Wii U

[Margalis]

I have been playing the hell out of Monster Hunter.

In the past few years I've really grown to appreciate "real" games, AKA gamey games, AKA games where you don't just hold forward and press X to win. Not that I didn't appreciate them before, but now I just can't stomach most games where you just sort of bumble through without any element of mastery.

MH certainly has a lot of room for mastery, learning how to beat each monster, then learning how to do it more effectively.

[Fabricated]

Finally, the consequences of every old person calling anything that plays videogames "A Nintendo" comes home to roost.



Or rather, people realize they haven't probably turned their Wii's on for literal years at this point when the thought of buying a WiiU entered their minds.

[Rendakor]

A lot of that is poor branding on Nintendo's part, combined with the lack of "gamer knowledge" or whatever of their customer base. A lot of people just don't realize that the Wii U is a whole new system. Some think it's just a tablet controller for their Wii, others that it's another portable system. It's the same issue that happened with the 3DS, where it wasn't clear that it was an iterative hardware upgrade.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Just bought Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate today for my daughter. She'll have many late nights during Spring Break to play. She really liked the Wii version of the game and enjoyed playing online. The giant sandworm fight on the boat was probably the coolest fight i remember seeing in the game. I hope this version has some similar interesting fights in the new content.

[Tale]

They need to relaunch it as Wii II, where the II looks like a U. Then everyone will know what it is.

[Trippy]

The latest system update has not fixed the ridiculous Wii U menu switching delay like switching into the system settings. Assuming there are been 4 million systems sold so far and owners have spent an average of an extra 5 minutes waiting for fucking menus to display that's a third of a million people hours of human potential wasted waiting for fucking Wii U menus to display to date and will likely increase into millions of wasted people hours if Nintendo is too incompetent to fix this (which so far they seem to be).

Supposedly the next system update in April will improve this as this video demonstrates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmg_CNsQcc

For those of you without a Wii U you can marvel and laugh at the bullshit Wii U owners have had to put up with. I'm reserving judgement until I see if they fixed the other fucking menu delays (like the above mentioned system settings). The Wii U menu I can kind of understand being so damn slow since it does other stuff not shown in the video like populating the Miiverse display (shown on the other display). It's mind boggling that the other much simpler menu options also take so fucking long to display.

[KallDrexx]

Seriously, the Wii U menu is retardedly slow, and it will still be slow after the update.

I don't get why menus suck on consoles.  It also annoys me to all hell that the PS3 menu has to spin for 15 seconds when you are in an app and bring up the menu.

[luckton]

Soooooo...how's this looking a few months later and post PS4/Xbox announcements?   

[Merusk]

Saw a headline on reddit Friday that said Wii U sales jumped over 8x in the UK after the xb1 announcement.  So, apparently, better.

[Yegolev]

The big update actually sped up the menus to about what you would have expected originally.  I'm not going to call them fast, but they aren't slow either.  Also you can hold B during boot and go right into the Wii emulator.

The WiiU does YouTube so it's my go-to when I need to show someone something on the TV.

The WiiU implementation of Netflix is my favorite.  Watched some Arrested Development on it last night.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

We are still playing Monster Hunter Tri on it.

Also, use it for Netflix.

I also use it as a quick Internet portal when we are watching TV. I just boot it up and use the touchscreen to look stuff up and then turn it off when I am done.

[Rokal]

We are still playing Monster Hunter Tri on it.

Also, use it for Netflix.

I also use it as a quick Internet portal when we are watching TV. I just boot it up and use the touchscreen to look stuff up and then turn it off when I am done.

It's surprisingly useful for non-gaming stuff. I use it every day, usually not for gaming, and the Netflix interface is second only to Apple TV's.

I'd use it for gaming more often if their Virtual Console wasn't so inept. It's criminal that they've under-delivered so greatly on a service that should have been an easy source of income and a great answer to the software drought on the system. 1-2 new games a week, overpriced SNES, NES, and Gameboy games only. Ridiculous.

[Yegolev]

The hardware came out WAY too early.  Scuttlebutt in the local Target is that even Nintendo hates it.

Needs some games.  I have LEGO City and Super Metroid ($0.30!), will get Monster Hunter eventually.  Besides that it's all shit.

[luckton]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on getting this.  After discussions with the Mrs, we cut the cable, reduced our internet to $30 a month for a 10MBit pipe, and hooked up Hulu and Netflix with the Wii U.

So far I'm mighty impressed with the pad controls.  The Mrs. thinks it's silly to game with such a monstrosity of a controller, but she hasn't really played around with it yet.

It's basically the version of the Wii I've always wanted.  And since the developers seem to be a bit more receptive to it's souped up power plus the controller aspect, should be good to go for a while.  Also, Wind Waker HD 

[dusematic]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on getting this.  After discussions with the Mrs, we cut the cable, reduced our internet to $30 a month for a 10MBit pipe, and hooked up Hulu and Netflix with the Wii U.

So far I'm mighty impressed with the pad controls.  The Mrs. thinks it's silly to game with such a monstrosity of a controller, but she hasn't really played around with it yet.

It's basically the version of the Wii I've always wanted.  And since the developers seem to be a bit more receptive to it's souped up power plus the controller aspect, should be good to go for a while.  Also, Wind Waker HD 

Get Amazon Prime.  Do Amazon Mom, or use an .edu email address for 4years of $40/yr Prime.  It's a nice complement to Hulu/Netflix for a cord cutter.  Plus free 2 day ship on anything is nice.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on getting this.  After discussions with the Mrs, we cut the cable, reduced our internet to $30 a month for a 10MBit pipe, and hooked up Hulu and Netflix with the Wii U.

So far I'm mighty impressed with the pad controls.  The Mrs. thinks it's silly to game with such a monstrosity of a controller, but she hasn't really played around with it yet.

It's basically the version of the Wii I've always wanted.  And since the developers seem to be a bit more receptive to it's souped up power plus the controller aspect, should be good to go for a while.  Also, Wind Waker HD 

The thing I like best about the touchscreen controller is that you can do stuff on the Wii  (like internet and Netflix) while other people are watching TV. And in Monster Hunter Tri, all of my GUI is on the touchscreen so the screen is just visuals of big swords and big monsters.

[KallDrexx]

Apparently the Luigi DLC is out today, and from what I'm reading it's a lot of redesigned levels that are supposedly really hard (and the time limit I"m reading is only at 100 seconds instead of 300 seconds).

Hopefully not too hard for the wife, but it sounds good to me :D

[Teugeus]

It's a shame they didn't wait a little longer to release the hardware, what with Platinum Games, Nintendo 1st Party Software and Monolith Soft on their way the next couple of years look promising for the Wii U.

[Rokal]

Nintendo's M.O. is to release hardware before they have a significant software pipeline set up. Happens for every single console they have released since N64.

Apparently the Luigi DLC is out today, and from what I'm reading it's a lot of redesigned levels that are supposedly really hard (and the time limit I"m reading is only at 100 seconds instead of 300 seconds).

Redesigned levels for $20. Sounds like a great deal. 

[Margalis]

Redesigned levels for $20. Sounds like a great deal. 

It's a new set of levels that from what I understand is equal in scope to the original game. For $20 it's like the most value-priced DLC of all time.

[KallDrexx]

Yeah, I wasn't clear.  Every level in the original game has been redesigned.  They are a little shorter but you also only have 100 seconds to complete each level rather than 300.  The platforming mechanics are also changed up a bit, since luigi floats a bit more (almost like the Yoshi mechanics).  Since I only had a few minutes last night to try it out I'm not sure what else is changed, but I'll get my money's worth.

[Yegolev]

Nintendo's M.O. is to release hardware before they have a significant software pipeline set up. Happens for every single console they have released since N64.

In this case, they released the hardware before the OS/firmware was ready.  OOPS.

It seems fine now, I'll not be doomcasting the WiiU.

[Rendakor]

Being out a year early gives them a larger install base, less direct competition with the PS4/Xbone (for everyone who wanted a new console last year), and the opportunity for a holiday price drop/bundle package to compete with the other launches.

[luckton]

Earthbound is back, baby!     

[Rasix]

Yes, you've been unable to play this on an emulator since... forever.

[dusematic]

They shitcanned the basic version.  They dropped the price of the deluxe version by $50.  And they've got a WindWaker HD SKU for $300 as well.  Heading into December against Sony and MS, they'll have New Super Mario Bros. U, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3,  Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3d World, Zelda Wind Waker HD, Wii Fit U, and Wii Party U as notable exclusives.  Will it be enough to keep the console from prolapsing?