The Wii U ( WiiU ) Thread

[BrianC]

Looks like the latest iteration of Mario Kart is getting good press: http://www.metacritic.com/game/wii-u/mario-kart-8

It sounds promising. I heard it finally changed the blue shell so that it now stays on the ground and hits other racers on the way to the first place racer.

[Skykid]

^ That is a long time required change. The blue shell ruined MK7 in quite a big way.

The best entry ever according to Parkin? Hmm. Will believe it when I play it. If it ousts the tactical purity of the original or the precision skill of the DS version I'd be very impressed.

I also find it amusing when people say the "best since the 64 era", suggesting MK64 wasn't the painful experience it was. Best since Double Dash and MKDS maybe.

[BrianC]

I thought I heard the blue shell was toned down somewhat in Wii and MK7? I also heard 7 has mushroom only and shell only races, though I haven't tried them yet.

[Skykid]

I thought I heard the blue shell was toned down somewhat in Wii and MK7?

Yeah right!

The Wii version has the most artificial rubber-banding of the series imo, and in MK7 you can coast the entire race in 1st only to be snipe-bombed moments before the finish line and overtaken by three other racers (in expert mode of course.)

[BrianC]

I thought I heard the blue shell was toned down somewhat in Wii and MK7?

Yeah right!

The Wii version has the most artificial rubber-banding of the series imo, and in MK7 you can coast the entire race in 1st only to be snipe-bombed moments before the finish line and overtaken by three other racers (in expert mode of course.)

oh ok. I haven't played on 150 cc yet. What did you think of the GBA Mario Kart? I like that one quite a bit.

Too bad the latest MKs don't have a challenge mode like DS. It's a shame MK DS's online only works with no or older protection. Not to mention that it will be gone for good soon. I used to have a blast playing it online.

[Skykid]

My favourites are original, Double Dash and MKDS (having not played MK8 yet.)

DD represents the best of the 'party' MK's, the DS the best of the hardcore, and the original the best tactically and for battle mode.

The others fall somewhat short imo. My least favourite is between the Wii and N64 games. I thought GBA was good and offered some good courses, but was a little easy and didn't pack the same 2D punch as the original.

MK7 is fun, but again too easy, suffers horrible blue shell business, and the new courses are not as good as the set they recycled. It felt a bit too much by the numbers, too.

[Udderdude]

This bastard is the reason I haven't gotten any gamedev work done in over a week. Bravo, Nintendo .. bravo indeed.

I never played Wind Waker the first time when it was on GC, so guess I'll grab that one too.

[Moniker]

I also find it amusing when people say the "best since the 64 era", suggesting MK64 wasn't the painful experience it was. Best since Double Dash and MKDS maybe.

Probably mostly nostalgia at work there. A lot of people's first MK was MK64. I was pretty young when I played the SNES version, but my first real solid memory of the series was on N64. Even then, though, at a sorta young age, me & my friends would constantly gripe about the game's 'affirmative action.' Yeah, we were young assholes, but essentially correct.

[Udderdude]

I remember playing a rented SNES racer that let you turn the rubber banding off or on in 1 on 1 mode. My little brother was adamant that it remain on, but I wouldn't have it. Let the best player win .. lol

In hindsight maybe I was a bit of a jerk though :p

[BitFaced]

Would it be a good idea to get a cheap Wii U this December to play Smash Bros?

[Skykid]

Just found out John Lewis cleared all their Wii U stock at the ludicrous price of £112 with Mario.

If I was in the UK I would have bought two.

[MX7]

Just found out John Lewis cleared all their Wii U stock at the ludicrous price of £112 with Mario.

If I was in the UK I would have bought two.

Urgh no way, completely missed that. Have no money at the moment but still that's a pretty ridiculous deal.

[Austin]

suggesting MK64 wasn't the painful experience it was.

Do explain.

[Udderdude]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... ent-owners

[Moniker]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... ent-owners

Nintendo clearly knows what it needs to do, it's just the matter of actually doing it. More than anything right now, it needs killer apps for the WiiU. And, sparse as they are, first party WiiU apps released thus far are fantastic, just not sufficient. MK8 sounds like a good start, something just about everyone can sink their teeth into. SSBWiiU is a good follow-up, but if it comes out swinging with great new iterations of Zelda and Metroid, then I see a sunny future for the console. And they seemed to have learned their lessons with Zelda at least, so I'm hopeful that Retro can deliver another great Metroid. No matter what, they'll most likely be relegated to 3rd in the console arms race. Nintendo has always struck me as the gamemaker that actually gives a shit, even if they're not always on the ball. Reason enough to have some faith and wait it out.

[BryanM]

No matter what, they'll most likely be relegated to 3rd in the console arms race.

2nd, unless there's an enormous seething mass of people out there who were waiting for a Kinect-less box.

[Moniker]

No matter what, they'll most likely be relegated to 3rd in the console arms race.

2nd, unless there's an enormous seething mass of people out there who were waiting for a Kinect-less box.

Is the WiiU really outselling the XB1? I'd find that surprising, even with a head start, and even with all the Kinect dysfunction. All appearances suggests the masses have drunk the Titanfall Kool-Aid.

[Austin]

I thought the XBOX One has already surpassed the Wii U in sales, or if it hasn't, it's close to it?

[Udderdude]

http://www.vgchartz.com/

Still off by a million or so.

[Austin]

http://www.vgchartz.com/

Still off by a million or so.

Ah, okay.

I think with the XB1 price drop and Microsoft's relaxing the leash on XBOX Live a bit will help sales, potentially a lot. And I have to give it to them, after watching some videos of it today, Sunset Overdrive actually looks like a killer app, and almost makes me wish I held on to my One.

Of course, there's Mario Kart on the Wii U, which will hopefully boost its sales, but I'm not holding my breath. (I'll definitely be buying it though.)

Sort of going on a different tangent here--my concern with the Wii U is the potential for this year being worse than last year in terms of high quality releases. I mean, last Summer we had Pikmin 3 to look forward to, then Windwaker HD, then Super Mario 3D World.. Wonderful 101. Super Luigi U and Sonic Lost World as filler, I suppose. This year, we had DKC (great!), then it's Mario Kart 8, then that's about it (Smash is coming late, late in the year.. so late as of right now that I wouldn't be surprised if it was pushed back once more, like DKC was when it was scheduled to be released on the same date Smash Bros. is listed at now). Checking release dates, it appears Bayonetta 2 is sitting at the end of December as well. Ouch. Crossing my fingers Nintendo surprises us with something really cool at E3, as well as some bumped-up release dates.

[BrianC]

I just wish MS would relax the leash more. They have free updates on 360 now, but they are restricted to 4MB. Frustrating that some Pinball FX2 tables like Plants vs. Zombies and Paranormal are STILL behind other versions.

I'm glad Nintendo released Kirby and Mario Golf earlier than expected. Mario Golf definitely helps fill a gap for 3DS. Tomodachi Life sounds interesting too. I hope they announce some nice stuff for both systems at E3 and that WiiU isn't left with the huge gap between MK8 and Smash Bros. Ubi Soft has been one of the most frustrating developers when it comes to Nintendo systems. I plan to pick up Rayman Legends, but their support of Wii U seemed to be half hearted as of late and was mostly half hearted with 3DS until it dropped off after 2012.

[Skykid]

suggesting MK64 wasn't the painful experience it was.

Do explain.

Just play it. It's self-explanatory.

[Austin]

suggesting MK64 wasn't the painful experience it was.

Do explain.

Just play it. It's self-explanatory.

Mario Kart 64 is my favorite entry in the series. I'm more interested in what you think is terrible about it. No intentions to start an argument or anything, I'm just genuinely curious what people don't like about it. The idea of people knocking it is new to me, pretty much everyone in my [admittedly small] bubble enjoy it.

[Skykid]

Mario Kart 64 is my favorite entry in the series. I'm more interested in what you think is terrible about it. No intentions to start an argument or anything, I'm just genuinely curious what people don't like about it. The idea of people knocking it is new to me, pretty much everyone in my [admittedly small] bubble enjoy it.

You're asking me to recall from a long time ago, but MK64 is the only game in the series I sold and never rebought. From memory, the controls were stiff and frustrating, the courses average (although admittedly fare better when reused in more recent MK games, most likely owing to improved graphical fidelity and sharper handling) and most prominently, the AI sucks dick. The rubber banding and general bullshit ability of the opposition was hair tearing, and surprisingly poorly optimised from Nintendo.

Also, the battle mode, one of my favourite things in SFC MK, is really bad in MK64. There's not enough space and it doesn't work anywhere near as smoothly in full 3D.

[Austin]

Mario Kart 64 is my favorite entry in the series. I'm more interested in what you think is terrible about it. No intentions to start an argument or anything, I'm just genuinely curious what people don't like about it. The idea of people knocking it is new to me, pretty much everyone in my [admittedly small] bubble enjoy it.

You're asking me to recall from a long time ago, but MK64 is the only game in the series I sold and never rebought. From memory, the controls were stiff and frustrating, the courses average (although admittedly fare better when reused in more recent MK games, most likely owing to improved graphical fidelity and sharper handling) and most prominently, the AI sucks dick. The rubber banding and general bullshit ability of the opposition was hair tearing, and surprisingly poorly optimised from Nintendo.

Also, the battle mode, one of my favourite things in SFC MK, is really bad in MK64. There's not enough space and it doesn't work anywhere near as smoothly in full 3D.

Weird.. I felt the exact opposite about everything. Thought the AI was just right, the battle arenas worked great (especially the skyscraper one, loved how if you gained enough speed you could jump over the pits, making it feel like a FPS in a way), the courses well designed, etc., etc. I also think it has the greatest sense of speed in the 3D series, although that could be attributed to the sometimes choppy framerate, especially split-screen. It also had some fun/glitchy shortcuts that probably weren't intended by the development team. So, to each their own I suppose.

[dannnnn]

MK64 is also my least favourite of the series, I've always been a bit surprised at how well liked it is. SNES is still my favourite. For me at least, it felt like going from a fast paced racer with very tight handling where you're constantly fighting for space on the track, to a slow ponderous affair with wide open courses (where there's not the same threat of being bumped off by aggressive opponents), floaty handling and none of the immediacy of its predecessor. It also featured some of the most boring course design in the series' history; Luigi Raceway and Kalimari Desert stand out in MK7 like a sore thumb.

I understand it's most people's favourite and I'm not trying to knock the game for the sake of it, it just never clicked with me. MK DS was a return to form and snaking in that game was great, but I don't hold much hope that the main console entries will ever revert back to the style of the original (when it felt more like actual go-karting) since the template's long been established at this point. Still great games, mind.

[Pretas]

Even if you hate the rest of MK64, Bowser's Castle and Yoshi Valley are great tracks. It also had a much worthier battle mode than SMK, and was the game to introduce power drifting, miniboosting and snaking to the series.

[Skykid]

I understand it's most people's favourite.

Wait, wait, wait.

Have I died and woken up in an alternate reality?

Since when was MK64 "most people's favourite"?

Didn't you all have Sneses?

[Skykid]

Even if you hate the rest of MK64, Bowser's Castle and Yoshi Valley are great tracks. It also had a much worthier battle mode than SMK, and was the game to introduce power drifting, miniboosting and snaking to the series.

Wat?

The purity and technicality was completely lost: MK64's battle mode was an imprecise mess compared to MK's red shell tactical wargames.

[BryanM]

All appearances suggests the masses have drunk the Titanfall Kool-Aid.

Remember that The Internet and the Real World are very different places. The 3DS is far and away the master race, but you wouldn't know it if you just listened to forum posts.

Hardware wise the Bone is projected to catch up with the U in about 3 years, by then we'll be talking about the Wii 2. (With the price cut they'll probably get there a bit sooner than that.) Software wise, just about never. It just fares poorly against the identical but cheaper and more powerful PSX4.

It's kind of a weird era we're entering where the average price for a game is trending to $0. Frankly I'm surprised the new consoles have done as well as they do for how incremental the advance in performance from the last generation was. Maybe they will go the same way as arcades eventually..

Didn't you all have Sneses?

Yes but I mostly used it to play Final Fantasy 6 and Demon's Crest. There were probably other ones, but I don't quite remember them.