The Wii U ( WiiU ) Thread

[Friendly]

Update 2012-09-24
It's region-locked

Update 2012-09-13
Wii U is 3 Wiis taped together: http://www.vgleaks.com/world-exclusive- ... nal-specs/

Japanese pricing:


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http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news ... ducer.html

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http://andriasang.com/con1pi/nintendo_s ... r_meeting/

According to Iwata, Wii U will have free online gaming. Very good decission.
Nintendo also stated that they won't do anything stupid like locking physical games to consoles to prevent the selling of used games.

Now if they would only get rid of the region lock...

EDIT: Search for WiiU to find this topic.

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http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004ZKI7EM
(399.99 EUR / Dec 21)

For the sake of Nintendo I hope that this isn't the final price.

EDIT: Seems to be only a placeholder and not an indication of the real price/date. Crisis averted. For now.

[njiska]

Still wouldn't surprise me at all. A a price of 399.99 EUR is a price of 399.99 USD in NA. Given the internals of the controller and this thing called inflation, it's certainly possible. Plus Nintneod does not like to see things for a loss.

[Drum]

There's no way it will cost that much.

[njiska]

Why not? It's only 150 units of currency more than the Wii launched for and the same price as the Xbox 360 at launch. It sounds high, but console launches always are.

[Drum]

Consumers don't have much spending power at the moment, competition from current-gen consoles (360 and PS3 are slow burners and are still selling sorta ok), it's not terribly powerful, and the tablet controller won't be especially expensive to produce. No idea how much it will be, but less than that. Bookmark this post.

[njiska]

Hear that arguement dozens of times and it's always one that never carries water. Most recently it was used with the 3DS and PS Vita Launch prices; both of which launched at prices higher that the cash strapped wanted to beleive was possible. Now granted both are paying for that high price of entry, but that does not mean the WiiU won't launch at 399.99

[Drum]

3DS was overpriced. Vita couldn't be priced any lower considering the tech, and was just a poorly conceived product in general.

[CloudyMusic]

Nintendo's going to have to demonstrate that the tablet controller is going to be more than just another dumb gimmick to get me interested. The last straw for me with the Wii was getting Donkey Kong Country Returns and finding out that you were forced to use the Wiimote + Nunchuk (with obligatory tacked-on motion controls), and that the classic controller wasn't even an option. For a 2D platformer.

[Drum]

^ You can use the wiimote by itself too, but yeah, it's dumb as hell.

[Ghegs]

Nintendo's going to have to demonstrate that the tablet controller is going to be more than just another dumb gimmick to get me interested. The last straw for me with the Wii was getting Donkey Kong Country Returns and finding out that you were forced to use the Wiimote + Nunchuk (with obligatory tacked-on motion controls), and that the classic controller wasn't even an option. For a 2D platformer.

I remember reading somewhere that Retro Studios was originally developing the game without motion controls, then a certain Mr. Miyamoto decided the game must have them, and that was that.

Luckily, this can be circumvented! If you have a softmodded Wii it's possible to boot the game with a hack of sorts that allows you to use the Classic Controller with DKCR. It made the game so much better, let me tell you.

[steveovig]

DKC Returns was fine the way it is.

[Friendly]

DKC Returns was fine the way it is.

Why would you want to have to shake your controller to perform an action that should be mapped to a button instead? In a 2D platformer with time-critical reactions no less? Clearly this game wasn't designed for motion controls.

[Jeneki]

This really bothered me in Super Mario Galaxy as well. As far as I could tell, the only thing that wiimote+nunchuck got us was the ability to point at stars to pick them up, while forcing waggle to use spin attack instead of a button.

[Strider77]

I had no issues using the roll with the motion control. NONE at all... that game was great.

[CloudyMusic]

Motion controls aside, the "Wiimote sideways" control method is too uncomfortable for long sessions, at least to me. I couldn't get very far into NSMBW for the same reason. And Wiimote+Nunchuk (i.e. analog stick movement) just doesn't feel right for 2D games.

I'd just like classic controller support by default in every game unless there's a specific reason that the gameplay can't support it. More choice is always better than less.

[louisg]

I actually really liked how Galaxy controlled. There's something very nice about being able to play a game with both your hands free. Doing the spin-attack was just a matter of a quick jerk with the controller.

NSMB, on the other hand, really bugged me in how they implemented the controls. The timing was too tight for what they wanted the player to do, and I felt like the motion controls were always in my way.

I really would like to see Nintendo put out a more up-to-date console, processor-wise. I think the Wii is decently powerful, but when developers see a system that's not as powerful as another, they just sort of throw up their hands. It reminds me a lot of how musicians approached platforms with synthesizer chips: "Well, this isn't as good as my Korg Triton, so it'll suck no matter what I do". Yeah, I know some of it has to do with time constraints and backporting. But with the exception of something like The Conduit, Red Steel 2, or Mario Galaxy, a lot of Wii games just don't look as good as the better GameCube games, XBox games, or even many of the Wii launch titles.

[BulletMagnet]

As with most every other system, for me it depends on what games are released for it: if the library becomes good enough I'll eventually pick one up, but if there's not enough stuff I'm interested in I'll give it a pass. Obviously it's too early for me to judge much of anything at this point.

[steveovig]

DKC Returns was fine the way it is.

Why would you want to have to shake your controller to perform an action that should be mapped to a button instead? In a 2D platformer with time-critical reactions no less? Clearly this game wasn't designed for motion controls.

But it never hindered my play experience once. It never fault awkward either and I didn't mind it one bit or wish that it wasn't there. It was still the best 2D game this generation, in my opinion.

[Friendly]

http://andriasang.com/con1pi/nintendo_s ... r_meeting/

According to Iwata, Wii U will have free online gaming. Very good decission.
Nintendo also stated that they won't do anything stupid like locking physical games to consoles to prevent the selling of used games.

Now if they would only get rid of the region lock...

[brentsg]

Nintendo's going to have to demonstrate that the tablet controller is going to be more than just another dumb gimmick to get me interested. The last straw for me with the Wii was getting Donkey Kong Country Returns and finding out that you were forced to use the Wiimote + Nunchuk (with obligatory tacked-on motion controls), and that the classic controller wasn't even an option. For a 2D platformer.

I remember reading somewhere that Retro Studios was originally developing the game without motion controls, then a certain Mr. Miyamoto decided the game must have them, and that was that.

Luckily, this can be circumvented! If you have a softmodded Wii it's possible to boot the game with a hack of sorts that allows you to use the Classic Controller with DKCR. It made the game so much better, let me tell you.

Dang, just saw this.. I need to mod my Wii and check this out. The game was ruined by the stupid controls, as were most Wii games.

[Despatche]

The sideways Wiimote is retarded, yet hacking your way around it is somehow far worse. I'll just take the motion controls at that point.

Anyway, $299. $299. Do it.

[Op Intensify]

I'm currently most interested in the Wii U for the port of Bamco's arcade game Tank! Tank! Tank!.

Not sure why it couldn't have been on XBLA or something though.

[Friendly]

Anyway, $299. $299. Do it.

They basically have to. Otherwise those losers who spend $600-800 USD on a new smartphone every other year will whine about it being "too expensive".

[1up]

Has there been any talks about if it will be backwards compatible?

[Op Intensify]

Confirmed to be fully backwards compatible with Wii games and peripherals. No upscaling though, they won't look any better.

[Friendly]

Confirmed to be fully backwards compatible with Wii games and peripherals. No upscaling though, they won't look any better.

No upscaling?!
Makes no sense.

Wii U is not compatible with GameCube, by the way (just like the newest Wii revision).

[louisg]

No upscaling?!
Makes no sense.

Wii U is not compatible with GameCube, by the way (just like the newest Wii revision).

That's a shame. I use GameCube mode a lot, though I'm sure for the vast majority of owners it gets no play whatsoever. Maybe we'll see GC games on Virtual Console..?

[Obiwanshinobi]

If you want to play Wii games upscaled, you can buy a TV that does upscaling (with some extra input lag to boot). If you want to play Wii (or GameCube for that matter) games rendered in high resolutions, you can play those emulated on a PC. Makes sense.

[ZellSF]

No upscaling makes no sense. Where has Nintendo stated that?

Of course it is Nintendo, they might just do something stupid like that. Personally I'm just hoping they'll at least allow us to use the digital HDMI sound output for Wii games.

[BPzeBanshee]

New-model Wiis have no GameCube support? News to me.

Think I'll pass this one too. Thank fuck my old model Wii still works.