Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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Retro STrife
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Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Retro STrife » December 4th, 2018, 11:09 am

I've decided it's time that I finally add a Wii U to my collection and just bought one. There's really not much about the Wii U that has ever interested me and that hasn't suddenly changed. Still, I have a stupid impulse to collect every system, so it was inevitable eventually. Two reasons caused me to finally pull the trigger now:

a. The deadline to transfer Wii data to the Wii U (including downloaded games) is January 30, 2019. After that point, the old Wii Shop shuts down and you can never do transfers again. I don't have much on my Wii, since I never used it much... several downloaded games and that's about it. Still, I figure it makes sense to put them on the Wii U so that it's on a newer system.

b. Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I've always been one of the biggest Zelda critics on the board here. To me, it's the most overrated series in gaming. I've criticized Nintendo for churning out the same boring formula for the past 20 years; and criticized the gaming media that validates Nintendo's lack of innovation by giving 10's to every new Zelda game that comes out, while docking points off every other series that fails to move forward with the times. Anyway.. Breath of the Wild is the first Zelda game in a decade or two that has intrigued me and made me think that maybe Nintendo finally did something great again. I'm looking forward to playing it and seeing how it turns out. (Sure, I could do that on the Switch, but in typical Nintendo fashion, the Switch has dried up after a strong launch and there just aren't enough interesting games to play. So I went with the Wii U version.)

**So, with that, here's a few thoughts:

1. What are your favorite games from the Wii U? Any hidden gems, under the radar, or unique games that I should consider, even if they didn't have much success with critics? Wonderful 101 and Zombie U look interesting.

2. Are there any pros or cons to doing the data transfer from Wii to Wii U? Did anyone here do it or not do it, and have thoughts on it?

3. Any hope that a "Zelda hater" like me will actually like Breath of the Wild?? (Btw, for the record, I don't dislike Zelda games and I have played/beaten many in the series... I just think the Zelda games from the N64 and after get overrated and it nags at me that the gaming media treats it like a sacred cow with ridiculously inflated review scores.)

CharlieR
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby CharlieR » December 4th, 2018, 3:50 pm

I haven’t played my Wii U in quite a while, but I do own one. I wasn’t as into the system as I thought I would be. I bought the deluxe model close to launch and paid a little more than I wanted to. I felt I could have waited for a price drop, but it never really got one. I never really played it a whole lot, aside from a few games. In your case, owning it just for the sake of owning every Nintendo system is probably one of the only reasons.

1. My favorite for the system was Super Mario 3D World. So much like 3D land, but feels much bigger, and the stages are a lot of fun. ESPN sports connection was a game I had high hopes for, and thought would be a great fit for the system, but it was really dull and boring. I Though Nintendoland made great use of the gamepad, especially the Metroid game, but this was one of the only games to take advantage of the gamepad. I played a lot of Sonic & all stars racing transformed, but that’s multiplatform.

2. As far as the transfer, I remember having a hard time trying to figure out how to do it at first but then I got it. I remember it showing a cute video of Pikmin carrying over all the files. I guess it is up to you if you want to do it, as you’ll obviously have all virtual console games and game files on the new system. In my experience, I had all my games and game files on my Wii, and transferred them to Wiiu. I have my Wii in my room, and my Wii u downstairs in the living room. I play games in my room more, so I kinda wish I hadn’t done the transfer. Not to mention, I also have my ps3 downstairs, and I play that a lot more than the Wii u.

3. As far as Zelda, I’ve never really played it, but it got a lot of great reviews.

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DrLitch
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby DrLitch » December 4th, 2018, 8:19 pm

Good job getting the WiiU, I must admit, the Wii and WiiU did little for me as a gamer. But then again, I have a nasty RPG habit so my feelings on the two consoles should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

1. Super Mario 3D World is an awesome game. Breath of the wild of course is a must purchase. Mario Kart 8 is a must. The New Super Mario Bros is another excellent Mario Game. DKC Tropical Freeze is a good game, as is Yoshi's Wooly World. Bayonetta 2 is highly acclaimed but the gameplay is not for everyone. I personally loved it. Get the version with Bayonetta 1 bundled in. The rest of the library that I did play and enjoy are also available elsewhere - games like Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and so on.

2. No comment, did not get involved with this.

3. If you are not easily swayed by the placebo of mass opinion, then you may be pragmatic enough to consider the game for what it is: a large relatively sparse world where your main character runs around occasionally doing something useful. Me personally, I loved Breath of the Wild, it is a shallow experience but I am nonetheless very much at home with games that plod along slowly that give me some crumbs of comfort. I really enjoyed the shrine puzzles in this one. My main gripe is the combat - too easy, way too easy. Still though, an A game.

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ActRaiser
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby ActRaiser » December 5th, 2018, 5:57 pm

On the Wii U front I personally enjoyed Sega All Stars far more than Mario Kart 8.

If you have not played through Earthbound yet, that's a great choice as well.

Wonderful 101 is fun. Hard but fun.

The whole thing about using two screens novelty wears off quickly. If you get Star Fox new I believe it comes with a second game you might enjoy that takes advantage of the second screen.

The Scribblenauts games are good.

Check out Freedom Planet, Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker.

Breath of the Wild is less of a Metroidvania top down affair and almost like an RPG in that leveling up requires the gradual take down of mini puzzle rooms. When you collect 4 you can expand either your hearts or your stamina wheel. The more stamina you have the faster you can run and higher you can climb. Which allows you to reach other areas easier. It's great to make progress in 20 minute chunks or so.

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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Voor » December 5th, 2018, 7:44 pm

I recently thought really hard about a Wii U, but then I remembered that all the games I’m most interested in—BOTW, Mario Kart, DKC Freeze.....are all on the Switch! Lol.

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Atariboy
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Atariboy » December 5th, 2018, 8:48 pm

There are two cons to doing the data transfer from the Wii to Wii U.

One is that if you ever decide to connect your Wii U to a CRT, 240p mode is absent in Wii Virtual Console titles since the Wii U hardware lacks 240p support. They will run in 480i or 480p only, where as on original Wii hardware there's actually a hidden 240p mode you're able to switch to (The game's native resolution). Secondly, you lose GameCube controller support, which Wii VC N64 titles in particular were tuned for with their button mapping.

The pros are that they're on newer hardware, said hardware has native HDMI output (Component ports are disappearing), and your Wii U's internal scaler possibly upscales them better than your HDTV's scaler does. And by the act of transferring them, you can now upgrade many of them to the Wii U VC version for small fee, which opens up various new features.

One big con was erased a year after the Wii U's launch. During the first year, all Wii content was stretched to 16:9 during the upscaling process. But thankfully that not only was patched finally, but the Wii U even automatically stretches 16:9 capable Wii games while pillarboxing 4:3 only games like Virtual Console downloads, with no user intervention necessary to get the right aspect ratio for each game.

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Atariboy
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Atariboy » December 6th, 2018, 2:18 am

I should also add that the transfer sounding complicated when I read about it, but really simple after watching a YouTube video. I had no issues. One thing I did out of an abundance of caution was remove almost everything from the Wii's dashboard like VC downloads. I figured the less data there was to write to the SD card and then copy over to the Wii U, the less likely something would go wrong.

And if you have games stored on your Wii's SD card and use a different SD card for the transfer process for some reason, don't get fooled when you plug your old SD card into your Wii U. As I discovered when my Wii U went in for repairs and I plugged my SD card back in afterwards, all your games that were left on your old SD card will be present in the Wii SD card menu and looking just like normal.

The thing is that they won't work until you delete them and redownload them, since those old files are tied to your old system rather than your current system. That's going to catch someone out that transfers at the last minute and doesn't go to actually play something until after the store is closed, lol.

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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Gentlegamer » December 6th, 2018, 7:42 am

Wii U is the best way to play Wii games, so play all the great Wii games if you haven't already.

Hidden Gem: Captain Toad Treasure Tracker and Metroid Blast (Nintendoland)

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Retro STrife
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Re: Let's talk Wii U: Best Games, Wii Transfer, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Postby Retro STrife » January 1st, 2019, 8:38 pm

Thanks everyone for the tips. I've been playing the Wii U a decent amount over the past few weeks, and I'm liking it. It's nice to play it now that it's a dead system -- I can play the few great Wii U games all at once, rather than waiting for them to trickle in over a 4 year span. So far I have about 15 games for it (including Zelda: BotW, couple Mario games, Bayonetta 1&2, DKC: Tropical Freeze, etc.), but I've really only played Zelda and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Here are some of my thoughts on the system:

1. I've decided that I'm going to do the Wii transfer to the Wii U. Then I can put away my Wii for good.

2. If the Wii and the Switch had a baby, it would be the Wii U. With the Wii U, you see the genesis of some of the good ideas that have made the Switch successful, but Nintendo also wasn't ready to fully let go of the success it had with the Wii. It feels like a system caught in limbo between generations.

3. I like the Gamepad controller - it doesn't look comfortable, but it actually plays better than it looks. I haven't quite figured out all the benefits of the Gamepad, so I might be missing some (?). The screen is cool, although the image quality is pretty crappy. Some games make good use of the screen, and some don't use it at all. I wish more games gave you the option of how to use the screen, rather than only having one use for it (i.e., Sonic Racing forces one player to use the screen in 2-player mode, rather than giving the option of split-screen on the TV.. unless I'm not seeing that option somewhere).

4. In classic Nintendo fashion, the interface and online options are completely archaic. Nintendo refuses to learn from Sony and Microsoft's systems, and instead keeps their system trapped in 2004 (and not in a good way). Also, the downloads and updates are frequent and very slow, and, unlike other systems, you can't do other tasks during them. And the lack of trophies/achievements is unfortunate IMO. I hope Nintendo has learned from some of this on the Switch, but I'm sure they still lag way behind Sony/Microsoft.

5. Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- Right now I'm still in the Great Plateau, but I've explored every nook and cranny of it, and finished the first 3 shrines, and played like 5-10 hours. I'm really enjoying it so far, and I'm even a little addicted to it. I'll definitely keep playing it awhile longer. Two counterpoints though: (1) I almost always like Zelda games early on...the problem for me is that they drag on too long and become monotonous..we'll see if BotW finally improves on that issue. Finally eschewing the old "beat 8 temples" formula should help. (2) Although I'm really enjoying the game, I've yet to get the feeling that I'm playing one of the greatest games of all time. So it has yet to overcome my theory that the gaming media's "Zelda bias" results in every Zelda game being overhyped. We'll see how I feel as I put more time into it, though.


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