Gaming Cafe Diem Baby: The Nintendo Wii U Discussion

New 2 new DLC packs announced for Mario Kart...

Wow… was not expecting that type of cross over into the Mushroom Kingdom. Was thinking more along the lines of the Donkey Kong series or something. This is great though.

 

I am somewhat considering a Wii U. But I'm still on the fence. My friend purchased one not too long ago, and despite initial excitement, he no longer seems all that enthusiastic about it and is considering a XB1.

As for myself, I'm interested in the new Zelda title, but cautious. Skyward Sword turned out to be a huge disappointment for me and my Wii has been sitting untouched and collecting dust ever since I abandoned that game in the Temple of Time.

 

I'm not eager to boot up my Wii U again anytime soon. The first three games I got all turned out to be mediocre (in my humble opinion). Hyrule Warriors looks really snazzy and I love every minute of the fanservice, but I imagine I'll tire of the hack 'n slash gameplay after a few hours.

On the bright side, Smash is coming in a few months, so I imagine it'll reinvigorate my love for the system. Frankly, I don't think I'd be playing video games at all anymore if not for Smash, as Mario and Sonic's latest outings have utterly failed to impress me, and I wring most enjoyment out of new Zelda games within the first few days.

 

Which games did you get? Don't forget some of the gems in the eShop too.

 

I got New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World, and Wind Waker HD. The first one I'm probably being too hard on but it still bored me to death, I guess I'm just sick of 2D Mario platformers. 3D World drove me absolutely insane. And WW was too short and repetitive, with some of the ugliest dungeons I've ever seen in a Zelda game.

 

If NSMB U is boring you to death, I recommend Rayman Legends and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for platformers. With honourable mentions to DuckTales Remastered and the Mighty Switch Force series.

How did 3D World drive you insane? Was it the multiplayer aspect? I find it depends on who you are playing with as some cases it can be frustrating and other it can be rewarding. I have not finished TWW HD yet but it has pretty much the same dungeon layout as the GCN version. Minish Cap / Link to the Past, etc is available from the eShop and some of the other titles too.

There are a few others worth checking out:
For an RPG/Platformer hybrid, Child of Light is quite good, nice story and music and recommend playing on the harder difficulty. For an in-depth online multiplayer RPG… there is Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Edition but the learning curve is steep.

CastleStorm is more of a strategy game and is strangely addictive. Pikmin 3 is another solid strategy title which I have yet to get my hands on.

Pullblox is a good puzzle game for something to play in bursts.

LEGO City Undercover is one of the best LEGO games made. Original story with tons of nods to pop culture and is a lot of fun.

Oh and there is Mario Kart 8.

Those are just a handful of titles that comes to mind. There are others like Zombi U which is very atmospheric and worth checking out too.

 

Seems like the Wii U is suffering from the same problem as the X1: glaring absence of quality original titles.

 

I tried not to mention the multi platform titles though if looking for an alternative to TWW HD, there is Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

There is plenty of quality titles on the system. If you mean that there is a lot of franchise games like Mario, the misconception is that they are all the same like quite a few of those annually released shooters. What Nintendo usually does is create the gameplay and user experience first and sculpt the game around that and which of their own properties fit that, they use. When it doesn't that is when something new comes along like Splatoon, Pullblox, Code Name STEAM, Dillion's Rollin' Western, etc

 

I've been wanting to expand my horizons and try out other Nintendo series like Pikmin, I'll have to look into that one, and Lego City as well. And thanks for the reminder, I really need to hunker down and download ALttP someday.

3D World I played by myself. The playstyle was very...constricted? Linear? Whatever it is, it's exactly what I don't want in a 3D platformer. When the bland level designs weren't putting me to sleep, I was cursing at my TV thanks to the sluggish controls and ridiculous difficulty curve near the end. To say nothing of the sheer repetitiveness of the level designs and bosses (seems to be a standard in Mario games these days...) And oh lordy are the characters slow. I couldn't standing playing as anybody but Toad.

I considered Mario Kart 8, but decided against it since even in college I have no one to play with. Plus, my recent experiences with MKWii have really embittered me to the series. (Though I definitely would've taken advantage of the "Buy MK8, get a free game" deal had I known about it earlier...drat!)

 

I haven't really played 3DWorld on my own yet. I don't mind the speed of the characters in 3D World, mind you, I've always held down the run button on every single Mario game that had one. There is a bit more variety of bosses than what was in 3DLand for 3DS but a bit more would be nice too. I do wonder if they will do a more Galaxy/Sunshine style 3D platforming Mario down the track. Or even a 3D Donkey Kong Country game in that vein too.

Ahhh… if only you got that MK8 free game offer. I used it for the Wonderful 101… that game is packed full of awesomeness and over the top action even though it has a bit of a learning curve and takes a little bit to get into it. Often compared to Pikmin but it is quite different but still great.

What happened with MKWii? It has been some time since I've touched that game but I remember the AI can be overbearing with their items on the final lap. To compare it to MK8, I prefer MK8. It feels more balanced in terms of items, AI and so forth.

 

Zelda is my primary interest with Nintendo these days, and since I missed out starting with OoT, there is a lot to be interested in.

I actually got to play MK8 the day before yesterday, and I had a lot of fun even though I wasn't that good, since it was my first time playing MK. Though I got a lot better when playing by myself when everyone was more interested in playing SSM, either Brawl or Melee.

 

We have less than a month for Hyrule Warriors and the new Zelda comes out sometime next year.

Patched MK8 today, it added a Shop feature. From there I purchased the bundle for the future DLC and downloaded the Mercedes Benz DLC. So far so good.
I do like the Silver Arrow. The records option is good to keep track of how many coins you've gotten. Multicoloured Yoshi and Shyguys! There are slots at the bottom for the future characters and to the side for the future circuits. Lastly is the mini-map on screen, you have to hit the '-' button to bring it up as the default is off.

 

How does the Nintendo TV feature work?

 

Nintendo just posted this official video called Wii U - Games of Past, Present and Future
If any of these interest you, buy a Wii U. If none don't then I wouldn't recommend that you do.

 

If there's going to be a shift, I expect it to start with a new console. I know that seems to be a giant risk, but it's the only way to get third party licenses and they need to get on it before it is too late.

 

I don't think that will be the case and not only the way for third party support. Sure, there be support at the launch of the new console but then it will trickle off with quite a few third parties making excuses not to have their games on the system, even if the facts state otherwise about how many units are sold or how powerful the hardware is.

There is an enlightening article about the state of things at the moment which I recommend everyone to take a look at.

 

While I somewhat agree with it's core point, that article goes a too far into conspiracy theories IMO (which the article itself lampshades near the end).

"They [the third parties] decide which console gets to be the most successful (PS4), how powerful each console should be (Xbox One weaker than PS4), what features they must have etc"

I highly doubt that it was anyone's decision but Sony's and Microsoft's on what model GPU and RAM they used. MS has a slightly weaker console to offset the cost of the Kinect. The Xbox One would have been more powerful had MS thought the Kinect would be so despised. The article also states that consumers don't care about graphics, which is blatantly false, as that has been one of the advertised selling points of the PS4 - it's cheaper than the Xbox and more powerful.

I don't think third-party publishers have all been working together to keep Nintendo down. For the core audience, the wind was already blowing away from Nintendo, and that suited them just fine. They didn't have to execute some master plan.

 

Wow….

The game does look good. Part of me wished they were able to do something on that scale with Infinite Space back in the day. Fox McCloud costumes sounds fun and I wonder if Platinum Games will be assisting with Star Fox U since they are looking for partners with it and the infogram lists it for release next year.




EDIT: Looks like that Bayonetta First Print Edition is European only. Australia misses out too. Oh well, at least we are getting this plush Yoshi from Club Nintendo.

 

With Bayoneta 2's release date being confirmed, that will likely see me bag a Wii U, not least so I have it for Xenoblade Chronicles X then I can move onto acquiring PS4 next year.

 

Amiibo's are available for pre-order on Amazon. Any of you guys buying these?