bunkaroo

I guess I spent a lot of money just to play a couple Mario games.

SmackDaddy

Well, with Xenoblade out today the useful life of my WiiU will slowly come to an end (unless of course the new Zelda really does come out next year).

It's sad really. How do you screw up your next gen console so badly? Even if they stuck with the current design, all they had to do was deliver their franchises in a timely manner. How can they not "get it" ?

Michael Corvin

Just give me Pikmin 4 on WiiU and I'll be a happy man.

Adam Tyner

A big part of it was arrogance, but a lot of it's resource management too. Trying to get the 3DS off the ground derailed pretty much everything, making it difficult for them to devote the necessary resources to the Wii U. In the meantime, they'd released essentially nothing of consequence for the Wii in two years, killing whatever momentum may otherwise have remained. I don't think there was any shot of the Wii U being a phenomenon, but it could've been less of a failure.

Adam Tyner

Minecraft is indeed coming to the Wii U on December 17th. Nintendo-centric Minecraft content to come at some point.

bippitty

A tweet from Owen Hill (apparently one of the developers) says that Minecraft does not use the gamepad for inventory management. It just mirrors the TV screen. He's says that the inventory thing would be cool.

mattysemo247

Haha, of course it doesn't. Why would Nintendo use this as an opportunity to use the gamepad in an innovative way

So what games HAVE actually used the gamepad in a useful way? Zombie U and Rayman Legends? Is that it? (not counting Nintendoland or other minigame releases)

SmackDaddy

I think there have been a couple that have used it as the map screen. I know Xenoblade Chronicles X uses it for that (although I think they could have integrated it even more than they did). Zombie U was the best example of how to use the second screen (pretty good game as well).

milo bloom

While there hasn't been much innovation with WiiU games using the gamepad, it's still pretty nice to be able to play games on the screen while somebody is using the TV for something else. But it's still pretty frustrating not being able to play Wii games on it (the ones that don't need "waggle" controls). If they could just add that functionality, that would be a nice improvement.

Adam Tyner

That to me is honestly the most compelling use of the gamepad, though. I love couch multiplayer where we're seeing different versions of the same thing.

Along those same lines, local multiplayer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is pretty killer -- two people can race together without split-screen.

Super Mario Maker makes terrific use of the gamepad.

Navigating the map / inventory management in Pikmin 3 is pretty terrific on the gamepad. In general, I like having maps and inventories on the gamepad. It's especially useful in Splatoon because you can quickly tap on the map where you want to leap.

DaveNinja

Lego Undercover used the gamepad well

fujishig

but the loading times...

SmackDaddy

Forgot about that, it was indeed great to be able to do that (I find the racing in the Sonic title to be more fun that that of Mario Kart, I own both). I wish more games had adopted that feature.

Adam Tyner

Devil's Third was sent out to die today.

No Best Buy within a 250 mile radius of me carries it. Out of the eight jillion GameStops around me, the closest one with it is nearly an hour away.

mattysemo247

It's getting great reviews too

3/10 from GameSpot and 3.5/10 from IGN.

Is Vin Diesel in the game?

Music

So when did Nintendo stop meaning only quality games?

When did they stop doing the Nintendo Seal of Approval?

bippitty

I had some hope for this early on but had already seen bad reviews from the European release. The solo campaign is very short. The people who do like the game, have mainly been raving about the multiplayer.

slop101

"Devil's Turd"

Adam Tyner

The publisher behind Urban Champion never had a spotless record.

bippitty

Urban Champion is my favorite game that I've never heard of before. Please, don't diss it.

flashburn

Xenoblade Chronicles X has gotten me to play my WiiU again after it gathering dust for at least a year. I've put about 40 hours into it so far with no end in sight. I also decided to pick up Kirby, Wonderful 101, and ZombiU. I'll probably get Zelda WW HD and Yoshi as well. Good thing I'll have a couple weeks off, I'm going to need them just to play all these damn games, .

milo bloom

My wife gave in and allowed her mother to buy Super Smash Bros for our son. He's only played it a few minutes at a time using the demo machines at Gamestop, but he got in there and it just absolutely brutal.

Is there actually any strategy to this game? Is there any kind of different moves than punch/kick? I kept trying to play it like I used to play Street Fighter on the SNES years ago, and I just couldn't get anywhere.

How is this game supposed to work?

Goldberg74

Yup, there are combo moves just like in the other games. Sounds like you need to get a guide or Google the Interwebs.

Note: My 11yo son says that you should try combining a direction on the D-pad with a button (A or B) to get a different type of move.

Have fun!

Decadance

http://smashboards.com/


The game is deeper than you realize. Have the kid watch some twitch streams of Sm4sh.

milo bloom

The kid has it figured out, I'm the one getting my butt kicked.