The WiiU, or, How I Spent My Morning

[rpgdemon]

So, I have a WiiU premium edition now.

It's funny, since I wasn't really paying attention to the launch or anything too closely. I played it at E3, I thought NSMBU was fun, and wanted to pick one up sometime, but I didn't know when I was going to do that.

I got home for Thanksgiving on Friday, and realized that I was here right at the launch weekend. So, Saturday, I make calls, drop by places in person, to talk and figure out what's going on with the launch, if they were all pre-sold, if anyone was doing midnight releases, et cetera.

First things first: Nintendo has a huge problem with branding and awareness. The stores I went into, almost no one knew what I was talking about with the WiiU. Conversations often went something like, "Hey, do you know about the WiiU?" "You mean the Wii?" "No, Nintendo's new console, the WiiU, are you doing a midnight launch for it or anything?" "I don't know about our black friday sales for the Wii man, you need to check our flyer. Sorry."

So, I go from employee to employee, wherever they point me to, trying to find someone who knows about what's happening. None of the stores were doing midnight launches, and I found out apparently WiiU availability is tied to 3DS sales. If you sell more 3DS XLs, you get more WiiUs in stock.

So, finally, I get some "straight" answers out of a guy. After he was talking about the 3DS XL stuff, he said he couldn't disclose numbers for how many they got in stock. I had to ask, essentially, "So, how long would the line have to be in order for me to just leave", to get any answer out of him, and he said around 20 people in line, but some of those might be pre-buys. It turned out that the store had 7 premiums, and 7 non-premiums. The attendant also was helpful in saying that a Walmart down the road was rumored to have much more than them, coming in.

So, I now had to get somewhere and camp out in front of the store really early in the morning, instead of getting it at night and going to bed. I figure 5:00 AM was when the rush would come, I'd get there a bit before that, everything would be good. I was entirely right. I got there at 4:20ish, and was the first in line, and the only person until around 4:40-4:50.

At around 7:30, a store attendant came outside to give us tickets to get the WiiU, and I got my ticket, with a little 1 on it, saying that I was able to buy a WiiU delux. Long story short, I went in, got it, and now have it sitting in it's box, waiting to be opened.

So, I really want to write some sort of journalistic article about the whole thing, since there is a lot more story to tell, and a lot more to dig into about the distribution and really soft launch of the WiiU, as well as the branding issues. But the important thing is: The WiiU is here.

[Bells]

If you can do videos, unboxing and first impressions are usually a great thing to do. You got any games with it or just the bundle?

Also, at least for me, the WiiU is non-existent until i hear that a new Pokemon Snap is on the way.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

And given the mass potential of the Touch screen controller. It's only a matter of time.

[Locke cole]

I'm interested in the whole lopsided muliplayer hing.

It'd be cool to see a game where the guy with the tablet controls the layout of a labyrinth, while the guys with Wiimotes spend explore said maze and try to get to a treasure while the guy with the tablet lays traps and summons monsters to patrol certain corridors.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Well it's safe to say Impressed with the WiiU. Also say to say the Pro Controller and Touch Screen Controller (a MUCH better name then U-Pad as it does create the confusion of the U-Pad being a tablet when it's not.) are the default controllers. With the Wii-motes just being secondary controllers.

[Locke cole]

Can you run Gamecube games on the Wii U? I forgot if that was a thing or not.

[rpgdemon]

It cannot play gamecube games, but there is a virtual console for them.

I haven't actually opened it up yet, believe it or not. In about a week, I won't be able to do anything with it anyway for about three weeks, so I'm in no rush. I just wanted to make sure to have gotten it, in case of the Christmas rush stuff.

[Magus]

You should write your will before turning it on. I assume you will be sucked into an alternate dimension of nirvanic bliss as you reach a higher plane of existence. Well, that's what the commercials tell me, anyway.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Whelp seems I may have been right early in my WiiU doom and gloom. It's odd how things went from being one of Nintendo's best launches to one of it's greatest screw ups in the company's history, during a system launch.

[Bells]

Puh-lease elaborate!

Also... what Wii did for Tennis and Golf, the WiiU could do for Fatal Frame and Pokemon Snap. I'm sticking to it

[synkr0nized]

Send me your old Wii console(s). Mine is bricked, and I've no interest in buying Nintendo consoles anymore. But I need to be able to smite my foes in Mario Kart and Smash. And my allies in NSMB.

[Locke cole]

I might keep my Wii.

Or my Gamecube.

Not sure.

Can you transfer channels and Wiiware titles to the Wii U?

[rpgdemon]

There's a one-time only transfer that you can do between the Wii and the WiiU, to get all your channels across, I'm pretty sure.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Puh-lease elaborate!

Also... what Wii did for Tennis and Golf, the WiiU could do for Fatal Frame and Pokemon Snap. I'm sticking to it

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-wii-u-is-here-here-are-the-things-we-hate-about-a-system-we-love

Since it's launch there have been a massive number of reports complaining about the UI being really glitchy (way more so then the Wii's was at launch). Alot of features promised for the WiiU at launch were missing. Doing anything that's not gaming requires 15 second long load times for the UI to switch to it.

While the Wii was easy to pick up, understand, and use. The WiiU is much more complicated to get working and understand, resulting in confusion amongst the early adopters whom are having a hard time figuring out some of Nintendo's choices with the UI set up regarding Miiverse. For example most sites and services have either a friend system (PSN/X-Box Live), or a watch system (Deviantart). Wii U some how has both along with two ways to friend someone online, one of which doesn't notify you when someone has add you to their friend roster.

Another problem with the WiiU is that when you are using the UI menu screen in TV mode. You must use a Wii mote to select options (a controller that's not included with either model of the console). The UI will not respond to button imputs from the Pro controller and Touch Screen controller (again U-pad was a bad name choice as it cause consumers to think It's a tablet).

There's also been a good number of reports of the other minor glitches with the UI. Such as the WiiU not reading/mistaking a Game disk for another one played before it. And the WiiU desyncing with it's controllers whenever it's turned off from the console.

It's a mess, thankfully Nintendo can patch away these issues. The consern whoever is that giving Big N's reputation, Will these Patches even happen at all. Or will the WiiU be the first Nintendo Home Console in years to get the DS treatment (new different model released every few years).

[Ryong]

So, apparently, some people are reporting that updating the firmware bricked their consoles.

Interesting.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

On a much lighter note however.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/18/frozenbyte-wii-u-indies-set-their-own-eshop-prices-sale-dates/

Nintendo E-Shop: +1




Nintendo overhauled more than just its controller with the Wii U – it also revamped how it handles indie developers and eShop games. Frozenbyte (Trine 2) marketing manager Mikael Haveri tells IGN that Nintendo's foray into modern distribution puts it on par with established companies such as Steam and Apple.

"We have the power to price our products as we please, with just some basic guidelines from the big guys," Haveri says. "The step to this is purely from Nintendo's side and they clearly see that [their] previous installments have not been up to par. We can set our own pricing and actually continuing on that by setting our own sales whenever we want. It is very close to what Apple and Steam are doing at the moment, and very indie friendly."

Developers don't need to pay to patch their games on Wii U, either. Recently Fez developer Polytron called out XBLA for charging "tens of thousands of dollars" for patches following the first, free one. Nintendo's infinitely free patching could be a large draw for indies.

"Simply put, they've told us that there are no basic payments for each patch (which were pretty high on most platforms) and that we can update our game almost as much as we want," Haveri says. "For indie developers this is huge."



Seriously it would really suck if this thing ended up being a commercial failure. Considering all of the great things that has and will be done involving Nintendo and third party support.

[Locke cole]

So, apparently, some people are reporting that updating the firmware bricked their consoles.

Interesting.

I overheard something about that. Apparently, it occurred when there was a power outage during the update?

So, kind of like the whole "do not shut the machine off while updates are happening", but more unavoidable and tragic.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I overheard something about that. Apparently, it occurred when there was a power outage during the update?

So, kind of like the whole "do not shut the machine off while updates are happening", but more unavoidable and tragic.

Yeah this is a pretty common thing that will happen to any machine/device that's turned off mid update. Not really a WiiU problem specificly.

[rpgdemon]

Yeah, the story was, a reporter thought it was taking too long, and turned his console off mid-update, and it bricked.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Yeah, the story was, a reporter thought it was taking too long, and turned his console off mid-update, and it bricked.


I would have fired his ass for that...


Wow... just... argh, I think I'm gonna be sick.

[Locke cole]

Whaaat. Okay, that is a terrible lapse in judgment.

That being said, it makes me wonder if it would be feasible for machines that do updates like that to have small backup batteries in the event of a random outage during maintenance. Not just the Wii U, but sort of in general.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Well with laptops, you can simply rely on the battery when updating to provide a safer update without bricking it. (I do it all the time with mine, it's why I like using it more then my PC)

So I don't see why PCs and consoles can't have a back up batt. Other then development costs anyway.

[Magus]

You can buy a back-up battery thing that plugs into the wall for desktop PCs and TVs, game consoles, etc. Gives you enough time to save your work in the case of a power outage or what have you. You plug it into the wall and then your machines into it. My friend has one.

They cost a bit and weigh a ton, though. I assume they are just modified car batteries with the correct voltage/plug-ins, or something along those lines.

EDIT: I guess the 5-minute one only costs 50 bucks, I assume the 150 dollar ones get you 15 minutes. Not a lot of time but they could certainly save you money/headache in the long run. Now I'm thinking about getting one myself--it'd be most useful when the power just bomps on and off as it does sometimes.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I'll probably avoid those, mostly due to me having bad expriences with a car battery back when I did robotics at my High School 4 years ago.

[Magus]

I'll probably avoid those, mostly due to me having bad expriences with a car battery back when I did robotics at my High School 4 years ago.

Well the one I was looking at says this:

The maintenance-free sealed Lead-Acid battery

I assume it's better sealed than a car battery, anyway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101344

[Ryong]

Yeah this is a pretty common thing that will happen to any machine/device that's turned off mid update. Not really a WiiU problem specificly.

Actually, it's very common to have updates be - the whole operation is either complete or not, if it gets interrupted midway it's not done, therefore it starts again from the start. It's what's used in banks for transactions, for example , while it's not exactly the case with the PS3 and xbox360, they still have failsafes.

[Aerozord]

Wii U is something I am going to wait on. From what I have seen so far of people playing it there is alot of great potential here. But it all depends on its applications in the real world and what developers do with it. The Kinect also had tons of potential but low fidelity and developers mostly using it as a wii-mote analog kept it from being of much use.

I am also skeptical of reviews because, as with that one example sometimes with new tech the problem is the inexperienced user not the hardware. Wii U does seem abit less intuitive though. I'm just hoping unlike the Wii and PS3 it has an option to autorun any games that are inside it. When I put a game in my video game console, its because I want to play a video game. Dont force me to go through a menu to select it. I have a button on the controller to take me to the main menu if I want to. Stop adding steps to my game swapping

[Bells]

As someone with 100 Wii titles under his belt i think i have something to say about it... and, honestly, you can look at the Wii potential to see the future WiiU Potential.

The only new thing is that now you can get your hands on a bunch of multiplatform titles cause nintendo finally got on board with the idea that you can't surive with Mario Party alone...

I mean, look at the Wii games Library... the top games, all the best ones, the most well received... they all use Motion Control as a side-gimmick that is not really necessary or they don't use it at all! And that's years after improving Wii games quality...

So, i'm not too sure where the WiiU can go here aside from a very similar parallel road. Like i said before... some of the best stuff on the Wii for me was Tennis and Golf, cause those were unique enough... i also really liked Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 cause for me it was the best implementation of motion controls in a fighting game EVER.

But everything else was pretty passable on the motion department... The thing with the WiiU is that a lot of big titles have online multiplayer focus. And that usually steps aside from using the WiiU pad, which makes it just one more console between the 360 and the PS3.

Not really worth being an early adopter this time (even though it hardly ever is anyway)

[Magus]

100...Wii titles...? Are you counting Virtual Console? I can't believe you found 100 Wii titles worth buying. I remember back when I planned on maybe getting one I had figured out about six worth playing. About 2011 I believe.

EDIT: Let me put it this way, the Wii makes the Gamecube look like a treasure trove of gaming options.

[Bells]

Most weren't buys, just discs i managed to get my hands on and play and a TON were silly imports. I mean, i played a Danish horse racing simulator and a japanese Subway conductor simulator!

[P-Sleazy]

has anyone been playing Nintendo Land? Me and my roommates are finding this game to be MUCH more fun than NSMB U. Favorite game has to be sweet day or Luigi Ghost Mansion.