Than you haven't played halo 3 or reach as there is a fundamental difference in how the gameplay and physics work between those two games. That is much greater than losing the button count.

The difference there is that the Wii caught lightning in a bottle and tapped into a massive casual gaming market that didn't exist for either the N64 or the GCN; which, in the end, still didn't solve the issue of people not buying hardcore non-Nintendo games. Most Wii owners either bought a handful of casual party games or only bought big Nintendo titles (or, in the case of NSMBW and Mario Kart, both). The Wii had a bigger install base than their previous two consoles combined, but the "hardcore" section of that base was probably only moderately larger than the Cube's.

As far as hardcore game development is concerned, the Wii had a largely similar arc to Nintendo's previous two consoles.

Yeah but you guys are just assuming that Wii U will catch lightning in the bottle. All of what nintendo shown at the casuel side had alternatives that looked better.

They both have the name Halo in it. Clearly identical.

Yep, and mine sweeper is a totally different experience than Solitaire, but I would still prefer to play Halo XYZ. And no body is bringing here anything about the PS3 power, which in fact is pretty powerless too. I dont know what's a game for you, might be only Marios are? In that case ArmA2, Fallout3, Skyrim, Civ V, LockON, Aces High, Total War, Empire Earth, Drakensang, etc, are what? Hyper Mega Uber Games from the outer space? Because they really are compared with anything comming from Nintendo.

When did I say that? I was trying to explain why there haven't been many notable 3rd-party Wii games in ages. I personally don't think the WiiU will do anywhere near the business that the Wii did; it's incredibly difficult to tap into that kind of zeitgeist twice in a row, and I don't think Nintendo Land is the next Wii Sports.

To get back on topic, I'm interested in the potential of the controller, whether or not it ever actually lives up to it. One thing I'm not interested in though, is what the mods for Miiverse will undoubtedly have to keep busy with - removing many, many, many wang drawings.

I wasn't pointing out you ut I've seen other members here with the mentality that because nintendo did well this gen they will do well in the next, with major revisionist history that if the wii fialed nintendo probably would have gone third party.

And I personally think nintendo is having troubele with HD development as thats been a problem in the Japanese development community this generation.

Not a problem then, because Nintendo can use non-Japanese developers like Retro, Next Level Games and n-Space.

Xenoblade eats any of those games for breakfast.

So, we're only gonna see 3 first party WiiU games every 6 years?

If Nintendo doesn't turn it around in 2 years, I'm looking forward to playing the 10 or so good games it gets on The Wii U's successor.

Maximum-optimized HD games?
They might be awesome like you know GOTY. Like Uncharted, Mass Effect combined.

Which only means you dont even know any of them. And I do agree that Xenoblade is a good game for the Wii and only when compared with other Wii games.

I have played extensively Fallout 3 and Skyrim from your list, and they don't hold a candle for Xenoblade in my opinion. But then again, i don't even like most of the western games in general.

Isn't Xenoblade regarded with critics like the best JRPG in this generation?

Yes.

I hope people aren't saying that for Xenoblade "just because". Because I believed in the whole Radiant Historia and frankly, I got bored... Then again, I had an interest in Xeno compared to Radiant Historia...

^You're trying to hard. If you go in saying that it's the best thing ever, you really don't believe it, and any little thing can and will cause disappointment. It's like how going in expecting a game to suck usually causes you to be "pleasantly surprised".

Now that you mention it, seeing a Xenoblade sequel coming on to Wii U would be absolutely legendary.

Games, Nintendo consoles don't offer much else other than their amazing games which is the only reason for a Nintendo console.