What the Wii U needs is more games, a price cut, better advertising and a re-design perhaps?

Will be very hard to convince me. Everytime when I think about that very low HardDrive space it makes me sick.

mai said: KungKras said: Wii Sports sequel. 2D Mario that pushes boundraries. I'm also going to be crazy and say Wii Music sequel that has a motion + drum set simulator and music editor and actual challenge and actual content and PvP. It might not pushing boundaries, but from what I saw, it seems like the best Mario in the 'New' series. Looks uber-fun: Why it does not sell WiiUs like it should? The game is bad? Not enough marketing? Or the price is too steep? What's wrong with this game specifically?

I genuinely think that this is the best game in the NSMB series. It really is fantastic. Great power-ups, a good challange, fun co-op play, interesting level design. In my opinion it's the pinnacle of the series.

man-bear-pig said: What the Wii U needs is more games, a price cut, better advertising and a re-design perhaps?

Why in the world would it need a re-design?

WiiU needs games. That's pretty much it, right now it doesn't really have a lot of really good ones. Not even a handful.

But! This year we will most likely get: Mario Kart, 3D Mario, Zelda WW HD, Wii Fit U, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Rayman Legends, Lego City, Monster Hunter 3U, Yarn Yoshi, Game & Wario, Wii U Party, possibly Retro's new game, plus other 3rd party multiplat stuff like COD, RE Revelations, Disney Infinity, Aliens, Injustice, and Just Dance 5 and whatnot.

Stuff like X, Bayonetta 2, Fire Emblem/Shin Megami Tensei are still up in the air, but could arrive in a rather timely fashion, too. And Iwata this week said they still have unnanounced games for 2013. As I'm sure some 3rd parties do, too.

Plus lots of content for e-shop (which seems to be popular with quite a few developers). I think WiiU will be absolutely fine and doing great by year's end and beyond.

mai said: Why it does not sell WiiUs like it should? The game is bad? Not enough marketing? Or the price is too steep? What's wrong with this game specifically?

No single game is going to sell a US$350 console on its own. Even Wii Sports didn't sell the Wii on its own. People need to be confident that there are more games to buy for the system, and for the typical Mario-lover, there's nothing else at this point in time. NSMB U is the system-seller, but only if there are other games that people will want to buy after it.

3D Mario and Mario Kart being shown off will likely produce a significant bump to Wii U sales, as people interested in NSMB U see more games that appeal to them on the horizon. Note that there's a big difference between having the existence of such games confirmed and being able to see them. I expect a small bump due to the Wii U Direct's confirmation, but a much bigger one whenever Nintendo actually shows off the games.

It's the same as why, for instance, ZombiU isn't driving significant sales right now - there's no indication of another game on the horizon for people who want ZombiU, so US$350 - actually, US$400 or more - is too steep a price for one game.

TheLastStarFighter said: 5. WiiSportsU. Actually, it doesn't need to be WiiSportsU. But it does need to be adult-themed, accessible and cool. It needs to use the pad in a cool way. The best example is the ninjastar game from NintendoLand. That is really cool. But NintendoLand has a dorky name and isn't super accessible. A new title has to do a better job. WiiPartyU may be this title, but it's too early to tell. If it's named WiiPartyU that may not be a good thing. It needs something more catchy but still simple.   That is all.

I would say that this was the main one.

Like I said in a thread a couple of weeks ago. I really think they should try and get Rovio to make an Angry Birds game for it, in the same style as the ninja star game. So you're using the gamepad to aim at the TV and touchscreen to pull back the slingshot and fire the birds at it. (Probably have the pigs in 3D corridor like enviroments, also like the ninja star game). It would have brand value and it'd be a simple concept to advertise.

KungKras said: The mushroom kingdom isn't expanding anymore, and that will cause people to get tired of it. The music in insanely stale as well. For a game of this caliber, it needs great producton values and new content. Imagine if every new 3D Mario used a remixed Super Mario 64 soundtrack (no orchestra) and the same story and worlds (although remixed) as Super Mario 64.

Yes, NSMBU is not we all dreamed of, no new worlds, recycled music. But there's a lot of redeeming qualities in this game: new enemies, new items/suits, challenge and length of the game looks satisfying, hubworld is good, even backgrounds are gorgeous (especially that one, van Gogh'ish, on ghost ship level). Besides Nintendo could get away for being slacky with Mario sometimes as there's really no competition in the genre, even COD couldn't afford that (for every COD there's Battlefield). My guess is the price being the biggest obstacle here.

It really needs a better promotional campaign, I tried it this weekend for the first time, and nobody in the store knew anything about it, no idea it is HD capable, no idea which games were available and most important, very few knew it was a new console, most of the people think is a controller for their Wii.

I would add a few things to this as well:

- Assuming the Wonderful 101 is shaping up to be a good game, try launching it as a "merchandising" property. With 100 NFC figurine toys and flood Cartoon Network with non-stop marketing. Maybe even think about an animated series. You did it for Pokemon years ago, maybe you can hit pay dirt twice and get in that Skylanders craze. System needs a price drop to be affordable to the kids market though.

- Approach Marvel/Disney and ink a deal for exclusive games in the Marvel universe. Similar to what Nintendo did with LucasArts in the 1990s, signing a deal for exclusive Star Wars games. Marvel Comics is the sweet spot of characters that appeal to kids, teenagers, and adults alike and could be translated into games with Nintendo quality that can sell on the Wii U and 3DS too (which badly needs some Western titles).