Images Emerge of Wii U Mario vs. Donkey Kong Tech Demo Running On Nintendo Web Framework

There's a vid of it too.
[youtube:LFwU1T4id1c]

"Nintendo has no plans to make it publicly available."
It sounds like "We can do it, but we don't want to, dear VC fans. Please understand our lovely policy once more..."

And here's another one:
[youtube:HqRPdm0QQlk]

GameXplain going the extra mile.

What I don't understand is why Nintendo doesn't want to release this.

Why would any smart company make a perfectly good game, or at least it looks like it is, and then not really do anything outside of a developer demo with it?

It's already made so it's not like Nintendo can lose money by releasing it on the eShop. In fact, it can ONLY make money and SURELY that's a good thing for the company.

They will do it, I know for sure. From all the Wii U 'tech demo's' on the E3 2012, there is a game that uses an idea. Biggest example: New Super Mario Bros. U

I expect the reason for this is to encourage developers who are focusing on 3DS to sell their eShop games on Wii U. Coupled with the announcement of Unity for 3DS, I think we'll be looking at a common 3rd party eShop down the line.

@Kirk @andreoni79 Taking something from a four level demo to a full game is a lot of work. This isn't just emulation. It's built from the ground up to demonstrate the web framework.

@hiptanaka
Then release it on the eShop for free.

Don't just waste it is what I am saying.

Also, if the code for a full game is all there already, which it appears to be, then just making some more levels really wouldn't be that much effort at all. One man could just sit there and build 20-50 more levels over the course of a few weeks or a couple of months at most and it would be done.

Trust me, I'm a game designer so I have some idea.

It wasn't wasted. It was used as a demonstration to developers.

Looks cool, by the way. Runs better than I would expect from a JavaScript application.

@Kirk If you're a developer you should know that a controlled demo can have a hundred issues that would emerge in the hands of the public. And perhaps the four levels implemented here only covers a fraction of the full game's features. Haven't played the original so I don't know.

Anyway, they might be planning to finish it. They just said they won't release this demo, I think?

@hiptanaka You too a Dark Souls fan? How you like DS2? To me it's almost perfect (I play solo, so I don't know about online issues) and I hope to play something similar on WiiU soon or later...
BTW, this technology with "the overall goal being to allow for easy ports of applications to the Wii U" should attract a lot of indie PC devs and show new or better ways to use the gamepad...

This looks awesome! However, this tech demo is not DS emulation. The screen at the top is way higher resolution than the DS. I don't recall the game zooming out like that on the top screen. I secretly kinda wish Nintendo had made a DS player (anyone remember GBA player) that locked onto the Gamepad and utilized the data port underneath, instead of Virtual Console, but obviously reselling the games will earn them more money.

@Kirk because this is GDC.... This is where companies go to find support from developers. This demo is purely to show other developers how it works and how easy it is to add peripheral support to web based games.

Notice they said they don't have plans to release it... That just means they have nothing in the works, it doesn't mean it will never see the light of day. If it makes a lot of buzz they would have to release it. But I don't see this particular game making the proper buzz that will get a big publisher to sit up and notice,

Its likley we will see it eventually in some form just like the other tech demos they used later. "No plans" is not a confirmation either way.

GameXplain has 4 videos of each level...
Do you need links?

@Lance168.
Yes please.

As had been said before, if they weren't planning on releasing it the menus would say "tech demo" not "gdc version."

I always forget that the Mario VS Donkey Kong games are made in America and not Japan

@andreoni79 Yeah, how could you tell? I've played 25 hours or so of Dark Souls 2, and I love it so far. I swear some of the bosses are tougher than anything in Dark Souls, though. I must've fought The Pursuer 30 times before I nailed it (solo).

@hiptanaka

Well this being Nintendo and looking at the level of polish in the demo from the footage I've seen, I get the sense it could almost be released as is but just with a few more levels.

@element187

Nintendo is the publisher. It doesn't really need to get itself to sit up and take notice. It just needs to add a few more levels and release it

http://youtu.be/LFwU1T4id1c
http://youtu.be/HqRPdm0QQlk
http://youtu.be/9Rs-yUU_Guw
The last one is shown in the same video

@Kirk that's what they always say but i'm sure it will find a release date at some point.

That looks insanely hard.

Kirk raises a good point, the times of blindly defending everything nintendo does or fails to do are over for me,their eshop output is lazy at best,if theyre sitting on perfectly good code and fail to use it ,thats inexcusable

Nintendo releases this: "We just had a Mario vs Donkey Kong last year! They just keep milking Mario"

Nintendo does not release this: "They do things and keep them from the public, what a waste"

More games are better than none,im sure you realise this,and besides this series does not yet exist on wii u and the 3ds entry was a bit of a letdown tbh.

This is a little too detailed for it to stay private. I think we'll see this again on Wii U in some form or another. Not VC, of course, but I doubt this is the last time we see this game. Look at how many levels they have, seriously, you think it won't come out? You're delusional if you don't think it's possible.

@jord91 It's not about blindly defending Nintendo. It's about not getting mad because they made a tech demo utilizing existing assets. If they release this as a game later, fine. If they don't, fine. I'll gladly criticize Nintendo where appropriate, such as tying your account to a specific console.

@andreoni79 they said the same thing with the tech demos that became wii play and again with the ones that became nintendo land and game and wario

This thread is really distracted from the cool thing here, which is that Nintendo is working on unifying its platforms and making it easier for developers to bring games to the WiiU and 3DS. This is a very good thing, regardless of whether they decide to release MvDK (which I'm sure they will, eventually).

@3MonthBeef

Well...and this is just a thought...

Nintendo could stick with the current plan and just sell one version of the game on the 3DS eShop at $10 (I think that's what it is for Minis on the Move)...Or it could sell two slightly different versions of the game at the same price or even half the price, one on 3DS eShop and one on Wii U eShop.

If it sold two versions at half the price each it might actually encourage more people to consider a purchase, it's cheaper you see, and by being on two different platforms it would expose it to a wider/broader audience while at the same time helping the Wii U, even if only in a very small way, by adding one more game to it's library.

I know which one I think would make more sense but that's just me.

@Kirk cool where might I find your games then?

@Kirk "Then release it on the eShop for free.
Don't just waste it is what I am saying."

Why would they release it for free? That seems pointless

@faint

You can find out a bit more about each of my current games here:

http://inceptional.com/presskit/

@Unca_Lz

Well personally, I'd add a few more levels and charge a minimal amount for it, a couple of dollars or whatever, but at least giving it away to the gamers and fans for free is doing more with it than not letting anyone other than web framework developers see it imo.

@sinalefa

Only idiots complain about "milking" if you're actually getting good new games imo. It's when you just see garbage that only has the characters in it as a way to sell that garbage, like this could be possibly https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/12/hyrule_warriors_is_zelda_meets_dynasty_warriors_and_its_coming_to_wii_u_in_2014, or when you get a regular yearly release of a franchise that doesn't actually add anything new other than an updated roster or whatever but still charges you full price each time that I think there's a genuine issue with "milking". I don't think having a decent version of Mario vs Donkey Kong on the Wii U eShop would be anything to complain about personally.

one of the reasons I bought the wii u, was that I read mentions of gamecube games coming to the vc. I guess that turned out to be false. Not even N64 games though, that were available on the wii?! what a huge disappointment.

It is good to see the possibilities of the Nintendo Web Framework and gives hope that some quality experiences can come from it.

I'm looking to possibly be doing some work with Nintendo Web Framework, and people do say it it's pretty great to use, so I'm looking forward to that.

Fingers cross the DS games on wii u vc will be the best lineup.

What I meant with my first post, is that Nintendo can (but do they want to?) port their huge library on a struggling console, using wisely its most ignored feature, the gamepad. But how long do we have to wait (WiiU is out since november 2012...) if we still don't have a proper account and cross buy/play? And what's the point in releasing games like Tennis and Golf for the VC asking € 5 each?

The video proved that DS games will be fun to play on the Wii U. The Wii U needs to be turned in to a 3DS player, next.

Zzzzz..... Guess this is good for the indies who are working on retro-style games.

@yuwarite That won't happen. Like ever.

@Kirk Except most tech demos either become some other game or just never get released. Not sure why Nintendo owes this to fans

@Unca_Lz

It doesn't "owe" it to it's fans to release this game. It would just make sense to release this as an actual game imo, since they've already come this far.

Meh, I don't think I'd like this game anyway, ever since the second game, Mario vs. DK has become far too casual for my liking. If it gets more developers on board though, that'd be awesome.

I don't understand why they aren't making it available, but I don't think THIS would convince me to buy a Wii U anyways.

@andreoni79 ...This is not a VC game.

@andreoni79 ...This is not a VC game.

The prospects of HTML5 on Wii U are nothing new, it has supported it for some time, and some of them are pretty cool. Just look up html5 games on bing/google from your Wii U browser and you'll find lots of free Wii U games.

I think that's basically what this demo is, the game ported to html5, CSS and Javascript, like those sites that let you play emulated NES games in your browser, so the future of VC could be rich, indeed.

Yawnnnnn, another Mario vs DK! Well, the last one was cool! But this is sadly like the older ones!

This makes me want to make a video game. Nintendo is continually lowing the bar for companies and people to bring their games over to the Wii U. It would be pretty cool to see something you make play on the Wii U.

I want this game more than the frozen banana in my mit

Man the Wii U is really aiming to be the bargain bin indie dumping ground.

@Melkac I know and I can't care less about MvsDK. I'm saying there's this technology which could be useful to port old games and adding them new features, but they don't wanna use it. Remember the New Play Control games on Wii? Take a GC game, move it from 4:3 to 16:9, use the console features (i.e. wiimote for pikmin 1 and 2) and sell it at budget price. Shouldn't they do something similar for the gamepad?