Topic: Wii U or 3DS? Which is likely to be the best vessel for Nintendo games?

I'm more looking forward to the 3DS generation than I am the Wii U. The DS is my favorite system to date, and the 3DS's launch year looks like a very solid start to continuing that highly memorable handheld goodness. I already have Super Street Fighter IV 3D, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Ridge Racer 3D, Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D and Pilotwings Resort. I still plan on getting Cave Story 3D, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and possibly Pokemon Rumble Blast this year. For 2012, Luigi's Mansion 2, Animal Crossing 3DS, Paper Mario 3DS, Mario Tennis 3DS and Kid Icarus Uprising are all on my list of wanted games. Of course, with the 3DS, I can still play my DS games and to me Nintendo's DS selection beat out its Wii selection both in quality and in quantity. It wasn't until the DS generation that I played the same games year after year due to my enjoyment of such games, examples of which are: Super Mario 64 DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing Wild World, Chibi Robo Park Patrol, Sonic Rush, Meteos, WarioWare Touched and more. Most of which have also either been my introductions to series or my favorites of the series.

Where I found myself more of a console gamer during the GCN/GBA generation, it has completely switched during the DS/Wii generation. Due to my experiences with that handheld, that preference for handheld experiences is going to push into the 3DS generation and has already happened. To be honest, being tied with more expense all around, the Wii U hasn't appealed to me much at all and I've considered only owning the 3DS this generation.

Also, with the Wii U you'll be getting awesome third party support because Nintendo's finally kicked up their console's power.

Right now all signs point to 3DS, since Nintendo has only announced two Wii U titles (Super Smash Bros. and Pikmin), with one of those being on 3DS as well. Super Mario 3D Land appears to be one of the most fun Mario games ever, Mario Kart 7 easily looks to be the best Kart yet, and if Paper Mario can approach or top the greatness of TTYD we have another all-time classic on our hands. Plus the download front is already looking up if you include third-parties (VC classics already and Nicalis goodness on the way), so it's safe to say the 3DS will be an awesome place for Nintendo fans in the coming years.

Whether the Wii U will maintain the same quality and quantity of releases is almost completely up in the air right now.

I've always thought it was pivotal for game companies to recognise the roles of their handheld and home consoles; I mean, look at the original PSP. While home to great games, it was a very unfocused piece of hardware. It seemed Sony wasn't quite sure what the system was meant to be; a handheld PS2? A replacement for PS2? A companion? As such, we saw a huge amount of PSP games that were ported to PSP and PS3 because it was easy to do, made extra money, and ensured that the titles got the sales they deserved. Unfortunately, this rendered the PSP somewhat moot - I mean, what was the point of buying titles such as GTA: Liberty City & Vice City Stories, Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier, etc. if they were available for much cheaper on the home consoles? Likewise, consoles games that were ported to PSP were usually lacklustre - instead of completely new experiences, they were stripped-down versions of existing games - of course, there were exceptions (Force Unleashed & the WWE games were VERY impressive).

In contrast, Nintendo were always adamant that the DS was to provide new experiences that could not be found on Gamecube and Wii. I mean, how many DS-type titles could you play on other consoles? Not many (of course, these were the days before iPad & iPhone).

In 2011; Nintendo and Sony sees themselves in somewhat of a predicament (IMO); handheld machines are now capable of producing incredible visuals and are now more 'home console-like' than ever before. Is this a good thing? Or does this deprive handhelds of the creative thinking and gameplay ideas that are born from lacking technology (think of Nintendo's 'lateral thinking of withered technology' - making fun and improvisational uses of aged tech)? Could we eventually see the day of handhelds and home consoles becoming indistinguishable from each other - thanks to the advent of power and wireless communication? The Wii U seems to be heading this way - the elimination of the television that has anchored videogaming for decades. But what happens when Nintendo's consoles can be played anywhere? Will there still be a marked difference between their 'home' and 'handheld' brands?

Or...maybe Nintendo needs to ensure that their home consoles and handhelds will always need to be different, to preserve variety?

I'd say WiiU because it will most likely be able to play 3DS games, why else would the controller have a touch screen and exactly the same buttons as a 3DS...

in b4 50 people quoting the following:

no

No it's not going to happen out of the box but either through a cartridge adapter, or most likely a download service for 3DS games (most likely because we will have to re-purchase the games again). It will happen at some point, Nintendo looked into bringing DS games to the Wii and even developed a prototype but did not think it would work well with the 2 DS screens displayed on the TV. Squaresoft tested this idea with their emulated DS Final Fantasy game "echos of time".

WiiU fixes this problem, the controller can act as the bottom half of the DS, camera, shoulder buttons, etc... the only question is when this will happen, not if.

I'm guessing for the same reason it has the same buttons as an SNES, DS, and Classic Controller. And I would hate to play a 3DS game on a Wii U.

Edit: Forgot, it also has the same buttons as nearly every non-Nintendo console.

The Wii U seems to have a lot of 3rd party support , but is lacking in 1st. However I feel like the Wii U has more potential, not to mention i'm a console gamer.

I know, I expect a flood of replies... nobody wants to play the games on a large screen because it would look like crap, etc.. everyone here is happy with the 3DS screen size and would actually probably prefer them to be much smaller, I've heard it all before...

And the controller has a touch screen like the DS/3DS, I don't recall a Classic Controller having one of those.

I know I'm like the only one who purchased the Gameboy Player for the Gamecube and the Super Gameboy Adapter for the SNES and the only one one will purchase it for the WiiU.. why? because I like larger screens, the 3DS screens hurt my eyes, gives me a headache after awhile, so thank you Nintendo for making these products just for me.

Oh, no, I like big screens. I don't want 3DS games on Wii U because the gameplay isn't as good without the 3D. I'd love to see some Wii U games that also use the 3DS, though.

I'll definitely buy a Wii U (not at launch, but eventually). Overall, I think it's going to be the better platform for Nintendo games, mainly because it's even-numbered.

The WiiU won't play 3DS games. Why, you ask? Maybe because then they wouldn't be in 3D.

Sorry, I misunderstood, it would be nice if the WiiU could output a signal that would make them in 3D for people that have 3D TV's (I don't have one) but... although the 3D is nice it doesn't matter that much to me, If I had a choice I would choose a larger screen over the 3D effects.

But the Game would look like crap on the big screen..

Also A 3D mode wouldn't work as glasses 3D is different from how the 3DS does it.

lol, don't get me started again, the games will look fine on a TV screen, I know that because even Gameboy Advance games look fine on my 56" TV. Reggie demoed 3DS games on a talk show earlier this year and they looked fine on the large TV he was using. You can't be that picky or else you would be on the Xbox or PS3 forums instead of being here.

also... the 3DS 3D would work fine on a 3D TV if they sent the two images to your TV properly.

I prefer games on consoles because of the better sound "experience." I like hearing the sound in a room instead of through earphones.

Nintendo has a lot more games in development than just Smash Bros. and (allegedly) Pikmin 3. The Zelda tech demo is a good idea of what Nintendo wants to do for the first HD Zelda. New Super Mario Bros. Mii is practically guaranteed to be made into a full game. The various tech demos (Pose Mii, Chase Mii, etc.) will be fleshed out into a "Wii Sports" type compilation.

Nintendo always does this, they take their tech demos and turn them into full fledged games. See Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, etc.

@Tendoboy

Don't ever think that a zelda Tech demo will be like the original product. Also why so shakey on Pikkmin 3..

Pikmin 3 has been "confirmed" multiple times for years, yet we haven't seen anything about it. It's like "Kirby for GameCube/Wii" all over again (except that game finally got made). I guess Pikmin 3 is Nintendo's new "Duke Nukem Forever".

And Nintendo said the Zelda tech demo shows what they're considering for the next game. The final product may not look exactly like that, but it's a good example of the direction Nintendo wants to take the series.

3DS!
_{Only because I won't be able to afford a Wii U.}