Wii U discussion and upcoming news

[RisingForever]

Winter doesn't mean November, they would say fall if it was going to be released in November. It probably means January or Feburary, which means the biggest game for the WiiU after MK8 this year is probably Sonic Boom unless Nintendo has a surprise for E3 (which they probably do since Hyrule Warriors is the only other big retail game releasing for the WiiU after MK8 this year.)

[Conando]

The 3DS itself has nothing other than Kirby and Smash, though. I can kind of see why they're doing it, even if I don't necessarily like it.

[JaidynReiman]

Winter doesn't mean November, they would say fall if it was going to be released in November. It probably means January or Feburary, which means the biggest game for the WiiU after MK8 this year is probably Sonic Boom unless Nintendo has a surprise for E3 (which they probably do since Hyrule Warriors is the only other big retail game releasing for the WiiU after MK8 this year.)

They said Winter 2014. If that was the case it'd be out already. It means November/December, probably the latter, meaning in time for Christmas.

[Gabz Girl]

I'm hoping for something more like Twilight Princess for the next Zelda. We've had more cartoony things for the past 7 years, let's do something different than that.

 

I don't mind the more mature look that Twilight Princess had. In fact I liked the environments in that game a lot, not just the Twilight Realm but Hyrule Castle and the fields and places around it too. It's just those character designs. >< They have to make them look more appealing at least. I mean there certainly can be some ugly characters, but don't make friendly NPC's like Falbi and Fyer look like a couple of creepy weirdos. Ew.

[RisingForever]

They said Winter 2014. If that was the case it'd be out already. It means November/December, probably the latter, meaning in time for Christmas.

I assumed that the Winter 2014 was a typo and they meant Winter 2015. If they meant November or December then they would have said something like Holiday Season 2014. When have you've ever heard of Nov/Dec being referred to as Winter, at least in reference to release dates?

[JaidynReiman]

I assumed that the Winter 2014 was a typo and they meant Winter 2015. If they meant November or December then they would have said something like Holiday Season 2014. When have you've ever heard of Nov/Dec being referred to as Winter, at least in reference to release dates?

You do realize that different countries have different terms, right? When I think Winter, I think December-February. Sometimes they say Christmas, other times Winter, it really all depends. They clearly said 2014, I doubt that's a typo. Unless otherwise stated, we assume 2014.

[Conando]

I assumed that the Winter 2014 was a typo and they meant Winter 2015. If they meant November or December then they would have said something like Holiday Season 2014. When have you've ever heard of Nov/Dec being referred to as Winter, at least in reference to release dates?

 

Not so. They said Winter 2013 for 3D World, and that released in mid November.

[RisingForever]

Not so. They said Winter 2013 for 3D World, and that released in mid November.

I stand corrected. Must be a Nintendo thing.

[Conando]

It's not really a Nintendo thing. Winter is interchangeable for Q4.

[G-Force]

Personally, I don't think this is a big deal.  Finding out that Nintendo's working on a Mario game is like finding out that the ocean is wet.  It seems like Nintendo's always got some sort of team doing some sort of Mario development.

[Conando]

What I want to know if it's going to be another game in the style of 3D World, or if it's going to be more in the tradition of 3D Mario games. I'll like it either way, but I'm still curious.

[Salamander]

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but the next Mario should ideally have a Galaxy-style new look and setting, or some other way of immediately making it stand out as new and never-before-seen in relation to previous Mario games.  The lacklustre reception to 3D World's initial announcement shows that simply taking the staples of the series and rendering them in HD won't cut it; they have to neutralise the skin-deep (but not invalid) criticism that Mario games are simply the same thing remade over and over.

[G-Force]

I'm not sure it's possible to come up with an actual setting that's new and exciting enough to draw lots of attention.  I mean, you can't really beat outer space when it comes to the idea of new and exciting worlds to explore.

 

I feel like a smarter approach would be to focus on doing something exceptionally clever with more mundane environments.  Like figuring out how to do a full blown, high quality sandbox platformer or something.

[azoo]

So two months ahead of time, I'm going to make a craaaAazy prediction of E3 this year for Nintendo!

 

First off, I'm gonna guess that since they need space to make the Wii U look really good to people, they may do both a Direct presentation for the 3DS (possibly the same day or the day before), and do the Wii U presentation on the E3 showfloor.

 

Going by what we've heard from Reggie, what can be assumed, and what else, here's what I think the potential line-up will be for E32014's presentation:

 

- New Smash U trailer (possibly the opening CGI cutscene), along with playability at E3

- Zelda U gets properly announced with a trailer, as expected according to Aonuma, Miyamoto and Iwata

- updates on Yoshi Yarn and Hyrule Warriors, maybe more information (including final names) as well as a release window for each

- more Virtual Console releases, possibly focusing on GBA and Nintendo DS titles

- updates on Bayonetta 2, X, and various other third-party partnership games in the woodwork

- a few fast balls, possibly the S.T.E.A.M. game or one we straight up won't expect (like a new Star Fox)

- business mumbo jumbo, possibility of formally announcing the "quick boot" firmware update before launch

- possibly an announcement related to Metroid

 

Some of these sound like common sense and a few may be reaching for a bit much. Honestly, I don't know what they're gonna do, but I'm just sliding this out while it's fresh on my mind.

[Autosaver]

Dev claims PS3 is 1.5 stronger than Wii U, Wii U is just 1.5x Wii with new controller

 

Is it just me or does this sound ridiculous? There are several extremely good examples of enhanced ports (Most Wanted U, Deus Ex) that look significantly better than their "current gen" counterparts. This also applies to Trine 2: DX which looks more on par with the PC version than the 360 version.

 

There's also the fact that Sony has a hard time even hitting 720p on the PS3 (Most games are SUB-HD) and mostly hold 30fps. Nintendo has been able to easily do 720p with 60fps across their first party titles. Hell, Bayonetta 2 supposedly uses way more polygons and detail than the first game while running at a smooth 60fps.

 

To me it sounds like this dev is just talking out of his ass (as he even states that he isn't developing anything for the system). It comes off as awfully ignorant especially when developers are able to use the hardware to squeeze so much more than they could do last system. The upgraded GPU and extra RAM do help in the long run.

 

Edit: Apparently the game IS being ported over to Wii U but other projects aren't? If so, that's even worse. How the hell do you mess this up? This guy just cost lots of sales from customers by people who were offended. Why would you support a guy that admits the Wii U version is going to be inferior since the PS3 is 50% stronger? That's scary.

[Blacklightning]

Pinball Arcade... oh hey, I have that game on iOS.

 

I was thinking of buying the second season of tables once I got tired of the first. Not anymore.

[DarkRula]

I lost it at "should not be considered a true next-gen or now current-gen system, the power just isn't there".

Anyone comparing generations of systems by power alone should not be considered even remotely reliable as a comparison judge.

A generation is what comes after, not how much power it produces over its previous self. If that were the case, we'd all be hulking giants living in buildings over a hundred metres high.

[Agie]

What are you talking about? Everyone on planet Earth are hulks, and anyone who dares to disagree are just blind to reality.

 

Just ask Shaq, he'll tell you!

 

Okay, in all seriousness, you put it better than I could.

[Mr Loopone]

Hoping that Nintendo has something for E3 including a few surprises.

 

Regarding the Pinball Arcade though, unlike many games they focus on the emulation of the pinball machine and some pinball machine types (e.g. later Williams WPC, Stern) take a lot of resources since the game is CPU based rather than GPU based. Even then they had to take shortcuts to run on most devices (iOS, Android, PS3, 360, Vita) such as streaming the music and sound effects instead of 100% emulation [similar to how M2 had to stream the music in their Galaxy Force II port on the 3DS due to lack of resources]. Relating to that, they wanted to do the Capcom pinball tables such as Big Bang Bar for a while to please the people but emulation takes so much resources that it can't be done on most of their devices except PC and possibly the PS4 which is why FarSight hasn't done it. Since the Wii U has a less powerful but more efficient CPU, it might have problems emulating all the functions at full speed especially with the Stern stuff e.g. Ripley's Believe It or Not and last time they worked on the Wii (they supported it with them Game Party games and other pinball games), they had to reprogram a pinball machine that is less accurate for their first pinball work and the reason why the 3DS version got cancelled since it couldn't run the emulation well enough.

 

Then again there are problems with their console versions such as the input lag on the PS3 version and the mess on the Vita version where it started fine then declined (some tables have bad frame rate and don't look too good) so it could be a case of the programmers. It is probably bad wording from someone on their Facebook page and not of the dev team (the only one to my knowledge posts on their forums Mike usually explains things), they were probably referring to how the Wii U has a 1.2GHz processor while the 360 [the original master version of this game] and the PS3 has a 3.2GHz processor however it isn't always the numbers game since the PS4 has a 1.6GHz processor and that is more efficient.

 

Anyway to be honest, I'm surprised that it is still getting developed and thought that FarSight cancelled it.

[Gabz Girl]

Discoid has a Wii U now. Oh wow, it's a miracle! Add me. =P

 

 

And in other news, developers nowadays are becoming real assholes. =T

[Dejimon11]

Discoid has a Wii U now. Oh wow, it's a miracle! Add me. =P

 

 

And in other news, developers nowadays are becoming real assholes. =T

Only when it comes to money.

[JaidynReiman]

I'm definitely picking up a Wii U when I can, but my wife wants a PS3 first. It'll really depend on how things go. I'm really tight on cash right now. I'll definitely be looking up all the info for Smash Bros. before I get it.

 

Oh, I'd really like to see a Direct for other Wii U titles. A Hyrule Warriors Direct would be a great way to promote the game, especially since E3 is supposed to be dominated by Zelda U so Hyrule Warriors should get a lot of attention pre-E3 so as not to draw attention away from Zelda U. And it should be playable at E3, too.

[PSI Wind]

The best PS3 deal was last Black Friday with TLOU and Batman Origins at $200. There's always a used PS3 as well

[Conando]

Nintendo is selling Refurbished Deluxe bundles for 200 dollars a pop. Get them well you can for a major steal. All Nintendo Refurbished products are pretty much like new, I've gotten them before. Also yes, they come with the standard 1 year manufacturer's warranty and that can be lengthened through Club Nintendo registration.

[JaidynReiman]

Nintendo is selling Refurbished Deluxe bundles for 200 dollars a pop. Get them well you can for a major steal. All Nintendo Refurbished products are pretty much like new, I've gotten them before. Also yes, they come with the standard 1 year manufacturer's warranty and that can be lengthened through Club Nintendo registration.

I've always hated Refurbished because my dad has had a serious issue with Refurbished products in the past, pretty much everything he gets Refurbished dies within a few months. If you're sure Nintendo's refurbished console is better I can try it out, though I still won't be able to get it for a little while yet.