That was an eye-opening truth for me. It could potentially innovate on the artistic side of things. Like mentioned earlier, for RPGs  or Adventure games with customization capabilites (Fire Emblem weapon designs?) it could open up doors.

Art Academy and games like that could have many people using Miiverse to upload their creations to the internet and have people exhibit their works. Adding a social network aspect to it along with some promotions could really spread the word out. Draw Something could be expanded somehow; heck it could innovate Tetris (draw your own shapes in at increasing speed).

I feel like Nintendo Land does the same thing as Wii Sports in a different way.

Wii was about the non gamer crowd. I love the console with all my heart but its hard to deny this. Wii was aimed at bringing people who usually play games into gaming, even if just for a little bit. That is what Wii Sports (and Wii Fit) was about. Easy to play for a few minutes and very simple. Why was it "fun" though? Well two things imo: Novelty and Competition.
-Novelty was all about the controls and the "Oh hey, the character does the same thing I do" factor...which gets old
-Competition is also self explanatory...people love competition
Now for me, someone who like gaming a lot and does a lot of it (aka, not the Non-gamer crowd) Wii Sports novelty gets old very quick and the competition is easily replicated elsewhere. In fact, I have never played Wii Sports without someone else....its just not fun once the simplicity wears away

All in all, Wii Sports was an introduction to the console and what it was all about...simple gaming for the Non-gaming crowd (not saying thats the only thing there, just that its the focus)

Nintendo Land aims to do the same things (imo). Nintendo Land is for everyone (aka U). I'm actually quite interested in a lot of the games beyond the novelty and competition. Neither of those factors have too much impact in Nintendo Land imo (touch screens are everywhere and like i said before, competition is everywhere too). Nintendo Land shows that the focus of the Wii U is in interesting everyone and getting them another step into gaming. Still family friendly and fun based (as opposed to story based, graphics based etc) like any other Nintendo game but still appealing to everyone who would like any other Nintendo game.


Some of that may sound redundant...its hard to keep a steady train of thought sometimes. Basically, same goal of demonstrating what the console is about but the consoles are about different things

You could say the same about throwing out traditional controls like they had with their pre-Wii consoles. 

This is true, but there are two flaws I see in the reasoning.

1) Chark saw it first hand and says it wows. Already a little more weight to his PoV in my view.

2) As much as golf games removed the stigma of video games, so do touch generation experiences like Nintendogs and Brain Training. That also breaks the video games from their traditional mold. As such, the possibility of playing chess, touch games, casual experiences on a tablet is a big factor in favor of the U.

3) Though Wii Sports is simple and intuitive, I find we truly underestimate the ability of people to understand certain gaming experiences. Asynchronous play is already much more organic than other play experiences, because it leads to vastly different perspectives of the same game simultaneously, and that is much more in tune with real life. At the same time, the stylus games which involve puzzles and drawing also have that simplistic appeal, just as much as a sports game would imho. So it's all on the same playing field from that PoV.

4) Revisiting a bit my first post, I think that though the Wii was like buying an arcade for your home, and as such warranted the premium, buying the WiiU is like buying an uber-powerful tablet that the whole family can enjoy in many different ways. It has a premium value as well, only in a very different way than the Wii did.

@rhutnic. I understand your skepticism, I just don't agree with your resistance to prediction because of the attitudes of some in the past, that's all.

1) That may be so but I'm taller than him!

2) The problem I see here is that all of this is already possible on smart phones and tablets so the incentive to buy the Wii U specifically for these experience is lowered.

3) I guess we'll have to wait and see but let me go into anecdotal data if you will:

My father was never a fan of video games, he kept telling my brothers and I to get out of the house more and that we were wasting our time (to his credit, we did play video games A LOT). When I brought the Wii to our family's New Year's party in 2007, he was intrigued along with all my aunts and uncles. He even tried playing Wii Golf and he had a really good time. That's the kind of reaction that I don't think Nintendo Land will be able to reproduce.

How many people have played NintendoLand and how many are making comments just based upon videos/descriptions?

I have not played it ... but I have seen a dichotomy in writing about it. Those who have not picked it up talk about how it is a mini-game collection. Those who have played it talk about how it is fun and demonstrates the GamePad's role in the gameplay.

Personally, that latter role sounds like WiiSports. However there is one big difference as NL essentially is a local multi-player experience while WiiSports could be enjoyed alone.

Mike from Morgantown

Mike from Morgantown

Its showing on E3 left no doubt that it would be a "Wii Sports" game.

It's quite briljant: a mini-game collection to demonstrate the Wii U potential and to sell Nintendo franchises.

I think anyone with an IQ about 60 will grasp what the Wii U is about. The gaming media people who claim that they don't understand are just playing stupid, I highly doubt they actually ARE as stupid as they pretend to be.

I agree with that you're saying in your thread, have all along.  To me the gamepad is A) going backwards and B) a knee-jerk reaction to the threat of Apple/Android devices.   Instead of immulating touch screens Nintendo should have continued to differentiate and offer experiences not possible on Apple/Android (and Android gaming devices with analog sticks and buttons (and 1000+  games that support) will be out very shortly).  Enhanced, refined and deeper motion controls IMO would have been the logical way to go, and a touch interface on that certainly could have been incorporated (partly to rid the controller of extra buttons) but didn't need to be the showpiece.      Apple has sold ridiculous millions of ipod/pad/phone devices which have one, count them - one - button.  Simplicity is key.  That's what sold Wii/DS/Kinect and smartphones/tablets.    The entire concept of WiiU lacks this simplicity and grace.

Hey!

The Wii U does more than what a tablet or smartphone can do. Playing Zombie U, a masterful game I recommend to be the game early adopters must buy, uses the gamepad with finesse. You can scan your surroundings with the gamepad and do a full 360 look around. While holding the left trigger to aim down your sights if you lift the gamepad up towards the tv it becomes your scope view.

The ninja star game uses the gamepad's infared like the Wii mote, allowing you cursor like aim when pointing at the screen.

New Super Mario Brothers U has you interact with what's going on on the TV.

That ghost hunt game creates multiple experiences through a different view than the other players.

With 360 viewing capability people will still have fresh golf experiences like was displayed using a Wii mote to hit a ball of the gamepad.

The zelda Nintendo land game had the gamepad character using a bow and arrow shot from the gamepad while others used wii motes as swords.