Wii U General Discussion

[dazzybee]

I've got a couple of days off at the end of next week for Smash and Pokemon, 2 weeks off over Christmas and still have 6 days left to use before the end of the year. I'm hoping to put a serious dint in the VC backlog during this time.

 

 

 

We ain't American.

 

What kind of lax job do you have

 

I'm pretty lucky and pretty much take time off whenever I want, but I need to come into to work to make sure everyone else is working!! Damn slackers!

[Hero-of-Time]

What kind of lax job do you have

 

I'm pretty lucky and pretty much take time off whenever I want, but I need to come into to work to make sure everyone else is working!! Damn slackers!

 

I always keep at least a week of jollydays for the end of the year. It's when most of the big releases hit. Much like I always keep a week for E3 every year as well.

 

We aren't?! Ooooooh nooooooooo

 

Feel free to celebrate the release of the Wii U. The rest of us will wait until 30th November.

[Sprout]

My cat has found a new way to get my attention...

 

She might look cute, but what I see here is a hostage situation.

 

"Nice Wii U you got here. Be a shame if something happened to it..." *extends claws*

 

"...What are your demands?"

 

"Feed me."

 

"Tammy I fed you an hour ago you fatty."

 

"These wires look tasty."

 

"Ok, I give in! I'll feed you!"

 

I didn't know where else to put this. Meowth, that's right.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Sprout

[dazzybee]

So. I have a wired connection for the Wii. It says something about putting a disk in your computer... Do I need to do this for Wii u or just whack it straight into the console and we're good to go?

[Hero-of-Time]

Not to bring negativity into the thread but have Nintendo just gave up on advertising the Wii U and its games? For the past few weeks now I've seen countless PS4 adverts showing off GTA, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, winter line up and finally the share play feature. Microsoft are also heavily advertising Halo MCC, Creed and Sunset Overdrive. Nintendo have Amiibos and Smash Bros all ready to hit, yet I haven't seen a single advert for them. What gives?

[dazzybee]

Not to bring negativity into the thread but have Nintendo just gave up on advertising the Wii U and its games? For the past few weeks now I've seen countless PS4 adverts showing off GTA, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, winter line up and finally the share play feature. Microsoft are also heavily advertising Halo MCC, Creed and Sunset Overdrive. Nintendo have Amiibos and Smash Bros all ready to hit, yet I haven't seen a single advert for them. What gives?

 

Nintendo have simply given up!

 

I can't get this wired connection to work at all...

 

So i plug it in, the adapters in the front, go to wired connection, but after clicking okay to the adaptor being connected it just goes to the Internet homepage and not a test which its supposed to do... Anyone got any ideas?

[Hero-of-Time]

Nintendo have simply given up!

 

I can't get this wired connection to work at all...

 

So i plug it in, the adapters in the front, go to wired connection, but after clicking okay to the adaptor being connected it just goes to the Internet homepage and not a test which its supposed to do... Anyone got any ideas?

 

You on about the LAN adaptor? I got the official one many moons ago and can't remember any disc with it. As far as I can remember I just plugged it in and then ran an Internet test. It worked straight away.

[Ike]

Nintendo have simply given up!

 

I can't get this wired connection to work at all...

 

So i plug it in, the adapters in the front, go to wired connection, but after clicking okay to the adaptor being connected it just goes to the Internet homepage and not a test which its supposed to do... Anyone got any ideas?

 

Your using the official LAN adapter? I have no idea what disk your talking about.

 

Tried using the USB ports on the back? That's where mine is plugged in and it works fine. Can you test your connecting to the network with a different device?

[Rummy]

Not to bring negativity into the thread but have Nintendo just gave up on advertising the Wii U and its games? For the past few weeks now I've seen countless PS4 adverts showing off GTA, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, winter line up and finally the share play feature. Microsoft are also heavily advertising Halo MCC, Creed and Sunset Overdrive. Nintendo have Amiibos and Smash Bros all ready to hit, yet I haven't seen a single advert for them. What gives?

 

I mentioned it in PS4 general rather than here but I saw an advert yesterday for PS4 that actually almost made me want the console(and now I'm thinking I'll have one by this time next year).

 

I was going to post it for @kav82 after his smash post mind. It's slightly Nintendo-related as it came off the back of playing Fantasy Life online last night with Marcamillian and his gf(who I know too) - we fired up Steam for group chat which came off well thankfully(actually much easier/faster than Marc getting into my game) but it really really made me wish I had something that could just...do it all. Jump online and play a game with people(with voice chat and everything) almost just like as if I was playing locally with them. Or even just have party chat(like 360 did) so we can chat whilst playing whatever games we're playing. I had a brief but nice chat with Marcamillian just after we finished up that really made me miss online comms with gaming - there I was catching up with two friends and having a post game chat with a best mate who I don't see almost anywhere near as much as I used to - that tiny bit of last night really filled a gap of sorts.

 

I think with getting older, and more money restricted, a gaming console with a great online infrastructure can actually be quite productive. You can keep yourself sane and entertained whilst also getting social interaction that might otherwise be more difficult - both due to financial constraints(few nights down the pub chatting=price of game for more than a few nights of gaming/chatting) and time constraints(an hour in the evening gaming and chatting when you're home from work but before you gotta go to bed for tomorrow as opposed to a few hours if you're going out to the pub chatting with inevitable travel, lateness, and lack of ease on entry/exit).

 

I appreciated it before, but I think I'm really appreciating it more now. Ofc...it heavily depends on all the company I keep having the same consoles, or us all PC gaming etc. which atm nobody else does/has(except maybe the PC side). If I don't get a PS4 by next year then I might become part of the PC-Masterace instead.

 

 

/rambleramblerabmle /off-topic /justexpressingthoughts

[Hero-of-Time]

Thing is, Nintendo could have a hell of a winter campaign by simply showing what exclusives are available on the system. Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros. Bayonetta collection are just whats arrived over the past couple of months but add things like Mario Kart, Wind Waker etc. and you've got an advertisement that writes itself. It's crazy they are just sitting by and doing nothing.

[Ronnie]

Does seem strange, quality wise the Wii U is on fire! More than a dozen top quality 9+ out of 10 exclusives, so much marketing potential.

[Hero-of-Time]

Does seem strange, quality wise the Wii U is on fire! More than a dozen top quality 9+ out of 10 exclusives, so much marketing potential.

 

Indeed. It's very baffling and quite frustrating at the same time.

[dazzybee]

It's. It an official one no, I think the disk is just for putting into a PC.

 

I can't get it to work at all, doing my head, I click on wired, lan connected, then it just skips test. It's simply not reading it. Maybe the cables fucked.

 

Also, does any multi usb adaptor work with Wii u? Running out of USB ports...

[Wii]

Nintendo have simply given up!

 

I can't get this wired connection to work at all...

 

So i plug it in, the adapters in the front, go to wired connection, but after clicking okay to the adaptor being connected it just goes to the Internet homepage and not a test which its supposed to do... Anyone got any ideas?

 

That is a topic I've been meaning to bring up. I ordered an official LAN adapter and it arrived last Friday. Nintendo and their talk about Smash online stability finally made me buy one. I'd no problems setting it up once I copped on. I don't read instructions for anything. I've noticed no difference whatsoever. The browser is definitely no different, it could be my imagination but I think playing games online is slightly quicker. I've no evidence to confirm this, it's purely circumstantial. What have other people made of it? Bizarrely, I changed back to wifi today as it was more reliable. Might be an issue with the combination of the LAN adapter in combination with the powerline adapter. I was going to resurrect an 8 year old thread but this comment and discussion is timely.

[dazzybee]

Isn't the idea that it's MORE reliable? Any idea why mine doesn't even work? Step by premises step what did you do?

[peterl0]

To install it I did nothing other than connect it (into the Gigabit ethernet port on my routed but I am sure that was not actually necessary) go to the connections, choose wired, it then ran a test and it was completed. Do you have the official one? What router are you using?

 

As for reliability it does cut out less than the wireless one for me. I have still had a few disconnects from Mario Kart, but only in the lobby (which I think can happen if the host drops out?) none in the races, which I count as a win.

[liger05]

Does seem strange, quality wise the Wii U is on fire! More than a dozen top quality 9+ out of 10 exclusives, so much marketing potential.

 

It's difficult though when your rivals at this time have the latest big AAA releases available. Like it or not those big hitters are the ones that seem to resonate with consumers and Nintendo doesn't have them. i.e COD, GTA, AC, Far Cry 4 .

[Hero-of-Time]

It's difficult though when your rivals at this time have the latest big AAA releases available. Like it or not those big hitters are the ones that seem to resonate with consumers and Nintendo doesn't have them. i.e COD, GTA, AC, Far Cry 4 .

 

True but Nintendo could still easily advertise and attract a different market, much like they have done in the past. By sitting on their hands they are just asking to be steamrolled by the competition.

[liger05]

True but Nintendo could still easily advertise and attract a different market, much like they have done in the past. By sitting on their hands they are just asking to be steamrolled by the competition.

 

I think they tried to attract a different market but when Nintendoland, Wii U Sports, Wii U Fit etc bombed it was clear that the casual audience that lapped up the Wii were gone and not coming back.

 

In a way a huge marketing push now would be kinda preaching to the those already converted (Nintendo hardcore).

 

For now I guess its just about trying to have the console profitable even though sales are not stellar and likely to be below the Gamecube's limited success.

 

I think Smash will be a success but whether it will push hardware sales I'm not so sure.

 

I always thought one problem Nintendo has is parents over holidays enquiring about the Wii U is the lack of third party games. I have no doubt kids want to play Nintendo software but they also want to play COD, Halo, GTA, Fifa, Madden, NBA etc etc. When the platform doesn't have these games but other platforms do I think the Wii U becomes less attractive even though it has great Nintendo software.

Edited November 19, 2014 by liger05

[Wii]

Isn't the idea that it's MORE reliable? Any idea why mine doesn't even work? Step by premises step what did you do?

 

I thought when I first plugged in the adapter that it might be automatically detected and switch over. What you need to do is: go into internet options, choose connection types, then click wired, it'll run a testing internet connection and that's it, job done. It bypasses everything else like entering passwords and SSID.

[Hero-of-Time]

Nintendolife have done a great write up on what they think about the Wii U after two years of it being on the market.

 

We feel it's a C minus, overall, on its anniversary

 

Two years ago today — on 18th November 2012 — the Wii U was launched in North America. It was the first of this current generation of hardware to arrive in stores and generated a decent amount of hype, followed up by subsequent releases in Europe (30th November) and Japan (8th December). After a decent start the New Year in 2013 brought a crash in momentum, however, and we now approach the second anniversary of Nintendo's console with the company continuing its efforts to boost the system's fortunes. This Holiday season sees major releases accompanied by amiibo, a new venture in NFC figures.

 

As it is the two year anniversary, and ahead of another critical period for the console, we thought we'd assess the current status of the system and its future prospects; we'll warn you in advance, despite some positives it's not all sunshine and rainbows.

 

Sales

 

To be blunt, sales have been very poor for the Wii U. As of 30th September this year the Wii U had sold just 7.29 million units, which means it's behind PS4 and likely in a similar ball park to the Xbox One, despite having a one year head start. 2013 was particularly bad for the system with the Holiday season providing a bump that was dwarfed by the launches of those rival consoles.

 

There has been some improvement in 2014, with Nintendo keen to emphasize an increase in momentum driven by Mario Kart 8, in particular, which is certainly positive. The cold reality, however, is that only 1.12 million units were sold in the six months from 1st April to 30th September this year; to give an idea of how bad 2013 was, the equivalent period last year yielded just 460,000 sales. Even with that improvement Nintendo's target for the current financial year is to sell 3.6 million units, which if accurate means it still won't have hit 10 million lifetime sales after 2.5 years on sale, when results are returned up to 31st March 2015.

 

Nintendo's Holiday performance will be critical — particularly this year — and our optimistic hope is that the combination of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, amiibo and the impressive game library will exceed expectations and push the system past a tipping point towards sustained success.

 

In summary, though, there's no escaping the fact that the Wii U's sales have been unacceptable, and at this stage Nintendo will likely simply target a return to profitability and modest success — improvement will be need to even reach GameCube levels, however.

 

Retail Games

 

To begin with the biggest positive, the available line-up of current exclusive Wii U retail games — let's include Smash Bros. and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker as nearby arrivals — is rather impressive. Over the last two years Nintendo has, despite some barren patches, released or published a range of excellent titles. When considering core franchises and a small but hardy number of third-party exclusives — often published by Nintendo — there's a pleasing range of unique and high-quality experiences.

 

In terms of major third-party games the story is far less positive. In its first 12 months the Wii U had a series of reasonable ports from major players such as Ubisoft, Activision and more (EA's contributions were very limited) yet, as sales for Wii U showed no signs of progress, these companies largely left the platform. There are still titles in franchises such as Skylanders, Disney Infinity and LEGO, though brands such as Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty have disappeared, while a host of titles on PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox One skip the Wii U as a routine practice. We're also now at the point where the overlap of last- and current-gen ports has ended, and the loss of support is biting harder.

 

Nintendo, to its credit, is lining up what promises to be a diverse and relatively full line-up to cover large parts of 2015. It's largely on its own, though does have positive relationships and partnerships with companies such as Bandai Namco and Sega, in addition to studios such as Retro Games and Next Level Games (the latter aren't owned by Nintendo) that are yet to announce their latest projects. We're looking at a mostly first-party and exclusive line-up in 2015 and — quite likely — beyond.

 

Wii U eShop

 

Following that previous point on Nintendo's limited support in the retail sector, the eShop becomes increasingly important. After a relatively quiet first half of 2013 the store began to gain momentum, a process that's certainly continued into 2014. There have been a few major exclusive titles, such as Scram Kitty and the recent Stealth Inc 2, but the core of the release schedule has been multi-platform releases. There have been some high-quality titles, undoubtedly, with Nintendo's support for Unity — even offering a free license on Wii U — opening the door to a number of developers that may have otherwise refused to take the risk.

 

The current eShop scene is exciting from an overall perspective, we'd argue, though it's not without its issues. In North America the store has seen a high number of releases through the Nintendo Web Framework service, which allows games developed in code such as HTML5. There are some respectable efforts, though we've also been critical of a number of games that, frankly, lack the level of professionalism and polish expected of a home console download game. There are debates to be had on whether developers essentially learning on the job with Wii U is a positive or not, but if the eShop becomes over-populated with sub-par games that could be a problem. It's telling that this is far less of an issue in Europe; few of these sorts of games arrive in the region, possibly due to costs of localisation and ratings which, arguably, separate established, experienced developers from those that are releasing their début games, for better or worse, on Wii U.

 

A note on the Virtual Console, too. There have been some great new arrivals, including EarthBound, while the Game Boy Advance library may seem to belong on 3DS but, in actual fact, works well on the GamePad. Beyond those positives it's been far slower and less varied than the Wii Virtual Console, with less platforms and many re-released NES and SNES titles; some we could have done without. Despite the re-treads we're yet to see the promised N64 titles, while dreams of GameCube releases seem destined to be unfulfilled — oddly, we may yet get a range of DS games.

 

Overall, there's clearly an appetite among developers of all sizes to support the Wii U eShop, with an impressive line-up of games confirmed — some, again, are exclusive — for the end of this year and into early 2015. We certainly rate the eShop, two years in, to be one of the Wii U's strongest areas.

 

Functionality

 

To kick off with apps, the Wii U has a solid range of entertainment options away from gaming, though lags behind the breadth of apps available on PS4 and Xbox One. Essentials such as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube are present and correct, along with a decent web browser. As stated, the Wii U can't match the variety on rival systems, but with TVii also considered (in North America, anyway) the system does deliver the minimum required content.

Beyond those apps, the system has come a long way through firmware updates over the last two years. A Wii U of today can now sort games by folders, has settings to manage data in the upcoming amiibo range, has an improved UI and is moving towards pre-download options on retail games — kicking off with Smash Bros. The system is also relatively quick following updates, while the GamePad quick-start menu allows you to jump into a game without waiting for the full system menu to boot up.

 

Then, of course, there's Miiverse, Nintendo's bespoke social network. Nintendo has improved this a great deal over the past two years, and developer communities add official messages alongside separate areas for most released games. Nintendo has also dabbled with video embeds for developers, while Mario Kart 8's TV menu allows users to upload videos to YouTube from within the game.

 

Online gaming has also taken a step-up with the Wii U, creeping towards modern trends with some voice chat options in some games, and online tournaments in Mario Kart 8 and, eventually, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. The Wii U does feel, all considered, like a relatively modern piece of hardware. Our biggest bug-bear remains, inevitably, the absence of full support for Nintendo Network IDs and their content to be 'in the cloud'; they are from Nintendo's perspective, but for the consumer they're still effectively tied to hardware, while NNID's can be too limiting in transferring or using a different system.

 

Holiday Sales Prospects

 

There have been positive noises from Reggie-Fils Aime (Nintendo of America President) in recent days regarding the Wii U's prospects this Holiday season, focusing on value and unique content as the core selling points for the system. In various regions the Wii U, Smash Bros. and amiibo appear to have been the focus of marketing campaigns with the 3DS and Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire generally secondary. The company is keenly aware, as it's made clear throughout 2014 and no doubt behind the scenes when facing investors, that at the very least the Wii U needs to improve enough to stop being a drain on finances.

 

Will this effort pay-off? We'll know for sure in the December and January NPD results — the former will incorporate Black Friday sales. As mentioned above Nintendo's core sales goals are rather modest so the odds of hitting those targets aren't outrageous given a strong Holiday period. It's a crowded release schedule across all systems — as it always is — and without many of the multi-platform ports Nintendo will reply on that unique content (including the seemingly sketchy Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric) to carry the day. In terms of amiibo, too, there are demo units and signs of promise that the toy range could have decent shelf space in US retailers, which is a vital market.

 

With low targets Nintendo has a chance to meet expectations, and much rests on winning over that most fickle but lucrative of audiences; families.

 

The Wii U's Future

 

In terms of exciting games that'll invigorate dedicated Nintendo fans, the company has a number of highly promising retail exclusives on the way, while the eShop could provide a continuing run of solid titles. The company is also continually improving functionality on the system, with the recent pre-loading as an example. In the coming year we can also expect the amiibo range to grow, with its success likely to be an important part of the system's financial fortunes.

 

Long term, it's hard to see significant third-party retail support returning to the console barring a boost in sales well-beyond expectations, especially with the modern trends of expansive games that are limiting some PS4 and Xbox One releases to 30 FPS performance at best, sometimes below 1080p. Persuading publishers to go beyond occasional Skylanders and Just Dance games — as examples — will be difficult.

 

The aspiration for Wii U, we would suggest, is simply to bring some profitability to stop the drain on Nintendo's finances. At this stage the company may simply be happy to reach GameCube levels and go again with a fresh generation in 2-3 years, whatever that will bring.

 

Those are some of our thoughts on the progress of Wii U, then, as it hits two years on the market. It's all about contrast — as gamers we're delighted with many of the games available and enjoy our systems, but the cold reality is that it's still struggling badly to sell significant numbers and be a viable and profitable machine for Nintendo. That is why it's a C- at this stage — our feelings about the console and its experiences may be more like a B+, but woeful performance in the marketplace is a major concern. The potential is in place for a major reversal of fortunes — but that's all it is right now, potential.

 

We truly hope that this time next year we'll be considering a much improved situation on that score.

[liger05]

Nintendolife have done a great write up on what they think about the Wii U after two years of it being on the market.

 

I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

[dazzybee]

I thought when I first plugged in the adapter that it might be automatically detected and switch over. What you need to do is: go into internet options, choose connection types, then click wired, it'll run a testing internet connection and that's it, job done. It bypasses everything else like entering passwords and SSID.

 

I know, I've done that, it simply doesn't work, I'll try a new cable tonight and see how that gets on!

[Rummy]

Thing is, Nintendo could have a hell of a winter campaign by simply showing what exclusives are available on the system. Hyrule Warriors, Smash Bros. Bayonetta collection are just whats arrived over the past couple of months but add things like Mario Kart, Wind Waker etc. and you've got an advertisement that writes itself. It's crazy they are just sitting by and doing nothing.

 

I've actually just recalled I've seen Smash 3DS ads(settle it in Smash!) and also an MK8/WiiU ad, showing a dad increasingly 'betting' on games with his kids. It's getting ads I guess - maybe they're either unremarkable to us, or just not frequent enough. Could be focusing more on a younger programming block too. Not sure I've seen much elsewhere though(billboards etc) though I noticed one for a game and XBone plastered on the bottom(though I'm sure it was a multiplat game).

Edited November 19, 2014 by Rummy

[Hero-of-Time]

I've actually just recalled I've seen Smash 3DS ads(settle it in Smash!) and also an MK8/WiiU ad, showing a dad increasingly 'betting' on games with his kids. It's getting ads I guess - maybe their either unremarkable to us, or just not frequent enough. Could be focusing more on a younger programming block too. Not sure I've seen much elsewhere though(billboards etc) though I noticed one for a game and XBone plastered on the bottom(though I'm sure it was a multiplat game).

 

Yeah, the younger programming block is a fair shout. I don't watch much TV but every time I do watch a channel with adverts on it there's always been at least one advert from Sony or Microsoft doing the rounds. I was watching the England game last night and there were 2 PS4 adverts one after the other during one of the intervals. Crazy.