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We're still waiting to achieve that warm Nintendo bliss
Dear Lord, we really wanted Nintendo to blow our socks clean off, to leave us panting and sated with the knowledge that all is well with Wii U, that gaming's newest console will be a winner.
That sure didn't happen today.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime's latest attempt to explain its new system left us humming and hawing, still waiting to achieve that customary warm Nintendo bliss.
The problem is that Wii U needs to be explained in the first place.
When we saw Wii six years ago, we all became instant converts. It was so obviously a work of genius.
But when it's time to inspect Wii U, we say, "okay, show us."
Nintendo understands this. Again and again Fils-Aime talked about ways in which fence-sitters might benefit from further exposure to its latest creation, that asynchronous gaming really has a future.
"Together Better." That's the slogan. But how, exactly, Reggie?
To be fair to Nintendo, the execs made a smart move today by leaving aside the non-games entertainment apps that, we're told, will "changes our lives." "Today we will focus on gaming," said Reggie. And no one in the audience was going to complain.
Katsuya Eguchi's Nintendo Land is the place where we are supposed to discover Wii U's charms. It's a party compendium of Nintendo franchises that collectively demonstrate how players might enjoy adventures in which one person has the GamePad (the one with the screen) and everyone else has regular controllers.
With Luigi's Mansion we received a clue. It was all about "hide and seek." The GamePad guy chases everyone else. This is what Nintendo does best, playful experiences rooted in childish fun.
And so, yeah, we get it. Sorta.
This must be Nintendo's strategy. Lacking that killer Wii blow, we receive the message in drips.
So Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition allows us to access weapons and scan for enemies and lay strategic traps, all above and beyond the regular controllers. We can scan and zoom and sort and choose things. Likewise, LEGO City Undercover looks like it has some neat tricks and good humor.
It's like Reggie keeps saying. "When you play it you begin to understand the integrated second screen."
So, look, in SiNG the second screen allows you to karaoke while facing your friends instead of the TV, and they can join in too. Well, yes, that does seem jolly. I'll add it, like a card on a deck, to my pile of reasons to maybe buy Wii U.
Also, I can do weird contortions with Wii U Fitness (as demonstrated by a promo video featuring a douche-on-a-luge). I can solve secondary puzzles with ZombiU and, no doubt, there will be fun little tricks thrown in with Mass Effect 3, Tank-Tank-Tank, Trine 2: Director's Cut, Aliens: Colonial Marines and all the other third party games.
There are chunkier reasons to believe in Wii U that actually don't seem to have that much to do with the controller. A Mario game, for example. New Super Mario Bros. U looks exactly as Reggie pitched it. "Just like Mario has always been, but better." What's not to like?
At the beginning of this conference, Nintendo gave us a charming little video of its talismanic game designer Shigeru Miyamoto interacting with Pikmin. Miyamoto entered the stage to huge applause and cheers. (Sony's Jack Tretton said yesterday that his company is at the epicenter of gaming. No Jack. That's just not true.)
And Pikmin 3 looks gorgeous and fun. The graphical power of Wii U and the power of Nintendo franchises make this a great game and thus, this machine a good bet. Nintendo doesn't need loads of games to convince us. it just needs a few more like this.
So there was something missing from this conference. No, wait, there were lots of things missing--all those big Wii U iterations of big Nintendo franchises.
Where's Metroid? Where's Star Fox? Where's Smash Bros? Where's Kirby? Where's Pokemon?
What games will be available when Wii U launches? We've all given Nintendo a pass for not telling us when and how much the machine will cost, but we're only a few months from launch.
MiiVerse is neat, but social speech bubbles and emoticons just aren't enough. We need more.
Nintendo still has much work to do to convince us that Wii U is more Wii than GameCube. The firm's amazing record with Wii and DS and its improving work with 3DS means we are obliged to lace some faith and trust in Nintendo's phenomenally smart boss Satoru Iwata, but this conference didn't really do much to increase that faith.
On Sunday, Nintendo already tried to explain the second screen. Straight after today's event, the company went big on social media. There's a developers roundtable tonight. there'll be more announcements in the future.
Nintendo still has time to get more and more of us behind its new launch. But today? Today felt like a missed opportunity.
[MENTION=2399]GreenL420 [MENTION=856]LarsVerb [MENTION=10128]BigExodus [MENTION=580]mat_turbo
Dear Lord, we really wanted Nintendo to blow our socks clean off, to leave us panting and sated with the knowledge that all is well with Wii U, that gaming's newest console will be a winner.
That sure didn't happen today.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime's latest attempt to explain its new system left us humming and hawing, still waiting to achieve that customary warm Nintendo bliss.
The problem is that Wii U needs to be explained in the first place.
When we saw Wii six years ago, we all became instant converts. It was so obviously a work of genius.
But when it's time to inspect Wii U, we say, "okay, show us."
Nintendo understands this. Again and again Fils-Aime talked about ways in which fence-sitters might benefit from further exposure to its latest creation, that asynchronous gaming really has a future.
"Together Better." That's the slogan. But how, exactly, Reggie?
To be fair to Nintendo, the execs made a smart move today by leaving aside the non-games entertainment apps that, we're told, will "changes our lives." "Today we will focus on gaming," said Reggie. And no one in the audience was going to complain.
Katsuya Eguchi's Nintendo Land is the place where we are supposed to discover Wii U's charms. It's a party compendium of Nintendo franchises that collectively demonstrate how players might enjoy adventures in which one person has the GamePad (the one with the screen) and everyone else has regular controllers.
With Luigi's Mansion we received a clue. It was all about "hide and seek." The GamePad guy chases everyone else. This is what Nintendo does best, playful experiences rooted in childish fun.
And so, yeah, we get it. Sorta.
This must be Nintendo's strategy. Lacking that killer Wii blow, we receive the message in drips.
So Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition allows us to access weapons and scan for enemies and lay strategic traps, all above and beyond the regular controllers. We can scan and zoom and sort and choose things. Likewise, LEGO City Undercover looks like it has some neat tricks and good humor.
It's like Reggie keeps saying. "When you play it you begin to understand the integrated second screen."
So, look, in SiNG the second screen allows you to karaoke while facing your friends instead of the TV, and they can join in too. Well, yes, that does seem jolly. I'll add it, like a card on a deck, to my pile of reasons to maybe buy Wii U.
Also, I can do weird contortions with Wii U Fitness (as demonstrated by a promo video featuring a douche-on-a-luge). I can solve secondary puzzles with ZombiU and, no doubt, there will be fun little tricks thrown in with Mass Effect 3, Tank-Tank-Tank, Trine 2: Director's Cut, Aliens: Colonial Marines and all the other third party games.
There are chunkier reasons to believe in Wii U that actually don't seem to have that much to do with the controller. A Mario game, for example. New Super Mario Bros. U looks exactly as Reggie pitched it. "Just like Mario has always been, but better." What's not to like?
At the beginning of this conference, Nintendo gave us a charming little video of its talismanic game designer Shigeru Miyamoto interacting with Pikmin. Miyamoto entered the stage to huge applause and cheers. (Sony's Jack Tretton said yesterday that his company is at the epicenter of gaming. No Jack. That's just not true.)
And Pikmin 3 looks gorgeous and fun. The graphical power of Wii U and the power of Nintendo franchises make this a great game and thus, this machine a good bet. Nintendo doesn't need loads of games to convince us. it just needs a few more like this.
So there was something missing from this conference. No, wait, there were lots of things missing--all those big Wii U iterations of big Nintendo franchises.
Where's Metroid? Where's Star Fox? Where's Smash Bros? Where's Kirby? Where's Pokemon?
What games will be available when Wii U launches? We've all given Nintendo a pass for not telling us when and how much the machine will cost, but we're only a few months from launch.
MiiVerse is neat, but social speech bubbles and emoticons just aren't enough. We need more.
Nintendo still has much work to do to convince us that Wii U is more Wii than GameCube. The firm's amazing record with Wii and DS and its improving work with 3DS means we are obliged to lace some faith and trust in Nintendo's phenomenally smart boss Satoru Iwata, but this conference didn't really do much to increase that faith.
On Sunday, Nintendo already tried to explain the second screen. Straight after today's event, the company went big on social media. There's a developers roundtable tonight. there'll be more announcements in the future.
Nintendo still has time to get more and more of us behind its new launch. But today? Today felt like a missed opportunity.
[MENTION=2399]GreenL420 [MENTION=856]LarsVerb [MENTION=10128]BigExodus [MENTION=580]mat_turbo
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