MrRaven1972

@ElkinFencer10 I completely agree with you. I feel about the Wii U very much the same way I felt when the Dreamcast came to a quick end.

I loved many games on the Wii U - Xenoblade, Splatoon, Mario Kart, Smash, 3d world, and lots more. It will played in this house for a while still.

My boys have been playing the game a bunch and are actually enjoying it quite a bit. The fact that it feels just like pokemon, has a bunch of original pokemon and lots of new guys works great for them. They also love that there are some new evolutions of existing pokemon (ie: a 3rd evolution of mankey, a new final evolution for spritzee, etc.) Also the idea of a new nuclear type is interesting and having an evee that can evolve into a Nucleon does look very cool. The people who made it did do a good job to make it feel like a real pokemon game.

@JohnBlackstar I agree with you about 2015. While there were some bad games, a terrible E3 showing and almost no 3rd party games, the WiiU had some of the best games released that I have played in a very long time. These games will keep me playing and smiling well into 2016. Starfox, Pokken tournament and Zelda will hopefully lead a WiiU library of other solid games as well.
2016 will all come down to how people feel about the NX reveal. Is it what people are hoping it will be or will it be something completely different. It is so hard to know.

I really hope that 2016 is an awesome year that brings back so much excitement about Nintendo!

@rjejr I hear you on those points and my family is a Nintendo family so we will likely get one at launch or soon after. It is interesting hearing all the talk about backwards compatibility as well because I am just as content if they don't worry about being backwards compatible. Since we have a WiiU and it is backwards compatible to the Wii, we will be keeping the WiiU likely regardless, and a brand new console is fine in my books.

My main point was that if people who just bought the WiiU don't have any games to purchase this year, that will be highly frustrating for them. I do feel for those people.

Even if they make a bunch of HD remasters and things like that and keep the VC bringing out new content, that will help. But Nintendo has been so bad at that during the WiiU lifespan.

While I am eager to hear what the NX actually is and when it will launch, I am almost equally eager to hear about the future of the WiiU and games coming out for it.

This past Christmas, I know of more people that bought the WiiU (with either Super Mario Maker or the Splatoon/Super Smash bundles) than either the PS4 or XBOX one. I think that is due to the age of my kids, their friends and my neices and nephews. In almost all the cases, they are not huge gamers and probably have no idea that they are buying a system that is near death. Most all had the wii and recently started to hear about the wii U with Super Mario Maker coming out.

If NX does come out in 2016 and the WiiU ends abruptly as many feel, there will be a lot of dissatisfied casual gaming families who will have a bad taste in their mouth regarding Nintendo. For those who bought the WiiU on or around launch, we have been enjoying the WiiU for a while already and have heard about the NX coming so the end is not as much of a shock.

Nintendo is in a difficult place - they need to move to the NX fast, but then they also need to be very careful not to abandon the many people who just bought the WiiU.

I tried to get one of the 1,000 free games, but haven't heard anything about that from them so I assume I didn't get one of those codes. Hopefully I can grab one of these.

Great review! I am so excited about this game. I love racing games and it is nice to have another quality title on the Wii U that is unique to Mario Kart. The graphics look gorgeous and I can't wait to try the 16 tracks. The local multiplayer is going to get used a lot in our house.

This game looks amazing! Some of the scenes in the desert reminded me of Star Wars Pod Racer on the Dreamcast. Man I loved that game.

Really impressed with how smooth the 4 player splitscreen looks. Gonna be some great couch multiplayer.

I am shocked at how they are only charging $14.99. Seems low compared to so many of the high priced mediocre games that have come out recently on the WiiU. Any word on how many tracks there will be?

This will be a day 1 purchase for me.

I picked up Kirby Return to Dreamland and Wonderful 101. Only played Kirby so far and I am so glad I picked it up. Classic Kirby goodness. Looking forward to playing some multiplayer with my kids! I do wish that you were not forced t use the Wii Remote - this would be much better with the gamepad pro. Can't wait to try Wonderful 101 (still downloading)

@Royalblues agreed! Watching the vid totally reminded me of Sonic Adventure back on the Dreamcast.

just got mine!

@rjejr I like that example 'when in Rome' because that was exactly what I was thinking as I read the interview. Sure it is fine for Nintendo to have the opinion and strategy to only show current content, but when everyone else is showing stuff soon to come and as well as far off content, it causes Nintendo to stick out like a sore thumb and it raises so many questions.

By showing even the smallest amount of footage from future projects would have alieviated so many concerns that are running rampart with fans across the internet. They could have easily avoided it and saying 'this is strategy' does not bring comfort

@Barely_Able While I do not disagree with you - Nintendo killing off the Wii U so early is going to create a lot of frustration with their core fanbase and it may take a while to win them back. If the NX is in some way backwards compatible or embrace the Wii U, that would help. I don't know - just disappointed

@Lycidas I hear you. I bought the Wii U early this year and it is very dissapointing to see that it is very close to the end of its life - far too early. What really bums me out is how much potential I see in the system. There are so many positives with both great games and upcoming titles. But, they really seem to want to move on and try to innovate instead of building on their classics.

The most interesting thing about this interview is the 'semi reveal' that the NX is a home console (or this fusion system between home console and handheld)

@rjejr I haven't heard anything about local multiplayer, but I gotta say that the importance of the gamepad makes me concerned that local multiplayer is not happening. 4 player couch multiplayer is still a big thing in my house. While I would love Nintendo to use what they learned from Splatoon for a rock solid online multiplayer (like old school Crimson Skies on the original Xbox - that would be awesome), I was also really hoping for some fun local multiplayer.

And regarding graphics, they were definitely lacklustre. There were some scenes that looks nice and others looked rough! I find it interesting whenever I look at the amazing graphics of Xenoblade. If the Wii U can have solid graphics like that, games like Starfox could be amazing and yet - it isn't. Very sad indeed.
While I was planning that Starfox would be a Day One purchase - I am not so sure now.

I am very impressed with how Splatoon fared on this list.

There are a few factors that
1. Splatoon is on one system where all the others on the list are multiplatform
2. Splatoon is a new IP and not the standard big seller like Mario games
3. Coming out on the 29th it only had 2 days in May to show numbers (sure the first few days are the big days for sales, but still)

I love that his favourite Nintendo game is Super Mario Bros. 2! Not my favourite but it sure has some interesting elements. You just know that this guy is a long time gamer. Good luck to you Chris!!

Paper Mario is one of the only Nintendo series that I have never played. Which Paper Mario game would you recommend as the best to jump into the series?

@Peach64 Crash Team Racing was a classic! Loved that game. Feeling the need to load it up and play a round.

I still need to play the Wii U version!
On my 'must play' list

So impressed with how Splatoon is doing in Japan. Hoping for the same in North America. Nintendo really hit one out of the park with this game.

A new Diddy Kong Racing would be sweet!