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Has the Wii-U saved us this Gen?

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StarStabbedMoon said:
The Wii U didn't save the gen, it didn't save us, and it might not have even saved me. But there is one thing I think it did save: Nintendo.

After the Wii, Nintendo wanted to believe it could compete with everything that offers gaming. With the more powerful consoles, with PCs, with mobile, everything. The problem is that Nintendo can only reliably and consistently expect a return on fulfilling one thing for consumers: making great Nintendo games. Both casual consumers and third parties are a fickle bunch, and there's almost nothing Nintendo could have done to bring everyone back and recreate their success from last generation. In some ways, they played it too safe. In other ways, they overreached and further alienated consumers and industry partners.

In my opinion, Nintendo shouldn't be trying to be all things to all gamers. They shouldn't be trying to compete with everything even remotely associated with gaming. They should focus on what they do best: making good games, and if that's on their own proprietary platform or on mobile then that's their choice. The Wii U has saved Nintendo from thinking it's a much larger company than it actually is. We're all expecting Nintendo to compete at a AAA level neck and neck with Sony and Microsoft, but the truth is it can't, and it shouldn't.

I don't understand what people think is so wrong with the prospect of a B-tier console, when we're in an era where B-tier gaming has all but disappeared. The games with mid-level production value of the 90s to the early 2000s is what made this industry so healthy, varied, and exciting. Now everything has to sell 5 million if it wants to avoid being considered a "failure"... or an indie game.

Anyway, this is just a roundabout way of further explaining my dream of Nintendo making the ultimate niche console someday.
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Though there is some truth to that. It's kind of a crock because if Nintendo were more open like they are starting to be slowly, we would get more unique new IP's like splatoon, W1O1.

And if they got their heads out of their ass, they would know how to promote them and make them stick out among their legacy IP's.

The main issue with Nintendo and these threads, is the people who run Nintendo won't change, and that is what's killing them. And people who love Nintendo mainly their output hate to see the console and games go un-noticed.
They could have a ton of great PC type titles on their system, and exclusive indie titles if they knew how to market to a broader audience. But outside of handhelds they don't. And the Indie titles they did get most of them were already available on multiple platforms.

It's extremely polarizing to see their handheld market do better than their Home console,since that's what their known for more than anything.
If they were open to western developers, and their other branches of Nintendo, there would be so many changes happening.

We wouldn't see complicated OS/ and hardware that developers don't want to use.

We would see more exclusive games from west,Europe, and japan.
We would see more online multiplayer with voice chat.

The issue is they are doing what they know how to do best because they screwed up on everything else you could screw up on when supporting a console.

All they have now are Nintendo games.
 
I can't say it has for me. Its probably middle of the road for me. A few great games don't really elevate it above the other consoles. Especially when it gets such large dry periods without much worthwhile.
 
Were this generation in need of saving, a resurgence in mid-tier budget publishers would be the savior.

But it's not, fortunately, because that savior is MIA.

Looking forward to Fatal Frame, though
 
StarStabbedMoon said:
The Wii U didn't save the gen, it didn't save us, and it might not have even saved me. But there is one thing I think it did save: Nintendo.

After the Wii, Nintendo wanted to believe it could compete with everything that offers gaming. With the more powerful consoles, with PCs, with mobile, everything. The problem is that Nintendo can only reliably and consistently expect a return on fulfilling one thing for consumers: making great Nintendo games. Both casual consumers and third parties are a fickle bunch, and there's almost nothing Nintendo could have done to bring everyone back and recreate their success from last generation. In some ways, they played it too safe. In other ways, they overreached and further alienated consumers and industry partners.

In my opinion, Nintendo shouldn't be trying to be all things to all gamers. They shouldn't be trying to compete with everything even remotely associated with gaming. They should focus on what they do best: making good games, and if that's on their own proprietary platform or on mobile then that's their choice. The Wii U has saved Nintendo from thinking it's a much larger company than it actually is. We're all expecting Nintendo to compete at a AAA level neck and neck with Sony and Microsoft, but the truth is it can't, and it shouldn't.

I don't understand what people think is so wrong with the prospect of a B-tier console, when we're in an era where B-tier gaming has all but disappeared. The games with mid-level production value of the 90s to the early 2000s is what made this industry so healthy, varied, and exciting. Now everything has to sell 5 million if it wants to avoid being considered a "failure"... or an indie game.

Anyway, this is just a roundabout way of further explaining my dream of Nintendo making the ultimate niche console someday.
Click to expand...

3DS is almost what you're looking for. DS BC and all the awesome games it already has... so good. And almost all of your post describes Nintendo and all the good studios making games on their systems : Atlus, Platinum, Level 5, Game Freak, Monolith Soft but also Namco Bandai, SquareEnix, Sega (3D classics are so awesome), Capcom... Just sayin' :p

Oh and I agree with you. Wii U may have saved them from trying to hard to compete with AAA industry while they're way better at making what they've always done : focus on fun. I agree with you they should adjust but not radically change. And they seem to doing it well for now :)
 
Well the bar is unbelievably low. I still can't name even one PS4 or Xbox1 game that even remotely interests me or entertained me for more than a couple of minutes. And I basically played all the "big" titles (friend of mine apparently has too much money and buys every fucking one/ps4 game there is).

Hell the only game I kinda liked so far is Knack. That's really depressing when I think about it.
 
Jay Sosa said:
Well the bar is unbelievably low. I still can't name even one PS4 or Xbox1 game that even remotely interests me or entertained me for more than a couple of minutes. And I basically played all the "big" titles (friend of mine apparently has too much money and buys every fucking one/ps4 game there is).

Hell the only game I kinda liked so far is Knack. That's really depressing when I think about it.
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That sounds like less of the bar being "unbelievably low" and more like your tastes being.... Unique.
 
After the Wii, Nintendo became cocky. The same thing happened with the Playstation 3 after the huge success of the Playstation 2. They thought that they had an easy sell and could do whatever their hearts desired. Obviously, that wasn't true for both Sony and Nintendo.

I think that, at the start of the generation, Nintendo tried to be everything to everyone. They wanted to capture the hearts of the core audience that felt neglected and disappoint during the Wii era, but they also wanted to keep the casual crowd that discovered Nintendo during the Wii era. That was their biggest mistake.

They seem to understand that the casual crowd was fine while it lasted, but many of them moved over to gaming on iOS and Android devices, which is why they started working with DeNA. You'll notice that, more recently, they're focused more on their core audience and giving them fun games and experiences that will make their Wii U purchase worthwhile.

I strongly believe that the NX will be much more focused on their core audience, as well as capturing the hearts of core gamers that haven't invested in a Nintendo console. Their biggest hurdle is going to be those 3rd party developers. They're great with indies, but they need to move that way of working over to the big publishers. There are some that won't admit it, but Nintendo needs Call of Duty, Madden and Fifa. It's very important that during the Age of NX, Nintendo really try to mend their relationships. No gaming company wants to be known as the secondary console, whether they'll admit it or not, NIntendo want to be center piece of the living room.
 
"Saved" isn't the word I'd use. This generation, though full of remasters et al, hasn't suffered to need "saving".
Has Nintendo saved itself? Maybe.
 
Jay Sosa said:
Oh come on..what are some truly outstanding titles so far this gen?
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Bloodborne, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, to name a few. Maybe you should be evaluating your own tastes rather that writing off every single game that has come out this gen.
 
Sanke__ said:
O god the pain of thinking about wii u games on remotely decent hardware with a usable controller.
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Yep. That's all I want. Whenever I see stuff like X (which does look amazing for U game) all I can think about is maaaan how much better would this look on a PS4?

Bloodborne, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, to name a few. Maybe you should be evaluating your own tastes rather that writing off every single game that has come out this gen.
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You forgot Knack.
 
CrowDieSlow said:
Bloodborne, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, to name a few. Maybe you should be evaluating your own tastes rather that writing off every single game that has come out this gen.
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And many more actually.
 
I own a WiiU and I haven't played it since Smash Bros release date.... yes...the release date...

Every time another major title comes out I get suckered in and buy it knowing full well I'll only play it max 6 hours. Same case with Mario Kart. Not sure why but I can't get into Nintendo games anymore.
 
It saved me from not playing a Wii U. It sure did do that!

Why the hell does everything have to "save" this and "win" that on NeoGAF? It's such a false prism through which to view things.
 
Jay Sosa said:
Well the bar is unbelievably low. I still can't name even one PS4 or Xbox1 game that even remotely interests me or entertained me for more than a couple of minutes. And I basically played all the "big" titles (friend of mine apparently has too much money and buys every fucking one/ps4 game there is).

Hell the only game I kinda liked so far is Knack. That's really depressing when I think about it.
Click to expand...

Have you played Bloodborne? It's the best single player game I've ever played.
 
And yes I totally forgot about Bloodborne. Shame on me.

I do think that this gen will turn out just fine; all I was trying to say is that I kinda agree with the Op that so far the U has the most interesting library when it comes to exclusives.
 
I understand the idea and at this moment it has been my salvation all the wii u games i have are fantastic games but the main problem is that we haven't really seen the exclusive games that we expect for the ps4 and i think that in the next two years the other consoles are going to get the exclusives they really need.
 
Vandiger said:
What?
lkrwtf.gif
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Why do I feel like this gif should've faded to black?
 
CrowDieSlow said:
Bloodborne, Far Cry 4, Sunset Overdrive, Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, to name a few. Maybe you should be evaluating your own tastes rather that writing off every single game that has come out this gen.
Click to expand...

3 out of 5 games that i can play on PC?

nice list anyway
 
I don't know how one would objectively quantify wtf "saved" means but I know I wouldn't be paying attention at all to console gaming if it wasn't for Wii U. That said I bought the system for Zombi U and expected more experiences similar to that from Nintendo at least. That hasn't been the case so far, so I'm kinda salty at the end of the day.

Console gaming better do something amazing or this might be my last console gen. This is the worst gen I've ever seen and I've seen them all.
 
I think the WiiU has a few good games like every console, but its in no way a compelling product. At least not for me and going by sales most people think the same way.
It might be a good secondary console(or in addition to a gaming PC) for people who like Nintendo games, but thats not really an achievement.

Back in 2011 when I thought about Nintendos next gen console I thought of all kinds of stuff, but if anyone would've told me what will be I would've been extremely disappointed:
WiiU will have practically no 3rd party support. Nintendo will continue some of its franchises on the WiiU and they will be as good as Nintendo games usually are(shocker). Barely any more powerful than Ps3/360 but more expensive. Gimmicky controller with a screen thats not even used by Nintendo themselfs in a creative way. Nintendo will buy three noteworthy 3rd party exclusives in the frist three years.

That would've been disappointing for me. Thats basically the bare minimum of what I expected, maybe my expectations were to high, but I'm not surprised by Nintendo releasing some good games every year, thats the bare minimum of what I expect them to do.
 
Lol no.

But it has provided some awesome games and it's a great secondary console so that is cool
 
It didn't save anything. Industry isn't quite in need of saving.

...Yet.

It did seem to (mostly) wake Ninty up, though. We'll see how they handle things going forward.

jholmes said:
Why the hell does everything have to "save" this and "win" that on NeoGAF? It's such a false prism through which to view things.
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I mean, let's be real... it's console wars at the end of the day.
 
Innolis said:
After 2 and a half years in the market, it better have some good titles...People seem to forget that PS4/XONE have been on the market for a year and a half...and even in that little time we've gotten some really good games.
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To be fair, this "a year older, just you wait" thing has been getting said for well over a year now. Heck, the whole "just you wait" narrative has plagued every console with blinders to the issues.

It used to be "just you wait till 2015" and now we're waiting till 2016.
 
I just want Skyrim Zelda. Wii U will be completely unloved until then. Probably would've meant I'd go two years without touching it (Since Splatoon doesn't interest me in the slightest)

Zelda Wii U delay into 2016 was the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
Really enjoy my Wii U and makes a great secondary console for me. I grew up loving Mario, Zelda and Kirby, so honestly I can never get enough of first party nintendo games. I wouldn't say they "saved" the gen though, don't see how one single company can. There is alot I'm disappointed in like the Amiibo game features and how they have handled the Virtual Console, but in terms of first party library, my Wii U has been really damn fun for me, and the droughts aren't a big deal as it's my secondary console.
 
Sanke__ said:
O god the pain of thinking about wii u games on remotely decent hardware with a usable controller.
Click to expand...

Jay Sosa said:
Yep. That's all I want. Whenever I see stuff like X (which does look amazing for U game) all I can think about is maaaan how much better would this look on a PS4?



You forgot Knack.
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Imagine what uncharted 4 could've looked like on decent hardware. Might have even gotten to 60fps or higher!
 
Um no. When they make a real Mario game (maybe happening), a real Zelda game (is happening), and a real F-Zero or Metroid (both probably not happening), then we can talk. The Wii U is an abject failure with zero compelling software for me.

That being said, I will hop on board if they are able to get their act together, and also drop the price.
 
pwnzernator said:
Have you played Bloodborne? It's the best single player game I've ever played.
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I'd been (at best) indifferent to the souls games in the past, but Bloodborne is engrossing in a way that's really surprised me, I can see anything else coming out this year for any platform coming even close to it as GotY.
 
lel

Not really, no. I'd say it's done next to nothing this gen except be a place to put rehashed Nintendo games on.
 
Absolutely not.

Does the WiiU have a niche but incredibly high quality list of games, one of Nintendos strongest in history? Absolutely.
 
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