Topic: Nintendo NX

[Onken]

E3 is just around the corner and further evidence of the new controller has leaked.

These look genuine. I don't know what to make of it.

Doesn't look like it will be comfortable to hold.

[Kelvin]

If it's real, they're fucking mad.

[Johnny Textface]

That's why I love Nintendo. The Wii was pretty mad at the time wasn't it?

[Kelvin]

That's why I love Nintendo. The Wii was pretty mad at the time wasn't it?

Yeah, but if gamers and developers see this as yet another gimmick and yet another console flops, they're gonna be out of business. I love Nintendo for their mad ideas, but they need this new console to be a hit. A controller without any physical buttons? Hardly easy for 3rd party games to port over and its been that lack of support that's effectively strangled them these last few years.

[hewantstolurkatad]

It's fairly hard to see where Nintendo go as far as hardware is concerned though.
They've always been making slightly wacky peripherals, with the Wii and DS they got super lucky in catching certain markets several years before anyone else had even spotted the mad money to be made there but there isn't going to be some major jackpot of an untapped like that to stumble onto again.

I imagine the finished product will look better, but fuck...



Mind you, it'll be hard to beat the underwhelmed response I had for the Wii U when it was revealed. Or the year after when they went wild about Nintendoland as if it were going to be the new Wii Sports despite not really managing to explain anything about it (as opposed to Wii Sports which was nothing if not intuitive).

[brat-sampson]

The closest they've come to a 'conventional' console was probably the SNES. N64 stuck with cartridges and the controller was a trident. Gamecube used proprietary media, was purple, had a weed-looking controller, a handle and wasn't very popular with 3rd parties (despite having an excellent library regardless). Wii, well, obviously. Wii U was quite a bit more conventional, aside from the tablet in the controller, it worked perfectly well with normal games and the Pro controller is if anything less weird than the DS4. I reckon it mostly suffered from naming confusion, the huge dominance of the PS4 combined with some plain bad luck. It probably doesn't help that while literally everyone else is now bending over backwards to offer regular powerful sales, Nintendo EU doesn't give a shit and is content to just throw up a few indies at half price.

This new thing looks weird and unusual, but no more-so really than the DS, 3DS or Wii, so tbh I'm pretty excited to see what it can do.

[Kelvin]

I'm incredibly excited. I love Nintendo with all my heart. I just worry about their future.

I also worry that a controller without any physical buttons simply won't work properly. You need that tactile experience. You need to know exactly, instantly where your finger needs to go next. It's not like a touch screen phone or tablet where you can look at the screen while you type/play.

Not unless it really is just a handheld this time and they truly are abandoning home consoles[nb]I'd been hoping that the rumours that it was both were true.[/nb].     

[madhair60]

Baffled but excited because it's the new Nintendo thing. That's all I need to know to pay attention. It's a guarantee - absolutely 100% - that this thing will host some fantastic games.

[Kelvin]

It's a guarantee - absolutely 100% - that this thing will host some fantastic games.

And considering how obvious it is that their A teams have effectively abandoned the Wii U in the last 6 months, that suggests they really plan to launch with a rash of very special games. Other than Zelda U (which will almost certainly release on both platforms), they haven't got any of their in house talent working on the Wii U now. Paper Mario and Star Fox are mostly being handled by 2nd party developers.

[Kelvin]

God, imagine getting a new Mario game in the next 12 months.

[biggytitbo]

Maybe they've mastered mind control?

[lazarou]

I'm incredibly excited. I love Nintendo with all my heart. I just worry about their future.

I also worry that a controller without any physical buttons simply won't work properly. You need that tactile experience. You need to know exactly, instantly where your finger needs to go next. It's not like a touch screen phone or tablet where you can look at the screen while you type/play.

There's a peristent rumour going round that the screen will use some kind of advanced haptic feedback to give the feel of real buttons on a touchscreen. Could be interesting. Could be bollocks.

[buntyman]

That's probably one of many peripherals you need to play the games. Looks a bit daft but I think I'd be more interested in it than the ps4 and xbone which I can't really build any enthusiasm for. If the new Zelda will play on both that and the Wii u, there must be some extra thing with buttons that we're not seeing.

[pandadeath]

The initial 'leak' of the white controller last week has been confirmed to have been faked. No news on the black controller yet, but its a pretty safe bet that it's just a copycat of the original one. It bears too close a resemblance to a patent that was making the rounds late last year and if you look closely at the pictures of the black one it looks like really rough, edges frayed for example like someone has just mocked one up out of acrylic at home.

It's going to be an interesting couple of months worth of speculating, the internet really went into overdrive about this over the last couple of days. As I type this there's a 'game developer' doing an AMA on reddit about the NX where he shoots down the 'leaks' and basically just describes the console and controller as a more powerful, sleeker Wii U.

Even as a lifelong fan, I honestly don't know what to expect from Nintendo. I hope, like some of you have mentioned, that the lack of first party development for the Wii U over the last year means that we get a tonne of great first party titles in the launch window for the NX, but the last days of the Wii were pretty thin on the ground for software and that didn't translate into AAA titles in the early days of the Wii U.

Nintendo hold their annual investors meeting at the end of April and they're duty held to tell their shareholders what their plans for the next financial year entail, so that's the soonest that we're likely to hear any details and even then it will probably just be a passing mention along the lines of "We expect to ship the NX console/handheld worldwide in Q4 2016, more details will be announced at E3"

I can't imagine a real console reveal getting the same attention to the way reddit and GAF has reacted over the last few days.

[brat-sampson]

Fucking bravo. Posted by the same Reddit account that posted the original image. I guess the second set of pics was just a better-looking attempt to copy-cat the first one.


So yeah, the NX could still be anything, and Nintendo's boat remains leak-proof.

[Onken]

Fooled you all! I knew all along. Frayed edges.

[brat-sampson]

Also Bravo. All settled now.

[Dannyhood91]

I heard from Kyle Bosman that this console is apparently going to attempt to surpass the PS4 and XBONE in terms of power, so no more 2005 era graphics.

The Wii U hasn't been out for very long has it?

[The Region Legion]

The Wii U hasn't been out for very long has it?

4 years this November, so not especially but neither is it fresh and it's already "dead" in terms of public opinion.

The fact that they never managed to get an exclusive Zelda title out on it is.. I mean, it's just ridiculous isn't it. Given the only draw to the console is the first party properties, skipping the 2nd most famous is not an option.

If the new console is genuinely "better" in core specs than the PS4 or XBone it will be interesting to see where that leaves them in terms of third-party support, which is the main reason the Wii U has tanked. If the best possible versions of your AAA games were on the NX, they could see a great deal of crossover.

At the same time, I expect improvements on third party software to be minimal-to-none as developers will be more concerned with amount sold than improving just one version over the other two consoles. They'd be better off making something simply AS powerful as PS4 or XBone, bundling a proper controller in and that way having their silly cake and eating it sensibly too.

[Noodle Lizard]

What even is it?  And LOL, okay Nintendo, just now you've decided to be the top-spec machine when you didn't even adopt 1080p until four years ago.  Not sure I'm buying that.

As much as I like about 5% of Nintendo's output (Zelda, most Marios, Super Smash Bros ... er ... a lot of the N64 games were good), they aren't half a rubbish company.  I got a Wii because I wanted to play Skyward Sword and that was the only game I played on it (as well as the new-and-honestly-not-that-great Mario Kart, which came bundled).  I did one cursory browse and realised every Wii game, even four year old ones, cost around fifty quid.  "Fuck that for a laugh", I bellowed to nobody, and closed the window about ten minutes later (I did some other browsing in the meantime).  The fact that it didn't even double as a DVD player felt like a right cock in the nostrils.  A shit machine, basically.  God only knows what the Wii U was like - it sounded stupid when they announced it, and I've yet to hear otherwise.

Do they do anything else?  I know they started out as like a playing cards manufacturer or something, but they're hardly on the level of Sony or Microsoft are they?

[Onken]

 



Nintendo are Disney without the Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars acquisitions. A company still pushing Mickey Mouse down are throats and unable to create new magic. It's all downhill from here.

[Noodle Lizard]

Skyward Sword was excellent, though, even if I did feel like a proper legend cunt holding that Wiimote up in the air like a sword.  Five or six years ago, mind, but still.

[hewantstolurkatad]

Zelda is at a tricky point these days though, isn't it? The whole structure of the series is very dated at this stage for what people expect from a major title, the major games in the series have to be really f*cking good to make up for that and/or innovate in ways that don't completely divert from the feel of the series.


Skyward Sword could've probably been pushed back to coming out on Wii U, in retrospect.

[brat-sampson]

Nah, Nintendo still have it. The fact they've been in bed with Platinum for the last few years only makes it better. Bayonetta and W101 were both brilliant. Speaking for their main studio, they've given the Wii U a new kind of Mario, Infinite home-made Mario, one of the best Mario Karts ever, the most comprehensive Smash ever, Splatoon, and a great Pikmin. The main reason I don't have more Wii U games is those undroppable prices, making each one feel like such a big investment, even when I know they're good games.

It's definitely tragic that it doesn't yet have a Zelda and will never see a Metroid/F-Zero etc, but they're not suddenly shite at games.

[Phil_A]

What even is it?  And LOL, okay Nintendo, just now you've decided to be the top-spec machine when you didn't even adopt 1080p until four years ago.  Not sure I'm buying that.

As much as I like about 5% of Nintendo's output (Zelda, most Marios, Super Smash Bros ... er ... a lot of the N64 games were good), they aren't half a rubbish company.  I got a Wii because I wanted to play Skyward Sword and that was the only game I played on it (as well as the new-and-honestly-not-that-great Mario Kart, which came bundled).  I did one cursory browse and realised every Wii game, even four year old ones, cost around fifty quid.  "Fuck that for a laugh", I bellowed to nobody, and closed the window about ten minutes later (I did some other browsing in the meantime).  The fact that it didn't even double as a DVD player felt like a right cock in the nostrils.  A shit machine, basically.  God only knows what the Wii U was like - it sounded stupid when they announced it, and I've yet to hear otherwise.

The best thing you could do with the Wii was jailbreak it with almost no effort and then use it to run Gamecube games off a USB hard drive. I bought one super cheap about two years ago just to do this, in fact.

[Beagle 2]

:-o

Oh rly? I shall have to invest in one!

[Old Nehamkin]

I did one cursory browse and realised every Wii game, even four year old ones, cost around fifty quid.

Is that right? I don't think I can remember ever paying that much for a Wii game, new or old. I got Mario Galaxy 2 for about £30 on release, I think.

Do they do anything else?  I know they started out as like a playing cards manufacturer or something, but they're hardly on the level of Sony or Microsoft are they?

Well no, they aren't a multimedia conglomerate like those companies, they just do games as far as I know. I don't really see why that's a negative thing.

[Blumf]

If the new console is genuinely "better" in core specs than the PS4 or XBone it will be interesting to see where that leaves them in terms of third-party support, which is the main reason the Wii U has tanked. If the best possible versions of your AAA games were on the NX, they could see a great deal of crossover.

Would Nintendo ever support Steam? A system that exceeds the current gen in power + Ninty First Party + Gabe Newell wallet rape powers = $$$

But I doubt that'll happen.

[Old Nehamkin]

Nintendo are Disney without the Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars acquisitions. A company still pushing Mickey Mouse down are throats and unable to create new magic. It's all downhill from here.

If Disney kept putting out consistently amazing, inventive, fun Mickey Mouse films, that would be alright by me.

[Phil_A]

If Disney kept putting out consistently amazing, inventive, fun Mickey Mouse films, that would be alright by me.

They have been, for the last three years!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC6qIbU1olyXQe1WOKt8UJ4hErx3D7qt8