Killer Apps that weren't

General and high profile video game topics.
BanjoPickles1
Posts: 1321
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Killer Apps that weren't

Postby BanjoPickles1 » April 4th, 2015, 12:00 pm

I bought my Wii U the day that it came out. I didn't buy it for New Super Mario U, but rather NintendoLand. That game sealed it for me, and I loved it! The Donkey Kong game sucked away an insane amount of my time! This should have sold people on the system, but it didn't. No game for the system has had a prolonged impact on the charts, and it's sad because it is a really good system!

It all comes down to marketing. I look at a game like Mario Maker as a potential system seller, but Nintendo would have to advertise it! In fact, I think they could have an awesome one-two punch with Splatoon and Mario Maker!

Anyway, what are some games, from past systems, that qualify as killer app material? Nights on Saturn? Sonic Adventure? Shenmue?

Jon1
Posts: 378
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Killer Apps that weren't

Postby Jon1 » April 4th, 2015, 8:56 pm

You're exactly right, you have to have money, and a huge marketing presence. There was an article I remember comparing he Wii U to the Jaguar. In a way, it's right. With how little money Nintendo has put into the Wii U, they could've had a lot of great games and the same thing would have happened. It was set up to fail. At least in the case of the Wii U, they had a ton of money to pay development teams to put out good games. And they certainly had the cash reserves to have an aggressive marketing plan, how many Wii U commercials do you see on TV? There's been other systems, like the Jaguar, that had developers on shoe string budgets that didn't give a **** and were just lazy. Talk about being set up to fail. I don't understand why Nintendo didn't try to go all out and make the Wii U more successful. The PS4 and Xbone are certainly off to slow starts and have been ripe for the pickings. If they came out with some adult oriented AAA titles, things would be very interesting.

Dave1
Posts: 25
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Killer Apps that weren't

Postby Dave1 » April 4th, 2015, 10:13 pm

[QUOTE=Jon] I don't understand why Nintendo didn't try to go all out and make the Wii U more successful. The PS4 and Xbone are certainly off to slow starts and have been ripe for the pickings.[/QUOTE]

Yep, you're right. Nintendo spent all that time and money developing the Wii U to just not give a crap when it released and have it fail. If they'd only wanted it to succeed it could've sold millions! And the PS4 is rivaling the Wii as the fastest selling console ever.

Though it's not an original game for the system, Persona 4 Golden for the Vita is good enough to sell the system by itself. As a Vita lover, I'm disappointed that the system hasn't sold more. As for the Wii U, as much as I wanted to play New Super Mario U, ZombiU really intrigued me and was the first game I played when I bought it. Unfortunately for me, I forgot that I don't like (hate) scary games, and ended up not playing it more than a couple hours. I still think some of the things it did with the gamepad were awesome though, and wish more games did stuff like that game did.



Paul1231
Posts: 261
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Killer Apps that weren't

Postby Paul1231 » April 6th, 2015, 1:41 am

First let me say that I totally agree about Nintendoland, except for me and my sons it was the mini Pikmin game that we spent endless hours on. That game alone made the system worth it to me.

As far as the Wii U goes, my only guess is that Nintendo bet heavily on the system thriving purely on its name, since the original Wii was such a huge hit, except that wouldn't explain them going this long without realizing they need to push harder. It really is weird to me. I almost wonder if they didn't kindof bail early on the system because they are putting their cards on the next console, and they somehow decided early that the Wii U was not the system they wanted to put all their faith in, almost like they really DO think of it as more of an add-on to the original Wii...


Return to “Video Games General”