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Posted

I dont think the design helped either. Consumers are used to sleek and light tablets. The Wii U gamepad really did look like it was from Fisher Price and at least for me, was uncomfortable to use for longish gaming sessions.

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Posted

Yeah its weird. Nintendo is normally quite on top of ergonomics but I found the GamePad to be uncomfortable after a while. Although I know others felt the same about the GameCube/N64 pads.

Posted
Not even Nintendo themselves could really sell the value of

 

I'd say they certainly sold it to me, though maybe I was a sucker for them at the time. The most disappointing thing is that I just did not feel as if they subsequently supported it with similar to the promises they made WHEN they sold it to me.

Posted

I remember my friend was excited about the wii u and after seeing it at Eurogamer before release he messaged me just saying 'forget it, it's like a fisher price toy'.

 

I still got it at launch but he was right. The gamepad was pretty awful.

Posted
But the bottom line is day 1 Wii U was a brilliant machine with some game changing capabilities, it was everything that followed that ruined it.

 

Nah it was doomed before it even released - Nintendo never listened to the third parties when designing the console which is why it was underpowered and lacked basic features to keep third parties around. It was overpriced and had a terrible OS at launch too.

Posted
Exactly, 3rd parties leaving the party was the biggest nail in the coffin, the online infrastructure is a completely different animal as this is predominantly down to Nintendo's beliefs rather than any technical capability of the hardware, so for this to change Nintendo will need to review their in-house core values and I don't see that changing anytime soon. But the bottom line is day 1 Wii U was a brilliant machine with some game changing capabilities, it was everything that followed that ruined it.

 

If you look at the original Wii, poor online infrastructure and crap performance didn't hold that console back from having quite good sales and third party support. The Wii U actually had one thing going for it that the Wii didn't. The Wii launched a year after the Xbox 360, making it seem obsolete on launch. The Wii U was available for sale 8 months before the XBOne and PS4 were even shown off for the first time. So at the time, the Wii U could push graphics on a level no other console could.

 

So it's not the performance or the online features that killed the Wii U. Of course, people not understanding that the machine was a new console was quite detremental, but that's not the whole story. I will stand by my statement that the software was the main culprit. Nintendo had NOTHING to show off when the console was shown off for the first time except a reel of third party games, more than half of which never got released. A year later they had three games. One sidescroller, one minigame compilation with a a very unflattering art style and a sequel to a 10 year old game which noone bought in the first place. None of which displayed graphics that seem a step up from the already established consoles. Which would've been fine if they'd made great use of the game pad. But they didn't. Feeling enticed to lash out a few hundred quid in the middle of the greatest financial meltdown of the past century yet? Didn't think so.

The damn thing had droughts FROM LAUNCH and the stuff Nintendo did show off could in no way compete with the likes of Uncharted, Gran Turismo, Halo, Skyrim, Fallout 4, MGS 5 and the like.

 

 

THAT is what Nintendo need to avoid with the NX. Fewer unoffensive games "for everyone" (rule number one for entepreneurs: if your product is for everyone, it will appeal to noone), more killer apps.

Posted
So at the time, the Wii U could push graphics on a level no other console could.

 

That isn't true is it?

 

The wii u was was in the same ballpark as the 360/PS3.

 

Multi platform games actually ran worse on the wii u than the competition.

Posted
That isn't true is it?

 

The wii u was was in the same ballpark as the 360/PS3.

 

Multi platform games actually ran worse on the wii u than the competition.

 

Yeah but that was due to shoddy porting. The Wii U was in fact more powerful than the 360 and PS3. Just because multiplatform games ran worse does not mean it wasn't more powerful

Posted
Yeah but that was due to shoddy porting. The Wii U was in fact more powerful than the 360 and PS3. Just because multiplatform games ran worse does not mean it wasn't more powerful

What he said is correct - it was in the same ballpark. He never said it wasn't more powerful.

Posted

There's a few issues here. By the time the Wii U came about the other consoles had been around for years so developers knew it better and could get more out of it, which might explain why multi platform ran better in spite of slight technical advantage.

 

The Wii did have poor online but good sales, but online expectations and infrastructure changed a lot between 2006 and 2012 (if I'm remembering the the years correctly). Aspects became standardised and the features and software didn't balance it in the same way the Wii's unique features and software did.

 

The NX is a boat.

Posted
Yeah but that was due to shoddy porting. The Wii U was in fact more powerful than the 360 and PS3. Just because multiplatform games ran worse does not mean it wasn't more powerful

 

Regardless the wii u even at its best wasn't capable of doing much more than the PS3/360.

 

A generation leap? No? A half generation leap? No

Posted

"Shoddy" porting was thanks to Nintendo making the architecture so different to the others though. It's Nintendo's problem, not 3rd Parties'.

 

If the architecture is similar then, irrespective of power, porting will be simple enough; less time consuming, less costly and will allow for a better quality of port.

 

Nintendo only have themselves to blame!

Posted
That isn't true is it?

 

The wii u was was in the same ballpark as the 360/PS3.

 

Multi platform games actually ran worse on the wii u than the competition.

 

Let's look at the GOOD ports.

 

Watch Dogs for the Wii U is widely considered to be closer to the next-gen ports than the last-gen ports. Not to mention it ran at a higher resolution.

 

Need for Speed: Most Wanted U featured WAY better textures and visual effects than the previous gen version. In fact, devs claimed they'd given the Wii U version nighttime lighting effects that were even better than the PC version.

 

A first party dev could and should have been able to launch the console with a game featuring visibly supperior graphics. However, a certain someone thought it would be better to launch with three games with very narrow appeal and graphics which at best could be described as "not disastrous".

Posted (edited)
Let's look at the GOOD ports.

 

Watch Dogs for the Wii U is widely considered to be closer to the next-gen ports than the last-gen ports. Not to mention it ran at a higher resolution.

 

"Just like the PS3 version we previously tested, the base native resolution of Watch Dogs on Wii U is a restrictive 1152x648, with identical post-processing anti-aliasing to match. In terms of image clarity, the upscale process is unforgiving compared to the PS4's 1600x900 output."

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-watch-dogs-on-wii-u

 

Watch Dogs is not a good example anyway as it performed at a level far below what the next generation consoles were capable of, due to making the game for consoles that spanned the generations. Wii U is nowhere near the current generation; not even close. Compare Wii U games to current gen games like Uncharted 4 and you get the picture.

 

I can't think of one Wii U game that has looked much more impressive than say Uncharted 2.

Edited by Sheikah
Posted
@Sheikah not even MK8?

 

Nintendo are clever in the way they make their games - their style is cartoony and they make good use of effects so that even games like Mario Galaxy looked nice even though it was running on the original Wii. The Wind Waker remake again looks brilliant because of the graphical style - contrast this to the Twilight Princess remake and you see how much leeway a style choice lends you. That said, MK8 still ran at 720p and to me was still not as graphically impressive/intensive as the later Uncharted games.

Posted

Mario Kart 8 looks stunning and will continue to look stunning for decades.

 

Uncharted 2 looks dated now, and will look even more dated in ten years.

 

You can argue a lot of things against Nintendo, visuals are not one of them.


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