@Melkac Interestingly enough all my relatives who are interested in Wii U are in fact between 25 and 35 years old (no children). Curious, isn't it?
And why do you "hope" that Wii U will die? How would that help anything and anyone?
Seriously, people, stop spewing doom & gloom - it's getting really old. Why people can't just enjoy it? It's not difficult, at least not for me - had it since release and it constantly keeps me busy with new games, and quality ones to boot. Who cares about sales figures as long as we, gamers, get the good stuff?
@Quorthon "Aggressively faulty" is a term I haven't heard up to this point, thank you. But I'm afraid you are wrong more than I am, and here's why.
First - fans ignored third party because games they released for Wii U were objectively worse than any other version, including both past-gen HD consoles. No DLC, sub-par performance, cuts in graphics, all that on a system that is not slower than PS3 or X360, despite what most are saying. How do you expect sales when that particular version is the worst of all?
And how exactly Nintendo should do to get the support? Before Wii U release both Ubisoft and EA were praising the system to high heavens, and yet immediately after it released they started shooting flak at it. I don't know what went wrong, but celarly Nintendo did work to get their support, but all big companies backed out suddenly. I don't really see anything in particular that Sony and Microsoft do to court any big third-party publisher, can you give me some good examples?
In terms of processing power - compare the games of past generation with this one and tell me: is any of that new power used for ANYTHING good that is much better than past generation? No, it's not. In fact, Wii U has more 60fps games now than PS4 and XBO, probably even combined. More importantly though, none of that power goes into anything that enchances gameplay.
Finally - last time I checked, Nintendo actually reported operating profits, not losses, for the past few months. And those investors you're talking about are mostly foaming out of their mouths, calling for iPhone release of Pokemon and Animal Crossing, not seeing that the entire mobile gaming market is a bubble that, when it will finally burst (and it will soon), will send a shockwave through the industry that will make the Great Videogame Market Crash look like child's play.
And what the heck is people's problem with the gamepad? Really, it's a pack-in with the console, not an accessory, and it is in no way preventing anyone from doing or not doing anything in particular with the system. It might have been overdesigned and the concept is clearly not catching on as hoped, but how exactly dumping the Gamepad would help Wii U?
Let me start by saying that every parent who gets an XBO or PS4 for their kids and at the same time provides them with GTAV, CoD or other such games is irresponsible and/or just plain dumb. I see that a lot where I live, and it's really scary.
Now, I generally agree with those who say that Wii U is first and foremost badly named. It's the name, combined with initial presentations of the Gamepad alone, that made people think that this is simply some add-on to the Wii. It took off a large chunk of customer awareness off the system and I don't think there is a way to fix that now.
Also - price drops won't help Wii U because of the abovementioned lack of customer awareness.This system needs heavy marketing and promotion of its very strong (yet alternative to mainstream) exclusive lineup, and possibly more 3DS connectivity to materialise (seems to be trendy theese days).
As for third party - they gave up on the system, but I guess it's not because of what Nintendo is or isn't doing, nor is it because of Wii U's specs. The quality of first- and second-party titles on Nintendo consoles is punishingly high and I guess companies like Ubisoft and EA don't see a way to compete here. Also they are, just like customers, largely misled on the console's target.
Bottom line - marketing teams need to get to work, and work hard, but Wii U is almost certainly destined to be the third console out there for entire generation. We need to wait and see if Nintendo can turn fortunes around with it's next system.
I won't comment on the game itself because, save it for the 3DS demo, I haven't played it, but the lack of review copies and some bad feedback from gamers are not good signs. It's almost like SEGA knows that it's Colonial Marines all over again and they are trying to salvage what they can, while they can...
Well that is disappointing really. It will be much harder for me to justify the purchase here - I really don't have anyone to play this with, and I'm guessing that "dynasty-ish" games are not all that fun alone. Oh well...
@Sir_Deadly Hey, I never said that this is bad that they release it on Wii U. I might even download it myself if the price is right (prefer to have games in the comfort of mu couch, so to speak ;] ). I was saying that this wasn't necessarily a time-consuming effort on behalf of Frozenbyte to refresh the game.
Technically they didn't really need to do a lot. I fired up the remaster on my PC today and all the assets are basically the same as in Trine, with characers substituted for those from Trine 2. Lighting has changed, but that might just be the result of switching engines, and there is a lot more volumetric effects. Otherwise it's the same game, and an easy cash-in for Frozenbyte...
This is even below tasteless. My guess is we're looking at another project that will never come out, the developers will blame anyone and everyone for that except themselves, and a lot of kickstarter followers will loose their money.
Gamepad is NOT a tablet, not even close to one, and promoting it as a "tablet killer" is a mistake only someone completely uninformed might do. It is tied to the console by quite short range radio, you can't take it anywhere, the screen is of lower resolution than 95% of devices available and it's not multitouch. Where exactly is that "killer" part? :/
Gamepad is a controller with potential, it just needs to be used in a proper way, which means designing games from ground up to use it. Few companies can afford that nowadays, so only Nintendo and some indie devs can really show us what this device can do to enrich gaming experiences. Will they is another question...
Well... Um... I had PS3 briefly. Sold it with little regret quite a while ago. And while I own a Wii and a Wii U, I also bought an X360 in March, because it's cheap now and has a lot of interesting exclusive games I missed out on earlier. PS4 is not even on my radar. So where does that put me in Sony's plans?
I don't really understand why Wind Waker HD is a separate entry from Wind Waker. Same game essentially, only with that fetch quest fixed. Shouldn't be considered separate under any circumnstances. Same goes for Ocarina of Time. But hey, what do I know?
Twilight Princess for me anyway - best atmosphere, all collections are optional and Midna rocks as a character. ;]
Well unless we get an ability to play with GameCube pad or a dedicated steering wheel this version might as well never come out. Without analogue throttle and brakes control we can not talk about "simulation". And no, remapping to right analogue stick is not an option.
A shame really that in my area 3DS is still not a popular system. There's even not a single store selling Nintendo hardware or games in the radius of about 150 km from my city, which is pretty mind-blowing to me considering the fact that it's the capital of the region... Still - I happen to catch a pass once a month or maybe less often, and even caught one while at home (someone must have passed along the street and the range was sufficient - no other explanation to this), so there are consoles around. I don't think a StreetPass meeting could work though...
@VincentV You're wrong. Wii U has 2GB of RAM built in, but reportedly half of it is reserved for background tasks, which leaves us with 1GB for games (and 36MB of eDRAM for special purposes). That's why I said "twice".
As for PS3 - remember that it has 256MB of main RAM (about 190 available) and 256MB of graphics memory. 3DS only has one unified pool of 128MB, 32 of which are reserved, and also 6MB of graphics memory. That's far less than "just under the half".
Anyway - my point was that with minimal tweaking Minecraft would run on Wii U, but 3DS would require special coding and indeed a special version of the game. Still possible though. ;]
I can't really imagine why Minecraft is so "perfectly fit" for Wii U, especially the dual screen part. Aside from permanently open inventory there is really no use for it. But yeah, Wii U version could certainly happen, no reason why it could not, seeing the console having twice as much RAM available to games as X360 which ran it pretty well.
As for 3DS - yeah, it has an ARM11 processor, supposedly dual core, but we have no idea about the clocks. More importantly - 3DS only has 96 mb of RAM available to games, and 6 mb of VRAM (graphics only). It's far less than even the most basic of Android smartphones theese days, so it would be hard to fit a fully fledged game in that. With Minecraft memory is more of an issue than processing power.
Still, a very cut-down and limited version could happen, possibly with some small-world mechanics twist?
I hope that we get the two-disc release here in Poland - I love my physical copies as they are. Still the whole thing is confusing at best and Nintendo clearly needs to step up their pr/release game.
How could anyone right in the head could call those graphics "a mixed bag" is beyond me. It looks like a Gamecube game on every screenshot, and the water reflections are horrendous (in fact I remember seeing far better in FarCry on the first XBox nearly 14 years ago; EDIT: ok, I was wrong, there are no reflections here, just specularity from the sun). Additionally the resolution seems far lower than 720p, which in turn leads me to believe that this is just a Wii game made to run on the Wii U.
It's because of shovelware like that Wii got it's "kiddie console" reputation, and Wii U is well on it's way to get the same it seems...
Oh, so it's digital only? Shame, I hoped that it would be included on disc (especially considering the fact that those discs could fit two and a half X360 discs on them), but it still will be good to have the game on my Wii U. And it's good that "digital people" are not left hanging on this one.
I'm not going to double-dip, because why would I? It's the same game, only in a non-portable form. And I really don't care about any graphics enchancements thwey may or may not put into it. Would prefer a new game in the universe to be frank...
Sad to see so many people talking trash on the "60 vs 59 fps difference". I, for one, easily spotted that thing in Trine 2 on my PC, where I had to lock the game to 59 fps to prevent horrible timing problems (long story short - a not all that well matched hardware), but then, after a set period of time a "skip" would occur, where game would pause for a frame to re-sync to a 60hz monitor.
What I'm trying to tell is that this kind of stutter is very annoying. You don't see it as much as you feel it, and it's a shame that it got in the game despite the fact that every other MK game except M64 was at solid, v-synced 60 fps. Also as @SilentHunter382 said - frames per second are more important than resolution, all the time. And there is a CHASM between 30 and 60 fps, and anyone saying that human eye can't spot the difference simply has no knowledge on how our eyesight works. Or is just in denial/delusional phase, but I digress.
I don't really think this has to do with physical vs digital copies. Internal NAND of Wii U is very slow, just as is any HDD connected to it via USB (because of the interface), and both are a match performance-wise for Wii U digital drive. The thing that might be causing the stutter is saving the replay data to the internal flash - as I've said incredibly slow, especially at writing - so I'm curious to see if using external HDD for saves will improve things. I guess I'll find out soon enough (preorder still standing)...
But hey, at least Nintendo didn't lie in their screenshots, and that's a good thing. We're getting far too many "target renders" of games recently...
One thing in this article I'll never agree with (and from what I can see in the comments section I'm not alone) is ditching the physical distribution. I love every single of my GBA, DS and 3DS cartridges, I love the indepenedence from hardware faults and online authentication they give me. If my 3DS breaks down, I simply plug my game into new one (assuming the console is unrepairable).
Even with proper accounts system (like, say, Steam on PC) it's not the same as having a nicely lined boxes on the shelf. And the cartridges are small enough that I really see no problem in carrying them around. Additionally - I never take more than three games with me when going somewhere because I don't find it necessary. You don't switch games every 15 minutes. Or maybe it's just me.
Bottom line - while I agree that next Nintendo handheld should be more powerful and should have better screens (and also turn to capacitive technology with proper stylus support), I will never buy a console that does not allow me to buy physical copies of the games.
My, Zero Suit Samus looks horrible... Why can't they model her in a more realistic fashion? :/ Really now, do we absolutely need her breasts to be so large? sigh I would never consider that a "fan service", because it seems that with each iteration her designs and character deviates more and more from what real fans love in her. I really hope that next Metroid game does away with that style...
Okay, now I'm interested. I still have the original cartridge locked up with other GB games and consoles in a solid box, but playing DKL on a backlit screen? I'm all for that! And really there seems to be no reason not to release it outside of Japan, unless some weird licensing is in play... O.o
How is this a HD remake exactly? The game was released on PS3 and X360, both versions running at HD resolution, so I am 99% positive that we'll just get the X360 port with Gamepad support. Still - that's good, because I no longer have my PS3 and I'd love to play this again. Well, as long as the price is adeqate...
Playing the games "as they were" does not mean stripping the underlying emulator of every single additional function it could have. That's one thing. Second is - you probably wouldn't need to configure every single one of them, just make the emulator perfectly simulate the GameLink behaviour. Timing could be an issue, but not unsolvable. And they wouldn't need to set up any big server clusters for it - Wii U's could host their own games.
How would you rather play GBA games on your phone is beyond me. I never learned to play games on a touchscreen - buttons are the only way to play games requiring precision inputs and I dare you to show me any kind of touchscreen control that matches them.
And how about just focusing on making small, new games instead of just shoving every possible retro game on the eShop in hopes that somebody will buy out of nostalgia? How about being PREPARED to sustain a console on the market in the first place? Nintendo screwed things up, and in my eyes as a long time gamer (it will be like 24 years now since I've started) it only drags them below.
Also: Wii has 64MB of RAM, not GB. Typing failure on my part.
@Luneth 1) True, they required additional copies, so what? Wii U is perfectly capable of simply running two emulators side by side for something as simple as GBA. Online play is not stupid beyond belief - there is a thing called "tunelling", and it's being done for years now almost everywhere. Finally - with a good emulator setup it would be possible to output one game on the TV, and the second on the bloody gamepad the Wii U has but uses for nothing.
2) GBA is completely different from SNES in terms of hardware, and as for games I've seen plenty of both world not to draw a definitive conclusion like that.
3) And how are we to blame exactly? We bought the console in it's early days, we never asked for what Nintendo gave us to "compensate", so stop your whining on the subject that you simply missed out (because that's how it looks for me).
4) Filling the space is NEVER the solution.
5) That is actually very true. There will NEVER be any major Pokemon games on GBA VC, for reasons obvious to anyone who has minimal understanding on how this brand works.
6) I suppose so, but the thing is with other games which are not turn-based strategies. And those are in majority.
@Yorumi 3DS is nowhere near as powerful as the Wii, because it's just not possible. From the specs we know it has a dual core ARM-11 CPU with clocks around 266-333 mhz, connected with 128MB of FCRAM (96MB for games). Wii has a 733 mhz PowerPC processor and 64GB of GDDR3 RAM. There is a Grand Canyon separating those two machines in terms of performance, also in GPU department (though it's difficult to directly compare a fixed-pipeline Flipper with half-programmable PICA200, so I'm not diving into it). Bottom line is - it would not be possible to accurately emulate GBA on this kind of hardware. And keep in mind - GBA is far more powerful than NES was.
@Olaf-symbiote I can't link you any sources, because all of them are linked to 3DS hacking community, and that would be against Nintendolife rules.
Aside from that - it's just obvious for anyone with minimal knowledge of how those devices work. All DS consoles have full GBA hardware inside, because it's used as the secondary processor in that console and without it no DS games would work. At all, and yes, even DSi has it. To run DS games, all 3DS consoles must have full DS hardware inside. So for Ambassador games Nintendo simply took the already existing DS sandboxing and tricked it to think that it has just ran a GBA game from Slot 2. That's the reason the games run without any additional functionality, and that 3DS wireless communications shut down when you run them. Also when you quit, just like with DS games, a full reboot into native 3DS mode occurs, as opposed to just closing the emulator.
Also as I've said earlier - 3DS is not powerful enough to emulate GBA in software. This is really the only way those games would work, but still it makes more sense than releasing them on the Wii U. But now I'm really repeating myself...
@Yorumi Except the Ambassador GBA games on 3DS are NOT emulated. They are runing on the metal (that is on pure hardware, which every DS has) in DS mode and I'm pretty sure they can't be emulated because of insufficient power.
It would STILL, however, make more sense for them to be on 3DS in that form than releasing them on Wii U.
Yes, great, awesome. Except not. Who ever needs GBA games on home console Wii U is? It's not even portable, and when I'm at home I have at my disposal options for far better games that I can't play on the go. Why is the GBA VC not on 3DS, where it would work best? Really, Virtual Console as a whole is not the reason I've bought Wii U in the first place and if that's all Nintendo can give us, then I will seriously consider calling it quits by the end of this year (and yes, Mario Kart and Brawl are not quite enough).
Don't get me wrong, I love Advance Wars and I played the heck out of it back in the day I had my silver GBA Micro (best handheld EVER), but this is just... sad... And with rumors of DS games on Wii U I'd say the system is on terminal life support. Because that's just how it looks.
There must be something wrong with me, because as much as I am all for first- and second-party games for Wii U, very few indie ones really seem attractive to me. Of the games mentioned on the list only Armillo seems like something actually worth playing... But I guess it's just me, and I'm too mainstream... ;P
Next thing we know Fast Racing Neo is a HD-upgraded direct port of Fast from Wii Ware, only sold at twice the price. Seriously Shin'En, all that teasing, secrecy and we get THIS?! And you needed to write a new engine for it (bragged about that a few times as I recall)? Fantastic, another thing off my "to buy list" (I have AoB on Wii, and can buy Fast there as well)...
@thehappyjack - in almost every game physics are calculated at a greater rate than graphics. It's a matter of precision - you can't accurately track quickly moving objects at only 30 samples a second. You need at least 60, and 120 is preferable. Most engines use even greater resolution, so 240 is not an unheard of number. Bottom line - it will only reduce the jitter in collisions and hopefully elliminate spontaneous object flinching.
I must say that I'm disappointed. I have the original game and personally see absolutely no reason to buy this remake, especially not in the seasonal form and for the price asked.
Sorry Renegade Kid, you have to try harder to get my money.
@McHaggis Well, "Other M" fills up the definitione of 2,5D game pretty well IMO, and I wouldn't want another game made like that. It just feels a waste to create a restricted world when the console itself allows for something much more complex.
@ULTRA-64 Oh, that. I forgot that this game was on Wii U. And if it is Darksiders 2 and former Vigil employee, then all I can say is: lame excuses. I have both Darksiders games on PC (which is a fairly powerful machine I might add) and both games are glitchy, slow, unstable and looking just plain horrible at times. No wonder they couldn't get Wii U right if they couldn't even write proper PC port with all the superfulous horsepower those have...
@element187 But ME3 had no cuts in graphics and game logic, it only lacked in terms of DLC. Heck, it even looked better than on PS3, so it's most certainly NOT this. I bet on Treyarch because how BLOPS2 underperforms in terms of framerate, but still... If it's not them, I can't think of any other dev/title...
It seems that Nintendo got carried a little bit too far with their "gameplay first, hardware second" philosophy. Making a quiet, energy efficient and relatively cheap to manufacture system is one thing, but giving the developers something to work with is another. Still - I thinkt the Wii U is far from a flop, and more like a slight of hand...
I second @Jazzer94 and @Anclation - Steam World Dig and The Wonderful 101 deserve to at least be on the list. How does Rayman Legends get into top 2 Wii U games of the year and TW101 does not? Heck, even Pikmin 3 is not really all that good - it's just a HD bump of Pikmin 2 to be honest, and why does it get so much praise is beyond me...
Why would anyone want to play Knack instead of SM3DW is beyond me, though this does not change the fact that the news are not good for Wii U. Seems we are looking at a Gamecube situation all over again...
I've just tested it and it seems that they finally sorted out the framerate issues - videos are now as smooth as on my Nexus 7, which is good. The interface is still poor though...
Seeing is believing, though I wonder - if Shin'En is capable of pushing Wii U to do such thing, that would mean the console has in fact a lot of horsepower hidden inside. That, in turn, means that X360 and (to a lesser extent) PS3 ports should run nicely with not all that much additional programming effort. And yet, they don't (in most cases). Seems that most of the companies don't even bother to look up the SDK manuals...
Anyway - I'm waiting for some screenshots and/or gameplay videos. And please, let this game run in 60 frames per second and NOT pull another NFS on us...
Comments 376
Re: Research Firm's Black Friday Data Shows Wii U Lagging Behind in Sales
@Melkac Interestingly enough all my relatives who are interested in Wii U are in fact between 25 and 35 years old (no children). Curious, isn't it?
And why do you "hope" that Wii U will die? How would that help anything and anyone?
Seriously, people, stop spewing doom & gloom - it's getting really old. Why people can't just enjoy it? It's not difficult, at least not for me - had it since release and it constantly keeps me busy with new games, and quality ones to boot. Who cares about sales figures as long as we, gamers, get the good stuff?
Re: Research Firm's Black Friday Data Shows Wii U Lagging Behind in Sales
@Quorthon "Aggressively faulty" is a term I haven't heard up to this point, thank you. But I'm afraid you are wrong more than I am, and here's why.
First - fans ignored third party because games they released for Wii U were objectively worse than any other version, including both past-gen HD consoles. No DLC, sub-par performance, cuts in graphics, all that on a system that is not slower than PS3 or X360, despite what most are saying. How do you expect sales when that particular version is the worst of all?
And how exactly Nintendo should do to get the support? Before Wii U release both Ubisoft and EA were praising the system to high heavens, and yet immediately after it released they started shooting flak at it. I don't know what went wrong, but celarly Nintendo did work to get their support, but all big companies backed out suddenly. I don't really see anything in particular that Sony and Microsoft do to court any big third-party publisher, can you give me some good examples?
In terms of processing power - compare the games of past generation with this one and tell me: is any of that new power used for ANYTHING good that is much better than past generation? No, it's not. In fact, Wii U has more 60fps games now than PS4 and XBO, probably even combined. More importantly though, none of that power goes into anything that enchances gameplay.
Finally - last time I checked, Nintendo actually reported operating profits, not losses, for the past few months. And those investors you're talking about are mostly foaming out of their mouths, calling for iPhone release of Pokemon and Animal Crossing, not seeing that the entire mobile gaming market is a bubble that, when it will finally burst (and it will soon), will send a shockwave through the industry that will make the Great Videogame Market Crash look like child's play.
And what the heck is people's problem with the gamepad? Really, it's a pack-in with the console, not an accessory, and it is in no way preventing anyone from doing or not doing anything in particular with the system. It might have been overdesigned and the concept is clearly not catching on as hoped, but how exactly dumping the Gamepad would help Wii U?
Re: Research Firm's Black Friday Data Shows Wii U Lagging Behind in Sales
Let me start by saying that every parent who gets an XBO or PS4 for their kids and at the same time provides them with GTAV, CoD or other such games is irresponsible and/or just plain dumb. I see that a lot where I live, and it's really scary.
Now, I generally agree with those who say that Wii U is first and foremost badly named. It's the name, combined with initial presentations of the Gamepad alone, that made people think that this is simply some add-on to the Wii. It took off a large chunk of customer awareness off the system and I don't think there is a way to fix that now.
Also - price drops won't help Wii U because of the abovementioned lack of customer awareness.This system needs heavy marketing and promotion of its very strong (yet alternative to mainstream) exclusive lineup, and possibly more 3DS connectivity to materialise (seems to be trendy theese days).
As for third party - they gave up on the system, but I guess it's not because of what Nintendo is or isn't doing, nor is it because of Wii U's specs. The quality of first- and second-party titles on Nintendo consoles is punishingly high and I guess companies like Ubisoft and EA don't see a way to compete here. Also they are, just like customers, largely misled on the console's target.
Bottom line - marketing teams need to get to work, and work hard, but Wii U is almost certainly destined to be the third console out there for entire generation. We need to wait and see if Nintendo can turn fortunes around with it's next system.
Re: Free Sonic Boom 3DS Theme Now Available For Download In North America
I won't comment on the game itself because, save it for the 3DS demo, I haven't played it, but the lack of review copies and some bad feedback from gamers are not good signs. It's almost like SEGA knows that it's Colonial Marines all over again and they are trying to salvage what they can, while they can...
Re: RCMADIAX Reveals SPIKEY WALLS for Wii U, a Block Capitals Flappy Bird Clone
Nope. Just nope.
Re: You Won't Be Able To Cross Swords Online In Hyrule Warriors
Well that is disappointing really. It will be much harder for me to justify the purchase here - I really don't have anyone to play this with, and I'm guessing that "dynasty-ish" games are not all that fun alone. Oh well...
Re: Trine Enchanted Edition Will Be Casting A Spell On The Wii U Later This Year
@Sir_Deadly Hey, I never said that this is bad that they release it on Wii U. I might even download it myself if the price is right (prefer to have games in the comfort of mu couch, so to speak ;] ). I was saying that this wasn't necessarily a time-consuming effort on behalf of Frozenbyte to refresh the game.
Re: Trine Enchanted Edition Will Be Casting A Spell On The Wii U Later This Year
Technically they didn't really need to do a lot. I fired up the remaster on my PC today and all the assets are basically the same as in Trine, with characers substituted for those from Trine 2. Lighting has changed, but that might just be the result of switching engines, and there is a lot more volumetric effects. Otherwise it's the same game, and an easy cash-in for Frozenbyte...
Re: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Release in Japan Sees New Circle Pad Accessory
That is probably one of the most uncomfortably looking console accessories that I've ever seen... Would play the game though.
Re: Areal Passes Kickstarter Goal, Yet More Peculiarities and Questions Remain
This is even below tasteless. My guess is we're looking at another project that will never come out, the developers will blame anyone and everyone for that except themselves, and a lot of kickstarter followers will loose their money.
Letter from Vladimir Putin... Geeez...
Re: Talking Point: Should Nintendo Be Promoting The Wii U GamePad As A Tablet Killer?
Gamepad is NOT a tablet, not even close to one, and promoting it as a "tablet killer" is a mistake only someone completely uninformed might do. It is tied to the console by quite short range radio, you can't take it anywhere, the screen is of lower resolution than 95% of devices available and it's not multitouch. Where exactly is that "killer" part? :/
Gamepad is a controller with potential, it just needs to be used in a proper way, which means designing games from ground up to use it. Few companies can afford that nowadays, so only Nintendo and some indie devs can really show us what this device can do to enrich gaming experiences. Will they is another question...
Re: Sony: PS4 Is "Welcoming Back" Wii Owners Who Skipped PS3 And 360 Last Gen
Well... Um... I had PS3 briefly. Sold it with little regret quite a while ago. And while I own a Wii and a Wii U, I also bought an X360 in March, because it's cheap now and has a lot of interesting exclusive games I missed out on earlier. PS4 is not even on my radar. So where does that put me in Sony's plans?
Re: Poll: Which Is The Best Legend Of Zelda Game?
I don't really understand why Wind Waker HD is a separate entry from Wind Waker. Same game essentially, only with that fetch quest fixed. Shouldn't be considered separate under any circumnstances. Same goes for Ocarina of Time. But hey, what do I know?
Twilight Princess for me anyway - best atmosphere, all collections are optional and Midna rocks as a character. ;]
Re: Bandai Namco Picks up Project CARS for Worldwide Distribution
Well unless we get an ability to play with GameCube pad or a dedicated steering wheel this version might as well never come out. Without analogue throttle and brakes control we can not talk about "simulation". And no, remapping to right analogue stick is not an option.
Re: Nintendo Download: 26th June (North America)
Shovel Knight can't come to PAL territory soon enough, looks like exactly the game my 3DS needs to make me play it to death (of battery) again.
As a side note - the wallpaper for NF backers is pretty neat.
Re: Guide: Forming Your Own StreetPass Meet-Up Group
A shame really that in my area 3DS is still not a popular system. There's even not a single store selling Nintendo hardware or games in the radius of about 150 km from my city, which is pretty mind-blowing to me considering the fact that it's the capital of the region... Still - I happen to catch a pass once a month or maybe less often, and even caught one while at home (someone must have passed along the street and the range was sufficient - no other explanation to this), so there are consoles around. I don't think a StreetPass meeting could work though...
Re: Nintendo Open To Minecraft on Wii U and 3DS, and Expanding Its Popularity in Japan
@VincentV You're wrong. Wii U has 2GB of RAM built in, but reportedly half of it is reserved for background tasks, which leaves us with 1GB for games (and 36MB of eDRAM for special purposes). That's why I said "twice".
As for PS3 - remember that it has 256MB of main RAM (about 190 available) and 256MB of graphics memory. 3DS only has one unified pool of 128MB, 32 of which are reserved, and also 6MB of graphics memory. That's far less than "just under the half".
Anyway - my point was that with minimal tweaking Minecraft would run on Wii U, but 3DS would require special coding and indeed a special version of the game. Still possible though. ;]
Re: Nintendo Open To Minecraft on Wii U and 3DS, and Expanding Its Popularity in Japan
I can't really imagine why Minecraft is so "perfectly fit" for Wii U, especially the dual screen part. Aside from permanently open inventory there is really no use for it. But yeah, Wii U version could certainly happen, no reason why it could not, seeing the console having twice as much RAM available to games as X360 which ran it pretty well.
As for 3DS - yeah, it has an ARM11 processor, supposedly dual core, but we have no idea about the clocks. More importantly - 3DS only has 96 mb of RAM available to games, and 6 mb of VRAM (graphics only). It's far less than even the most basic of Android smartphones theese days, so it would be hard to fit a fully fledged game in that. With Minecraft memory is more of an issue than processing power.
Still, a very cut-down and limited version could happen, possibly with some small-world mechanics twist?
Re: Two Separate Bayonetta 2 Retail Releases Confirmed for Europe
I hope that we get the two-disc release here in Poland - I love my physical copies as they are. Still the whole thing is confusing at best and Nintendo clearly needs to step up their pr/release game.
Re: Review: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Wii U)
How could anyone right in the head could call those graphics "a mixed bag" is beyond me. It looks like a Gamecube game on every screenshot, and the water reflections are horrendous (in fact I remember seeing far better in FarCry on the first XBox nearly 14 years ago; EDIT: ok, I was wrong, there are no reflections here, just specularity from the sun). Additionally the resolution seems far lower than 720p, which in turn leads me to believe that this is just a Wii game made to run on the Wii U.
It's because of shovelware like that Wii got it's "kiddie console" reputation, and Wii U is well on it's way to get the same it seems...
Re: Bayonetta Download Code Included With Retail and eShop Copies of Bayonetta 2
Oh, so it's digital only? Shame, I hoped that it would be included on disc (especially considering the fact that those discs could fit two and a half X360 discs on them), but it still will be good to have the game on my Wii U. And it's good that "digital people" are not left hanging on this one.
Re: SteamWorld Dig Is Finding Its Way to Wii U This Autumn / Fall
I'm not going to double-dip, because why would I? It's the same game, only in a non-portable form. And I really don't care about any graphics enchancements thwey may or may not put into it. Would prefer a new game in the universe to be frank...
Re: Digital Foundry Pins Down Mario Kart 8's Resolution and Framerate
Sad to see so many people talking trash on the "60 vs 59 fps difference". I, for one, easily spotted that thing in Trine 2 on my PC, where I had to lock the game to 59 fps to prevent horrible timing problems (long story short - a not all that well matched hardware), but then, after a set period of time a "skip" would occur, where game would pause for a frame to re-sync to a 60hz monitor.
What I'm trying to tell is that this kind of stutter is very annoying. You don't see it as much as you feel it, and it's a shame that it got in the game despite the fact that every other MK game except M64 was at solid, v-synced 60 fps. Also as @SilentHunter382 said - frames per second are more important than resolution, all the time. And there is a CHASM between 30 and 60 fps, and anyone saying that human eye can't spot the difference simply has no knowledge on how our eyesight works. Or is just in denial/delusional phase, but I digress.
I don't really think this has to do with physical vs digital copies. Internal NAND of Wii U is very slow, just as is any HDD connected to it via USB (because of the interface), and both are a match performance-wise for Wii U digital drive. The thing that might be causing the stutter is saving the replay data to the internal flash - as I've said incredibly slow, especially at writing - so I'm curious to see if using external HDD for saves will improve things. I guess I'll find out soon enough (preorder still standing)...
But hey, at least Nintendo didn't lie in their screenshots, and that's a good thing. We're getting far too many "target renders" of games recently...
Re: Photos With Mario Available for Free Now in North American eShop
@ULTRA-64 How would that work on Wii U exactly?
Re: Talking Point: What We Want To See From Nintendo's Next Handheld
One thing in this article I'll never agree with (and from what I can see in the comments section I'm not alone) is ditching the physical distribution. I love every single of my GBA, DS and 3DS cartridges, I love the indepenedence from hardware faults and online authentication they give me. If my 3DS breaks down, I simply plug my game into new one (assuming the console is unrepairable).
Even with proper accounts system (like, say, Steam on PC) it's not the same as having a nicely lined boxes on the shelf. And the cartridges are small enough that I really see no problem in carrying them around. Additionally - I never take more than three games with me when going somewhere because I don't find it necessary. You don't switch games every 15 minutes. Or maybe it's just me.
Bottom line - while I agree that next Nintendo handheld should be more powerful and should have better screens (and also turn to capacitive technology with proper stylus support), I will never buy a console that does not allow me to buy physical copies of the games.
Re: Yoshi, Sheik, and Zero Suit Samus Confirmed as Challengers in Super Smash Bros.
My, Zero Suit Samus looks horrible... Why can't they model her in a more realistic fashion? :/ Really now, do we absolutely need her breasts to be so large? sigh I would never consider that a "fan service", because it seems that with each iteration her designs and character deviates more and more from what real fans love in her. I really hope that next Metroid game does away with that style...
Re: Game Boy Classic Donkey Kong Land Is Coming To The Japanese 3DS Virtual Console
Okay, now I'm interested. I still have the original cartridge locked up with other GB games and consoles in a solid box, but playing DKL on a backlit screen? I'm all for that! And really there seems to be no reason not to release it outside of Japan, unless some weird licensing is in play... O.o
Re: Swords & Soldiers HD Catapulting Its Way Onto The Wii U eShop Next Month
How is this a HD remake exactly? The game was released on PS3 and X360, both versions running at HD resolution, so I am 99% positive that we'll just get the X360 port with Gamepad support. Still - that's good, because I no longer have my PS3 and I'd love to play this again. Well, as long as the price is adeqate...
Re: Game Boy Advance Games On The Wii U Virtual Console Are Single Player Only
Playing the games "as they were" does not mean stripping the underlying emulator of every single additional function it could have. That's one thing. Second is - you probably wouldn't need to configure every single one of them, just make the emulator perfectly simulate the GameLink behaviour. Timing could be an issue, but not unsolvable. And they wouldn't need to set up any big server clusters for it - Wii U's could host their own games.
How would you rather play GBA games on your phone is beyond me. I never learned to play games on a touchscreen - buttons are the only way to play games requiring precision inputs and I dare you to show me any kind of touchscreen control that matches them.
And how about just focusing on making small, new games instead of just shoving every possible retro game on the eShop in hopes that somebody will buy out of nostalgia? How about being PREPARED to sustain a console on the market in the first place? Nintendo screwed things up, and in my eyes as a long time gamer (it will be like 24 years now since I've started) it only drags them below.
Also: Wii has 64MB of RAM, not GB. Typing failure on my part.
Re: Game Boy Advance Games On The Wii U Virtual Console Are Single Player Only
@Luneth 1) True, they required additional copies, so what? Wii U is perfectly capable of simply running two emulators side by side for something as simple as GBA. Online play is not stupid beyond belief - there is a thing called "tunelling", and it's being done for years now almost everywhere. Finally - with a good emulator setup it would be possible to output one game on the TV, and the second on the bloody gamepad the Wii U has but uses for nothing.
2) GBA is completely different from SNES in terms of hardware, and as for games I've seen plenty of both world not to draw a definitive conclusion like that.
3) And how are we to blame exactly? We bought the console in it's early days, we never asked for what Nintendo gave us to "compensate", so stop your whining on the subject that you simply missed out (because that's how it looks for me).
4) Filling the space is NEVER the solution.
5) That is actually very true. There will NEVER be any major Pokemon games on GBA VC, for reasons obvious to anyone who has minimal understanding on how this brand works.
6) I suppose so, but the thing is with other games which are not turn-based strategies. And those are in majority.
Re: Advance Wars Bringing the Battle to the Wii U Virtual Console on 3rd April
@Yorumi 3DS is nowhere near as powerful as the Wii, because it's just not possible. From the specs we know it has a dual core ARM-11 CPU with clocks around 266-333 mhz, connected with 128MB of FCRAM (96MB for games). Wii has a 733 mhz PowerPC processor and 64GB of GDDR3 RAM. There is a Grand Canyon separating those two machines in terms of performance, also in GPU department (though it's difficult to directly compare a fixed-pipeline Flipper with half-programmable PICA200, so I'm not diving into it). Bottom line is - it would not be possible to accurately emulate GBA on this kind of hardware. And keep in mind - GBA is far more powerful than NES was.
@Olaf-symbiote I can't link you any sources, because all of them are linked to 3DS hacking community, and that would be against Nintendolife rules.
Aside from that - it's just obvious for anyone with minimal knowledge of how those devices work. All DS consoles have full GBA hardware inside, because it's used as the secondary processor in that console and without it no DS games would work. At all, and yes, even DSi has it. To run DS games, all 3DS consoles must have full DS hardware inside. So for Ambassador games Nintendo simply took the already existing DS sandboxing and tricked it to think that it has just ran a GBA game from Slot 2. That's the reason the games run without any additional functionality, and that 3DS wireless communications shut down when you run them. Also when you quit, just like with DS games, a full reboot into native 3DS mode occurs, as opposed to just closing the emulator.
Also as I've said earlier - 3DS is not powerful enough to emulate GBA in software. This is really the only way those games would work, but still it makes more sense than releasing them on the Wii U. But now I'm really repeating myself...
Re: Advance Wars Bringing the Battle to the Wii U Virtual Console on 3rd April
@Yorumi Except the Ambassador GBA games on 3DS are NOT emulated. They are runing on the metal (that is on pure hardware, which every DS has) in DS mode and I'm pretty sure they can't be emulated because of insufficient power.
It would STILL, however, make more sense for them to be on 3DS in that form than releasing them on Wii U.
Re: Advance Wars Bringing the Battle to the Wii U Virtual Console on 3rd April
Yes, great, awesome. Except not. Who ever needs GBA games on home console Wii U is? It's not even portable, and when I'm at home I have at my disposal options for far better games that I can't play on the go. Why is the GBA VC not on 3DS, where it would work best? Really, Virtual Console as a whole is not the reason I've bought Wii U in the first place and if that's all Nintendo can give us, then I will seriously consider calling it quits by the end of this year (and yes, Mario Kart and Brawl are not quite enough).
Don't get me wrong, I love Advance Wars and I played the heck out of it back in the day I had my silver GBA Micro (best handheld EVER), but this is just... sad... And with rumors of DS games on Wii U I'd say the system is on terminal life support. Because that's just how it looks.
Re: Nintendo Confirms Presentations and Games for GDC 2014
There must be something wrong with me, because as much as I am all for first- and second-party games for Wii U, very few indie ones really seem attractive to me. Of the games mentioned on the list only Armillo seems like something actually worth playing... But I guess it's just me, and I'm too mainstream... ;P
Re: Exclusive: Shin'en Multimedia Bringing Art of Balance to the Wii U eShop
Next thing we know Fast Racing Neo is a HD-upgraded direct port of Fast from Wii Ware, only sold at twice the price. Seriously Shin'En, all that teasing, secrecy and we get THIS?! And you needed to write a new engine for it (bragged about that a few times as I recall)? Fantastic, another thing off my "to buy list" (I have AoB on Wii, and can buy Fast there as well)...
@thehappyjack - in almost every game physics are calculated at a greater rate than graphics. It's a matter of precision - you can't accurately track quickly moving objects at only 30 samples a second. You need at least 60, and 120 is preferable. Most engines use even greater resolution, so 240 is not an unheard of number. Bottom line - it will only reduce the jitter in collisions and hopefully elliminate spontaneous object flinching.
Re: Renegade Kid's New 3DS FPS Is Moon Chronicles
I must say that I'm disappointed. I have the original game and personally see absolutely no reason to buy this remake, especially not in the seasonal form and for the price asked.
Sorry Renegade Kid, you have to try harder to get my money.
Re: Retro Could Work On Miyamoto-Led Project In The Future, Says Nintendo Producer Kensuke Tanabe
@Thearnaud44 How about no?
Re: Retro Could Work On Miyamoto-Led Project In The Future, Says Nintendo Producer Kensuke Tanabe
@McHaggis Well, "Other M" fills up the definitione of 2,5D game pretty well IMO, and I wouldn't want another game made like that. It just feels a waste to create a restricted world when the console itself allows for something much more complex.
Re: Retro Could Work On Miyamoto-Led Project In The Future, Says Nintendo Producer Kensuke Tanabe
I feel great about that as long as it's a new 3D Metroid... ;P
Re: A Third-Party "Secret Developer" Gives an Inside Story of Working on Wii U
@ULTRA-64 Oh, that. I forgot that this game was on Wii U. And if it is Darksiders 2 and former Vigil employee, then all I can say is: lame excuses. I have both Darksiders games on PC (which is a fairly powerful machine I might add) and both games are glitchy, slow, unstable and looking just plain horrible at times. No wonder they couldn't get Wii U right if they couldn't even write proper PC port with all the superfulous horsepower those have...
Re: A Third-Party "Secret Developer" Gives an Inside Story of Working on Wii U
@element187 But ME3 had no cuts in graphics and game logic, it only lacked in terms of DLC. Heck, it even looked better than on PS3, so it's most certainly NOT this. I bet on Treyarch because how BLOPS2 underperforms in terms of framerate, but still... If it's not them, I can't think of any other dev/title...
Re: A Third-Party "Secret Developer" Gives an Inside Story of Working on Wii U
It seems that Nintendo got carried a little bit too far with their "gameplay first, hardware second" philosophy. Making a quiet, energy efficient and relatively cheap to manufacture system is one thing, but giving the developers something to work with is another. Still - I thinkt the Wii U is far from a flop, and more like a slight of hand...
@MrGawain - I'd bet a penny on Treyarch... ;P
Re: Game of the Year: Nintendo Life's Staff Awards 2013
I second @Jazzer94 and @Anclation - Steam World Dig and The Wonderful 101 deserve to at least be on the list. How does Rayman Legends get into top 2 Wii U games of the year and TW101 does not? Heck, even Pikmin 3 is not really all that good - it's just a HD bump of Pikmin 2 to be honest, and why does it get so much praise is beyond me...
Re: 3DS System Update Adds Nintendo Network ID, Miiverse and Unified eShop Funds
Yeah, well, it only shows me this now:
java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 407 for URL: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/netinfo/en_US/index.html ##fail##
I'd say it's a perfect summary of what we're dealing with here, especially the last part with the hash symbols...
Re: 3DS System Update Adds Nintendo Network ID, Miiverse and Unified eShop Funds
It's still showing me the 011-3051 while trying to access eShop on 3DS... When will it be sorted out? :/
Re: Super Mario 3D World Struggles Against PS4 Titles in UK Charts
Why would anyone want to play Knack instead of SM3DW is beyond me, though this does not change the fact that the news are not good for Wii U. Seems we are looking at a Gamecube situation all over again...
Re: The YouTube Wii U App Update is Now Live
I've just tested it and it seems that they finally sorted out the framerate issues - videos are now as smooth as on my Nexus 7, which is good. The interface is still poor though...
Re: The YouTube Wii U App Update is Now Live
Might give it a try later today. Can someone confirm or deny the framerate still being terrible in any video?
Re: FAST Racing NEO To Feature 'Hyper Real Graphics'
Seeing is believing, though I wonder - if Shin'En is capable of pushing Wii U to do such thing, that would mean the console has in fact a lot of horsepower hidden inside. That, in turn, means that X360 and (to a lesser extent) PS3 ports should run nicely with not all that much additional programming effort. And yet, they don't (in most cases). Seems that most of the companies don't even bother to look up the SDK manuals...
Anyway - I'm waiting for some screenshots and/or gameplay videos. And please, let this game run in 60 frames per second and NOT pull another NFS on us...
Re: SteamWorld Dig Creators to Make "Huge Announcement" Tomorrow
I'd not touch the HD remake with a long stick. I mean - what's the point of releasing the same game over and over again with just updated graphics?
To add some negativity to the response mix: I'd say it's about a mobile/tablet port. ;]