as Tom said this was aimed at existing WiiU owners which isn't exactly the right approach right now. Basically "please don't tell anyone about any slight disappointment you might have". The Wii never had any such problem because people were freaking out about the cool controller, that's why so many bought it fast (later some disappointment came from 'core' gamers, but it sold).
The WiiU has no such appeal so it's it's strange that they're still expecting random iphone users to suddenly want one (judging by the content) but also expecting it to look all 'next gen' to hardcore gamers, which it just doesn't.
If you own one you'll probably argue that it's fine that it's not all "hardcore", sure that's cool, but just who IS the WiiU target audience? I feel like I have a little bit of both of those targets in me and it's not quite satisfying either one clearly.
These directs are just weird to me; who cares about these trickles of info about things announced a year ago besides us Nintendo nerds on this site? They need to make some real ads for the masses and stop with these weird fan service home videos until the system is actually selling.

I played it at a pre-launch event and it was one of the most interesting things there, but I didn't see it at launch another reason I've waited on WiiU. It's really sad to hear this as it really would have helped sell systems and it's the best use of the Pad that I saw. I'm still baffled why it's taken this long to release it, sad times.

The WiiU is neat and all but it won't sell itself. This is all compounded by nintendos poor/ lack of good advertising. If you all think the ps4/durango won't be popular for whatever reason a little good advertising will change all that VERY fast and Nintendo's problems will multiply tenfold. Maybe theres good WiiU stuff now? No one knows about it or gets it, including me. I haven't been sold on it and I already wanted to love it. I went to pre-launch events, followed every Nintendo announcement here and nothing wowed me and I had to look hard to find it as an already long time fan. I've lost faith and all it took was a little easy look around what else is out there and Nintendo's failure to live up to their own promises.
Those launch games were weak and the ones I liked still aren't out after 6 months. The 3DS games are better and 3DS had a rough launch too for the same reasons WiiU did.

Handheld is VERY different, though, and Nintendo has owned the handheld market for over a decade and even that market is splitting up thanks to cell phones. the Casual market has plenty of cool devices to satisfy now, and WiiU has no innovative silver bullet that Wii did. It's a dangerous game their playing. I'm still onboard if I see an impressive 1st party game soon but it doesn't look promising.

being defensive about naysayers is just that. We have clear reasons for concern. I don't owe Nintendo anything they need to earn my dollars if they want the fans, and they've been sitting back ignoring the trends for too long. HD and the internet are not new by any stretch and they need to recognize that and really bring it now, and not act like everything is done and paid for.
clear Advertising, lower prices, 1st party classics that really show off that tablet thing, and good will to 3rd parties. Making it "easier" for kickstarter funded games to get on e-shop is not real support. Real, promotional, pricing, subsidizing, collaboration, development support. and new management for petes sake.

This is a cool idea but this video is already more smart advertising than Nintendo would ever put into it. I'd get one in a heartbeat, just knowing Nintendo had woken up and realized what decade it is. Unfortunately it won't happen unless a few people at the top retire and get someone born after 1970 to help run things.

great, it took 30 minutes to talk really slowly about 4 or 5 games we've either already played or have already been promised since launch. this is more deflect than direct. Just wait until there is actually something new to tell us about or it just looks bad. So glad I got a 3DS and waited on WiiU until it's dirt cheap next holiday, or there is some (very likely) better system.

if you look at both campaigns they show the exact same amount of money having been raised so far; I don't think they are separate fundraisers as this site has reported, but it is odd that they can have their own site showing it as an independent fundraiser if it's actually a kickstarter campaign.
Still if this is the only place I've heard of any of it, I have doubts it will raise so much that quickly. It's just an unrealistic goal. Raise 100k or something then find the rest later, or you'll never reach your goal; Kickstarter is not a church collection plate.

can't say I'd like to see Mario on an Ipad but it's a little foolish to pretend that it's not competition. Sure if you like real games you'll go to a console but good luck bringing any new consumers away from a tablet/phone to a console for it's all-in-one appeal.
Also silly to jump all over anyone for thinking this. If you don't see the relevance of mobile devices than you haven't left your house in a long time. Even a pile of poop could be considered relevant competition to consider if that many people are paying for it and raving about it.

not a U turn, just another rational measured comment that comes from the same place many of us are in regarding disappointment in what happened with WiiU. Weird how anything but falling over praise is pounced on at this site.

Clearly people have some personal fear about this when people go out of their way to defend Nintendo about this with all these excuses about: "oh, Nintendo didn't say or do anything, their defending what might possibly be a loss of sales, outrage, angry mobs. Intolerance is just part of their unchanging, 'ancient' Japanesy culture that they have a total responsibility to uphold to the highest standard in every cheeky, fun, sim game". You can make excuses until you're blue in the face but the fact is Nintendo has only recently bothered to get on patching ANY games and they do so begrudgingly, this is not a game breaking glitch by any stretch of the imagination, and more importantly the game is immensely popular in Japan and people have celebrated this feature in the game NOT risen up in anger, it's not likely to loose ANY sales (gain some if anything, from the people who don't already have it.) Many people were drawn to this game because of this feature there. it IS Nintendo that sees this as possible controversy and as a producer of such a cheeky, entertainment that is a window into the culture, this is one of the reasons a culture stays marred in the past. It is their choice to make, and though it was safe to move into the modern age on this one they choose complacency; ignorance. It's just sad; There is no rational defense for it.

Ah so this is just the usual behavior of Nintendo jumping up to patch a devastating, game breaking glich in a game, following a long history of doing everything in their power to do a simple patch to big annoying bugs in their games.
give me a break guys. I get why they're doing it, but it doesn't make it ok. Bigotry is not cool, I don't care what "exotic cultural thing" people want to think it is. Nintendo is just living in the past (on more than just this).

this is a weird way of doing it. I don't have a problem with Kickstarter but people need to be realistic with their goals. It is still essentially a form of donation. You can't start producing massive products where you expect to pay a team of employees like its a full time job with kickstarter. the point of kickstarter is to raise money by contributors because you are passionate about something and you have no other means of finding that money. I do cool artwork that I love for a living but I can't ask people to pay me full time through kickstarter for every weird art project I do, it gets kind of old.
I love Eternal D but this campaign is a little ridiculous. They need to just find some real investors like the rest of us for a product that big. It's not like it's saving starving kids or something.

@andrea987
weird. I don't get the misquoting to make a point thing. Is that supposed to be a jab or something? It's great that you enjoy your WiiU if that's what you're saying, I'm only worried about the poor choices Nintendo is making because I love what they have done for game design over time. I'm sure there are some fun times to be had with a WiiU but they're not exactly making the best choices to stay relevant long term right now. For us here that may not matter, but in the industry as it is now, they're just not alone anymore.

this industry is too big and too expensive now to ignore what each console can handle. If you can't survive and keep up with what the market demands than you can't be around to make "games" at all. Nintendo makes great games, and no longer understands how the console market operates in the west. it's sad, I lament the old days too, but that's just what they are; the old days.
development tech runs in the similar cycles as the hardware that runs the final games so if one console is not up to snuff with multiple others it just WILL not get the same attention. That is what Nintendo signed up for AND they didn't have their own great software ready to pick up that slack so things don't look good for WiiU. I wanted to love it, but I'm disappointed.

these are valid points mentioned here. If you're all so happy about the WiiU just be glad they even bothered to mention it, most media hasn't bothered to go that far, including Nintendo's marketing dept.
I'll give it another year to be 'great' before I consider getting it, but really part of a system taking off is just getting momentum from other satisfied consumers and how many people are freaking out about how great it is? only a few people here.. on this dedicated Nintendo site. Anyway I'll keep quiet now, I don't think I'm liked here when I flame WiiU; I'm just here for 3ds now.

I don't care for the WiiU interface but I'm intrigued. Nice to see Chicago in a game for once, but I agree about it looking like a cheesy mans-world in a cleaned up fantasy Chicago. I guess in the near future this city is not so cheap anymore that the cops got rid of the cheap, fire-sale, chevy SUV's. doubtful.

YAHHHH! multiplayer?! please? this is maybe the best WiiWare game or top 3 at least. awesome news. only thing that would put it through the roof would be online but probably wouldn't happen. very excited for this.

mailbox adventures.

very cool, but not megaman. Wouldn't have been hard to do this and still have the stout aesthetic of real megaman. misguided art direction but I would have still shelled out for it. Why kill things like this?

yeah, this is a great game but I definitely wouldn't say it's the best ever. I liked the ones that took big chances and this did the least of that. Nothing tops SMB3, really, and 64 also is easily one of the greatest games of all time. SMW is a great Mario game but played it too safe to me, and kind of felt like one of the easier ones. Could be my age also, 3 was the pinnacle for the NES and to me the top of that style; I was just ready for new things and didn't get it until mario 64 after that. That's why I don't dig any of the "new" smb games, theres nothing new about them, smoothed out edges and more of the same. World was just the beginning of the "new" smb style brand (to me). It's an amazing and fun formula, for sure, worth playing. I just happen to like seeing a new take every few years.

Between this and the Eternal Darkness sequel news I could well reconsider my rage over the WiiU's lameness. I'll be all about it if they can actually be bold enough to add some detail to the ancient character models. Nintendo; onward into 2005!

I would buy a WiiU for this, fast. first one was amazing.

this kind of thing won't really change until the game development and computer science world in general isn't such a sausage fest. to be Chicken and egg about it, this stuff doesn't help that either.

mind. Blown. must. have. now.

anyone who enjoys it that much as to be real upset about it well... they just saw it now.
for sure the new one looks worse. gives it the feeling that someone is standing there about to do something. Just the tip of the iceberg in terms of really twisted Japanese 'adult' material. It'd be nice if they could just refrain all together with hyper-sexualizing every image of every woman at every age in japanese games anyway, it's pretty old and gross.

Ha! that's what the blue light is about here on my work Wii. This is pretty funny actually. "oh yeah, so we can use the interwebs to deliver special messages to people all over the world?! Amazing! this could be the future of gaming!"
Maybe even worth considering doing this BEFORE launching a new console, with videos, promotions, and game kiosks that play games. Anyway it's a step in the right direction, but weird to be doing while planning to shutdown Wii online features. The Wii was the WiiU's trojan horse and they just figured it out now? Pissed off investors shouldn't be the ones driving your marketing.

nice! going to get it now!

Cool idea. I have a 32 and download lots of stuff, The kind of encouragement to use downloads is a big deal, that they should get with. One of the big reasons I didn't get a WiiU was the lack of storage; no excuse (If you could play from SD i wouldn't mind). I think it's unreasonable to have to tack on an external thing to do what a thing is marketed to do so well. 3DS is the best game machine around right now, to me.

http://unity3d.com/unity/
get a free version, you can do a lot with it. I'm trying to soldier through basic things now, it's not for the impatient ones, but it's cheap/free and extremely flexible.
I can't say much on WiiU. Regardless of what it can or can't do, it doesn't matter at all if no one knows it exists except drooling Nintendo nerds. It's great that it's flexible, and supported or whatever, but I haven't met ANYONE who knows what it is (besides on here). I have met people that are all excited about the other consoles coming out, into games or not. It's time to crank up the Hype.

cool! these'll be a great gift for my nieces and nephews.

wow, slow day. these both look terrible and barely qualify as "Nintendo" outside of the license. I would rather forget that these things exist since the technology was no longer relevant after about, oh, 1989. It's generous to say that they have any spirit of the actual franchises at all. Anyway, this is nicely written but I prefer to forget that these things are still out there. I have a totally analog Tomy "Digital Derby" with a physical car that you slide side to side avoiding other plastic cars that roll by and it's far more fun than I think these could be.
These things are the early ancestors of shovelware to me, but if anyone here has fun with them, cool, you're more patient than I.

"gaming decency and morality". Interesting idea; I too am a fan of science fiction. you realize this is the comments section of a video game website, right?

@Fusion14
I MAY do as I please. I'm a long time loyal fan but I owe Nintendo no special favors.
Welcome to the internet.

"them their money" ? I don't emulate anything but old games are old games. When I watch old movies online I expect to pay 3 or 4 dollars for it even in HD (or I could buy a 2 dollar tape second hand). If I want to play them, then yeah, I'll pick up an old machine second hand. I'm not giving them "their money" then either, is that wrong too? We're talking about really old game properties here. Their like pieces of classic art; they are part of the culture and are replayed and reprinted in many ways, but cheap cash-ins from Nintendo are still not ok. I've lost a lot of faith in Nintendo after this poor launch, but it's strange how rabid fans can be, Nintendo is a company just hoping to make some money; they don't need anyones defense.

@dragonrider
ebay doesn't mean anything unless you're talking about collector enthusiasts. Do I need to put up a link to the ios app store? That is the primary audience for games now. Even us old gamers have sweet phones with good games on them. The pricepoints for gaming have spread into different categories and these ancient games just naturally fall into the cheap categories. They are ANCIENT. It doesn't matter how good they are, it just means they will sell better as 'small' games, and will do well that way because they are indeed better than mobile games. Nintendo is not treating them differently and it's a mistake.
I never said I didn't have the money, but there are so many games and options out there now that I prioritize my game spending according to the accepted pricing model now. Which is:
big huge HD games $50 maybe,
ok games in my pocket $2-$6,
quick throwaways/ one gag mini games FREE
really deep portable new portable games $10-15
retro games that I love (VC) ?
where doe it fit in there? games in my pocket at best, mini games for some of them. I will not spend $2+ dollars on 20+ year old games, because it's stupid; I've played them before, and I can emulate them elsewhere if I really want them bad enough.

@BrightBeing
so well put. If only I could keep my comments as concise and measured as these.

Nice article, my thoughts exactly. It's silly that people try to argue that the prices are fair. People will pay it but they've crippled their own sales with the high prices. and someone argued that they have to pay to store them?! really? most of these VC games could fit on a phone. some people buy almost everything as it comes out and it still fits onto large SD cards. Go to the corner store and buy a HDD.
hosting this stuff is not hard or expensive, but they're doing it the wrong way;
the VC games are a natural gateway to get people buying the new stuff, and if priced right, buying lots more of the VC stuff. They treat it all like these are great titles being introduced to a new generation for re-selling. They are great, and they are important digital relics of another time, despite their quality and playabilty. They only highlight the great history of games and even highlight what is great now with new games. they should be bonuses for new games bought, gateway games to previews of new ones, samples for the library of other games like them, etc. They are awesome free marketing for Nintendo and they'd feel free to us at $1-$5 dollars, maybe $10-15 for gamecube and Wii games in the future. But would anyone NOT download loads of them at those prices? and end up ALWAYS having the machine on and tempted to keep up with the latest games?
massive missed opportunities. Nintendo needs new leadership to figure this out, really.

People will buy at these prices but not in anything like the numbers they would at something more reasonable. This kind of product (licensed classic games/downloadable) is NOT about pricing a regular game release. It's pure marketing, which nintendo doesn't seem to get at all. I don't buy these games because it's an amazing new experience I saw reviewed in the paper. I buy because I have Nintendo on my mind, the games of my youth, and because as a nerdy game head I just like getting more games. This is advertising; if I see tons of cheap classic games on the WiiU backing up the gaps in new expensive releases you can bet I'll buy more of those ones and I'll more likely buy a WiiU at all if I get some cheap or free games from my youth. They need to keep people in front of it and on and games will sell. Why not suggest similar games as you open them? Nintendo has to re-build the brand with each new console because they do NOTHING to maintain the brand loyalty along the way. Their games are so good that the rabid fans are there anyway, but more is more, and that's what they want but they don't get the market.
This kind of online business is about the fast nickel NOT the slow dime, it's so bizzare that Nintendo doesn't get that, aren't they a huge company with full time professionals working there? They run their retail and marketing strategy like a 10 year old at a lemonade stand.
The old games are a finished product ready to go for cheap to drag people into the door to buy the new ones, why pretend like they're some kind of golden jewels? I love them but they are still 20 year old computer games. That is eons for a computer product, just use them for marketing.

Prices too high. NES games should be 1 dollar, and it would be hard NOT to download all of them. At these prices they're real purchases not impulse and even buying them digitally with the risk of losing it in a few years when the system is replaced is just not worth it. I spent a lot Wii Games downloaded and now it's all dead on the main WiiU system (and lauded gamepad), what a slap in the face! I won't re-buy this stuff with every new console.
20 year old games are nostalgic diversions, not major game releases, it's ridiculous that they seem to be living in a bubble over at big N, like we don't have access to ANY of the flood of cheap great games that are out there that aren't Nintendo. It's just sad.

I've never seen those ads before but it's probably better I didn't or I'd be even more negative. It's like someone in marketing was like "hmm, what do REAL American like? I don't know, well... reality TV! We'll just make people feel like it's just like their life". Nobody cares about these people and people don't even care about that kind of reality tv anymore. We watch that kind of media because we hate the people on those shows and want to think we're better than them. It's not for advertising. Solid, slick adverts require pretty, clever cinema looks. The Wii got this right and the Wii also had a really cool new innovation that worked great. Everyone and their mother has a tablet, so that alone looks dopey.
Wii also had sparse advertising, but it sold itself because it was a hot new thing that really changed game inputs, WiiU is not that but it might be ok if it took marketing seriously; clearly they don't.

The name and look of it is a problem, in conjunction with the bad, when it exists, advertising. Even "Wii HD" would have made it very clear that it's HD and it features updated specs which is what people want.
There's nothing that could have done more for it than just being ready with the benefits of the current gen systems. ALL the entertainment stuff wasn't ready, and no internal storage and 1st party system sellers, no clean backwards compat. Solid functionality sells machines, and it just wasn't ready with the amenities that we're all used to on an HD system; Bad launch all around. You can't show up late to a party with no drinks or no one will notice you're there.

weird did people not play Starfox? That and Zelda are easily the best things on there. I wasn't that into super mario world. It was really exciting at the time but didn't really break any new ground, at that point I was ready for a departure in the vien of Mario 2 or 64 that came later. I'm seriously over that style now, partly why I won't go near the WiiU and new super, just not that cool anymore, time for a new mario direction altogether.
Overall the 64 had the greatest density of great games, but super NES was really an awesome big library.
Cybernator was awesome, also the super star wars games all classics. Too many great ones to even list really. Ah, the days before shovelware was even a thing really.

the 3DS comparisons aren't really relevant. With the 3ds there isn't any kind of current gen competition to grapple with. The vita is pretty good but doesn't hold a candle software wise. There just isn't a machine that compares overall.

With WiiU it's just not much of an upgrade from a PS3 or Xbox 360 so it suddenly "catching up" at some point is just what it needs to do to even stay relevant with the current consoles and it's not doing that yet. With new machines coming out it looks pretty bleak to compete. To release so early and unready it really needed to be a more powerful console at that price point. The first party games are Nintendo's strong point and they failed with the launch momentum on that because there was nothing strong enough or unique enough to make anyone drop what they have. It should have released years ago or waited until they were ready with bigger/more titles. Now it's a really tough game so late, slow, and just unprepared. I've already given up on it, it's been so disappointing, while the 3DS clearly had lots of potential to me despite the slow launch. I don't see places where WiiU can go, and Nintendo hasn't shown me either.

It's so strange that their still calmly talking about what it will do like everything is cool and it's as great as any new machine out there. It's crisis time, Nintendo. Fire the old fashioned Morons at the top, and also hire a marketing dept. The marketing has been a huge failure and they seem to have no idea about it.

Agreed with above. So happy for the 3DS love, it's turning out to be the best lineup ever. with the DS library it's basically an indestructible game machine, and the Xl about the size of my old DS phat, couldn't ask for more.
WiiU still looks pretty sad. All these big announcements are still just previews of the games announced at launch and a system update? oh yeah and 1 DL pack for the 2d Mario that no one could possibly be tired of by now. How "next gen"

I wish I could stay more excited about this, but it started out as a nice bonus to the only exciting new WiiU game coming? And more than 6 months later? Not to mention the look of it is a tad "rack focus to shield lazy textures", not enough to keep me excited that long. 3DS should be enough until reviews of this and announcements of anything else worthwhile for WiiU.

So what I got from that is: 3DS is the best thing you could have bought from Nintendo in years. And the WiiU should make a nice doorstop if you bought one.

good thing all those developers have been working so hard to bring one DLC package to a tired Mario game, and further polish 2 games that have are late and simmering for over a year now. Wario and Pikmin looked fun a year ago, but I'm over it now.

This is great news. I agree it's time to do more and present something more fresh but some things are always satisfying. I got super burnt out on the Mario formula but I'm still a sucker for all things Zelda. A WiiU Zelda alone would be a system seller for me, until then 3DS is so much better.

At a glance this makes me swoon. then again it's hard to see why this is much different then piling all those systems into a box and plugging them into a couple power strips, and getting a signal switcher. All this so you can have one cable going into your TV? Time to look for a job, dude.

I love my Xl and I do wish it was a more true upgrade but I get why it wasn't. It could have had second stick and also don't get me started on the camera (no excuse for that thing). But it was released so early there was no way they could truly upgrade anything besides size without angering a LOT of buyers, though that never seemed to stop them before.

Great, so you've sailed around to military bases and now you know the world? And somehow South Africa is so backwards that they don't play video games? the South African gaming market surpassed film in revenues last year which is also a huge industry. There are more than 50 mil people there and an estimated 3.5 mil of them are games consumers. 2011 saw 1.7 billion (R) in sales. Maybe it's time to talk to some people next time you're democratizing the world, or read a book. I can't stand this kind of misinformed arrogance that further confirms stereo types about us americans.