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[Elfforkusu]

The general lack of shooters, and in particular the lack of a Descent clone, is the most infuriating part of the Wii U's complete failure as a viable console for non-Nintendo games. If ever there was a perfect input device combination for these games, it's dual analog + gyro aiming.

Alas.

 

[Mithos]

How would Nintendo bend the laws of physcis of the Wii U wireless protocol and transfer not one but four different frame buffers for that 4 player Golden Eye match you propose?

The reason we get that low latency up to 60 fps signal is because it's tranfering a SD image to one terminal at a relative short range. Nintendo has gone on a record to say two Gamepads is a posibility but with the penalty of splitting the frame rate in half.

By adding more transmitters/receivers for the job?

As you say with 1 transmitters/receivers (how the Wii U works now), Nintendo can pull off 1 screen @ 60fps or 2 screens @ 30fps, had there been 2 transmitters/receivers they could have pulled off 2 screens @ 60fps or 4 screens @ 30fps could they not?

 

[Bowl0l]

2.3 years later... can you buy a new gamepad yet? now THATS something that confuses me.

True. But if they released a 3DS successor that can take over the game pad, i will buy it day one.

I would actually use my Wii U more if most games allowed full screen + gamepad for the 2nd player. Looking at you, Mario Kart.

If all WiiU games have this feature, it might sell better. Hoping that WiiU successor has this feature.

 

[Hiltz]

Why nintendo hasn't done a mock tabletop game with the gamepad as the dungeon master is beyond me.

Not my idea, I got it from a PA comic.

Nintendo clearly suffered from the gaming equivalent of writer's block. Nintendo Land still remains their best showcase of GamePad's capabilities, particularly in terms of asymmetric gameplay. However, a game like Mario Maker should have been an obvious choice to develop as a launch title instead of New Super Mario Bros U. I can't believe Nintendo missed that opportunity. They were going to go with a 2D Mario anyway.

 

[Refreshment.01]

Halve the resolution instead of the frame rate. Goldeneye was pretty Lo res as I recall.

Or solve the problem to enable it in some other way before you release the console, on account of all the voices and opinions at the time of initial announcement that insisted it was necessary.

By adding more transmitters/receivers for the job?

As you say with 1 transmitters/receivers (how the Wii U works now), Nintendo can pull off 1 screen @ 60fps or 2 screens @ 30fps, had there been 2 transmitters/receivers they could have pulled off 2 screens @ 60fps or 4 screens @ 30fps could they not?

imbarkus: Is due to the way the Wii Gamepad works, they need to send even frames to one pad and uneven ones to the other. Halving the resolution would yield terrible results also, people complain about how rough the image looks in the Gamepad and thats considering the imahe is downsampled from 720p or 1080p in some cases.

Mithos: Adding more costs to a feature that a very low percentage of the user base will have the chance to experience. Look how the Wii U turned out to be, with the extra costs or more hardware the situation would have been more tight. Is probably no so trivial from an engineering point of view to to add more extra receiver/transmiters.

Also we should consider how Nintendo even with the capability to create games that use 2 Gamepads haven't done so. Imagine having to create something that used 4.

Related to the above, theorically you can still offer that 4 player LAN party experience imbarkus talks about with the Wii U as it is today. A developer only needs to create an option for local wireless connection with 2 Wii U's. Moving an extra Wii U to the place is not an herculean task giving how small the device is. Yet we haven't seen any of the small offering of shooters doing that.

The general lack of shooters, and in particular the lack of a Descent clone, is the most infuriating part of the Wii U's complete failure as a viable console for non-Nintendo games. If ever there was a perfect input device combination for these games, it's dual analog + gyro aiming.

The subscreen and gyro aiming combination is incredible precise for something like Aiming Down the Sights. It would be incredible annoying for some people to do that motion ocassionaly of course, but would be great to have the option.

Nintendo clearly suffered from the gaming equivalent of writer's block. Nintendo Land still remains their best showcase of GamePad's capabilities, particularly in terms of asymmetric gameplay. However, a game like Mario Maker should have been an obvious choice to develop as a launch title instead of New Super Mario Bros U. I can't believe Nintendo missed that opportunity. They were going to go with a 2D Mario anyway.

After launch games that used the Gamepad beyond remote play or mirroring the sub screen:

-Art Academy.
-Pushmo World.
-Mario vs DK.
-Game and Wario.
-Wii Fit U.
-Wii Party U.
-Pikmin 3.
-Wonderful 101 (give or take this one)
-Hyrule Warriors (Published)
-Fatal Frame (Published)
-Captain Toad.
-Kirby's Canvas.
-Mario Party 10.

That's a substantial part of their library so far and in 2015 there are still a large portion of game with integral Gamepad use. How much do you expect from 1 developer?

Do a comparison with the other first party publishers, how many games from Sony use the DS4 special features or how many from MS use Kinect?

 

[Imbarkus]

Hey I'll be the first to admit that Nintendo's greatest strength is being able to "head fake" the other console makers into chasing after their disruptive tech. Kinect, Move, that DS4 touch clicky thing, even friggin' Vita backtouch all seem a bit like responses to Nintendo as much as anything else.

But whatever the tech challenges and hurdles it would have taken to support multiple gamepads, I'm just saying it should have been priority. It wouldn't have precluded everything that's been done on the system as is. It just would have enabled more possibilities.

Any increase in console cost to support this would have been offset by the bucks made selling separate gamepads. Kinect was like $150 for, essentially, a 32X type platform. I think Ninty underestimated the bucks people are willing to spend on this kind of stuff if it gives them what they want.

After all if they were so concerned about breaking an average family's budget then they wouldn't be running this Amiibo rodeo right now. I'm just glad my kids are older and over the little figure stage. We just missed all this crap. *WHEW*

 

[gigantor21]

After all if they were so concerned about breaking an average family's budget then they wouldn't be running this Amiibo rodeo right now. I'm just glad my kids are older and over the little figure stage. We just missed all this crap. *WHEW*

Lord help us all once they start making Amiibos for a Pokemon game.

 

[alf717]

At first I found the game pad took me some time to adjust but it has grown on me a lot. I feel that the games that do use the game pad use it well enough and are implemented well for what the game has to offer. I'm playing though Splinter Cell Blacklist right now and I am enjoying what the game pad offers. One level has you using the game pad to snipe people from a UAV and when you are playing as Sam peeking under doors and swapping out the various tools from your disposal is implemented well enough for the type of game play. Zombi U uses the game pad in some really unique ways as well. I find that the game pad doesn't need to alway be fully utilized in every single game so long as what it does works well enough. Zelda is another good example as swapping out items is simple to do with out having to pause the game play. One missed opportunity for more for the game pad would have to be both Assassin's Creed games. I always felt it would of been much better to use the game pad as a GPS device for plotting markers with out have to pause the game to set a new point.

 

[LegendofLex]

I also can't think of any other Nintendo console--except the Wii--that was driven by a gimmick.

NES
D-pad
NES Zapper
ROB

Super NES
Mode 7

Nintendo 64
3D graphics

GameCube
Second analog stick

 

[Refreshment.01]

NES
D-pad
NES Zapper
ROB

Super NES
Mode 7

Nintendo 64
3D graphics

GameCube
Second analog stick

NES. Well the Dpad was a ginmick that became industry standard.

SNES. i would say the ginmick in this case were the R & L shoulder buttons. A funny anecdote that you might have experience yourself if you are from that period in gaming or know someone that was an avid videogame follower in that era, is that at launch gamers that owned other systems defined the bumpers as a ginmick because using the thumbs was far better to push a button.

As well, became industry standard.

N64. 3D grapics are not a ginmick. Actually there are many ginmicks with the N64:

First one is bringing back a thumb operated analog stick, i don't recall if it was the first self centered thumbstick. We' ll have to check the Vectrex.

Second one, is the modular design. The controller can accept modules. Transfer pack, rumble pack, mem pack and at some point a screen was planned.

Third one, the 3 prong design and control options for lefties in several games. This wasn't executed well enough.

Fourth one, is the rumble feature in games.

All the above, except the 3 pronged design became standards. Second one, i would say mostly.

GameCube. Is not the second analog stick, that was more or less stablished by then. The ginmick were the hybrid digital/analog triggers and later the Wave Bird wireless controller.

The Wave Bird was showcased in the GC unveil, i don't know why it took several months for Nintendo to release it. This company is weird like that XD

 

[MrBadger]

Nintendo not fully supporting accessories besides a couple of games? Don't be ridiculous. That never happens.

I don't think any of them really have anything to do with the Wii U considering the Gamepad is a mandatory part of the system and aside from the motion plus (which has a handful of games that use it) those are specific add ons for specific purposes that they fulfil.

 

[jimi_dini]

After launch games that used the Gamepad beyond remote play or mirroring the sub screen:

-Art Academy.
-Pushmo World.
-Mario vs DK.
-Game and Wario.
-Wii Fit U.
-Wii Party U.
-Pikmin 3.
-Wonderful 101 (give or take this one)
-Hyrule Warriors (Published)
-Fatal Frame (Published)
-Captain Toad.
-Kirby's Canvas.
-Mario Party 10.

+ Wind Waker HD
+ Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
+ Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

The general lack of shooters, and in particular the lack of a Descent clone

btw. Descent was supposed to be released on Wii. And that sadly never happened. It's such a shame.

Nintendo not fully supporting accessories besides a couple of games? Don't be ridiculous. That never happens.

Hmm, around 124 games on Wii / Wii U that support the balance board. I don't know about you, but I personally got way more than I ever expected (and there are actually quite a few regular non-fitness games that work really well with the board, for example Punch Out and Kororinpa)

Let's take a look at how many games supported Kinect. Oh, around the same amount?

And I can actually use the board on Wii U too. I would have needed to buy another Kinect for the Bone. I doubt the Bone supported the original 360 Kinect.

 

[Narpas Sword0]

Almost every game with local co-op (where it's not redundant) let you play on two separate screens though. Tossing throwing stars at the screen isn't as fun as you'd think. The keyboard is being used a lot in the OS, but what else do you want done with it? Lol at the microphone, come on man.

Not DKC TF or Mario Kart. I think NSMB forces the tablet guy to create platforms and doesn't let them control the game, but I might be wrong. It works in Hyrule Warriors, Kirby, and 3D World.

 

[The Artisan]

It was an interesting gimmick that no one was that interested in supporting.

I feel like this sentence could apply to kinect as well.

 

[conman]

NES
D-pad
NES Zapper
ROB

Super NES
Mode 7

Nintendo 64
3D graphics

GameCube
Second analog stick

Only Wii was driven by its core gimmick (motion control). But those other Nintendo consoles merely had the usual spate of software/peripheral gimmicks that every single platform has always had.

 

[Andrain18]

It's a gimmick.... The game pad would work if you had 3 eyes.

 

[Maneauleau]

It is, more or less. It's one of the games in Game and Wario. Sketch.

This game is a huge hit with family and friends. I highly recommend it just for that