We used to play X-Wing Alliance with one pilot and one gunner sometimes. Could do the same with the dual controller and a friend in Goldeneye.
Well, we finally have an official North American launch date- November 18, which I think some sites have said is a Nintendo tradition or something like that? The price is slightly steep though- $300 for a "basic" 8GB set, and $350 for a premium 32GB set and a few other things. Hm, not sure I'll get it, still trying to watch the streams. A Super Mario game at launch (well, at the Japanese launch at least, still looking through the news stories) is usually a pretty good incentive, although the New Super Mario franchise is starting to slow down a bit. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/13/wii-u-price-release-date-announced
I'm still not sold on if I want this or not. Though there was a penny arcade comic last week or earlier this week that if they made the game, I would have to go wait in the cold for one.
Penny-Arcade comic. Kotaku's summary of everything from today. The funniest thing was watching, during the live blog, the anti-Nintendo trolls go from "It's a system with "exclusives" that everyone has already played on other systems" to full-on outrage that Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive. Other details: games will be $59.99. The Japan release will not include a sensor bar but the US ones will. There will be extra Gamepads sold in Japan (for roughly half the cost of the system) but not in the US during the launch window. Project P-100 has been given it's final title of The Wonderful 101. Technical breakdown for the Wii U Though the US launch day lineup wasn't announced, the European one was, so we can probably expect the US one to be very similar: New Super Mario Bros U, Nintendo Land, FIFA 13, ZombiU, Rayman Legends, Mass Effect 3, and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. This is the full list of launch window releases (Nov through the end of Mar): 505 Games Funky Barn 2K Sports NBA 2K13 Activision Publishing, Inc. 007™ Legends Call of Duty®: Black Ops II TRANSFORMERS PRIME™ Wipeout 3 Skylanders Giants™ Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 Rapala Pro Bass Fishing Capcom Monster Hunter™ 3 Ultimate D3Publisher Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game Ben 10: Omniverse™ Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade Disney Interactive Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two Electronic Arts Mass Effect™ 3 Madden NFL 13 EA SPORTS™ FIFA Soccer 13 Frozenbyte Trine 2™: Director's Cut Gaijin Games Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien Majesco Entertainment Zumba® Fitness Core Maximum Games Jett Tailfin™ NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT™ 2 Wii U Edition TANK! TANK! TANK!™ Nintendo Nintendo Land™ New Super Mario Bros.™ U NINJA GAIDEN™ 3: Razor's Edge SiNG PARTY™ LEGO® City: Undercover Wii Fit™ U Game & Wario™ Pikmin™ 3 The Wonderful 101™ SEGA Aliens: Colonial Marines™ Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Shin'en Nano Assault Neo Tecmo Koei America Corporation WARRIORS OROCHI® 3 Hyper THQ Darksiders® II Wheel of Fortune® JEOPARDY! ® Two Tribes Toki Tori 2 Ubisoft Assassin's Creed® III Just Dance® 4 Marvel Avengers™: Battle for Earth Rabbids® Land Sports Connection™ Your Shape®: Fitness Evolved 2013 ZombiU™ Rayman Legends® Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Scribblenauts™ Unlimited Game Party Champions Batman: Arkham City™ Armored Edition In addition to that, they also wet into a lot of detail on the new "Nintendo TVii" functionality that effectively turns the system into a central hub for your home entertainment and streaming services- with the added remote control, TIVO, live sports scoreboard, IMDB and wikipedia functionality built-in. Which is actually pretty cool-seeming and might actually have some edges on the XBL dashboard stuff. Finally, they revealed the Boost-Rush Mode for NSMBU, which is essentially a built-in speed-run mode for best times/coins/other goals (dont touch the ground, etc) kinda like the comets in Galaxy.
I'll post this for those that don't reside in the US, it comes out in Europe/Australia/NZ on the 30th November. AU$349.95 for the White Basic Model pack AU$429.95 for the Black Premium Model pack I'm definitely going to preorder the Black Premium model and currently "Window shopping" for which launch titles that I want to get. That was unbelievable! The reactions to Bayonetta 2... someone even made a video on that. [warning...strong language from the people's reactions].
The funniest thing is, from what I've read, B2 wouldn't even exist if Nintendo hadn't saved it after Sega dumped it. In related news: it's being reported that, just about 1 day after they started taking them, Gamestop is sold out of it's entire Wii-U preorder, nationwide (at least on the Deluxe model- however, it's expected they'll stop taking preorders on the Basic model within a day or so). I put my pre-order down last night for a Deluxe (along with Zombi U...if I can get the cash together I'll grab NSMBU, but I'm not too worried about finding a copy of that one if it comes down to it- with the way Nintendo works, it'll still be a full price game for the next 5 years ). But I also ended up with a Gamestop card, despite my better intentions. (it lowered the required deposit on the system, so I allowed it)
That's exactly it, they should be happy that their series are continuing. I would hate to see the reaction if COD or Battlefield was made a Nintendo exclusive... (though Battlefield was almost a GCN exclusive at one point.) Gamestop preorders are sold out in 1 day? I wonder how they are in Australia but I better place my preorder this weekend before it's too late. I'm leaning towards Assassin's Creed III... then have to decided between Arkham City, Zombi U, Epic Mickey 2 and NSWBU for after launch. I am curious about 007 Legends... but will wait closer to launch.
Yeah.. there's going to be a healthy choice of stuff to play this fall/winter. Ah, who am I kidding, I'll still be catching up on GCN and PS2 games .
I preordered mine's, the Gamestop card is useful at least for not having to give my phone number every single time I pre-order or pick up something (not to mention they'll keep nagging forever otherwise, but then that's their sales strategy after all, and the digital Gameinformer rarely has some nice pictures). And for when I pick up the occasional strategy guide. Although there's the occasional rare bargain, like when they gave you a $50 gift card with a Vita purchase a few months back. I was actually surprised I could just go in and reserve my premium bundle (sounds like it'll accept flash cards or USB drives for extra easy storage, which I'm glad for, but extra internal storage and the other extras sound like its worth the extra). I managed to make it there around lunch time but I still have bad memories about how ridiculously hard it was to get the Wii... wow, five years ago, now? Had to wake up early to just try and get pre-orders. I'm mostly sure it worked, I'm paranoid after the Wii. At least there's already a Mario title at launch, whenever there isn't one, people start proclaiming doom and gloom. Although New Super Mario Bros. isn't that innovative these days, but its still classic platforming at its best. Still quite a few Wii games (or even Gamecube games) I still have to get around to playing someday. Hm, now where did I even put that old Gamecube controller, do they even still sell them (third-party of course), maybe I'll just get a new one rather than try to find an old one. Oh yeah, Kirby comes out tomorrow, gotta remember to get that too. Looks like Gamestop still has the basic bundle but the premium is already unavailable (I'm slightly surprised both sets aren't out already).
Going with the Deluxe is a no brainer- it would cost you more just to buy the basic and Nintendoland separately, and it would seem the premium DLC offer could potentially be worth the price alone, depending on how the percentages work out. Plus, it seems like having a stand for the controller could be very useful for certain game setups (Black Ops 2, for example, allows you to play without using the Gamepad as your main controller, but you can still have the Gamepad active as a map screen while doing so- seems like proping that up on the table in front of you on a stand would be ideal for that). That and I want the black color anyways . They did sell Wii-branded GCN controllers (and maybe Wavebirds?) for awhile.
Namco has revealed their UK launch day titles (and downloadables), so we can once again extrapolate that they'll likely be in the US for launch as well. Alongside other confirmations, that brings the likely launch day list confirmed so far to be: -Ben 10: Omniverse -Call of Duty Black Ops 2 -Darksiders II -Family Party: 30 Great Games: Obstacle Arcade -FIFA 13 -Mass Effect 3 -Nano Assault Neo -New Super Mario Bros U -Nintendo Land -Rayman Legends -Scribblenauts Unlimited -Tank! Tank! Tank! -Tekken Tag Tournament 2 -Toki Tori 2 -Trine 2: Director's Cut -ZombiU
I'm not sold yet. I think I'll wait. New Super Mario Bros U looks fun, but very similar to the Wii title. I think I may need a Zelda, Metroid or maybe even a Mario Galaxy title to entice me or else it'll sit just like my Wii does now. Has anyone heard anything about a Mario Galaxy U possibly? Has there been any talk about being able to download the virtual games we all paid for that are currently on our Wii to the Wii U?
You'll be able to transfer all your data from your Wii to your Wii U but you'll need both systems. Also, Wii games and VC titles wont be playable on the Gamepad screen. No word on the next 3D Mario yet (and I think we can all agree that if it's not titled Super Mario Universe, it'll be a massively wasted opportunity ). Remember that even Mario Galaxy 1 didn't hit until a year after the Wii launched. NSMBU is the first new Mario game (2D or otherwise) to launch with a Nintendo console since the N64- even the GBA & DS only launched with ports of an existing game. In other interesting news, Nintendo has entered into a partnership with the Unity engine, which will make indie development for the system much more accessible. Other details recently revealed: -The Gamepad will have a "best performance" range of 24 feet, but can go further under optimal conditions or with some performance loss.. -Nintendoland will not have online multiplayer, but will have some online connectivity features (not a surprise- the games are obviously designed to be played in the same room; don't think anyone expected them to be online multiplayer).
Does anyone else think 32GB is too little space? I've used up 32GB long ago on my PS3, with freebies and purchases from the PS Store. Can one open it up and change the hard drive like one can with a PS3? Can one connect an external hard drive to it? I'm thinking that if they put GameCube games on the VC this time around, the hard drive will fill up fast with purchases. Even more so if new releases also start becoming downloadable via the Wii Shop.
Of general Nintendo lore interest, Kotaku's got an article with some Mario questions. Most notably, the Koopalings have been retconned as not being Bowser's children and Bowser Jr's mother is still unknown (but I think we all know what happened there...).
News round-up: Wii U Pro Controller will have an 80 hour battery life (3-4x as much as the 360 and PS3 controllers). It will also not be compatible with Wii games. Though the quality is unknown, there is a gorgeous 3rd party Pro Controller coming out in Australia that looks like a 360 controller hugging an SNES pad (with the SFAM button colors): Wii U Gamepad's latency is only 1/60th of a second, even in full HD on the TV) and 60 fps. It reconfirms that when games come out that utilize a second Gamepad, framerates will drop to 30 fps. The time it takes to switch a game from TV play to Gamepad play has been timed a 3.5 seconds- and most of that time was due to the user's reaction time. A Scribblenauts teaser hints at the inclusion of Nintendo characters in the upcoming releases. One of the user comments made the excellent observation that Paper Mario-styled characters would fit right in with the Scribblenauts style. The company porting Mass Effect 3 to the Wii U is also rumored to be porting a AAA Square-Enix title. No other specifics other than it's a "big franchise". Tomb Raider is the front running speculation due to earlier TR rumors at E3, however, it could easily be something else. The Wii has had a price drop to $129.99 and will be bundled with a wiimote+ w/nunchuck and both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort on a new combo disc, as well as NSMBW & a music CD.
Walmart decided to provide pre-orders for the Wii U utilizing their layaway system. I bought the maximum of 2 with the hope of selling one to gain enough profit that one will pay for both, essentially getting a free Wii U. We'll see how high they go for this holiday season. What do you guys think?
Apparently Nintendo has confirmed they'll be selling the Wii U at a loss, to keep the price within a range consumers would accept. Which is unusual for the Big N, especially after the loss on the 3DS price cut (then again, maybe their success there motivated this strategy's application to the Wii U's launch, at least partially). But it also makes me wonder- if the Big N had to take a loss on something only partially more powerful than current gen systems- what kind of hit will M$ & Sony be taking on their next systems, which will be even more powerful? (granted, the Gamepad's screen and transmission speed put the Wii U's hardware cost at a disadvantage- but I think a lot of that gets balanced out by high end specs of the competitors)
The premium program has had some details revealed: when you purchase digital content (including eShop and download codes) with a Wii U premium system, you get 10 percent of the value back as credit to apply towards other purchases on 3DS or ii eShop (so, buying a full retail title like NSMBU would nab you the equivalent of $5 & change in credit). The program would run until the end of 2014.
Wii U FB Countdown. Has some sizle reels and other videos. We also have the ad campaign launch video up:
That video doesn't illustrate well enough the appeal of you seeing something else on the GamePad in multi-player games, that the other players aren't seeing. IMHO, that is.
Yeah, they can do better in that regard- though I don't think the video is too bad (the cube they show that actually has the 5 player game going on is kind of an exciting moment, actually). I think the purpose of that video was to show the multiple possibilities of the Gamepad, as opposed to just specifically the asynchronous gameplay. Hopefully the next batch of commercials will spin off of this one and focus on specific examples for that.
There's only so much they can fit in 30 secs... Also, EB Games Australia has said the cut off date for Wii U preorders is the 18th Nov... Just another 22 days from today before it comes out here. A lot of content has gone up, from Nintendo account details (you can have 12 accounts on a system), further details behind the Miiverse and also about how to transfer your content from the Wii to the Wii U.
