Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

The Wii U deserves more credit for how good its game library was.

I STILL have more Wii U games than Switch games.

Wii U was basically a first-party exclusive only console, and a sizable number of those first-party exclusives weren't great. It's also probably going to be the only Nintendo home console without an initially exclusive Zelda game. Only reason the constant software droughts didn't bother me too much was because the 3DS was constantly seeing new releases, and I'm more of a handheld person anyway.

Still prefer it to my PS4, though.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is live on the eshop, BTW. I obviously am already preloading my copy. May 28th can't come soon enough!

In terms of exclusives at the time (i.e ignoring how many have since been ported), I think the Wii U is one of the best consoles in recent years. I'd put it as better than the Wii. Better than the Xbox One. Probably better than the Switch up until this point too. Although I have no doubt that the Switch will end up far exceeding it over the next few years.

For me WII U is in my top 3 consoles all time.
The console had so many first party games I loved it.
It deserved way more sales, I did preffer it over my switch to be honest.

Played a lot of the WiiU library that was ported over to the Switch and enjoyed them, but it seems like a console for the already converted Nintendo fan. Games like DK: Tropical Freeze and Mario U Deluxe are great, but not exactly groundbreaking releases either.

The N64, GameCube, and Wii had a more extensive library of interesting 1st and 3rd party exclusives, and will remain relevant for that reason. The WiiU is quite shallow in comparison.

Now that The Wonderful 101 went multiplat, it seems like most would keep the WiiU around for backwards compatibility and the VC.

@NotTelevision

Yeah that's true actually. While it's a really great 1st party library, it's not a particularly innovative one.

Splatoon and Mario Maker were probably the most original ideas. Then Xenoblade X was really technically impressive, but just a copy of a well established formula.

Does anyone have a fix for splatoons lag online? When im playing other online games in my PC and PS4 i get somewhat 20-40 ms pings while splatoon feels like im getting 100+ ping input latency. Really crappy netcode?

Personally I’d like to see Nintendo offer NES Remix 1&2 as a free bonus for NSO. It works so well as an intro for NES games if you didn’t actually grow up with them.

Pushmo I suspect Nintendo have another in the series lined up. It’s the kind of thing they shadow drop out of nowhere. Then again it might just be that Pushmo World has too much netcode/server side maintenance for the level sharing that they don’t want to bring it over.

Wii U had a lot of great exclusives. I remember loving that machine to death during its early years. 600 hrs in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (my first MH game), with that dual screen set up which was actually really useful in that game. Pikmin 3, still one of my favorites. Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, both also a fave. New Super Mario Bros U, a great 2D platformer. DKC Tropical Freeze, best 2D platformer of all time. Yoshi’s Wooly World, way better than Crafted World. Mario 3D World, amazing game, Mario Maker, crazy fun at the time, Xenoblade Chronicles X, one of my fave JRPGs ever, Splatoon- so innovative and fun, Smash, Mario Kart 8 both classics, Zelda Windwaker and Twilight Princess and BotW (it had 3 3D Zelda games), NintendoLand and Captain Toad...

It had some great games. And the 3rd party games it got were often more fun with the gamepad (Splinter Cell Blacklist comes to mind- man I loved that game). But... ya. That was about all it had. There were a couple dozen 3rd party games too from it’s first year but that was pretty much it.

It’s true that it didn’t bother me much because I also had 3DS and would bounce back and forth. And at the time I had just gotten back into gaming, so I had little frame of reference for what support should or could look like.

Now that Switch is a thing, and I have 85% of the Wii U exclusives or a superior sequel as hybrid handheld console games, alongside a bunch of new exclusives, and an actual dumpster truck full of 3rd party games I like, and a snappy OS with instant resume from sleep, and sleek wireless Joycon instead of those God-awful Wiimote+Nunchuks, I don’t value Wii U much at all anymore. Or 3DS, for that matter, now that I have an actual HD handheld screen.

@Ralizah
I don’t know if I’ll be able to effectively communicate exactly what it is that is so exciting about ClubHouse but I’ll do my best.

It’s true that the games in Clubhouse are all games we have access to already. And some of them are basic. But it’s not just the games that are exciting, it’s how well they are presented, with that trademark Nintendo polish and amazing sound effects and rumble. It’s having them on a system like Switch where they can be easily played on the TV or handheld, with motion controls and touch screen. It’s the fact you can easily play with others via same screen, or local wireless.

So it takes those basic games (basic doesn’t mean bad though- these are classic games everyone loves), and transforms them into something more appealing. I don’t want to play real Connect 4, but playing on Switch with those lovely visuals and clacking sound of dropping checkers in the slots and rumble vibrating as it falls down? That I can do.

Even just the motion bowling itself... Wii sports bowling is one of the most popular video games of all time. Being able to revisit that kind of gameplay on Switch is exciting. The motion darts alone seem incredibly fun and well done. The golf alone seems like NES golf but in beautiful modern graphics and charm. The air hockey alone looks great. Such a nice polished little game and who doesn’t love air hockey? And with touch support in handheld.

So many excellent card games that sure, you could probably play on a PC, but they look way better with the presentation by Nintendo, the sound effects especially enhancing the experience, and with local wireless changes the entire dynamic.

And it’s the fact you have so many of these well loved games in such lovely graphics with motion/touch/rumble/amazing sound/vs CPU/local MP/local wireless/online that makes the game feel like the ultimate mini game package. I wasn’t that excited for Mario Party. But this is definitely more my style.

@Dezzy The issue is that trying to disinclude ports gets hairy, because some ports are heavily upgraded with exclusive content. It can also call remakes into question. Like, is Xenoblade DE an exclusive? Shadow of the Colossus on PS4? They're the same games, at their core, as what they're remakes of. If those count, why don't heavily upgraded ports/remasters like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, Dragon Quest XI S, etc. Is Smash for Wii U an exclusive, since it launched alongside a 3DS version?

I don't think you can dismiss Switch versions of Wii U/PS4 games out-of-hand when several seem to include content that change or improve the games in a variety of ways.

Anyway, the Wii U is largely going to be lost to history thanks to the fact that nearly every worthwhile exclusive on the platform is being ported off to other systems. It's getting the PS Vita treatment, and I can't deny that this does make me a bit sad.

Also like the Vita, it's still worth owning for the sheer amount of older software it has access to, though. Between Wii U's native games, Wii BC, and robust Virtual Console support, it's the ultimate Nintendo legacy console at this point in time.

It's just an arbitrary judgement call really.
I'd say XC:DE- exclusive. Shadow of Colossus- exclusive. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe- port. Hyrule Warriors- port. Dragon Quest XIS- port.

It really depends on your preferences though. Like if you're someone who plays Mario Kart battle mode like every week with a group of friends, then it might well count as an exclusive to you. But I'm not in that group. Mario Kart has always been about the races for me, so the Switch version is no better than the Wii U version.

You can't lump those games as pure exclusives or pure ports because they just don't fall into either category (aside from remakes).

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an enhanced port with exclusive content. And not just a costume- actual meaningful content. Battle mode is as much the heart and soul of Mario Kart as the actual races. For some, it will feel like a port in practice, if they dont play battle mode, but that doesn't change thit's there it's there. Dragon Quest XI S, also enhanced port exclusive to Nintendo Switch. There's so many meaningful changes and additions. Like 200+. Some small, some large. Entire game remade into 2D. And that's just one of 200 other changes/additions.

Hyrule Warriors, that's a port. I dont think it actually added any meaningful new content or changes.

But in the case of Nintendo Switch, even ports become as appealing as exclusives because they are exclusively handheld hybrid console versions.

anyone tried the GameStop memorial day sale? i can't get it to apply when adding games to the cart...it doesn't give specific details either....

Yea, I love my Wii U, but that thing's going to just be a footnote in the history books. It did have lots of cool 1st-party titles, but no more or better than the 1st-party stuff on SNES or N64, and those consoles were way more successful (both monetarily and... well, I don't know how the N64 was "successful," but people keep saying it was lol).

I consider the SNES and N64 to be some of the most revolutionary consoles ever, and I would maybe put the PlayStation up there along with the Switch. The 1st-party stuff released on SNES/N64 many times totally broke boundaries and tried something completely new. We all know the obvious ones (Ocarina, Mario 64, etc.), but even stuff like Pokémon Snap was really out there at the time but became classics. The 1st-party stuff on Wii U was solid, but was any of it truly revolutionary? A lot of it didn't even use the second screen meaningfully. I still think ZombiU was one of the best games on the console for forced use of the second screen.

Personally I rate Star Fox Guard for the Wii U's best use of a 2nd screen, I loved how manic it could be. I may actually boot it up over the bank holiday weekend thinking about it now.

@jump
Yea, Guard wasn't bad. I could see that.

@rallydefault N64's saving grace was having Rare (Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, Conker's, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark,) and LucasArts (Shadows of the Empire, Episode 1 Racing) Factor 5 (Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo, Indiana Jones) as a developer for it alongside the usual suspects such as Capcom (Resident Evil 2, Megaman Legends), Activision (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2/3, Quake II) and Midway (Doom 64, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Quake 64) all producing amazing games.

But while Wii U had far stronger first-party offerings overall, for third party support they had Ubisoft (Rayman Legends, ZombiU, Assassin's Creed III/IV), Platinum (Wonderful 101, Bayonetta 1&2), Capcom (Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Resident Evil Revelations), and even a few one offs like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Call of Duty and Minecraft. Plus a bunch of smaller titles like Terraria, Guacamelee, Don't Starve, etc. All of which was good but... far fewer of them were exclusives and likely to be remembered as Wii U games. And there were far fewer generation defining multiplats that made it to Wii U than N64.

ZombiU is interesting, insofar as the smart second screen integration made it a lot more compelling than it would have been otherwise (please see the gimped PS4 version as a reference). The local multiplayer modes are reasonably fun as well.

I know the way Ubisoft treated the release of the Wii U version was controversial, but I'd also put up Rayman Legends as a great example of how proper implementation of a second screen can improve gameplay.

...why was Ubisoft better at utilizing the Wii U's primary gimmick than Nintendo's own internal dev teams?

https://www.gamecrate.com/hyrule-warriors-switch-vs-wii-u-vs-...

It practically doubles the amount of content compared to the Wii U original. If we're comparing it strictly to the Wii U release, it's easily the most highly improved port they've released to date.

Most of the 'new' content is from the 3DS release of the game, though.

It's just really annoying that the undocked mode resolution issue was never patched out. What a dumb reason to drop frames.

@StuTwo Pushmo World is also made by IS, who's dropping two major titles in a row between FE:TH and Paper Mario: The Oragami King. It might end up being ported now.

@jump ZombiU and Star Fox Guard were certainly wonderful uses, not to mention Wii Party U and NintendoLand, but I don't think any game's used it better than Super Mario Maker. While Switch has the same idea sorta (pick up the console to design, place it to play) if you want, the fact that they gimped the touch screen interface means it's not the same.

@Ralizah
Ya I was referring to being a port of the 3DS version which released beforehand, as examples of ports, not Wii U ports specifically.