Wii U: The Games

Nintendo’s E3 2011 presser was a little harder to follow than Microsoft’s or Sony’s before it. After dancing around the subject for prolonged period, Reggie Fils Aime finally announced Nintendo’s next home console, the Wii U. The confusion occurred due to the sole focus of the controller unit and not the console itself; at one point some were led to believe that the Wii U was a peripheral for the original Wii platform.

However, it didn’t take long for the pieces to come together; Nintendo are readying the launch of a console which they believe combines casual and hardcore gaming with an amazing controller which also doubles up a portable version of the Wii U.

Hardcore gaming was something which could be conducted via the original Wii, though time and time again, developers were put off producing anything that wasn’t a certified money-printer. However, with the world’s largest gaming consumer group in their palm, Nintendo now have the tech to run all of those triple A title you once thought exclusive to the PS3, 360 and PC. Here’s a video, taken straight from the conference, outlining plans third party developers and publishers have in mind for the Wii U.

  • Darksiders 2
  • Tekken: Wii Successor
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Assassin’s Creed
  • Ghost Recon Online
  • Various EA Sports titles
  • Dirt
  • Aliens Colonial Marines
  • Metro Last Light
  • Ninja Gaiden 3

Each of the pre-mentioned games are undeniably for the hardcore, especially those which need an acquired taste such as Metro and Darksiders. Let’s just hope that Nintendo are busy working behind the scenes to implement and online network structure and exclusive incentives in order create an even more competitive battleground for the industry giants.

15 Comments

  1. Please. Is it the WiiU or the Wii U? The articles say Wii U but the reveal says WiiU?

    • Sorry, must’ve been fixed by now? So Wii U it is.

  2. Reggie to gametrailers : none of the 3rd party titles shown in the video were WiiU images (apart from the bird/fish demo), all the rest were 360/PS3 because the games don’t actually exist on that machine yet as it’s a year away

    • Yep, just caught that too. I doubt there will be too much of a difference between the Wii U and other platforms to be honest; that Zelda demo looked kickin’

  3. I fail to see which Assassin’s Creed they are planning on putting out, or whether it’s all three. Multiplayer was mentioned, perhaps it’s just Brotherhood/Revelations.

    • It’s tough to call, though Revelations or next year’s AC seems the best bet. You will also notice how the Ubisoft aren’t launching Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for the Wii U, instead they are releasing their free-to-play online shooter, Ghost Recon Online.

  4. I think that Nintendo is very good at putting Style in is pressers and making people exited. Whereas I think that Sony has better things coming, it could even incorporate a lot of this stuff with the Vita. Sony’s presser was a shambles in execution, 2K basketball and that generic Move game could have been given A LOT less presence, whereas Sly 4, Starhawk could have been hyped up a lot more. I think that by having nervous developers Sony really lost a lot of glamour in its confrence, allowing Nintendo to take the prize.

    Pretty much what I’m trying to say is this, even though all these titles will be old by the time the Wii-U releases, Nintendo are really good at getting people hyped for the same experiences they have always had.

    • In my opinion Nintendo had the worst presser. Around 6 of the TSA team were screaming at each other for a good quarter of an hour because we couldn’t work out what the Wii U actually was. Clarity was in short supply, despite the interesting concept of the console.

      • How were you still confused after the rumours about Wii U were directly and clearly addressed during the event?
        “The Wii U is a new console”
        “The screen doesn’t detach from the controller”

      • Well, they didn’t show the console. The last home console announcement was from Sony with the PS3 and the first thing they did was to say look here it is and tell you the specifications of the device.

  5. Ehh, i still reckon the hardware capabilities and console software will ruin this idea. The console and controller look like baby toys, and seem so generic, and Nintendo can’t make console software since the Gamecube. I can only hope that some developers truly innovate with the screen rather than seeing multi-platform games with limited functionality, but I don’t think Nintendo are the company to truly inspire and support other developers to do it.

    On Nintendo this concept feels wasted in general, and although i’m only assuming from what i’ve seen, Nintendo are predictable, just look at the 3DS…

    • Give it time.. You can’t deny the fact that it’s innovative, and to be honest, there’s less fail margin like with the Wii’s mediocre motion controls, cause what you see here is what you get.

      • Firstly, this is not innovative. The Dreamcast first featured a screen in the controller 13 years ago, and allowed people to play smaller experiences using the VMU, that could unlock content back on the console. Before this announcement iOS developers have been experimenting with the use of iPod and iPad devices in games, and an iPad can stream content to a TV via Apple TV.

        I think the console has already failed because of the way Nintendo chooses to design it’s consoles and games. The Wii could have been good, but the controls weren’t practical for more complex games, they only equipped the controller with an accelerometer, making it inaccurate, which forced them to add a gyroscope later on, and the consoles capabilities could only just surpass that of the Gamecube. Nintendo didn’t inspire many developers to create the games that could have proven the system’s new controller, despite it’s initial handicap, hence all the kids games and the abandonment of most publishers and developers.

        Nintendo have quite clearly shown through their presentation, hardware design and lack of any solid software that they are going to make this one big toy, not a capable, versatile game platform that can truly entertain people for more than a few months after launch.

  6. Be interesting to see how this pans out…

  7. They will entice some core gamers to adopt the console early by releasing some “core” games with the console. The second wave of games will all be party shovelware and the core gamers will be left with a dust magnet. The concept of the controller seems quite good, but you surely can’t sell another console on the basis of its controller. Where are the specs for the new console? I find it totally crazy that they’ve revealed their new console and haven’t bothered to tell anyone what its capable of. “here’s our new console, you can’t see it, you don’t get to know anything about it, but look at our new controller!”

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