Why Is Wii-U So Terrible Again ?

I like Nintendo games but

Why Is Wii-U So Terrible Again ?

Which part of: no third party support is so hard to understand ?

Let alone the rest of everything else that makes it a poor investment for most people other than those who really like Nintendo games

This.

People tend to over-sell it's badness, since really all that's holding it back from being the best console this gen is third party support.

If it got all the games the XB1 and PS4 have, it's exclusives would put it over the top.

Its a terrible console in the sense that it misses out on most multiplats.

But at the same time. It has enough exclusives to be justified of my purchase. It is a good system, provided that it is not your only stationary system.

The Wii-U is kind of a disappointment when compared to previous Nintendo consoles and handhelds. It doesn't have a grand variety of games, or a lot of games with depth to them. Even the Wii, which was imo a horrible system and probably even worse than the Wii-U, was still a large financial success for Nintendo. The lack of power, third-party support and a good online profile system only add to the problems, as does Nintendo's insistence on chasing after weird gimmicks and hardly utilizing them.

I also don't need to remind anyone how disappointed a lot of people were with this year's Nintendo E3 event. There were a few decent games in there, I'm sure, but it was hardly the unveiling it should have been. The lack of any real information considering Nintendo's NX thus far has left people even more bewildered about what's next for the company.

It's a 10 year late Nintendo 360/PS3 that gets 3 to 5 good games a year.

just speaking about the console itself (setting aside the games).

the OS is incredibly bloated. why is it using 1GB of ram? what is it doing? my ubuntu install on my PC doesnt use 1GB of ram and thats a full fat PC OS. its also slow. i dont mean slow as in slow hardware...i mean slow to do things. slow to load games, system menus etc. the wii feels like a faster system despite it only being around 10% as powerful.

it lacks a HDD. this is not a "oh i want to install my games" thing. its a performance issue. console like the first xbox and PS3 allowed games to cache data to the HDD. this improved loading performance. the wiiu cant do that (with 1 exception) (using the internal storage is a non runner as it would kill the lifetime of the console) so more ram needs to be set aside for data stores or the game needs to rely on the disc drive alone...which is not fast enough. monolithsoft had to work miracles to get xenoblade x running at all and, in the end, they have had to concede that the game needs a HDD for the best results. this is supposed to be a games console...it shouldn't require upgrades to play its own games at their best. for a company thats trying to push the estore the lack of a HDD is also baffling.

the gamepad brings nothing to the table. the wiimote brought tangible benefits to some games (the FPS comes to mind) an ti brought benefits to the games nintendo were making. i have yet to play one single game on the wiiu where the gamepad has impressed. credit where its due: the integration of the gamepad into the system itself is second to none. its a no nonsense, native res 60FPS low latency stream...its better than most TVs in the performance stakes. but.....why? nintendos inability to answer this question has been the biggest problem for the wiiu. there are games that could benefit from such a setup but nintendo dont make those kinds of games.

bringing games into it...its a good system now IF you like nintendos games AND you have another system. if you dont like nintendos games then its much much harder to recommend. but if you do like nintendos games then it has the best mario kart since DS, mario world is not galaxy good but its still very good. pikmin 3 is pretty sweet and so on.

i wouldnt call it terrible, but it was not very well thought out at all.

They didn't want to put a hard drive in it because that's one more moving part that can break. They made Wii U to be a long lasting, efficient piece of kit. But I do wonder why they went for a 4x blu-ray drive, perhaps a 6x drive would've fixed any issues with loading. 4GB of memory would've helped too. What game caches data to an external HDD that you know of?

It would be great if NX uses SD cards for this reason, it's funny how we've gone backwards from the N64.

I think the OS uses so much memory because you can pause a game, keep it running and use the internet browser in the background, which is leagues faster than the browsers on 360 and Ps3.

A toddlers console. :D lol.

Aren't they abandoning it after 4 years though? Seems like a HDD could have survived that long!

:P

@Chozofication: its a very poor reason for not putting one in for a few reasons.

1) the ol winchester is pretty bullet proof. sure eventually they do fail..eventually. but i have HDDs ten years old that are still trucking along nicely.

2) the current solution in the wiiu will lead to its eventual failure. its flash memory (im assuming its similar to the type of memory in an SSD)...some day its going to fail. it is not a user replaceable part. so once its gone thats it..dead wiiu. return to vendor. a HDD setup like the PS3s/4s would negate this problem. HDD dies, get another off the shelf part, stick it in and away you go. years and years of more gaming (the wiiu even has the tools to format and manage HDDs...so its not line nintendo would need to figure all that out).

a 6X drive probably also wouldn’t be sufficient. they would really need something approaching 10-12X..which leads to noise problems.

I stand corrected on the data cache. i though xenoblade X was going to do it but it looks like it will just have optional data packs instead to improve loading performance.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/04/xenoblade_chronicles_x_will_use_downloadable_data_packs_to_expedite_loading_times

its more like an install than a data cache.

It's not a bad console, and it is a step in the right direction compared to the wii imo. You can't hit home runs all the time, so maybe next time they might get it right. one thing is for certain, their first party is really good (if you like Nintendo).

Yeah but it can't run those games...that is the problem. Witcher 3, Bloodborne, MGS V, Battlefront, all the heavy hitters are nowhere to be found because the system couldn't possibly handle them. All that being said its a good console to have if not primary

leave PC out of it...compare consoles to consoles

forced tablet controller and no third party support were the turn offs for me

Yeah the on board flash won't last forever either, but i'm sure Nintendo made sure it'll last as long as possible if their goal with the hardware was longevity. Using an external drive would take wear off the flash as well.

I don't mean that a HDD would've been the wrong thing to do necessarily, I was mostly stating how Nintendo looked at it. I wouldn't want *forced* installs though, it's great that Wii U is still plug and play. But as Ps3 like (buy a replacement drive) solution as cache it would've been good.

Couldn't you just use an external drive if the flash ever dies though?

-It has the least amount of games
-The network sucks
-Nintendo's own first party only looks strong against pathetic competition (Sony and Microsoft, who yes are pathetic 1st party wise). Otherwise Nintendo themselves have made....zero great games for the WiiU. A bunch of good ones, but no great ones. The best 2 games on that system? Made by Platinum Games, and an indie dev (Yacht Club Games).

@Chozofication: i agree about avoiding the forced installs. its a nonsense that they exist on any console.

the first xbox was the best console at using this setup as it had a decent DVD drive and the HDD. so it was very effective at hiding the fact that it was caching data to the HDD in the background as you played the game. games like halo 2 wouldnt be possible on the first xbox without a HDD to cache too. i still dont know why MS decided to forgo a HDD as standard in the 360...a poor decision on their part.

as for using the external drive if the flash dies..i dont think so. as far as i know that flash is where the OS resides. ideally there would be a seperate rom/flash chip or something where the OS resides and, in the event of hard drive failure, the system would copy the OS from the OS flash to the new HDD, complete an initial setup and you would be back in business. essentially it would be like a factory reset. or maybe consoles could come with system rescue CDs in future :P. i think thats how it works for the PS4 (or the OS is just stored on a chip on the mobo and only settings are saved to the HDD..im not 100% on that).

Understatement of the year.

It's not just the lack of third party support that is holding it back.

@Slimmin360: underpowered, no third party, barely any games, gimmicks, etc

Its a great system. Its far more energy efficient than both of the twins, perfect for console streaming, and it is quite reliable. Most of the hatred is from 'core' gamers from gaming sites. The real problem is that its met with apathy from the majority of the public because Nintendo screwed up with branding and console design. Most don't even know what it is to this day. And Nintendo refused to do anything about it. Change the U to a 2 and I bet it would have sold at least 30 million.

Yeah the Xbox had a nice set up in terms of loading. Gamecube was even faster with its mini discs but I can't see Nintendo using those again.

I see, well someone will find out whenever the flash does die :p

It's the shitty go to defense. "Well if you take away this short coming, it's all hunky dory" ..and it's like yeah, but we live in a world where that short coming exists, so pipe the **** down.

its not terrible, its a nice past gen console, with a lot of good 1st party games, backwards compatible with a past-past gen console, priced as current gen console

Well, that and the fact that the hardware itself sucks (in terms of being cheap/weak)...and the OS... I hear the dev kits are a P.I.TA as well. I think all of of that is tied in pretty directly to the lack of 3rd party. It's not like Nintendo gives them a great environment to work with to bring games out at parity...not even close.

It's not terrible. To me as a consumer, it's not a good enough value. They could benefit from lowering their price. As much as they flatter themselves and try to mirror their idol Apple, they do not command a premium product that can get away with inflated pricing.

This. They got away with being a "generation behind" on Wii, and figured they could pull the same stunt again by adding a tablet to a very cheap and underpowered console (at the time of it's launch). But the execution was not nearly as innovating or interesting as the original Wii. While the Wii was a casual fad, there was definitely some fun innovation there. Unfortunately it seems like Nintendo did not re-invest in that early success of the Wii. Instead, they just let it ride out to it's conclusion...

Hell, even the tablet itself is cheap inferior tech at this point that nobody really wants (i.e. it's laughable compared to an IPAD, yet it adds expense, complexity, and inconvenience to the Wii-U console). The final insult to people with "marginal" interest, or that would get it as a secondary console, is that they have held the line on price in the face of market rejection.

Games doesn't matter to SW.

bam

If that were true, WiiU would be praised :P

Which is why the platform with the least amount of games gets shat on?

Well to me the Hardware isn't that weak, the graphics are superbe, very colorful, you can tell the different texture of everything and Nintendo games are very solid, never drops in frame rate, many are at 60fps and in 1080 ... Sony and Microsoft can't even do that and their consol doesn't have to stream to a second screen ...

Outside of the lack of 3rd party support, nothing really.

the battery life on the controller is utter shit, theres a valid reason right there.

The Christ?

Let's start with the fact that it set a record for no games, ok?

Then it's got about a half dozen worth playing

Awful controller that is not only bad for able bodied people but prevents disabled people from playing

Visuals are sub par

Sound is sub par

Awful online infrastructure

Play games remotely? That's adorable, for people who live in actual houses that's impossible because the thing has a signal like a router from 1993

That simply isn't true. Some are 60fps, some are 1080p, only one or two are both though.

Nintendo also haven't made any large action, adventure, open world or RPG titles for it yet. There's nothing as taxing as a Witcher 3, Arkham Knight, or Metal Gear V.

Running 2D Mario in 720P/60fps isn't too impressive, imo.

@locopatho: But they have those games in the works. Zelda U, and they already launched Xenoblade Chronicles X in Japan.

@bunchanumbers: Sure, but I can't predict the future. I don't know how those games run. If they are 1080P/60fps, I'll be massively impressed. I don't think they will though.

Quality over quantity.

Hello? Xenoblade X? :p

Also Wind Waker HD (1080p) though it's sporting gamecube level geometry, is impressive everywhere else. And need for speed U is open world and has some significant improvements over the other versions.

Mario U I wouldn't call impressive either, but Tropical freeze is. Wii U has the juice to make a significantly better looking game than Ps3/360 can, but it's not powerful enough to brute force unoptimized code and still have improvements over Ps3/360 games. Watch dogs and AC run like shit on it.

Xenoblade X is 720/30, but it's still impressive given the size.

Zelda will be 30fps, but it could be 1080

That's a cute lazy rebuttal yah like to rely on, problem is that the WiiU isn't exactly pumping out classics, so if it's a matter of a bunch of good games vs a bunch of good games, the PS4 has more. The Xbox One is beginning to have more. And the PC has way fucking more.

Personal taste the WiiU has actually one great game to its name: Bayonetta 2. After that 2 actual creative games in Splatoon and The Wonderful 101. The PC doesn't have a game as good as Bayonetta 2 since the WiiU's release, I wouldn't disagree with that. It's had far more good games, and a larger range of fresher game ideas. And in a lot of cases, yeah games that I would, I did, and I do enjoy more than the likes of Splatoon, The Wonderful 101, DK, Mario, etc.

Mirko's initial point is that for some reason the "WiiU is for gamers" needs a bit of a qualifier, "Nintendo" gamer. Because the WiiU is covering the least amount of range in terms of quality games.

I'm not relying on anything, I know you're not a fan of tropical freeze, as one example, but it's an incredible game. The only criticism you could give it was that it's not reinventing the wheel. Talkin' about cranky kong is just scrooge mc'duck but shovel knight does the same shit (and hey, i'm really looking forward to that game).

Wii U is for people that like great games, if they don't like Nintendo for some reason, that's that. You have franchise fatigue and I get that, but it doesn't negate the quality of games Nintendo has put out on Wii U.

Unless you live in a one room house or have walls made of tissue paper, no. You have to stay pretty close to the system.

I don't call Shovel Knight a great game either. It's certainly less bloated. if I said the WiiU sucked, half the people in this thread have some merit, but this myth that the WiiU is for the gamers

brb has the least games

The WiiU is the only system getting games with good gameplay

brb the PS4 alone got Bloodborne which plays well. Wolfenstein, which plays well. Velocity 2x, which plays well. Resogun. Which plays well. Super Time Force which plays well. Metal Gear Solid V. Which plays well. Guilty Gear which plays well. I can continue

The only advantage that system has is its exclusive, which I do not disagree with. I rather play the WiiU exclusives than the ones on the PS4 or the Xbox One, Bloodborne being the only one that I'd play over anything else on the WiiU not named Bayonetta 2. Beyond that, it's no less pathetic than its competition. In fact its getting a whole lot of love, because Microsoft and Sony have pathetic first party offerings. And we bring the PC into this, it's not close.

There is no quality over quantity, it's just a whole less of quantity of quality products on the WiiU vs direct competitors.

@Litchie: what? Most people are saying the lack of 3rd party support.

How can a platformer even be bloated? Esp. one with no text or dialog. Only if it has a bunch of similar levels but TF doesn't have that problem. An adventure game or an RPG can be padded because it has a story and an ending to get to. DK has much more content and that's nothing but a plus, I hear SK is about a 6 hour game.

I think the souls games are absolute shit and the speed they pump them out is barely more restrained than Assassin's creed. That's the game I see everyone saying is the Ps4's one great, and ok I haven't played it but I have played demon's souls. Kinda don't want to get into that now in fact I think we have before. But speaking of bloat Metal gear V looks like a prime suspect.

Now we're getting into personal tastes to an extent, and games I haven't played but I can look at all the games on Ps4, and out of the ones i'd care to buy, i've got more Wii U exclusives alone than the lot of them. 3 of them are remasters, (the naughty dog games and DMC4 Vergil). Nothing's standing out as a reason to buy the Ps4 yet.

Just out of curiosity, would you rather have played Bayonetta 2, or a few other simply *good* games? Me, i'm picking the 1 masterpiece every time.

Totally does (bolded)

a few simply good games? Might depend on which few. Otherwise yeah most likely Bayonetta 2, the problem is the WiiU has one Bayonetta 2. The rest of its lineup is exactly what the good games on the other systems are, a good entry in its respective genre or even franchise. In certain cases really good, on the cusp of actual greatness: The Wonderful 101 and Smash 4. It's not exactly a bunch of Mario Galaxy 2's, Melee's, or Yoshi's Islands on that lineup.

Which is the point, the other being it's still got the issue of covering the least amount of range. It's a worthy side console to my PC, hell it's probably the only console I needed to buy until I really wanted to play Bloodborne. But at the same time calling it this gamers machine, or the problem with it is that SW doesn't care about games, or it x, y, and z...when the issue is as simple as it gets. It gets the least games, ergo it has least variety of options to offer players.

Just like some people in this thread don't like fps, it's pretty easy to look at say a Kart Racer and say you mean that style of game that values chaos and random shit over actually getting? yeah no thanks. Which then means if you don't like it, you don't like what 10% of the quality retail games on that platform? Not exactly a statement you can make with the PC. You don't like Dota 2, that's not missing out on 10% of the alleged great games on that platform. Major difference.

@jg4xchamp: I can't see why you would think TF has bloat. Level design wise each level either offers something different or ramps up the difficulty enough.

I'm still pulling for a W 102, there's so much room for improvement and Kamiya just needs to stahp with the shoot 'em shit if he's not going to bother to make those sequences good lol

I don't even agree that Ps4 gives a better coverage of games (or even as good as), at least not yet. You know Ps4 has been slow as shit in building up it's library too, and it's sorely lacking in a couple genre's Wii U isn't, namely platformers. What's it got, gimped rayman legends and shovel knight. But it'll ultimately, (and fairly soon) have a bigger library of games of course.

Listen the PS4 sucks, but I speak from a place where I do my gaming on PC. PC out of the equation, I would be think a bit more highly about the PS4. For me to think more of the WiiU? The PC, PS4, and the X1 need to not exist. Whole different ballgame lol.