I recall the initial press reaction to the 3DS to be pretty good. Nintendo showed a lot of content (Zelda: OoT 3D, Pilotwings, Paper Mario, Nintendogs, etc.) on top of a lot of third party announcements (Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts).
The Wii U is getting a bit of a bad rap, but honestly maybe it's deserved. If tomorrow Sony showed off the Playstation 4 and it was:
- Moderately upgraded from the PS3 basically with more RAM and a bit better in a few other areas.
- Had a traditional controller with the big hook being a touchscreen in the middle of the screen.
- One the big selling points is the ability to play on the 6 inch screen vs. the 40-50 inch TV most people have.
- Had no really huge third party exclusives outside of a Zombie game from Ubi Soft
- The big game to launch the machine with was a mini-game collection and another Uncharted game that looked a bit like the last 3 Uncharted games.
Do you think the press would be raving about it? Probably not.
Nintendo finally catching up and joining the world of 720p gaming, digital download content, achievements/accomplishments, online messaging/friending, and reverting back to a more traditional type of controller simply isn't that exciting of a news story.
I'm sure it'll be a fun system. But it's not exactly the most interested hardware Nintendo's ever produced.
Also a lot of the press are older adults who want content tailored towards them. The casual side of the Wii U with things like Nintendo Land, SiNG, Just Dance IV, Lego City Stories, Wii Fit U, etc. just isn't appealling to them.
