Club U - Ambassadors of Funk

Dark Dragon 64 wrote:... this leads to speculation that GameCube games will be added to the VC but then we have to ask: where are the N64 games?

It'd be terrific if the controller was compatible with the supposedly up-coming Gamecube titles. I'd like to see an N64 controller released too! I know it caused varied opinion, but I liked it. Nintendo has a potential gold-mine if they improved the Virtual Console service... but only if they use sensible pricing. I'd pay a fiver for N64 titles; if they were above £6.50 I wouldn't buy 'em.

Considering they're charging over £5 for SNES stuff, I can't see N64 stuff being below £7.49. It's baffling why they've taken so long to get them on there. I'd love Cube stuff purely to be able to play Fire Emblem without paying silly money.

Having played mario kart 8 and super mario 3D world for the past few weeks something is bothering me. It shouldn't do but it does. These two games are without doubt two of the best games of the past decade yet not enough kids are experiencing them, especially in the uk. One thing nintendo has always been able to attract is its loyal following and kids. Many of those kids play nintendo games and then move on but then return as adults but very few kids seem to have the wii u. If nintendo aren't careful they are going to lose an entire generation and only have their aging loyal fan base to fall back on.

For some reason parents don't seem to be buying the console for their kids like they did with the wii. Were they put off by the wiis gimmicks, add ons and many many poor unplayable games?

Unfortunately kids like their CODs and FIFAs too much these days and the perception is that xbox and ps are the place to play them.

I think it's only now that people are realising just how attractive the combination of the Wii Remote and Wii Sports was. It was the right product at the right time; it drew in a huge audience.

The U is terrific and, as you say Star, games like Kart 8 and SM3DW are astoundingly good. But the casual audience has moved on - they won't pay forty quid for a game and most kids play on tablets or older consoles. It didn't help that the Wii U was launched in such a poor fashion. It wasn't clear what the Wii U was and Nintendo didn't get the game line-up right.

However... we've had had *loads* of views shared about the past - it'd be nice to see some on what Nintendo should do now. Personally I don't believe the answer is to publish on other formats; if people don't like the games now, why would they on other formats? Nintendo has some stunning programming capability - Kart 8 matches up to any other new-gen title in technical terms - but it seems that they don't have people resources of any depth. I wonder if they have the money to bulk up their people resourcing? Could they bring in the the right people to develop, say, Zelda, Mario and Metroid games simultaneously? Another aspect is advertising. Nintendo really has upped this over past months but it doesn't seem to be paying dividends - this suggests that they're not getting the message right. They need to sit down and work out a way of clearly delivering the right message through the right channels.

Finally, it seems that 'power' is in fashion. The PS4 has sold in huge amounts on the back of technical capability and potential rather than having a great range of good games. I'm not slating the PS4 by saying this; but the first months of the console's life have been pretty weak for new games. It demonstrates that, unless Nintendo can pick out another relatively low-tech winner like the Wii, their next machine has to be at the cutting edge of technology.

The Wii U is too expensive, the quantity of games (current and future) aren't there and the name is rubbish. The Wii name is extremely well known, but it's also synonymous with a console that people stopped playing after a couple of years. And Poundland tennis racket accessories.

I'm happy with my purchase (picked up the Mario Kart bundle a few months ago) but it's still worrying that as a pretty big Nintendo fan I waited that long to pick one up.

I don't disagree with too much of that, Balloon. So what should Nintendo do?

Fast track a new console with more power than a ps4, it's their only chance now.

That or pull out of the console market and go full retard on handhelds which can dock to a tv.

Ad7 wrote:Fast track a new console with more power than a ps4, it's their only chance now.

That or pull out of the console market and go full retard on handhelds which can dock to a tv.

I do wonder about the 'power' option. If Nintendo did release a console that has "more power" than the PS4 they still wouldn't have the required games on hand and they'd still have the same development capacity limits. But... yes, they may attract more third party development.

The handheld angle is interesting. Could Nintendo have a single unit that was playable (to the same technical standard) at home and on foot? If so, the guts of the machine would need to be in the handheld unit itself, with just an 'adapter' of some sort to output the display to TV. It's intriguing, but what about storage? To compete with rival machines a hard drive would be needed. It sounds cool but I'm not sure that it'd work in practice.

If Nintendo released more games for the U that matched the quality of Kart 8 and SM3DW, I suspect there wouldn't be a need for a new machine. My view is that Nintendo doesn't have the development capacity to produce great titles for the U in sufficient number to attract a greater audience. They'll stumble on as at present - and we will see a few terrific games! - but they'll also have a bigger focus on the next machine. Which will have "more power".

[iup=3543105]jawafour[/iup] wrote:The handheld angle is interesting. Could Nintendo have a single unit that was playable (to the same technical standard) at home and on foot? If so, the guts of the machine would need to be in the handheld unit itself, with just an 'adapter' of some sort to output the display to TV. It's intriguing, but what about storage? To compete with rival machines a hard drive would be needed. It sounds cool but I'm not sure that it'd work in practice.

More likely is two separate, similarly-specced machines with interchangeable software. Like owning an iPhone and an iPad, with either cloud saves or transferrable save data files.

[iup=3543063]Return_of_the_STAR[/iup] wrote:For some reason parents don't seem to be buying the console for their kids like they did with the wii. Were they put off by the wiis gimmicks, add ons and many many poor unplayable games?

Nope.

They were put off by not releasing the Wii U was it's own thing, and not an addon for the Wii they already had.

And the poor software lineup means that kids didn't want the console enough to correct them.

But generational holes happen: This 15 year chunk of time when the Wii was the bestselling console, for example. It shouldn't hurt them any more long term than the fact the PS3 was nowhere last gen will hurt Sony longterm.

[iup=3543063]Return_of_the_STAR[/iup] wrote:
For some reason parents don't seem to be buying the console for their kids like they did with the wii. Were they put off by the wiis gimmicks, add ons and many many poor unplayable games?

I suspect many of those Wii consoles are still in service. My six year old son is currently playing through Super Mario Sunshine on our Wii and very happy he is too. Why upgrade? He just finished Lego Batman 2 on the 3DS he inherited from me when I got my XL. It cost £8.

I also suspect many kids are inheriting PS3s and 360s from their parents (I'm being PC, it's fathers really) and happily playing Lego games or Minecraft stuff like that.

And what do we mean by 'kids' anyway? By the time they're 12 most lads just want to play COD, GTA and FIFA.

Oh and then there's the rise and rise of the tablet/smartphone market. Why pay £40 for a game to keep your kids quiet when Angry Birds is free?

So, lots of reasons I reckon.

I'm still hoping that the U will get a special edition of Watch Dogs when it finally launches. Something like this...

...it's happening! Watch Dogs must be on the way - the U-Play app for the U has been updated to include it:

Actions and rewards are listed for the game. I reckon its gotta be launched pretty soon :-).

I'm barely any way into it, but Scram Kitty is hard. I like the aesthetic, I like what it's offering in terms of gameplay and experience (a fresh take on the old?), but I also feel I'm probably not going to experience much of it because getting my head around even basic movement is still ongoing. Nailing a double jump and taking out three enemies on the descent fires all sorts of pleasure neurons in my brain. Double jumping only to end up orbiting around the map a few seconds before crashing into some spikes and dying happens rather more frequently.

Jawa the only person who's going to actually buy watchdogs on the Wii u after all this is you anyway

Ubisoft will probably overship copies of it. I'll wait until it's sub 15 quid.

[iup=3543788]Call and Answer[/iup] wrote:I'm barely any way into it, but Scram Kitty is hard. I like the aesthetic, I like what it's offering in terms of gameplay and experience (a fresh take on the old?), but I also feel I'm probably not going to experience much of it because getting my head around even basic movement is still ongoing. Nailing a double jump and taking out three enemies on the descent fires all sorts of pleasure neurons in my brain. Double jumping only to end up orbiting around the map a few seconds before crashing into some spikes and dying happens rather more frequently.

Stick with it. The movement is tricky to fully master, and to make things worse, there's an ice level which is a pain in the balls

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-23-disney-infinity-wii-u-is-now-free-on-the-eshop

I'm attempting to download the free version of disney infinity for wii u but can't seem to find it on the e shop. Anyone else able to find it on these. All the news stories about it say that it is available now. I already have the original on wii and its pretty gooseberry fool compared to the wii u version so thought I would upgrade as its free.

Edit. Just read that its only available in North America

[iup=3543075]jawafour[/iup] wrote:Personally I don't believe the answer is to publish on other formats; if people don't like the games now, why would they on other formats?

Because they'd pay £40 for the game, but not the £200-300 hardware tax required. And there's no hiding the hardware from the missus.

But I don't think it's a good idea because it weakens the viability of their formats. If you could get Pokemon on your phone, why would you ever buy a 3DS?

(Of course, the obvious answer is that you don't release the core game on phone: You realise spin offs like Colosseum and Snap. Games in their own right that can also interact with, and confer bonuses to the core game, and which allow you to use your Pokemon collected and levelled in the core game)

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-23-disney-infinity-wii-u-is-now-free-on-the-eshop

I'm attempting to download the free version of disney infinity for wii u but can't seem to find it on the e shop. Anyone else able to find it on these. All the news stories about it say that it is available now. I already have the original on wii and its pretty gooseberry fool compared to the wii u version so thought I would upgrade as its free.

I read about that on GAF but it seemed to be available only in America.