The Wii U ( WiiU ) Thread

[drunkninja24]

Got my Wii U system and Mario Kart 8 yesterday, been enjoying it so far. Also got Wind Waker HD as my free game and nabbed Nano Assault Neo from the eShop. All 3 seem pretty fun so far, probably gonna pick up NSMBU and Mario 3D world soon as well.

[Udderdude]

Unlocked the gold kart and tires, finally.

[Lord Satori]

I'm a little disappointed that the characters were abysmally easy to unlock. Also, wtf was up with "pink gold peach"? Putting Metal Mario in it was pretty cool, but wtf pink gold peach? (ha ha, I didn't capitalize your name to humiliate you further) They missed a good opportunity to have Bowser Jr and the Koopalings cross paths for the first time.

[Udderdude]

Hey come on, Pink Gold Peach is pretty cool. She's so shiny ..

[Lord Satori]

At the very least they should've made her regular gold or something. I mean is "pink gold" even a thing?

[Moniker]

At the very least they should've made her regular gold or something. I mean is "pink gold" even a thing?

You clearly haven't ever had a picky girlfriend. Gold comes in whatever colour she wants. (But obviously not the colour you chose.)

Been playing Morton with the Duke bike and Wooden Wheels. Might be my favorite setup yet. Does take some getting used to.

Edit: Neither 'color' nor 'colour' looks right. We need a new, proper spelling, clearly.

[Udderdude]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_go ... _pink_gold

http://mdcdiamonds.com/images/ProductImages/ES609.jpg

Oh look it's a thing, now quiet. :3

[BrianC]

To bad there aren't any black gold characters. Wario or Waluigi would probably be a good fit for that.

[Udderdude]

Wario is heavyweight (already heavier than the metal characters), and Waluigi is in the same class as DK, so not really.

[BrianC]

Wario is heavyweight (already heavier than the metal characters), and Waluigi is in the same class as DK, so not really.

Black gold is oil (though it could also refer to black pepper, coffee, marmite, or coal), not metal, though.

[Udderdude]

Damn, online play is fun sometimes but just frustrating as hell other times. I'll be in first, keep getting coins, then get hit by a shell, someone catches up and I get chain beaten until I'm way behind.

I get catchup items, but it's a crapshoot since everyone else is getting the same thing and also shooting offensive items like a fireworks show. I'll be lucky if I can claw my way back up to 4th.

If I can stay ahead and get defensive items I'll be ok, but again .. luck is involved. Skill only comes out on average over a long series of races with the same opponents.

Also, some of the courses (Like Rainbow Road N64) are just so short and narrow that it's a complete crapshoot. I am winning more than I'm losing, so I'd eventually climb the rankings ..

[Moniker]

You can't search for events w/ items off? Haven't tried the online myself yet (got sidetracked by new season of Orange is the New Black).

[Udderdude]

Yeah I think I can search for tournaments with custom rules. Will try that later.

But if items except mushrooms are disabled, why not just compete on the time trial leaderboards?

I guess there's still slipstreaming and physically ramming your opponents. And of course, if they fuck up.

[Moniker]

I guess, with your personal tastes aside, when I play online against strangers I want it to be purely skill-based. Comes down to build and expertise on the tracks. When you're playing locally w/ friends, randomness is fun so you can curse each other out and claim they won due to luck. And since any dedicated gamer is probably way better than his/her dilettante friends, it keeps your friends in the room.

As for time trial vs. no-item multiplayer, I always get more juiced up when facing real opponents. That's what I figure I'll be playing until Ninty deactivates the servers 10 years from now. Does mushroom-only give you a set number of mushrooms like in time trial, or is affirmative action in effect? It'd be nice if it was the former, but if it's the latter, I can live with that. No items FTW, although that does limit the strategic shortcut viability.

[dannnnn]

Damn, online play is fun sometimes but just frustrating as hell other times. Just too much luck involved

Yeah it can be very annoying, but you're lucky you didn't play MK7 because that was way worse, a total roulette wheel at times and there'd always be at least one blue shell every race. They've toned it down at least, although you can still get some pretty crazy items even in second place. I picked up a blue shell there once (and still ended up coming second -.-) and more than once I've been stuck with coins in first and had three red shells up my ass to ruin my race.

My mindset with online is basically: I'm gonna stick to my usual racing lines and place as high as the game will allow, because sometimes you just can't win no matter how well you play. A blue shell and the ensuing chaos on the last corner of a race will screw you over no matter what.

[dannnnn]

Here's MK online in microcosm, which unfortunately I couldn't capture properly due to the game's crappy highlight editing feature and the fact that you can't upload full races.

Basically the sequence is: blue shell towards the end of the race, player behind hits me with a green shell, my own green shell which I mistakenly fired off takes a crazy ricochet and smacks me in the face, then someone bumps me off the course lol. 1st-7th in 5.3 seconds...

[Lord Satori]

Ugh... story of my life, right there.

Except it happens to me in single player as well. Are there any more rewards besides the gold items to unlock by winning the grand prix? I've already unlocked all of the characters by the time I was halfway finished with 100cc.

[Udderdude]

If you get all gold in 150cc, you unlock mirror courses. You also have to 1 star these to get the gold kart.

I'm gonna stick to my usual racing lines and place as high as the game will allow, because sometimes you just can't win no matter how well you play. A blue shell and the ensuing chaos on the last corner of a race will screw you over no matter what.

Yeah, which makes me just think "Why not stick to time trial"? I feel like I'm playing time trial in 1st anyway, but with a guy standing next to my power strip deciding to randomly hit the off switch.

Rebalancing the game's items rather than just disabling them or sticking to time trial would be quite a task .. Nintendo just doesn't get competitive play. They get wacky random chaotic play, sure .. but that doesn't translate well to faceless strangers on the internet.

And then there's the fact that heavies are far and away the better choice for both grand prix and time trials. Even playing a medium character is asking for pain ..

[Udderdude]

Here's my attempt at balancing this shitshow.

General:

Getting hit only causes you to lose 2 coins.
Getting hit shortly after already getting hit reduces the stun period by 50% each hit.
After getting hit 3 times in a row, you are immune to hits for a short period of time.
Getting hit in the air no longer knocks you out of the sky. Instead, you are stunned for a short time when you reach the ground.

Items:

Triple item packs reduced to double item packs.
Coin packs removed. Getting a item box when you already have an item gives you 2 coins.
Bob-omb and blue shell explosion radius reduced. (Seriously, right now they're like miniature nukes)
Green shells are reduced in speed after each bounce. They also only bounce 4 times.
Red shells no longer fly in the air after their target and don't double back if they pass them.
Banana peels no longer stun, instead causing temporarily loss of traction.
Gold mushroom doesn't last as long.
Fire Flower changed to only 4 fireballs. No more spamming this like it's going out of style.
Super Horn doesn't last as long.
Lightning no longer causes players to drop their items. Instead, they lose 4 coins.

Characters:

Heavy characters slower. Lighter characters slightly faster.
Heavy characters take longer to accelerate from a dead stop.

[Lord Satori]

Here's my attempt at balancing this shitshow.

General:

Getting hit shortly after already getting hit reduces the stun period by 50% each hit.
After getting hit 3 times in a row, you are immune to hits for a short period of time.
Getting hit in the air no longer knocks you out of the sky. Instead, you are stunned for a short time when you reach the ground.

Items:

Coin packs removed. Getting a item box when you already have an item gives you 2 coins.
Bob-omb and blue shell explosion radius reduced. (Seriously, right now they're like miniature nukes)
Green shells are reduced in speed after each bounce. They also only bounce 4 times.
Banana peels no longer stun, instead causing temporarily loss of traction.
Lightning no longer causes players to drop their items. Instead, they lose 4 coins.

These are really the only ones I agree with.

Coins aren't THAT important, so there really isn't a need to reduce the amount you lose.
Triple item packs have ALWAYS been a thing. What's different is that they ALL orbit the kart instead of just the shell ones. I enjoyed it when the three bananas trailed behind, and I think the character used to juggle the mushrooms, but idk.
I'm not too positive about the blue shell being reduced, but the bob-omb is indeed ridiculous.
As annoying as red shells are in the air, if getting hit in the air only stuns you, this would no longer be an issue.
I don't think gold mushrooms have changed that much. If they were to change at all, making them rarer would be the way to go.
Again, I think making it rarer instead of nerfing it would be the way to go.
The super horn doesn't last that long to begin with.

Not really sure changing their speeds is a good idea.
Making Heavy character take longer to accelerate is a terrible idea. Have you even played as Bowser? I think he's the heaviest. Personally I've always done the best with light characters, who accel in acceleration and handling, where with heavy characters, once you're hit, you're screwed.

[Udderdude]

You really need to delve into how the game handles things stat-wise to see how ludicrous heavies are in this game. Just fool around with this stat calculator for awhile, you'll see things a lot clearer. Especially with heavies on bikes vs. lights on karts.

What it boils down to is that heavies can make up for their deficiencies by picking bikes, but lights can't do the same by picking karts. So you end up getting the best of both worlds with heavies.

I recently switched to Rosalina/Standard Bike/Slick Tires/Super Glider and it's just amazing.

http://www.gunslingergaming.com/html/MK8Stats.php

[Moniker]

What it boils down to is that heavies can make up for their deficiencies by picking bikes, but lights can't do the same by picking karts. So you end up getting the best of both worlds with heavies.

Cawled it! Still having trouble managing the drift with Heavy+Bike, since you can drift real tight, but if you wanna go wide there isn't much flexibility. But yeah, I imagine their stats must beat other setups.

Played 2P Grand Prix w/ a friend today and it was a lot of fun. Been awhile since I've experienced those gleeful magical moments like nailing a friend with a shell just before the finish line, or gratuitously pitching a banana back just to mess him up instead of going the proper course and keeping it as a shield. Hopefully will be able get people off their goddamn texting long enough to put together a 4 person VS sometime soon.

It's not an option, but I think horns-only would be a lot of fun. Gotta get in close and all that. Will try your Rosalina setup. Thx also for the calculator.

[Udderdude]

Note that while that Rosalina build is great for combat races, it's still not the best for time trial. Heaviest+Fastest car/tires still reigns supreme there. I like Morton+Gold Kart+Slicks+Super Glider. It looks the least ugly .. lol

Might want to also try a sport bike w/ that Rosalina build, but keep in mind the drifting will be very sensitive.

[ancestral-knowledge]

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/ ... 17713.html

i think this is relevant because of the bad sales of the wii u. Basically nintendo closes a business location in europe and fires all employes (130).

[Moniker]

That fucker Olimar fucked up my ship and made off with my fruit juice. Heads will roll, I promise you.

[drunkninja24]

So I gotta say, I honestly think Nintendo had the far more interesting conference out of the Big 3. Between a new Canvas Curse, Captain Toad, Smash Bros, Zelda, etc. I'm really looking forward to what the Wii U has in store much moreso than the other consoles at the moment.

[Udderdude]

Microsoft won if you like decapitations.
Sony won if you like dark, violent human drama.
Nintendo won if you like games. :3

[Jonathan Ingram]

And if, say, I love games with decapitations and dark, violent human drama, then who do I go for?

Between a new Canvas Curse, Captain Toad, Smash Bros, Zelda, etc.

The way I see it, it's the incredibly safe and predictable lineup like this that's to blame for the sad state of affairs the Wii U is presently in.

[Udderdude]

Between a new Canvas Curse, Captain Toad, Smash Bros, Zelda, etc.

The way I see it, it's the incredibly safe and predictable lineup like this that's to blame for the sad state of affairs the Wii U is presently in.

They announced several new IPs as well, and the new open world Zelda looks to be a bit of a departure from the norm. And it's hard to say safe and predictable is what's doing the Wii U in when Mario Kart 8 gave a huge boost to the system's sales .. I still think the vast majority of the Wii U's sluggishness is due to poor marketing.

[Lord Satori]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, just wait until december when Smash Bros. come out.