Wii U games worth getting?

[reallyscrued]

Mario Kart is the only decent thing available.
All the other titles are remakes or just lame.

Wrong.

....Mario Kart is also just a remake. 😀

 

[Lil Frier]

Gotta get that Pokken Tournament in the spring. That's going to be sweeeeet.

 

[mazeroth]

I'm a long-time PC gamer but have no regrets buying my Wii U. I have zero desire to get a PS4 or Xbox One since I can get almost all the games on my PC but needed to get a Wii U for the Nintendo exclusives. Games I have that I love:

Super Mario 3D World
New Super Mario Bros U (with Luigi add-on)
Mario Kart 8
Wind Waker HD
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

I have close to 400 hours logged just in those games alone. I also have Hyrule Warriors that I haven't even opened yet since I'm finishing up Wind Waker. Those 5 games cost me $250 and I paid $300 for my system. Yes, it's still a small library I have but at $550 for 400 hours of entertainment...I can live with that.

 

[Fulle]

Wrong.

....Mario Kart is also just a remake. 😀

I disagree that Mario Kart 8 is "just a remake". It has some of the most unique track designs I've seen in a Mario Kart game, with the most notable idea being adding an F-Zero inspired anti-gravity mode to the karts, so tracks can twist upside down, and such. When in Anti-gravity mode, the wheels are sideways so bumping another driver gives a boost, and there's blue panels that work like boost pads....

I think its cool, anyway. Being a fan of both Mario Kart 64, and F-Zero GX, I thought Mario Kart 8 was a cool merger of fun ideas... and it worked really well. We (my family, friends, and I) had a lot of fun with the game.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Been playing Mario Maker and loving it. Heavy dose of nostagia and some insane people make for some challenging but fun gaming.

It tracks how many people play your levels, and how many beat them. What I wish it also tracked was how many times you died before you beat it. I swear some of these are damn near impossible 🙂

I haven't dove heavily into making my own yet but played around a bit to see how it works.

I think the one negative I can think of so far is that the SMB1 character movement is like what they did in the SNES All-Stars version and feels a bit too floaty, but otherwise everything feels like the original games.

 

[artemicion]

Super Mario Maker is better than I expected. Lots of creative stuff out there. The 100 Mario Challenge is a clever way to get people to play a random set of levels, and gives your own creations some limited exposure to the public.

Currently experimenting with "avoid the mushroom" level designs, where you have to avoid getting a mushroom in order to fit through a small opening at the end to beat the level. Lots of anti-drug themed levels with this premise. ^_^

 

[Lil Frier]

By the way, in case folks didn't know, you get $20 off each of Kart, Smash, and Splatoon at Best Buy if you get Mario Maker this week. If you have GCU, that makes them $32 each. Such games aren't typically on-sale, so if you recently got a Wii U, this could be a big deal.

Me, I might trade in my copies of Kart and Smash (for $38.50 each) and repurchase them (for $34.71 each), as they'll give me a few extra bucks off of Mario Maker and earn me a bunch of rewards points.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've been playing Mario Maker a lot too, pretty fun game.

I hope they add more stuff though, like lot of concepts are missing like localized and curved pipes like you'd see in SMB3 world 7, and ability to make vertical levels would be great too. Or ability to change the ending of a level, such as adding a boss instead of the flag. Lot of tiles/mobs missing but I guess they could only go so far if they want to make it possible to swap modes/games so easily. Overall it's awesome and it has lot of potential for future DLC which I'm sure we'll see.

Worth getting if you were in the SMB games. I find it's great just for the nostalgia. I remember playing those for hours as a kid on NES and thinking it would be neat to make my own levels, and here I am doing just that.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I've been working on my first level for a few weeks now. Meanwhile, others are pumping them out left and right. Sadly the 'autoplay' ones seem to be the most popular. And here I am making a difficult (but not crazytown) level that takes skill and precision - people will most likely hate it.

 

[the1truelegend]

Zelda Windwaker HD, Bayonetta 2, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker.

 

[shortylickens]

BUMP!


Zelda U looks awesome:


https://youtu.be/XZmxvig1dXE?t=98

 

[Lil Frier]

Based on pre-rendered crap of a game that's since been delayed to an unknown date, and which has the possibility of not even reaching the Wii U.

 

[Sulaco]

Based on pre-rendered crap of a game that's since been delayed to an unknown date, and which has the possibility of not even reaching the Wii U.

It's funny, Nintendo always kind of "sees their consoles out" on a Zelda title.

On the Gamecube, the last meaningful game released was Twilight Princess.
On the Wii, the last game of real note released was Skyward Sword.


I feel like Zelda U or whatever is going to be the definite swan song of the Wii U before the NX arrives. There might be a few other decent titles, but you know if it makes it, it's going to be the reason to own a Wii U.

 

[Lil Frier]

Unless they do like they're done in the past and either release the game on 2 platforms (like Twilight Princess) or give the NX backwards compatibility (like the Wii and Wii U had). In either case, the newest Zelda title wouldn't be a reason to own a Wii U at all.

And then there's the part I just don't care about Zelda games.

 

[Sulaco]

Unless they do like they're done in the past and either release the game on 2 platforms (like Twilight Princess) or give the NX backwards compatibility (like the Wii and Wii U had). In either case, the newest Zelda title wouldn't be a reason to own a Wii U at all.

And then there's the part I just don't care about Zelda games.

For me personally, if the Wii U Zelda title turns out to be stellar (like most entries in the series are, if you're into them), then it would be enough to push me towards buying one.

There are a handful of other games on the system that look fun and interesting, not really enough to buy the system for mind you, but combined with a quality Zelda title would be enough for me, and probably a lot of people, to finally pull the trigger. Albeit either refurbished or heavily discounted.

 

[Lil Frier]

Well, again, if BC happens again, then the whole Wii U library goes to the NX (giving it a legitimate launch lineup with depth), so you don't have to worry about losing games.

And, I guess it depends on perspective. I have a Wii U, and it just feels like a dozen platformers, Smash, Kart, Splatoon, and Bayonetta. With rumors the NX could launch with Smash, you're talking one genre of game and maybe a couple of others that the Wii U carries.

 

[exdeath]

BC would be the worst thing to happen to the NX in terms of hardware development. It's been hampering Nintendo since Gamecube. x86 has left everything else in the dust. Time to leave that ancient PPC750 behind.

Fortunately Wii and Wii U are not that powerful, so they could be emulated rather easily in something like XBO/PS4 and beyond.

 

[Lil Frier]

How do you figure? It's been proven it's an option beyond sticking to the same CPU architecture. The PS3 included PS2 hardware for true emulation at first, then went to software emulation. The 360 did software emulation of HUNDREDS of original Xbox games, even going x86 to PowerPC, and the XB1 is doing software emulation of the 360 for close to 150 games now.

It might be the worst for hardware development, but I can't say I care about that. It'd be much worse to launch with a couple of games and a mountain of shovelware again.

 

[exdeath]

BC would be the worst thing to happen to the NX in terms of hardware development. It's been hampering Nintendo since Gamecube. x86 has left everything else in the dust. Time to leave that ancient PPC750 behind.

Fortunately Wii and Wii U are not that powerful, so they could be emulated rather easily in something like XBO/PS4 and beyond.

:\

Don't forget PS2 hardware in the PS3 is also at least half responsible for the miserable PS3 launch ($599). The first PS3 motherboard was massive. Software emulation too was removed later as well due to the complexities involved in those non standard architectures. Don't recall the reason. Probably because those two systems are so unconventional that each game required case by case tweaking and it just wasn't worth the effort? Mind you they still sold PSOne and PS2 for <= $100 well into each succeeding generation so that is a factor as well.

But probably because they realized they could re-sell you your old games just like Nintendo as intangible virtual nothings. Hows that for "online capabilities"? Lol.

But ultimately the death of backward compatibility is online connectivity and e-shops. There's money to be had re-selling old games as virtual downloads. There's nothing to be had giving away a free emulator to let people play their old games, that would be completely defeating the purpose behind the push to all digital in the first place. No coincidence that PS2 compatibility and Gamecube compatibility were inexplicably and immediately removed once e-shops became a thing.

I'm honestly surprised Microsoft of all companies is trying to provide backward compatibility for free. You'd think they would be the first to throw them up on a virtual store and re-sell them to you. Desperation has it's perks I guess. I'm equally surprised that PS4 will let you play PS1 games even, because those are huge on the the PS Store, as well as Sony pushing PS Now hard.

I'm both a programmer and amateur VHDL engineer, so I know the effort and cost of maintaining backward compatibility in hardware, and doing things like removing Cell from PS3 or the Z80 SOC from the GBA has a tremendous cost and consolidation trade-off, so it's not ALL a digital downloads conspiracy. Just partly.

You also have consideration that most people interested in new generation don't really want to play their old games. At the start of 8th generation, everybody was completely DONE with the sub 720p shiny playdoh look of PS360 games after 10 years and wanted 1080p. Backward compatibility on XBO then in consideration of that fact is really just a "we have something you don't" tick box in a desperate losing battle honestly. I personally don't care, I still have a 360.

Then there are HD remasters. Publishers can make more money selling you the game again as an HD remaster, and most people with money in a new console and new TV would rather play the remastered 1080p game.

Software emulation is the way to go if you have the power leap. Even the PS2 with native hardware PS1 SOC as it's I/O and a/v codec co-processor can't quite play PS1 games without glitching and massive frame rate consistency problems. Plus you can patch on a game by game basis and ensure QA and stuff that you cannot do once your ASICs are in the store.

But I don't think that kind of demand is there from the user base. It's only popular on Xbox because it's something the other team doesn't have, that's all. I can realistically see a Xbox apologists toting how awesome backward compatibility is with 360 but guess what they are playing the awesome 1080p HD XBO re-release of a game and not the blurry over specular highlighted playdoh emulated 360 version! Microsoft as a software company is going to have a better time at writing software emulation but count me among those who would rather play the HD remaster or play a game on it's native hardware. I play my old 4:3 480p and below games on a Sony PVM CRT in RGB even.

Anyway...

If the NX is PPC7xx based in order to maintain backward compatibility with Gamecube/Wii/WiiU at the instruction level, it won't have a chance in hell at competing with PS4/XBO. Since that's what people, mostly PS4/XBO owners who aren't interested in Nintendo games in the first place, think they want out of the next Nintendo console, it would kill it before it launched.