A new Wii U thread

[Beagle 2]

As far as I can see there's only game threads and the old 'launch night' thread kicking about.

I just got me one, anyway. I just have Nintendoland and Zombie U at the moment, but I'll pick up Mario 3D World and Mariokart soon enough. What else should I go for, anything on the eshop?

I was prepared for there to be very few third party games, but I must admit the news that there will be no new Call of Duty and no FIFA was a bit shocking. I'm not super-bothered about either but how much would it have cost to just at least do a legacy edition of FIFA? Anyway, it's obviously not what I bought the system for.

Also, this is a pretty broad question, but I never had a Wii, what classic Wii games would you recommend?

Um, online is free, right? Anybody want to be my fwend?

[amnesiac]

We have those titles, pretty much the only decent titles but our U has been gathering dust for absolutely ages now. Worst purchase ever.

[Blumf]

Some old Wii games I liked:
Excite Truck (easy, but just plain fun, best use of the Wiimote)
Warioware
Pikmin
Wii Sport (the golf is pretty relaxing)

Wii-U stuff that's at least is okay:
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (buggy as hell, but I preferred it to Mario Kart Wii (not tried 8 yet))
The Wonderful 101 (although, I never got into it properly, really need to revisit it)
Rayman Legends
Zombie U (I think it makes the best use of the gamepad thingy)

Barely touched it in the past half year, the wife does the Rayman daily challenge stuff occasionally, that's about it. Real waste of a console.

[Beagle 2]

Great! Feeling good about my purchase!

To be honest, I hardly touched my Xbox over the years. I would properly get into maybe a couple of games a year, so even if I was to only maintain that level it would be a worthwhile purchase. I play my Vita every day so I'm obviously okay with poorly-supported consoles. And I can't not play Mario 3D World or Mariokart. The wife is a Mario fan as well, so I'm hoping it will save on Relate bills.

[Ignatius_S]

...I just got me one, anyway. I just have Nintendoland and Zombie U at the moment, but I'll pick up Mario 3D World and Mariokart soon enough. What else should I go for, anything on the eshop?...

Pretty much all the exclusive titles – I'm happy to go into more detail why, but I would suggest considering:

Pikmin 3
The Wonderful 101
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Lego City Undercover
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Hyrule Warriors
New Super Mario Bros. U/Luigi U

Although it's not exclusive, I would strongly recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut, even if you've played the original and this new version came out on other platforms. The use of the gamepad is fantastic – and I would recommend Splinter Cell: Blacklist for the same reason.

In terms of the eShop:

NES Remix
Pushmo World
Scram Kitty and His Buddy on Rails
Little Inferno
Nano Assault Neo

Actually, there are a lot of very good indie titles – quiet a few are available on other platforms – and there are regular deals.

Re: Wii – stacks, you're best doing a google search, but here are a few:

No More Heroes (and the sequel)
Madworld
The House of the Dead: Overkill
Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
Xenoblade Chronicles
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Red Steel 2
Okami
Dead Space Extraction

All except Xenoblade Chronicles can be picked up cheaply (some ridiculously so) and worth a punt.

[Pdine]

Yeah fuck those guys. It's a great console. That is to say, it's quite crappy, but it's a machine for playing Zelda and Mario, so it's great. I'd recommend Pullblox, Pikmin 3, Hyrule Warriors, Zelda Wind Waker, Lego City Undercover and New Super Mario Bros. U, as well as what you have. Bayonetta 2 looks good this month too, and will probably never appear anywhere else as Nintendo bankrolled it. Oh and buy Super Metroid, Link to the Past, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Zelda The Minish Cap and Wario Land 4 on the virtual console thingy.

[madhair60]

Oh no, mate, a Wii U?

No, I kid, I want one for Mario. And DK.

[Kelvin]

The game I'm most hyped for on any console right now is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4SwkBnhlOE

Smash Bros. Wii U.

Mario vs Sonic vs pac-man vs megaman! Shiiiiiiit!!!!!

[Kelvin]

Actually, I have a bunch of old Wii U games I don't want anymore. If you want, you can have a couple, gratis.

Metroid: Other M
Mad World
Red Steel 2
Red Steel 1
No More Heroes
No More Heroes 2
Teeenage Mutand Hero Turtles: Smash Up

Truth be told, most of those aren't very good, but they'll kill a few days easily enough. No More Heroes 1 and 2, and Red Steel 2, are the best, I reckon. If anyone wants them, PM me your address and which two you want and I'll either send you the games or a photo of my last victim asap.

[syntaxerror]

Yeah fuck those guys. It's a great console. That is to say, it's quite crappy, but it's a machine for playing Zelda and Mario, so it's great.

This is basically why I bought a Wii U. Not for everyone's tastes and the criticisms of the system are more than fair, but - I haven't owned a Nintendo console since the N64 and wanted to catch up on a decades worth of Zelda titles and imo the Wii U has been the console to do this on - I can play Wind Waker HD, Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Minish Cap,the original NES titles and the upcoming unnamed title all on one system. Although I've never really warmed to the Mario franchise and find the character to be a bit of a twee twat, I do enjoy the gameplay of Mario games because they're so well made. There are Several older third party games that seem to be going for next to nothing (because no one's buying them) that are worth checking out if you haven't played them before (mass effect 3, Deus Ex, Batman Arkham City), but really, the system is all about the exclusives. It can't really compete on technology, nor innovation, so well established franchises are carrying the system. I still can't see the point (yet) of buying a next gen console, mainly due to the dearth of must-have titles.

[Benjaminos]

Wii U: best console. Quality over quantity, innit - you'll never find a better produced game than any first-party Nintendo title.

Lego City Undercover is splendid (and has some of Buxton's finest voice work in it) - and I'm having a storming time with Hyrule Warriors at the moment. Basically, buy all the Nintendo games, then the Platinum games when you're done with those.

[Kelvin]

IGN are doing a half-decent run at the moment on the 125 best Nintendo games of all time. It's a pretty safe bet that if it's on that list, it's either historically significant, bloody good fun, or hands down one of the best games ever made.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/09/24/the-top-125-nintendo-games-of-all-time

Besides being a handy list of games to either buy or download, it also highlights what an incredible history Nintendo have had as a developer.[nb]And let's be honest, how shamelessly they use the same characters over and over again.[/nb] 

[amnesiac]

oops forgot about that Lego City, bizarrely a Wii U exclusive, my youngest was so gutted when he completed it, it was fun just watching it too.

[The Boston Crab]

For Wii:

Mario Galaxy 1&2
Skyward Sword & Twilight Princess
Metroid Prime Trilogy

Few games have ever brought me so much joy. There's a good number of Wii games which I really enjoyed but I won't bother mentioning them. These games are better than anything on Wii U, or PS4 and Xbox One for that matter.

[Beagle 2]

Cheers for all the recommendations. Just had a bash on Zombie U, and I can already see why the touchpad is a good idea. After a belly of wine I forsee some ebay fun picking up some wii classics. Ah, there's nothing to compare to the joy of a new gadget.

Presentation-wise it's like all modern consoles, a fucking confusing mess. And apparently I got the wrong controller, it has to be one with a plus on it or something. Who are all the little men running about saying things like 'I luv tennis like andy murey!'?

[BPFHAY]

Wife gave me this for our first anniversary:

[madhair60]

Wii U: best console. Quality over quantity, innit - you'll never find a better produced game than any first-party Nintendo title.

Shit Nintendo Fans Say Fucking hell it's impossible to be cynical; you're dead right.  Dead fucking right.

[Beagle 2]

Poor old Nintendo, look at this YouGov survey question I got today. Even Ouya is an option!

[The Region Legion]

It's the Dreamcast all over again. Best console of its era, ahead of its time by something approaching a decade[nb]The Wii U gamepad is, after all, just an evolution of the VMU concept[/nb], and it's just getting shat on by all and sundry.

What person in their right mind would consider the XBone and the PS4 "better" than the Wii U? What sort of fucking cunt doesn't want to be playing Mario Kart 8 over Call Of Duty?

Humanity is lost.

[madhair60]

Dreamcast  (...) Best console of its era

By "its era", I assume you mean "the time of its release until the launch of the PS2", right?

The Dreamcast remains the only console whose controller drew blood from my hands.

Had some great fucking times with the DC.  The opening logo thing gives me the nostalgia every time.

[The Region Legion]

By "its era", I assume you mean "the time of its release until the launch of the PS2", right?

The Dreamcast was the more inspired console, but yes. PS2 obviously blew it out of the water eventually, but it took a while for games to take advantage of the extra power the PS2 had over the Dreamcast. Head to head, Dreamcast versions of early games look better than the PS2 versions.

[madhair60]

Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast, though.  Soooooo good.  That console was amazing for getting the arcade experience home.

Must get a Wii U eventually.  Too much stuff I want.

[The Region Legion]

Crazy Taxi on Dreamcast, though.  Soooooo good.  That console was amazing for getting the arcade experience home.

Exactly. I only realised quite recently that that's really what the Dreamcast was, in an era when "the arcade" was dying a death - the PS2 created modern gaming, where the point is to tell a story and give dozens of hours of gameplay, enjoyable or not. The Dreamcast is perfect for a 10-15 minute bash at something and then to switch off and do something else, and if you were into your epics then you had Shenmue, for what it's worth.

Also, the original version of Rez.

[Benjaminos]

Wife gave me this for our first anniversary:

Splendid. Are they hand-made, or purchasable somewhere?

I have this on my left shoulder:



Surprisingly, I'm not the only person I know with a Nintendo tattoo. There's a girl in my office with a SNES controller emblazoned upon her person (it's kinda hot).

[BPFHAY]

Splendid. Are they hand-made, or purchasable somewhere?

I think she got them from Etsy. Seems like more than one seller making prints in that style, so I don't know if any seller you'd find them from is the actual artist: https://www.etsy.com/listing/188096334/super-mario-bros-mario-and-luigi?ref=sr_gallery_11&ga_search_query=super+mario+print&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

[Ignatius_S]

...Presentation-wise it's like all modern consoles, a fucking confusing mess. And apparently I got the wrong controller, it has to be one with a plus on it or something. Who are all the little men running about saying things like 'I luv tennis like andy murey!'?

Sorry, I meant to mention Wii Remotes. There are 'classic' ones and Motion Plus ones – you can also get a Motion Plus attachment for the former. Virtually all Wii games don't require Motion Plus and not all Wii U ones (e.g. Mario Kart 8).

I would avoid third-party ones. Although they're cheaper, a lot of people report problems. Now and then places have them on offer (and in fact Argos, are to the black ones with Motion Plus for £18) so it's worth keeping an eye. Also, I think Cex would be worth considering – IIRC, second-hand official controllers  are cheaper than more than a few third-party ones.

Incidentally, both games you've already got, I would have strongly recommended getting.

oops forgot about that Lego City, bizarrely a Wii U exclusive...

The game was published by Nintendo  and it funded development, at least in part – although there was a fair more of speculation that the game would be a timed exclusive, I couldn't see Nintendo going to all that effort for that.

[chand]

It's the Dreamcast all over again. Best console of its era, ahead of its time by something approaching a decade[nb]The Wii U gamepad is, after all, just an evolution of the VMU concept[/nb], and it's just getting shat on by all and sundry.

What person in their right mind would consider the XBone and the PS4 "better" than the Wii U? What sort of fucking cunt doesn't want to be playing Mario Kart 8 over Call Of Duty?

Humanity is lost.

Nintendo only really have themselves to blame, with the old Wii they deliberately targeted people who a) don't typically play games b) don't really care about fancy new hardware. They made a shitload of money out of it. But now they've released a new version of the Wii targeting a crowd of indifferent Wii owners who are either a) disinclined to fuck off their Wii because it still does what they want, or b) have a Wii that is gathering dust under the telly. There's a hardcore of Nintendo Gamers who bought the Wii U, and there's a hardcore of kids who will by the latest Nintendo handheld, but outside of that nobody cares.

Plus, the original Wii had a great central gimmick of motion control to service its fat wads of party games for families and fitness workouts. The Wii U, by contrast, has a lumbering great pad which is also a screen and it's hard to describe exactly what it's for because it varies from game to game. Which I'm sure is ace but it makes it a bit of a harder sell.

[Ignatius_S]

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is being added to the eShop – from 16 October to 6 November, there's a 33% discount if you also buy Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest or Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble. These three are being added to the Wii U Virtual console over three weeks (one a week) from Thursday.

The VC games cost £5.49 each and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is £26.79 with the discount for having one of the VC games – so £32.28 for two games. If you don't mind not being able to trade a physical copy, that's a pretty decent deal – DKC:TR is greatly admired, the VC games are worth playing and it's about what you'd pay for DKC:TR on its own. The download code for DKC:TR from Game is a £32.99 (CDKeys.com would be slightly cheaper). Physical copies for second-hand copies usually go from £32+ from retailers, but on eBay, probably more like £25+ (and postage). If you're a member of the Nintendo Network Premium scheme, then you'll obviously get the points as well.

[Beagle 2]

Cheers for the info! Got my eye on this deal for Bayonetta 1&2 when pay day finally arrives: http://savygamer.co.uk/2014/10/13/bayonetta-bayonetta-2-wii-u-37-71/

[Kelvin]

Unfortunately, I ordered a 2nd hand copy of Tropical Freeze last Friday for just under £30. Waiting for it to arrive now.

I've also just finished Pikmin 3, which might be my favourite wii solo player so far. All the hallmarks of great Nintendo design; tight controls, nice visuals, no glitches or technical problems, endearing characters and masterful level design, where everything becomes simpler and more efficient, the more skills you acquire and shortcuts you create. Genuinely one of the most joyful – and unique – gaming experiences I've had in years and one which I'd recommend to absolutely anyone with a wii U.