Topic: Building off of the 3DS?

I've noticed a bit of a pattern with Wii U games. It's not just the usual Nintendo properties mash-up, but rather almost direct sequels to 3DS games. We've got Super Mario 3D World building off of 3D Land, NSMBU building off of NSMB2, Mario Kart 8 building off of Mario Kart 7, and Super Smash Bros developed for both at once. If it's not building off of the 3DS it's off of the Wii or the Gamecube like Donkey Kong TF or The Wind Waker. These aren't just evolutions of the franchise like normal, but look like they're running modified versions of the old engines, which would dramatically reduce development time in exchange for making the games look kinda samey.

With this information, I can predict some games they will announce for the Wii U soon, being Zelda: Four Swords U building off the engine for A Link Between Worlds, Fire Emblem U building off of Awakening's Engine (just add feet, direct sequel perhaps?), and maybe even Pokemon Z being a kind of HD version of X and Y with more emphasis on online multiplayer. What say you?

I'd say that's what they're doing at the moment to minimize costs since the Wii U install base is only starting to grow. But once the console will be on its feet, that's when they'll start making the real games that truly harness the power of the Wii U.
(I'm thinking Metroid, F-Zero, Star Fox, Fire Emblem...)

So far I only see X doing that. Somewhat Mario Kart and Smash but I confident they're using the same engines as before. I'm thing the next Wii U Zelda will also go all out.

For Fire Emblem, I want them to make a prequel of the Radiance series taking place at the time of the three heroes: "Fire Emblem: Legend of Radiance." They would create a brand-new "reality" engine of which one of the main particularities would be that the strategy map and the battle maps would be one and the same, meaning for combat the camera would actually zoom in stylizely on the fight and add in the details of the location on the opponents' encounter. I'm just lashing out crazy ideas out there, that just how much of a fan I am.

And then, to compensate the cost of said engine, Intelligent Systems would remake Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn on the Wii U with it under the name of: "Fire Emblem: Radiant Legacy."

I'm obviously dreaming, but these are the kinds of stuff that would literaly be insane to think of at launch due to the costs of development, hence the relatively low "HD" quality of current first-party Wii U games — Pikmin 3 aside — compared to what they are truly capable of; and hence why so far the Wii U as been wrongly thought as on par with the PS360s.

That would be pretty cool, particularly if they added in easy and casual modes in the remake. Also, Time Travel, because that made Awakening awesome. Having old characters able to pair up and have kids from the future come back to visit was cool, but how about a second generation. If your main character went to the future the same way the future kids came back, then all of you current characters would have older future versions. Elderly characters would be dead, adult characters would be elderly, young adults would be full adults, and you'd have teenage and adult versions of the kids. You could also pair up the kids in the past and have their children show up in the future, adding a third generation of children. Not to mention travelling further into the past to recruit heroes from other Fire Emblem games, potentially creating alternate universes where they were not present and the bad guys won and leak into the universe you're playing in.

I don't think zooming in is the answer. I'd prefer if you could just keep the map on the gamepad all the time, and display the battle animations on the TV.

For Mario Kart, you have to also keep in mind that Mario Kart 7 was built off of Mario Kart Wii... which was probably built off Mario Kart DS. The series is never one for massively changing everything around.

Also, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze being similar to Returns is no big deal nor particularly strange. After all, weren't there a full trilogy of games with a similar look, the same developers, etc back in the SNES days? I think it's nice that Nintendo is actually bringing back Donkey Kong Country as a series rather than having Returns as some one off thing.

And I don't think New Super Mario Bros U was built off 2, both 2 and U were based on the Wii game.

But yeah, I see what you're saying, but I don't think it's really much of a bad thing. After all, not every major new Nintendo game has some ground breaking revolution in every sense, they just need to be great games.

I can't really comment on the other games because I haven't seen them in person yet, but Mario Kart 8 looks much different than any of the previous Mario Kart games. The physics are similar (in turning/drifting, etc.), but the visuals are SO gorgeous. Global illumination, ambient occlusion, anti-aliasing, and the list goes on. I'm pretty sure a completely new graphics engine was made just for Mario Kart 8.

I don't think this goes back to the DS version, but I do think the Wii version was 1.0 for the engine Mario Kart is using now. As for Donkey Kong, having 3 games with a similar look is one thing if they're all on the same system. Having two games on different systems look nearly identical is quite another thing entirely.

Well firstly a whole other thread has been a nonsensical argument thread about this already. So keep that in mind.

Generally I think something much, much bigger than the Wii U and 3DS is happening here. Games are getting much more expensive to produce and so companies are going for lower risk investments. Ubisoft for example has said that all of the games they make now are built with the intent of starting a series. If you go back to E3 pretty much everything on show was a sequel. This is just where the industry has gotten to.

As for these specific examples you could have said the same thing about the 3DS' titles at it's launch. It got N64 ports, a new Mario Kart and a game that at the time was looked at as a bit of a revival of the idea of Super Mario Land. Portable Mario. Then they teased us with new versions of Animal Crossing (GC, DS, Wii) and Luigi's Mansion (GC). The only "original idea" from Nintendo was Kid Icarus. If anything the Wii U is getting more interesting and original content than the 3DS did. The only reason it even slightly appears like they're "milking the 3DS" is because right now the 3DS is the only other active platform they have.

It's good how they're merging and making their hardware come together this time. Think of it as just creating one big happy ecosystem for the Nintendo experience as a whole to thrive under