A lot can change in a matter of six years. I remember six years ago I was mainly running the site during E3 2005 with Scott gone at camp for the summer. I remember being overwhelmed trying to post everything about Twilight Princess, the Nintendo Wii, and everything pertaining to them. I also even had time to write an article entitled "What's in a Name". I wrote about the fact that even though we were given the name Wii, we shouldn't judge a book by its cover and hopefully it would be the revolution we were hoping for from its codename.
Well, five years later and we are still sitting here stratching our heads wondering if the Wii gave us that revolution we were looking for. I definitely was underwhelmed by the Wii and its library (save a few games here and there, which was the case with the Gamecube too). Now, we are given a second chance with the Wii U. E3 2011 is definitely a repeat performance of E3 2005, seeing Nintendo as the clear winner with innovation and definitely seeing its fans having really high hopes about the next console.
Now with the Wii U, I think it was definitely a cop-out with naming the console. Nintendo is definitely getting lazy when naming their consoles. The 3DS was definitely a cop-out, but they amazed us with the 3D without glasses aspect of the console. Now I think we all are going to forget the name soon enough because Nintendo did what they should have: they showcased the controller instead of the console yet again.
Now, I am going to get onto the controller, but it is a part of four essential goals Nintendo must accomplish to win with the Wii U. The four goals are:
- Cater to the Hardcore and Casual gamers equally
- Have the next big innovation
- Give us a console with HD capabilities
- Online play that is at least on par with XBL and PSN
Let's see if, from what we saw at their conference yesterday, they might be able to accomplish their goals for the Wii U.
Catering to the Hardcore and Casual gamer equally
Before the Wii was released, there really wasn't a casual gamer. Most games that came out were geared towards those who bought the consoles and likes to play games to begin with. Then Nintendo came along and the debate about being a casual vs. a hardcore gamer began. The Wii became known as the casual console and those who owned it were only interested in games that anyone could play. Lost in the shuffle were games like Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy... and that's about it. Hardcore games were pretty much non-existant on the console and the major franchises that most wanted to play like Call of Duty and Madden. When any hardcore games were released on the console, they looked terrible and everyone would rather play them on the Xbox or Playstation because they looked better and they offered better online support.
If Nintendo is going to have the Wii U succeed, they are going to have to balance the two better this time. The fact that they announced Battlefield on the Wii U was definitely the right thing to do. Now they just need to get Call of Duty and those franchises on the console as well.
Have the next big innovation
Well, this one is the given. With the Wii, they showcased the controller and the idea of motion control with the console. They showed how the console was going to work, but the main focus was the controller. So, it was no surprise that Nintendo focused once again on the controller as the selling point of the system. With the touch screen and the things that they showed during the conference and the ways they work with the controller, there are definitely plenty of good ideas in the making.
However, they need to avoid the problem that the Wii ended up having. A flood of third party crap on the system that didn't use the motion control to its fullest. We all know that its going to happen, but they definitely need to market the franchise games better this time around.
HD Capabilities
I mentioned this in the first goal, but it needs to be said again: The Wii U definitely needs to have HD and there is no going around that. Even better is that we learned that the majority of the gaming footage we saw for the Wii U at Nintendo's conference wasn't even on the Wii U. Nintendo has stated that they were footage from the other consoles but that the Wii U would be able to handle those games and their graphics just as well, if not better. Now, I can understand not having footage for those games on your console because developers didn't have time to play around with the console, but don't take footage from other consoles and claim that yours will do the same! That's a lot to live up to and if you fail, you're going to look bad.
But, they did show a couple of tech demos of that Zelda game that may or may not become a full Wii U game. Those graphics looked good and from what most people online are saying, it looks just as good on the controller screen when transfered. Nintendo definitely has a lot of catching up to do in this department and hopefully they pull it off well.
Online play
Now, when I went into this article, I had no idea that friend codes were getting the axe. I was going to say that friend codes need to get the axe and that the online play of the Wii U needed to be at least similar to those of XBL or PSN.
Imagine my surprise when I found an article saying that Nintendo is going to do exactly that. Friend codes are a thing of the past, leaderboards are going to be implemented, and friend lists are going to be added. If this is all true and implemented correctly, then Nintendo and the Wii U are going to compete against Microsoft and Playstation finally.
With all those goals stated, Nintendo definitely has an uphill battle when it comes to getting back into the gaming market. They lost of fans with the Wii being the way it was, marketed toward the casual gamer more than the hardcore gamer. I think if they are going to get back into the market, they are definitely going to have to show that the WiiPad isn't another gimmick like the WiiMote, Move, or Kinect. It is going to be a very interesting year in terms of gaming. The year 2012 is going to show us the future of gaming and that is no lie.
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