory screens!!!
Also, who cares that I can play the game with the screen on the controller? I'm a grown man and can use my TV when I want to.
I also can't see that controller being comfortable....at all. It took some getting used to when switching from the ergonomic 360 controller to the PS3 DS, but I love that controller now. The Wii U remote looks like the original Xbox controller and an iPad had a baby. If there's one thing the Dreamcast controller taught me it's that the sides of the controller that you hold should not be parallel. They need to be angled to avoid wrist pain.
Game journalists are already jizzing their pants and it's cool that it'll be supported by major 3rd party publishers with new games, but besides Nintendo exclusives there's still no reason to own this thing.
Reading that the next Super Smash Bros will work with 3DS and the Wii U compatibly in play goes to show that Nintendo won't push the graphics any further than they are....except they'll be in HD.
Too little, too late and still, from Nintendo's angle, too casual. The only core games you'll be getting are from 3rd party publishers.
Who's ready for more Mario Kart?
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We are now witnessing the fall of Nintendo as a console developer.
ReplyDeleteI say this knowing that it is very early and we are going to see a lot more details surface over the next year. Truthfully, they were very vague in any details. I think it is so early in the consoles development that they only showcased the controller. If you remember back to the E3 announcements of the PS3 and the 360, it was focused on gaming and console capability. During those announcements there was a huge lineup of actual game demos from new games and launch titles. What did we see here? Nothing but Wii1-ish quality sample games showing the capabilities of the controller. I am calling it now. This system is far from complete. They don’t have the hardware nailed down and because of this the developers don’t have games to show yet. We are looking at a launch in less than a year. In less than a year, developers are going to have to pump out quality, top-notch launch games or this system is going to be doomed from the start.
The other thing about games: If you are launching a new console and you want to announce it with a bang, you want to start hype-machine in high gear, then you show your power house games. Where was a NEW Zelda, where was a NEW Smash Bros, where was a NEW Mario???? These are the important, money makers for Nintendo and they were all no-shows. I really hope they have something up their sleeves for the Nintendo’s sake or we could see another console go down the road of the Dreamcast.
I will say, that some of the features of this new controller are pretty sweet. But this goes along the way of a conversation 3N3MY and I had today: give me a simple game pad, and a good game. I don’t need all this gimmicky crap. I just want a quality system that can day after day pump out quality games.
I need to also add that I didn't see all of the presser and my post is based off of my initial thoughts from the few details I read.
ReplyDeleteLastly, that tech demo was lacking in impressiveness.
I just watched a video tour of the controller on Kotaku and the joysticks are called "Circle Pads" and lay almost fully against the controller not unlike the PSP or the 3DS sticks. While I guess that that's not "normal" for modern game pads it is the standard, but will come down to preference.
ReplyDeleteNo L3 or R3 clicky on the sticks though. I don't see how that couldn't be a problem. They're not game breaking inputs, but most all modern games use them nowadays for aiming and crouching. Wonder how they'll get around that.
It's 2011 and Nintendo still hasn't embraced modern game controls.
Japanese to the end.
http://kotaku.com/5809744/nintendo-used-360-ps3--pc-game-footage-in-its-wii-u-demo-reel
ReplyDeleteMore on my point. There aren't ANY non-Wii1 games even available to show.
It's too early to say much of anything. We don't know much in the way of specs. I'm not ready to write off the console YET but I do know that the name is absolutely terrible. I thought they were trying to distance this new console from the Wii? Well, they failed with that one, big time. Maybe I should go work for Nintendo. At the very least, I could have told them that including the name of the previous console you're trying to differentiate from in the name of the new console doesn't work very well.
ReplyDeleteThe view screen on the controller looks like it has potential but the controller itself doesn't look too comfortable to hold. I finally saw someone with their hands on it, and I didn't notice until then, but the buttons are BELOW the right stick. Sharp contrast to the controllers we've been using for 10+ years.
Yahtzee nails problems with the Wii U from over a month ago.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8837-Extra-Punctuation-Getting-Innovation-Wrong
I'm gonna side with Salad on this one. Way too early too pass judgement. There were a lot of big name titles that are coming to Wii U (::shudder::) Albeit, they are coming a few months later than the other systems, but they are coming, which speaks to the developers confidence in the unit.
ReplyDeleteThe controller, although strange, really does take the best of everything and put it in one spot. It can handle gestures and title, traditional buttons, touchscreen controls... With the exception of having no "click" on the joysticks, this thing is like a swiss army knife for game designers. Will they all use it all the time? No. Will some devs abuse it for shovelware? Probably. Does it have great potential? Most definitely.
That name could use serious some work... I think Nintendo was just worried all the work the Wii had done with their branding would be lost if they didn't name it off of some variation of "Wii."
Lol it looks like gamers aren't the only ones skeptical about the wii u. Stock investers are bailing on nintendo also. I don't know how much everyone cares about the stock market but nintendos stock dropped around 7% wednesday morning... if you think about it logically their stock should have risen due to them announcing a new system but its already dropping which could be a bad sign for the big N. Hopefully for
ReplyDeletetheir sake they get some gameplay footage up quick otherwise this could be another step to nintendo going under... their stock is the lowest now that its been in the past several years after the drop...
Source:http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/news/investors-flee-nintendo-stock-as-wii-u-fails-to-impress-012990.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pspworld+%28PSP+World+-+PSP+news+by+fans+for+fans%21%29
A smart investor would buy the stock now. People always buy high and sell low because they're retards and don't understand markets and have too much money to play with. Anyways, what do investors know about gaming besides Nintendo is big deal?
ReplyDeleteI think the Wii U has some new things to offer, but it's not for me and in the back of my mind I hope it fails. Nintendo has miss stepped too much and have all but bailed on their original fanbase. Fanboyism is the only thing keeping them around. The best games Nintendo puts out are done by Retro.
Amateria: Just because Darksiders and Batman and MW3 will come out for the Wii U doesn't make it as big a deal as getting the game at launch. You seem to think that it coming out a few months later doesn't matter, but it does. Who's going to wait to buy a game they really want to play? Especially since the Wii U release window is April - December 2012. Good luck.
Yahtzee brought up that the screen on the controller doesn't do anything new. If you pause the game you get the same screen and if you're going to look at your controller to item manage you're probably going to pause the game anyways.
I'll piggyback on that and say that even if they do "motion trackers" in shooters on it or something similar it'll be inferior to a radar on the main screen you're already using.
Also, if you choose to use the controller screen as a primary way to play because someone else is using the TV it completely ruins to extra screen concept because you're back to 1 screen.
No L3 or R3 is a big deal to me. Aiming, sprinting, crouching and melee are all staple moves in FPS. The Gamecube didn't have it either, but shooters at that time were still being fully conceptualized to work well on consoles.
I think it's hilarious that the PS3 could do pretty much the same thing with the PSVita and the iPad already has a racing game that steers and shows the map layout on the iPad and is displayed on your TV.
Here's a good read on Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/5810238/the-wii-u-might-be-too-little-too-late
Antoher thing I wanted to point out, and I was hoping to find the article to back this up but couldn't, is the lack of a uniform online system. I was reading the other day that Nintendo has decided against a universal online system like Live and PSN. Instead they are leaving it 100% up to the game developers to support it. According to Nintendo, instead of only getting 70% of the profits from online activity, they will now get 100%.
ReplyDeleteSure, that sounds great and all, but that means no cross game chat, no friends list outside of the games themselves, no universal marketplace, etc. Now I'm obviously making assumptions here but wouldn't that also mean more develpement costs and less quality controle standards? Having a standard PSN or Live means that if you want your game online you have to do it a certain way. We already see a huge difference between Live and PSN interms of online community and over all quality. Sure, they make 100% of the profits of DLC, but the extra costs of development and lack of uniformity will potentially result in a lower quality experience, and of course, less sales.
More sales at 70% of the profit sure looks a lot better if you ask me.
So my last comment needs to be taken with a grain if salt. I remember where I read this. Geoff Knightly of Gametrailers posted it on Twitter after a conversation he had with Fils-Aime.
ReplyDeleteAll good points to consider. I think the lack of an online service and controller development issues are my biggest fears. Nintendo has always done a decent job surviving, so I'm not too worried about them.
ReplyDeleteGame release dates matter, but I wasn't bringing them up to suggest competition, but cooperation. Major debate are developing for the Wii U... that's gotta be a sign if some slight life yet. Right?