General Nintendo thread

With The Wii U, "bad" might be too strong a word. However, it failed for a reason, and I'd even call it ill-conceived in many ways.

• It failed to distinguish itself from The Wii. By reusing the old Wii branding, they made it look like it wasn't that much of an upgrade.

• The two-screen setup doesn't really work on a console. It works on a handheld to some extent (even for the DS, it was pretty gimmicky), because the screens are close together. By contrast, for the Wii U, you have to move your gaze between screens.

• IMO, a problem with targeting casual gamers in general is that they're casual gamers. They don't necessarily need the latest, greatest console so convincing them to upgrade is probably difficult.

• This actually becomes even harder when a lot of them moved to mobile.

I mean, this is the Wii U reveal trailer. Not once do they say this is a new console. Instead they repeatedly say it is a "new controller," even showing it working in conjunction with existing Wii games. It's no surprise that people who didn't follow this closely didn't know what to make of it.

Edited by WillKeaton on Apr 9th 2024 at 6:09:56 AM

I think when they came up with the name, they wanted it to be a contrast with "Wii", sounding like "we" which implied that the Wii was catered towards the numerous casual audience and couch multiplayer, so the "U" in "Wii U" was advertised to be something for "you", the core soloist audience. A generation they would succeed with the Switch, but they didn't dedicate as much as they could have in terms of marketing and clarity with the Wii U.

...Yeah, much as I held on with the Wii U-era... I'll admit in a heartbeat that once I started playing the Switch, there was no going back. Mario Odyssey and BotW both kicked so much ass for me... I was home free, and knew I was in for a bitchin' good ride.

That said, I have some fun memories of the Wii U, like the time the ten-dollar Earthbound outsold Donkey Kong when it was on sale for thirty cents.

Late to the party, but to backtrack a bit and give a non-gaming specific definition, a Blue Ocean strategy is a business tactic where instead of competing in an existing market, you try to innovate and create demand in a new market. The name comes from the imagery of feeding sharks: a lot of businesses competing in doing the same exact thing is akin to a shit-ton of sharks all feeding and fighting in the same bit of ocean over a meal, turning the waters red. Meanwhile, a blue ocean is clean and pristine.

As for the question at hand, I'd say they've been pretty successful with it. Out of all the consoles they've released under this ideology, only one (Wii U and its second screen gaming) was a failure. The others were either absolute successes that blew previous company records out of the water (DS with touchscreen panel, Wii with motion controls, Switch with hybrid play), or still did well for itself even if the intended gimmick didn't catch on (3DS with glasses-free 3D). To throw my hat into the ring, I agree with Nintendo's takeaway on the Wii U: there just weren't any games that truly justified why the setup exists. Why I need a giant tablet in my hand. Removing Off-TV Play from the equation and just looking at how the system approached two-screen games, I don't think I can name a double-digit amount of titles that even got a passing grade on the assignment (off-loading menus isn't a passing mark). Heck, I'd argue that only one game aced the assignment and it wasn't even made by Nintendo.

I love the Wii U, but there was nothing to really bring anyone other than the Nintendo faithful to the platform. At least most of the greats managed a fantastic second wind on the Switch.

Edited by RacattackForce on Apr 9th 2024 at 8:37:20 AM

I mean, the marketing inarguably sucked, but the marketing isn't the console and the console isn't the games.

I'm not blind to the Wii U's flaws, but I also can't honestly call it bad given how much fun I had with it. Tropical Freeze alone made the whole thing worth it for me, sorry not sorry.

Of course I'm glad so many of the Wii U's heavy hitters had a second life on Switch. Now if only Yoshi's Woolly World and the GameCube Zelda remasters could join them...

I didn't say it was the best in the series, I just said it was better than Odyssey. That's just, like, my opinion, man.

Now that you mention it, though, 3D World is in my top three, alongside Galaxy and SMB3. Unless Yoshi's Island counts as a mainline Mario game; then, that supplants SMB3.

Dude, Super Mario 3D World is a fuckin' banger, man. As linear as it is (not unlike Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS), it's got a lot of personality going for it, with amazing songs backing the soundtrack up, the Fab 4 of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Blue Toad (harkening back to Super Mario Bros. 2), Bowser having that snazzy personality, his first boss fight with that muscle car just oodles of fun, and, oh yeah, continuing the series-long streak of controls being very, very tight. And I gotta give it up to the jazz band who went hard ham on this, because some of the sound team's BEST works were done with this game, I shit you not.

Then for your opinion demands execution for the crimes against Mario Odyssey.

But really it's that you view 3d world as better than Odyssey that's gets my goat, as while I see 3d world good it's not as great as Odyssey when it comes to 3d platforming.

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Apr 9th 2024 at 6:00:22 AM

There were many cool levels in that game. I was also pleasantly surprised with the bosses, because I was initially worried when the first three worlds had, respectively, Bowser, Boom Boom and Pom Pom (thinking that it'd be as generic as that of 3D Land). But then I fought Hisstocrat, and then Boss Brolder, and I was relieved.

doesn't matter uncle ben, mario clash is better than both of em

With 3D World, I consider it to be a pretty different type of game than Odyssey. In fact, I'd actually compare it more to the New Super Mario Bros games, except that it's in 3D.

I consider 3D World's principle virtue to be its multiplayer component. The game is a fun way to spend time with some friends/family, get into some chaotic hijinks as you fumble past each other through levels.

Super Mario 3D World is pretty damn good if you aren't trying to 100% it.

No reason that should get your goat. Different strokes for different folks, man.

I'd say that's true of 3D Land, but 3D World has creativity oozing out of its pores. I love the circus and train levels, the glorious return of tank levels, Plessie (10/10 character, hope she sticks around), the Double Cherries and more. It's all so darn charming.

The playable cast also makes a huge difference. I love my boy Mario, but it's always a treat when you can play an entire mainline game as somebody besides him.

Did it twice, once on Wii U and once on Switch. Will probably do it again in the future.

This guy gets it.

It's really entirely a matter of preference. There's not any objective reason to say one is better than the other.

Yeah sorry for my attitude earlier my car got hit by really hard hail this after noon.

Ooh, my Wii U is starting again. I swapped the CR2032 with a "fresh" one (actually a crap Kodak battery from a pack I bought a before COVID, but I guess it has some charge), and after a few days of not touching it, it seems to have settled down.

Now hopefully it won't randomly turn off when I play it for more than a few minutes.

So I heard that F-Zero 99 recently got an update to include a "smart steering", which keeps your vehicle from crashing into walls. Much like how the same option in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does the same, but it makes the antenna stick out along with only giving you up to two levels for drift-boosting instead of 3, is there a downside to using it in F-Zero 99? I dropped the game out of losing interest a while back.

I haven't used it yet and I'll give it a whirl later, but I'm assuming its main downside is not letting you attempt any off-track shortcuts (e.g. the ramps in White Land I), cut corners tight or brute force through hazard zones (e.g. White Land II), or ram into the walls full-throttle to keep your speed while taking an insanely tight turnpike (e.g. Silence).

I've also noticed that in Classic tracks the option's outright disabled, so no using it there either.

Thing is, I shared a clip of myself winning the Big Blue track online in Mario Kart, I had dodged a green shell and the shell hit me AFTER I hit the finish line in first place; Redditors got mad at me for having Smart Steering on (as I got sick of falling off the tracks, moreso since the game doesn't have the option for me to filter out 200cc tracks from random selections)

Players that use auto-steering have a big antennae visible on their vehicles which seems to be a giant "Kick me" sign really.

I mean I did anyway.

I guess once my VR reaches 5000, I'll turn it on because the game will pair me up against tougher people (also how the heck do people with 100,000+ VR show up alongside people in the 1000s?!)

Not enough players in general I guess.

One game I liked on the Wii U, that probably won't work on the Switch, was Nintendo Land.

I loved the ghost game, Luigi's Ghost Mansion, with one player as the ghost and the others as ghost catchers. That was fun to play with extended family, though an online version of it would be great! I also liked the touchscreen mechanics of the Balloon Fight game on it as well. And its take on Pikmin was interesting too.

It was like a collection of "mini" games that weren't so "mini." Like, all of them felt like they could have been NES games, with the same level of depth and even length! (The NES also had some pretty short and simple games, too, so even the more simple games in Nintendo Land would have fit that description.)

I love the idea behind it and I'd really like to see it come back, but too much of it is dependent on two screens for that to really be possible.

Well after 48 hours of shut down looking around reveals that there are only a handful of players left online on the old Nintendo Network, mostly in Pokemon, though there were a few in Smash, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, and Splatoon.

Guess some people can't help but be Defiant till the end.

Edited by Roguemind on Apr 11th 2024 at 1:47:32 AM

Nintendo Land was fun. The theme song(s), the attractions, the toys you got from the Plinko game...

Me, my sister and her boyfriend kept trying Donkey Kong's Crash Course because it was so HARD.

Octopus Dance was catchy too.

Edited by Keybreak on Apr 11th 2024 at 8:54:30 AM