2 replies to this topic

[rob_shadows]

Well that was...interesting, not quite what most people were expecting, they didn't reveal as much as I think most people were hoping they would but they did highlight that it's meant to evolve the innovation of the Wii to a new level while appealing to core gamers.

Here are my personal takes an things I noticed.

- First and foremost from what we saw the initial reports of it being only "slightly" ahead of current consoles in terms of power appeared to be accurate, obviously games will look better as we get farther along in both development and the consoles lifecycle once it's released but it didn't look like it's likely to see anything that blows away the 360 or PS3 graphically but rather shows at best a slight upgrade over them, ultimately that will still remain to be seen for certain but that's just my take based on what we've seen so far and it seems to make sense given Nintendo's tendencies.

- Second, the controller is flat out ugly, lol. I love the possibilities of what can be done with it...but it's way too big and as I said...flat out ugly. That being said, some of the potential applications they showed with it were pretty cool and it will be fun to see what developers make out of it.

- Third, really disappointed in the game reveals for WiiU, 90% of the games shown we're just ports already in production for current consoles and the new announced titles weren't very impressive. Smash Bros was a hit announcement but Lego? What happened to trying to real in the hardcore demographic? Although to be fair I think that's what the mash-up trailer that showed games like Darksiders and Ninja Gaiden 3 along with John from EA showing up was meant to do...but it still would have been nice to see an exclusive announced for the core gamers. Although in all fairness it does seem to be very early in the process.

- Fouth, speaking of very early in the process I'm guessing that those folks who predicted a release as early as Spring 2012 were flat out wrong, it doesn't look anywhere near ready to hit that date considering not even Nintendo themselves had software to show off aside from tech demos that Reggie made sure to let everyone know are NOT actual games...meaning Nintendo has 0 first party games prepped for showing. I think the release will very likely be holiday 2012 (which is what I personally thought the entire time given that the holiday season is so common for new consoles/major games anyway) and next years E3 showing off the actual games that we can expect.

There's a lot more to say but those are just the major points for me. Overall I was personally disappointed by the reveal, not because the console doesn't have potential because it certainly does but because for one the hype created online by all those rumors raised the bar much higher than what was fair for what WiiU actually is, it's obvious that many many people we're just making stuff up and it's unfortunate because it got peoples expectations way too high I think and then also disappointed because IMO it wasn't ready to be revealed yet. I don't like revealing something simply to show what it is/what the idea behind it is...I personally would have preferred that they waited until games we're actually ready to be shown.

All in all I'm looking forward to seeing next years E3 for what I'll consider the "true" reveal of the system when actual games are shown but I wasn't impressed by this event.

EDIT:

Oh yeah! I left out the most important part of an opinion on a new console...whether or not you'd buy it, lol.

As of right now...not sure...depends on what games are announced next year, highly interested....just not interested in any of the current exclusive games announced (none worthwhile except Smash Bros), Once we see more announced I'll make a decision...won't be hard for them to get me on board though...just need some solid titles.

Edited by rob_shadows, 07 June 2011 - 10:07 AM.

[Aaron Barton]

I really agree with all of the points made. Essentially we got shown a lot of potential. However, I have learned (the hard way) not to get excited at mere potential from Nintendo. I was very impressed at aiming with the controller superimposed over the screen, but how effective is it in practice? And how exactly is it tracking itself in relation to the screen? My take is that it's not; much like how aiming with the Wii Remote didn't entail aiming at the screen (a la the zapper) but by "hovering" around a different reference point, the sensor bar. So I'd like to take a closer look at that before getting excited.

The Zelda demo looked great, but it's obvious that whatever Zelda comes out won't be this. This is a demo based on Twilight Princess art and assets. A very pretty demo. If it were a real game I'd swoon, but ever since Spaceworld 2000 I know not to jump the gun.

We all knew it would be HD and we all had a pretty good inclination that a more traditional control setup would return. Regardless of any added gimmicks/features/touch screens, that seemed pretty apparent. So in that way I was mostly looking forward to some real Nintendo games returning to somewhat more standard iterations. Sadly, we saw little in the way of games.

I feel that they should have had at least one really strong first party project to show off, but they just showed a Zelda tech demo and NSMB with Mii's. Not really impressed so far, wake me up when Mario, Link, Fox, Samus, or well...anybody, shows up.

Oh and as a final note, it's largely inconsequential but I do not like the name, "Wii U".

[Limelight788]

I think the reason why many people have beef's with the Wii-U is because of the way it was presented, which can go without saying was underwhelming. That said, I believe that we'll see a lot more of the Wii-U's potential later on and when it gets close to a release, we should have a better idea of how it works.

Smash 4 was enough to sell me to the console, since it's my favorite video game franchise, but it needs more then multi-platform games and Smash 4 to be a good console. So I'm reserving judgment on the system (Like others should) until we get sufficient information.