Topic: Is the Wii U a failure?

Failure or not I feel I got my enjoyment out of the thing and don't regret buying it, much like the Sega Saturn (although unlike the Neo Geo Pocket).

I would.

What do you find more enjoyable:
The inferior graphics
or
lack of Swift Sail?

Spoiler alert! The following wall of text contains my opinion, nowhere should it be taken as fact as it's my view on the game: it's all subjective.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think that most of the upgrades were bad, even though some were unnecessary, most were a welcome addition. However, I wasn't very fond of every change, mostly minor nitpicks, but enough to not outright call the HD version the definitive version. For example, even without using the Swift Sail, the difficulty of the Korok mini-quest was lowered and it didn't feel as challenging as it was in the original. The cell shading took a step backwards as well, to a point where I can barely call it cell shaded anymore. I don't think the HD version looks bad, but the cell shading is part of the Wind Waker's charm. Even the lighting, which used to be simple, had to be changed into gradient lighting, making torches, lanterns and various other light sources look weirdly realistic in such a cartoony game. The added bloom didn't always help the visuals either, especially on the Great Sea, where I personally felt it became oversaturated with bright colours and bloom. Whereas it used to be a very simple and pleasant colour scheme. Or the way the wind direction was selected. In the original it was very intuitive, but they completely removed that system in favour of pointing the control stick left or right to rotate the wind direction until the arrow landed on the desired direction.

I was never bothered by the length of the Triforce quest, nor did I think that the sailing speed or animations were too slow. Therefore I can't really be bothered with those changes. The gyroscope controls were a good addition I think, and I enjoyed how easy it was to browse the inventory on the GamePad, changing items on the fly. Off-TV Play was another thing I enjoyed.

The original was a great game to begin with and the HD version is just as enjoyable as the original. Both are amazing games (The Wind Waker is arguably one of my favourite games). I just don't feel that all the changes made to the HD version were necessarily better. As I wasn't bothered by the sailing speed and the Triforce quest to begin with, I feel that the two of the biggest changes don't really matter to me. Most of my complaints are just nitpicks though. I enjoyed the addition of the GamePad controls, but visuals have taken a step down in my opinion, which is why I think the game lost part of its charm that was present on the GameCube.

I'm aware of those things. They are certainly valid points.
I didn't really find the difficulty on the Korok quest that hard to begin with. It certainly wasn't such a huge part of the game so it didn't matter much to me. I found the less time sailing refreshing and makes the replay value even better. BUT that is just MY opinion.

Back to what I first wrote:
Some of the new games isn't necessary better. But even if they are, they are just upgrades from the previous titles.
Which means the Wii U library isn't THAT great.

The best question yet. And no, my Wii U havent disappointment me.

It's both yes and no.

Do I get enjoyment from it?
Yes
Did it meet my expectations?
No

The Wii U being the first Console I actually bought with my own money, it holds a special place and it will never be failure to me or my family. I know sales are everything to Nintendo and the industry as a whole but it's done good. That'll do pig, That'll do.

You have a strange metric for failure.

In the sense that it's like that it's not even really like that. It's more like if three guys made investments in particular ideas. One of them doubled their money, one tippled their money and one only made 20%. Did that third person's investment fail? Well no, not really. It just wasn't as much of a success as the others.

Then there's the other way to think about it. Three directors make three very different movies. The first guy makes a movie that's very commercially successful but is only moderately appreciated by the critics. The second guy makes a movie that's critically panned but makes a fairly decent return. The third guy makes a movie that you could only describe as profitable overall but the critics love it and it gains a cult following. Which one was more successful?

The dreamcast sold more units in less time than the wii u. So commercially speaking, yes. On the other hand, it had a large library of quality titles, so quality speaking, no. But, you know what else didn't sell despite it's genius? Okami, Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, and Shenmue (Among other cult classics).

It is the fictional and unimportant results of the mythical "console wars". In that area the Wii U is a failure as the N64 and GC were.

Nintendo makes money and keeps making games is where the important success is. Nintendo is the best of the 3 at making money in this industry and they are arguably the best at first party software as well....they certainly have there fans who only buy their hardware for those games pretty much.

Sounds a bit like Baby Park on 200cc

Arguing about this is kinda dumb. There is no one answer. Everyone will have their own opinions and why. I think Nintendo is starting to gain some good press with their games and if they continue to show their support for the system, similar but not that eact same as Sony did with the Playstation 3, then Nintendo can look at stronger system support for next year. The biggest negative Nintendo has been having to face with their Wii U is the fear of dropping support for it early, which Nintendo has proven so far that they won't do that. You cannot answer the question because the question is flawed. I think the better question is, "Has Nintendo learned from the Wii U?" This question will start debates about the importance of failing and learning and pushing through a system even with poor sales. This is the more worth while discussion. Asking "is the Wii U a failure?" doesn't take account for the whole picture.

The only thing that sucks about the WiiU is the community and how we're going to have to talk about how "it may be a failure or a terrible console" for the next 3000 years. IS THE SYSTEM FUN!? WHO CARES IT'S BARELY SOLD 10 MILLION UNITS! There have been worse selling things, even by Nintendo and things people choose to ignore all together that your precious other companies have ruined in the past.
Only a small fraction of people can remember the Dreamcast for anything but the demise of Sega's console division. Screw trying to figure out anything about the games that were on the Virtual Boy because everyone just wants to talk about how horrible it was. Okay? So can we find out what the hell it was all about for once? No? I know, let's go talk about sales numbers that always paints a true picture.

No. /close thread.

I think the main reason it has sold as much as it did is because it has no distinct name to separate it from the 2006 Wii, so many people might be lead to think that it's an expansion of the 2006 Wii instead of a completely separate console of its own.

Is the Pope Catholic?

The Korok mini-quest was just an example. It was a quest that wasn't too difficult to begin with, and even with the inclusion of the Swift Sail, they decided to add 10 extra minutes to the time limit. In my opinion an unnecessary change.

I agree, games aren't necessarily better because they're new, and I don't think anyone will use that reason. However, personally I like a lot of the ''Wii U-version'' games more. I think I already said this a few pages back, but DKC:R was a great game in my opinion, but DKC:TF improved on that game a lot. It doesn't really matter to me if it's just another game in the DKC franchise, because they really delivered an amazing game.

A good sequel can be just as good as a new IP.

Gonna go through the thread after I post my initial opinion. If it makes profit, I wouldn't call it a failure. Though it has been a failure for Nintendo in many ways, in that it fails to meet all their expectations. Thankfully, at least it isn't bleeding them money.

EDIT: Read through. Seems people are arguing subjective taste in the Wii U games and trying to pass them off as objectively better. So I'll throw my hat in. 3D World comes nowhere close to either Galaxy game. So the Wii U fails for me in that regard. The launch lineup was sad, and the droughts that followed were even sadder. Don't even get me started on the horrendous 3rd party support. I feel like the more 3rd parties abandon Nintendo and the more dire their financial situation, their fans become more and more defensive. As if they're being backed into a corner by something nonexistant. The wii had a much better library in my eyes, but I feel my opinion will change once the Wii U's life is over.

With all that said, the Wii U has some fantastic games. Wonderful 101, Bayonetta, Hyrule Warriors, Smash, Mario Kart 8, Mass effect 3 (counting it), captain toad, kirby, pikmin 3 are all simply phenomenal. I'd say it has a pretty good library.