The Video Game Critic

Most view Nintendo's E3 as lukewarm at best, there seems to be a whiff of holding titles back for NX.

So where does that leave the Wii U ? Is it going to fade into obscurity unsupported and abandoned or is it going to go down in a Dreamcast style blaze of glory ?

It's got a good (if lacking in variety) game library and two big looking hits on the way in Starfox and Zelda.

For me they need to find a way of dropping the price, if they can I think they will shift a lot of units. It's just not cheap enough to be a 'second console' and let's be honest that's the best it can hope for now. I'm not going to pay £200+ for a secondary console if they can get down to £100 - £120 then yeah count me in.

Edit: Toned down language

If Reggie shuts his mouth up long enough and turn down the PR sentiments (we don't make TV's and Operating Systems? Nobody asked about those you dolt), and fans stop wiping their butts in the nursery home then the NX has a chance. I can give the NX a chance but Nintendo is more Apple than Nintendo.

Well if you want some *more* not-so-great news, reviews for the new Yoshi game which released in Europe started coming out today.

Gamespot gave it a 6/10 as well as a couple of other places. IGN gave it a 7.4. Metacritic average is a little higher at 78% with mostly Nintendo fan sites pushing the ratings up a bit higher. It's the typical complaints: the game is designed for the lowest common denominator - the actual design of levels isn't difficult but to go get all the collectibles takes more of a challenge. To me, that's not good design. The challenge should be in completing the levels themselves, not playing thru to get 100 trinkets.

Miyamoto said recently that they want Starfox Zero to last the length of a movie, which is basically how Starfox 64 was. That means a short game, and based on some screens I've seen posted around, the game environment itself looks fairly barren. It's no wonder if the single player was outsourced, despite how good Platinum is, they just seem to want it out the door.

I really think Nintendo has moved on to the next system. There's no third party support and the first party support is turning out to be a lot of fluff. The big projects like Smash Bros and Mario Kart have already hit, Zelda is a ways away and will likely be on the next system. Unless you like spending time making levels in a Mario editor, there's not much there this year. A lot of easy games with a lot of thin single player campaigns.

Maybe Nintendo will release the DS Player to compliment the Wii U? I'd buy a Wii U if they released one.

Well... even with the low scores I'll probably pick up the Yoshi game as well as the recently released Kirby game sometime in the next few months. They also have Xenoblade which should be coming out by the end of the year. One thing that no one has really talked about is Rodea the Sky Soldier which is coming out (hopefully) in October of this year. I think that game is actually going to be fairly rare (especially with certain versions coming with an extra disc of the original Wii game) so I reserved it a few months ago. I dunno... It seems like the Wii U won't be getting much love anytime soon (or ever). I know that the console wasn't the big hit NIntendo had hoped for. I wish they would push it a bit more but whatever I suppose... I still think I've gotten a lot of value out of the console but I'm looking for a PS4 next. Seems like a good console to pick up sometime this summer. Hopefully the NX is something good, although I probably won't buy that one right away like I did for the Wii U.

I keep going to Gamestop thinking they'll drop the price but they never do. I think it's ridiculous that they haven't dropped it, no support, lagging way behind the others, it makes no sense. But a lot of things make no sense about the Wii U. If they'd had literally a couple more good games and actually advertised it (you know, with all that money they've made), it could've been a lot more successful.

I think Nintendo decided Wii U won't be salvaged commercially some time ago. I think they have decided to use it as a testing ground for the future to make the best of a bad situation.

Just look at it. They released hugely successful DLC for Smash Bros and Mario Kart. They had the first ever humble indie console bundle. They released their first ever "finish it after it's out" game with Splatoon. They did their first ever beta test with Splatoon. They just finished a promotion where if you download a game's demo by a certain date, you get a 15% discount if you buy it later (a great way to push indie games by the way). Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Splatoon are requiring them to run online infrastructure they've never been concerned about on their end before. Tipping Stars had cross buy with the 3DS. Amiibo is the perfect delivery method for DLC to children (a major market for them). Mario Kart had Youtube uploads, and Smash had that feature patched in. And Mario Maker is completely built around building and uploading user created content

I really do think they're using the Wii U as a testing ground for how they're going to do the online, sales, indie, and DLC things going forward that the other companies are already doing. I've said before I think the NX is a spring/summer 2017 product. Expect more small but important examples of Nintendo taking baby steps into the future from now to 2017. Some, like the humble bundle, might even be major steps no one sees coming.

Atarifever wrote:Just look at it. They released hugely successful DLC for Smash Bros and Mario Kart. They had the first ever humble indie console bundle. They released their first ever "finish it after it's out" game with Splatoon. They did their first ever beta test with Splatoon. They just finished a promotion where if you download a game's demo by a certain date, you get a 15% discount if you buy it later (a great way to push indie games by the way). Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Splatoon are requiring them to run online infrastructure they've never been concerned about on their end before. Tipping Stars had cross buy with the 3DS. Amiibo is the perfect delivery method for DLC to children (a major market for them). Mario Kart had Youtube uploads, and Smash had that feature patched in. And Mario Maker is completely built around building and uploading user created content

I really do think they're using the Wii U as a testing ground for how they're going to do the online, sales, indie, and DLC things going forward that the other companies are already doing. I've said before I think the NX is a spring/summer 2017 product. Expect more small but important examples of Nintendo taking baby steps into the future from now to 2017. Some, like the humble bundle, might even be major steps no one sees coming.

Thar's a really interesting point. If the Wii U has become more of a testing ground that could be a smart move for Nintendo. I wish they would offer a few more products for those who already have a Wii U (DS player would be cool) as I think they could still sell quite a few consoles (*even if it was only in the 20 millions mark) but that would explain some of their decisions. Hopefully you're right.

I agree it's a great point. You could speculate Nintendo might now enter the arms race spec wise ?
And not opt for another gimmicky console ? Perhaps a console that would better support multi-plats thereby enticing third parties back into the fold by using similar PC based architecture of the PS4/Xbone ?

jon wrote:I keep going to Gamestop thinking they'll drop the price but they never do. I think it's ridiculous that they haven't dropped it, no support, lagging way behind the others, it makes no sense. But a lot of things make no sense about the Wii U. If they'd had literally a couple more good games and actually advertised it (you know, with all that money they've made), it could've been a lot more successful.

This is my main problem with Nintendo. It's the value you get in the console anymore doesn't seem to matter to them. They used to be kings of bang for your buck, now it's completely fallen off.

For example, look at what Microsoft has done with the E3 momentum. On their store you get for $349.00 Halo Collection, $50 Microsoft Store Credit, and another free game of your choice:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msu ... .314225100

Nintendo? Welp, you have the Splatoon bundle they just came out with at the same MSRP which you can only get at Best Buy for $50 less:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/nintendo-wi ... Id=6327118

Apples to apples you get two games compared to one, one of which you can pick on your own, and $50 of cash to buy another game between the two options. And this isn't even mentioning you get a console with infinitely more power, media capabilities, third party support, and 15 times the storage space than a Wii U.

And not only that, Nintendo no longer has a Player's Choice line to speak of! You want to play some older games now? Well Wind Waker is still $50. Pikmin 3 I can't even find in MSRP, you pay $50 for a digital download. Same with 3DS games like Ocarina of Time, can't find a physical copy any more. These games go out of production, Nintendo doesn't have a budget line anymore, and the only way to get them is to pay a preowned premium or pay original MSRP for a digital version.

I mean, this crap is a total ripoff. This isn't even counting looking at a short Yoshi platformer in 2015 launching up against Halo 5, Assassins Creed, and other games at the same price.

There's just no value there anymore. Instead of Nintendo being aggressive and being a price leader they've decided to go the opposite direction and treat the fanbase like a thinning herd to be milked.