Wii U

[NiX]

The Bad:
* Nintendo is retarded.  Miis are now your profiles (like windows logins it seems).  You then tie your Nintendo ID to your Mii.  The problem is it expressly forbids you from associating 2 mii's *on the same system* to the same nintendo Id.  Sooo it seems that I will lose functionality and not be able to play online if I'm not playing as my wife's Mii......   For a console that is heavily advertised to families, this has to be the most retarded thing I have ever, ever heard.  In fact, the wording of the error clearly states "on the same console" which means you can probably associate a mii on another system to that Nintendo Id.

...What? Simply make another Mii and sign up for a Nintendo ID, what's the issue? It's no different than any other online system in place today.

* The wii is heavily getting into social networking, and it makes me rage.  Every time I beat a level in mario it pops up "Do you want to write about this level to the wii verse?".  After the 5th time you beat a level and select "another time" it starts to get annoying.    

It can be turned off and each game prompts you when you first launch it asking if you want these things popping up for you.

[Count Nerfedalot]

5-year old grandson got one for Christmas. I fully expected to hate it after being alternately underwhelmed, frustrated and annoyed with the Wii.  It's surprisingly much better than the Wii, or at least the game pad is vastly superior to the wiimote.  Which may also be its biggest weakness since at best all but one player in multiplayer are stuck with the wiimotes.

I had a lot of fun playing the pad in super mario, sucked as always with the wiimote.

Nintendoland had a lot of fun games on it.

I'm told he played Skylanders Giants on it for a week straight, but he forgot to bring the figures so I haven't seen it.

The online functions plus the camera which seems to automagically broadcast the player's image without warning or control worry me. A lot. Like we chose not to let it connect to our wifi until we have a better understanding of wtf it's doing.  As a bonus with no online connection we never once got nagged to post social networking stuff.

[Cyrrex]

Is it a hardware limitation that won't allow more than one of the new controllers to play at the same time?  Because that sounds like a console killer to me.

I see these things advertised like crazy in the following places:

- Um...
- Err...
- ...?


Yeah, absolutely nowhere.  It is as if it does not exist or was ever launched.  Too early to be certain, but if I had to bet money now I would wager that this is the last full-sized console we see out of Nintendo.  Which would be fine with me, if they would license their IPs out to the others.

[KallDrexx]

Is it a hardware limitation that won't allow more than one of the new controllers to play at the same time?  Because that sounds like a console killer to me.

Yes because each gamepad needs it's own graphics card and processing hardware in the console.  The gamepad doesn't have any of this, the gamepad is really just an extremely advanced video stream reader.  Everything except for input is done on the console and sent to the gamepad.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper

My son said he tried it out but I haven't seen either of them play it yet. Once we play it, I'll report back my impressions of it.

My son has been playing this game every day. In single player mode, he plays on the gamepad and my daughter watches TV shows. He has unlocked a ton of characters and cards for the pvp battle part of the game. The story is pretty deep and you can unlock over 100 characters. There are also a ton of weapon upgrades and item upgrades. There is a little bit of repetitiveness in the story mode where you go "back in time" to a previous mission where you save a character who was previously defeated and that unlocks that character for future missions.

It plays just like previosu KOEI games, but there are a few new twists with the tri attacks and a few characters from previous games have new weapons.

All in all, it's fun if you like button mashing chinese/japanese historical battlefield type games. Lastly, framerate is smooth most of the time. We did have one hard lock that required us to unplug the Wii U due to a cinematic in multiplayer. Same cinematic locked it up twice in a row, so he played it single player and skipped it.

[naum]

John Siracusa rant on Wii U setup was hysterical.
http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/99

[MisterNoisy]

It plays just like previosu KOEI games

Heh - this almost goes without saying.  KOEI has been shitting out DW and 'DW, but in...' since the original Playstation.

[Yegolev]

I have a WIU now.  Since my Wii is dead I'm probably going to just make a clean start of things rather than send it in for repairs and try to re-acquire any VC games.  GG Nintendo.

[schild]

You cant redownload vc games?

[Trippy]

Moving VC content from a Wii to a Wii U is an incredibly painful experience apparently. And on a Wii U you can't transfer that content to another Wii U, ever. Oh and if you sell your Wii U somebody can download all your VC content that you had on there.

[schild]

lol

[Margalis]

Moving VC content from a Wii to a Wii U is an incredibly painful experience apparently. And on a Wii U you can't transfer that content to another Wii U, ever. Oh and if you sell your Wii U somebody can download all your VC content that you had on there.

Someone here reads Neogaf and believes everything they read.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Moving VC content from a Wii to a Wii U is an incredibly painful experience apparently. And on a Wii U you can't transfer that content to another Wii U, ever. Oh and if you sell your Wii U somebody can download all your VC content that you had on there.

We were going to transfer our Wii stuff to the Wii U, but I had previously hacked my Wii so we could play games without a disc. Normally, I would not have done that, but the disc drive in my Wii had failed 4 times since I bought it and I was tired of sending it to Nintendo. Before you can transfer the data, you need to update the system and, with the hack on the system, it might brick it if I do. So, i didn't.

It didn't appear to be too painful. You install the transfer app on an SD card from the Wii U. Put the card in the Wii. Download the transfer app on the Wii. Transfer the data to the SD card. Switch the card back to the Wii U. Run the app and watch it all get installed on your Wii U.

The main downside is that all of the data you transfer is transferred, not copied. It is removed from the Wii and moved to the Wii U. And you don't get to pick and choose what to transfer.

[dusematic]

I have it.  This system shines if you don't live alone.  The killer app is being able to play console games while someone else watches TV, or stream movies in the same room while someone else plays games/watches TV on the TV.  Sounds shitty and fairly niche/useless unless you're actually living the dream/nightmare. 

Played Nintendoland with 5 people.  Luigi's Mansion and Mario Chase were pretty fun.  Everyone had a blast.  NSMB Wii U is solid.  I dig reading the little posts people write about levels.  Sort of Demon's Souls-esque.  I also like that if you're having trouble on a level you can tap into Miiverse and usually figure out what to do.

Tvii works better than I thought it would as a media aggregator/Harmony remote. 

It feels liberating to play a console game in your bed, or anywhere not in front of the TV for that matter.  Overall, I'm a fan but if you have a 360 and a PS3 you probably don't need this.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Tvii works better than I thought it would as a media aggregator/Harmony remote. 

TVii works with Cox cable here in Nevada, so I use it as my remote sometimes, although it won't oull up the channel guide.

I actually got the social commentary part of it to work while watching an NBA game. It shows each scoring play and give syou the chance to pick an emoticon and make a comment on each play. I was commenting through most of the game, but only saw a few comments here and there from other people.

From what I have seen, the comments you post on TVii are also shown on the Mii lobby screen where you can pick the app you want to run. I see stuff on there all the time. A lot of drawings. My kids say that the drawings come from Flipnote Studio on the DS. I'm not sure how they are getting them onto the Wii U.

[Margalis]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

[dusematic]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

Yeah, I understand people would prefer to have a unified account with games linked to the account (e.g. Steam).  The problems are those you have noted, and the fact that piracy is a real thing that exists.  The DS was festooned with it.  It was absurdly easy to grab a flash card off the internet and then download every game ever made for the handheld for free/peanuts.  My brother actually brought me the means home from China.  I never utilized it because A) I'm opposed to piracy on ethical grounds, especially when I have the means to purchase the games if I so choose, and along with that, B) Having the means, the experience of just buying whatever gamer I want and playing it legitimately is easier than messing with flash cart downloads.  

I also don't really understand how people can simultaneously love a product (e.g. viideo games) and then become irate when companies (engaged in the business of making money, whose board members owe a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the shareholders to that effect) attempt to stem the theft of their product.  You don't see that in other industries.  People don't typically grow upset when Sears employs Loss Prevention Officers and installs cameras to stop shoplifters.  You also don't see people employ a tortured logic of "the theft of those products don't hurt the company's bottom line."  Or, even better, "Piracy actually helps software developers because of free advertising!"  Now, there are differences to be sure, one is a physical product and one is not (necessarily).    But, the biggest difference is probably the human brain which has a hard time wrapping its neurons around the morality of stealing a digital product.  That, and the general degradation of our society.

Still, as you say, the most befuddling thing about it is the very loud and public outrage involved.  I prefer a quiet sense of shame in my thieves.

[Yegolev]

I haven't bothered about the VC stuff so far, and it's tied to hardware from everything I read.  There wasn't any sort of "online account" for the Wii, you just started downloading shit, so that much is obvious.  The best you could do is associate a serial with your Club Nintendo account and get coins for your immaterial purchases, but that doesn't seem to equate with me being able to download those items on another registered console.  However I haven't actually tried it yet.

What I have done is to cable up a bunch of things, create Nintendo Network accounts, and play the Pikmin minigame with my son.  It's a DS XXXL, and therefore lots of fun but it isn't very portable.  Supplying my own top screen is also a bit chintzy, even for Nintendo.  I can still play games on the toilet with it, so there's that.

[Lakov_Sanite]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

Yeah, I understand people would prefer to have a unified account with games linked to the account (e.g. Steam).  The problems are those you have noted, and the fact that piracy is a real thing that exists.  The DS was festooned with it.  It was absurdly easy to grab a flash card off the internet and then download every game ever made for the handheld for free/peanuts.  My brother actually brought me the means home from China.  I never utilized it because A) I'm opposed to piracy on ethical grounds, especially when I have the means to purchase the games if I so choose, and along with that, B) Having the means, the experience of just buying whatever gamer I want and playing it legitimately is easier than messing with flash cart downloads.  

I also don't really understand how people can simultaneously love a product (e.g. viideo games) and then become irate when companies (engaged in the business of making money, whose board members owe a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the shareholders to that effect) attempt to stem the theft of their product.  You don't see that in other industries.  People don't typically grow upset when Sears employs Loss Prevention Officers and installs cameras to stop shoplifters.  You also don't see people employ a tortured logic of "the theft of those products don't hurt the company's bottom line."  Or, even better, "Piracy actually helps software developers because of free advertising!"  Now, there are differences to be sure, one is a physical product and one is not (necessarily).    But, the biggest difference is probably the human brain which has a hard time wrapping its neurons around the morality of stealing a digital product.  That, and the general degradation of our society.

Still, as you say, the most befuddling thing about it is the very loud and public outrage involved.  I prefer a quiet sense of shame in my thieves.

DS piracy was so prevalent because the worth of the product plummeted.   Yes it was ridiculously easy to pirate but also DS was right when cellphones became the new handheld and why buy any game at $50 when something comparable is $1 on your iphone?  WiiU is addressing the handheld issue in a creative way but that old gameboy model of handhelds is simply outdated now, tbh the piracy of the ds probably kept it an active system longer than it would have normally.

[Count Nerfedalot]

Sears doesn't station one of those loss control officers in my house and require me to check with him every time i wamt to use a Sears product that I bought. You're comparing apples and fish.

That said, piracy sucks and pirates are thieves. Period.

Back to the actual thread topic, it strikes me that the wii U gamepad is actually the exact device I've been wishing for for about 20 years. But as an open standards accessory to my PC, NOT as a proprietary device slaved to a second-rate closed system console.

[dusematic]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

Yeah, I understand people would prefer to have a unified account with games linked to the account (e.g. Steam).  The problems are those you have noted, and the fact that piracy is a real thing that exists.  The DS was festooned with it.  It was absurdly easy to grab a flash card off the internet and then download every game ever made for the handheld for free/peanuts.  My brother actually brought me the means home from China.  I never utilized it because A) I'm opposed to piracy on ethical grounds, especially when I have the means to purchase the games if I so choose, and along with that, B) Having the means, the experience of just buying whatever gamer I want and playing it legitimately is easier than messing with flash cart downloads.  

I also don't really understand how people can simultaneously love a product (e.g. viideo games) and then become irate when companies (engaged in the business of making money, whose board members owe a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the shareholders to that effect) attempt to stem the theft of their product.  You don't see that in other industries.  People don't typically grow upset when Sears employs Loss Prevention Officers and installs cameras to stop shoplifters.  You also don't see people employ a tortured logic of "the theft of those products don't hurt the company's bottom line."  Or, even better, "Piracy actually helps software developers because of free advertising!"  Now, there are differences to be sure, one is a physical product and one is not (necessarily).    But, the biggest difference is probably the human brain which has a hard time wrapping its neurons around the morality of stealing a digital product.  That, and the general degradation of our society.

Still, as you say, the most befuddling thing about it is the very loud and public outrage involved.  I prefer a quiet sense of shame in my thieves.

DS piracy was so prevalent because the worth of the product plummeted.   Yes it was ridiculously easy to pirate but also DS was right when cellphones became the new handheld and why buy any game at $50 when something comparable is $1 on your iphone?  WiiU is addressing the handheld issue in a creative way but that old gameboy model of handhelds is simply outdated now, tbh the piracy of the ds probably kept it an active system longer than it would have normally.

Typically people steal things they want, which means those things have value (i.e. worth).  Also, shovelware aside, I'm not aware of any $1 cell phone games that offer the experience of top shelf DS software.  Angry Birds is no more sophisticated than one of a dozen minigames  included as a throwaway with the original NSMB for DS.  Your argument that people are stealing things because the value of those things is decreasing is without merit.  Supposing that were true, people would be less likely to pirate DS games, and more likely to buy cell phone games.

The idea that piracy kept the DS afloat is malarkey.  It honestly  sounds like the tortured  logic of someone trying to rationalize their own illicit behavior.  A system is active (i.e. supported) only inasmuch and insofar as it makes money.  Piracy does not contribute to the making of money (unless you're Blackbeard).

[dusematic]

Sears doesn't station one of those loss control officers in my house and require me to check with him every time i wamt to use a Sears product that I bought. You're comparing apples and fish.

That said, piracy sucks and pirates are thieves. Period.

Back to the actual thread topic, it strikes me that the wii U gamepad is actually the exact device I've been wishing for for about 20 years. But as an open standards accessory to my PC, NOT as a proprietary device slaved to a second-rate closed system console.

You're comparing the Wii__> Wii U transfer process (the original topic of discussion) to a person standing in your home requiring you to check with him if you want to use the product?  Nonsense.  It's a convenience and a value added service, that, as pointed out previously, no other competitor offers.

If you're talking about DRM, then that's different.  That's an issue much broader in scope, and I don't have a clear cut answer beyond some sort of Goldilocks approach.  If I desire a commodity, and that commodity's existence is threatened by piracy, then I want the least invasive steps taken to address that concern.

[Yegolev]

Someone's gunning for a new grief title.

[dusematic]

Someone's gunning for a new grief title.

I suggest Smiter of Crappy Arguments.

[Rasix]

If we use the word "crappy", it's going to be in a different context.  We remember your bowel thread; we remember.

[Ingmar]

So like, here I am in a thread nodding in agreement with Duse, what has my life become?

[Yegolev]

I agreed with him, but I covered with a jab.

[Margalis]

How piracy concerns interact with content transfer is a messy subject.

Sony has the ability for people to uniquely identify UMDs (from what I understand) and get digital copies for Vita. In Japan you can do that but it costs money per title. In the US you can't do it at all. I suspect that is partly an issue with rights, partly an issue with piracy concerns, partly an issue with wanting to sell full-price digital copies again, etc.

It will be interesting to see what Sony and MS do next gen. The new systems should be backwards compatible in terms of physical media and there is maybe some chance the MS system will play XNA games but I find it unlikely that either system will be backwards compatible for other types of games, including retail games and non-XNA digital download games. I think the expectation now with digital content is that you can play it moving forward without having to break out your old hardware.

[Yegolev]

Well, I'm getting the impression that the expectation with digital content is that you have to frequently repurchase it.  This is actually fine with me if prices are low enough, but I'd like to retain my saves.

[NiX]

Is it a hardware limitation that won't allow more than one of the new controllers to play at the same time?  Because that sounds like a console killer to me.

The system supports up to 2 gamepads at once. No game currently supports it though.

[Mrbloodworth]

So, hows the graphics? On TV and Handheld.

[dusematic]

So, hows the graphics? On TV and Handheld.

I have NSMB U, AC3, Tekken Tag 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3.  Graphics are the same as a 360.  The pad's resolution isn't 1080p, but the image quality on the pad is roughly the same as on my 42" 1080p TV, given their respective sizes and distance from my eyeballs.  I say roughly because I don't know the exact numbers but they look similar and it's not something I've noticed.

[Yegolev]

Looking at NSMBU is fantastic, like a koala crapped a rainbow into my eyeballs.

[MisterNoisy]

I say roughly because I don't know the exact numbers but they look similar and it's not something I've noticed.

854x480 according to Wiki.

[Lakov_Sanite]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

Yeah, I understand people would prefer to have a unified account with games linked to the account (e.g. Steam).  The problems are those you have noted, and the fact that piracy is a real thing that exists.  The DS was festooned with it.  It was absurdly easy to grab a flash card off the internet and then download every game ever made for the handheld for free/peanuts.  My brother actually brought me the means home from China.  I never utilized it because A) I'm opposed to piracy on ethical grounds, especially when I have the means to purchase the games if I so choose, and along with that, B) Having the means, the experience of just buying whatever gamer I want and playing it legitimately is easier than messing with flash cart downloads.  

I also don't really understand how people can simultaneously love a product (e.g. viideo games) and then become irate when companies (engaged in the business of making money, whose board members owe a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the shareholders to that effect) attempt to stem the theft of their product.  You don't see that in other industries.  People don't typically grow upset when Sears employs Loss Prevention Officers and installs cameras to stop shoplifters.  You also don't see people employ a tortured logic of "the theft of those products don't hurt the company's bottom line."  Or, even better, "Piracy actually helps software developers because of free advertising!"  Now, there are differences to be sure, one is a physical product and one is not (necessarily).    But, the biggest difference is probably the human brain which has a hard time wrapping its neurons around the morality of stealing a digital product.  That, and the general degradation of our society.

Still, as you say, the most befuddling thing about it is the very loud and public outrage involved.  I prefer a quiet sense of shame in my thieves.

DS piracy was so prevalent because the worth of the product plummeted.   Yes it was ridiculously easy to pirate but also DS was right when cellphones became the new handheld and why buy any game at $50 when something comparable is $1 on your iphone?  WiiU is addressing the handheld issue in a creative way but that old gameboy model of handhelds is simply outdated now, tbh the piracy of the ds probably kept it an active system longer than it would have normally.

Typically people steal things they want, which means those things have value (i.e. worth).  Also, shovelware aside, I'm not aware of any $1 cell phone games that offer the experience of top shelf DS software.  Angry Birds is no more sophisticated than one of a dozen minigames  included as a throwaway with the original NSMB for DS.  Your argument that people are stealing things because the value of those things is decreasing is without merit.  Supposing that were true, people would be less likely to pirate DS games, and more likely to buy cell phone games.

The idea that piracy kept the DS afloat is malarkey.  It honestly  sounds like the tortured  logic of someone trying to rationalize their own illicit behavior.  A system is active (i.e. supported) only inasmuch and insofar as it makes money.  Piracy does not contribute to the making of money (unless you're Blackbeard).

Hold on honey, someone on the internet is wrong.

If you think people only steal things you want then you are seriously uninformed about a topic you seem passionate about, namely internet piracy.  Quick rundown is that the ease with which one can pirate something online lends to people pirating things they would never desire to the extent of spending money.  Sure there's crossover into the popular and it's prevalent enough for people to lose money but it's not the majority.

You're also arguing that angry birds is not as sophisticated as a top shelf DS game well...no shit?  Now ask yourself how many people play angry birds or how much man hours have been spent on it VS any DS game made. It's not about quality, it's about how much fun and time we get out of our diversions.  Yes that $50 DS game has a huge team of developers, cutscenes and wonderfully crafted vistas but it all means jack shit if someone has just as much fun playing fucking farmville...welcome to the new age of gaming.