Celia Alexis Wagar's CritPoints

What are your thoughts on The Wii U?

Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, Mario Maker. Don’t care about anything else on the system.

Nintendo doesn’t release good software. They didn’t exploit the potential of the system that everyone originally saw. Nobody wants to put up with the large controller for games that largely only have tacked on functionality for it.

Wii Sports was a game that in part had a controller entirely made for it. Motion controls were pulled out of the ether to make the best possible demonstration of motion controls, and the other games on the system were tacked on waggle bullshit. The Wii’s momentum died because apart from Wii Sports resort, Wii Fit, and Wii Play, it didn’t keep up the trend (though games like NSMBW and a few others were helpful in keeping up sales, despite not being strongly connected to motion controls).

The Wii U had no such game in the first place. I don’t want it, because its days are numbered.

You’re not interested in the Mario games on Wii U? How can someone claiming to be interested in game design not care about Mario games? Also dude, come on, wii sports? That’s more of a tech demo than a game (and a shitty tech demo at that). The Wiimore wasn’t made for Wii Sports, it’s the other way round. Yeah, none of the best motion-controlled games were designed by Nintendo’s internal teams, but that doesn’t mean they make poor software. Their games are still more interesting than 99% of what other companies churn out. N’s problem is that their games are too safe, not necessarily bad.

But seriously, fucking Wii Sports? Come on. I also never heard of someone interested in game design not wanting a console. Do you even like games or do you just have nothing better to do? Hell, I want an Xbone just for Scalebound. Yeah, the system might suck have nothing else (not true), but as long as it has one game, I’ll eventually get around to it.

Yeah, Mario 3d World didn’t really interest me. Mario Galaxy already didn’t interest me, and I played some of both of them, mostly 2. NSMBU didn’t particularly catch me when I already have NSMBW.

The other thing is, I don’t have all the money in the world. I’m limited by finances, I can’t just get every console I want, especially when there’s better investments available.

As for Wii Sports, that’s a matter of perspective. Regardless of the value of the actual game, it likely appealed to consumers for delivering on motion controls in a completely non-arbitrary non-gimmicky way. I think a useful way of looking at it is to say that the controls were literally made for that game, because it simultaneously explains the game’s success (holy shit play tennis/bowling at home) and the Wii system’s later failure (our tacked on motion control games aren’t selling!). Even if it’s not true, it’s an interesting perspective to look from, that the game might itself somehow shape the input method rather than the other way around.

And no, I think N isn’t making good software. Everyone frames this sort of thing as safe versus unsafe. Like you need to continually innovate or your games stop being good. I think it’s possible to consistently recreate success. I think a clone of a good game is still a good game. That’s part of why I defend Dark Souls 2. N doesn’t make the same sort of games now as they did during the NES, SNES, or Wii era.