Since Nintendo's conference, there has been quite a lot of buzz about Nintendo's new console, both positive and negative. There are many core gamers on this site and elsewhere that seem to be praising it as the second coming, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have Sean Malstrom and his several emailers proclaiming doom and litterally reacting with a "f**k you Nintendo!" So where do I stand? Somewhere in the middle.
On the one hand, I am somewhat dissapointed in the lack of ingenuity of the WiiU compared to the Wii. Ok, so the thing has a controller with a giant touch screen on it, but what does that function really do different than the DS? More importantly, how can it improve, or inspire games? With the Wiimote, I really felt genuinly excited for its potential (which sadly, was never quite realized). Gamers' imaginations ran wild. More importantly, the Wiimote was unintimidating for the average non-gamer and brought greater accessibility along with greater immersion. With the WiiU controller, I see the opposite. I see a large clunky awkward device that will probably deter the average consumer rather than draw them in. It just seems like a giant albatross to me. You can't even use it as a portable console.
Once you get past the giant touch screen gimmick, which I don't believe will be a significant game game changer, you essentially just have the Wii HD that Patcher has been going on about, and that Nintendo has been straying from, until now. Nintendo has finally given in to all the pressure from third parties, and have created this console essentially to become "cool" again, and stick with the status quo and get multiplatform games. Wii was a huge risk, which paid off. I guess I expected Nintendo to take a similar risk with their next console, but they decided to play it safe.
Maybe it's just because they didn't show any games for the console, but I have never felt so indifferent about a new Nintendo console. And I think many feel the same way. The lack of games announced for WiiU just left me feeling empty.
Ok, now that my doomsday rant is out of the way, here is what I like about the new console:
The screen controller can certainly allow for some more complex games on consoles, such as RPGs with many tactial moves to make like Dragon Age, as well as strategy and RTS games. This is exciting for me because I've been looking for a way to play quality RTS games on a home console. Imagine a pokemon MMO similar to WoW using the screen for easilly accessing move with you "hotbar." It's also relieving that Nintendo is going to continue to support the original Wiimote, leaving the opportunity to continue to create motion plus games for their next console.
Also, Nintendo finally seems to have some strong third party support, which was their primary weakness with the Wii. If they can keep a good flow of 1st party games along with the strong third party support, they will do alright, no matter how useless the screen on the controller is. So I'm inclined to reserve some judgement until I seethe games. Games are what will make or break the console after all.
Finally, it's encouraging to see a 2D Mario game for WiiU. Nintendo needs to keep at these old school type games, because there is a HUGE market out there for them, that are largely being ignored aside from a few indie/downloadable games here or there.
In the end, I feel this console will recieve decent sales, based largely off the strength of catering more to core gamers and having stronger third party support, but will be a major decline from the success from the Wii recieved as a result of alienating a good part of its audience. It will be the as the SNES was to the NES, a red ocean console with a sustaining upgrade that is more adored by the core gamers and have a strong library, but will see a slide in sales from its more limited appeal.
