The Wii U is the only console to ever baffle me

[fleischr]

McDonaldsGuy said:

fleischr said:

ICYMI -- There's a list of generic reasons not to own any Nintendo console. They're more or less the same regardless of the system. Here they are:

-The Nintendo console looks weird

-The controller is weird

-There's not enough third party support

-It's not as popular as other consoles

-It's not as powerful as other consoles or there's some features the Nintendo console can't do that others can

-The games are a rehash of everything Nintendo's done before, but in a way I just don't like. Or -- nothing Nintendo's done recently has piqued my interest.

-Nintendo games are expensive

OP- Your thread basically reads like that. If this were 1998, you could say the same of the N64. If this were 2002, you could say the exact same things of the Gamecube. If this were 2006, you could say the same of the DS or Wii.

However, something weird typically happens when you actually own the Nintendo console in question. You just don't care anymore - or you just buy a second console/PC to supplement your gaming.

This is wrong.

I will tell you why.

The N64 was different than the Wii U situation (albeit kinda similar). Why? Simple: it was powerful for one thing, but more importantly Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 were groundbreaking at the time. Then Nintendo let Rare do its own thing (mostly). For example, Rare gave us Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. I doubt Nintendo of today would allow Rare to do that, they'd want them to focus on making sequels to Nintendo IPs all the time. I feel Retro Studios COULD become another Rare but Nintendo is holding them back. The Wii U could use another Goldeneye right about now but Nintendo has them working on another 2D Donkey Kong game, which rightfully flopped massively.

Nintendo had similar droughts with the N64 but Rare bailed them out.

The problem is the games aren't appealing. The N64 barely had any good games, but the games that were good were very good. The Wii also had many killer apps - Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, Twilight Princess, Brawl, etc. etc. Wii U doesn't have these.

Heck if Nintendo released Super Mario 64 2 and an epic Zelda game with OOT/TP graphics I would have been on board as with millions of others.

Sure the N64 was poweful -- but it didn't have the capability for a game the scope of Final Fantasy 7.

Speaking of Final Fantasy 7 -- that was just as much a ground breaking title as Mario 64 or OoT. You could say the same for a lot of the rest of Playstation lineup. Crash Bandicoot. Spryo the Dragon. Twisted Metal. Tekken. Metal Gear Solid. If you bought all those games on Playstation -- you were set. There was a pretty good chance you didn't feel compelled at all to own an N64 because you already had so many awesome titles.

Certainly the Nintendo/Rare partnership is one to look back fondly -- but even back then Nintendo barely was holding back the dam from Sony crushing them with so many releases that in the aggregate had the same level of quality as anything on N64.

Step outside your own perspective a bit. And more importantly -- choose to either hate and ignore the WiiU or embrace it warts and all.