Be Excellent To Each Other

But then they do something mildly clever with Wii Fit U. If someone has the balance board, then from November to end of January (so over Christmas and into the new year) they can download the full game and try it for a month. Buy and sync the activity meter with the game in that time and they keep the software.
The activity meter is going to be $20, so £20? And it is shaping up to be equal in features to something like a £80 fitbit, but tied to a Wii U of course so not that cheap but for someone already with the kit it's not a bad deal. I remember Wii fit plus selling for around £20 when it came out.

My name is Bluecup and I want to play games like this.

That. Is. Fantastic.

(I've been playing more of the 3D Land on the 3DS than GTA V. It's just so good)

So, thats me buying a Wii U then.

Monster Hunter, Super Mario Land, Zelda HD, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart are enough to justify it.

The question is just when I jump. Hmmm.

I'd say don't pay more than £200 for a Wii U, unless it's bundled with some other stuff. It's not available at that price right now, but I bet it will be again some time soon (maybe not before Christmas, though), and it's totally worth snapping one up then.

I really feel like the Wii u is doomed. Unless Nintendo can really reinvent some of their series, like with they did with metroid prime or super Mario galaxy instead of the same tired stuff and hd remakes.

Did I mention about a hundred times that I've played this? I did. It's bloody ace. I'll probably pick up a WiiU at some point in the future when there's enough decent games to justify the expense... probably about 18 months from now then.

Oh yeah, if it runs like it is doing the Wii U is another gamecube at the very best. Might even be their Dreamcast and sink them.

That said, I'm suprised by the uptake in the 3DS recently (myself included) - I'm having far, far more fun with it than with my iPad 4.

Cheers Lewie, I suspect they'll be some heavy discounts when the PS4 and Bone show up. That'll be the time to move on one.

I don't quite get this thinking. Surely the top priority is that the games continue to surprise and delight.

Exactly, and i don't know how can they surprise anyone with Super Mario Wii U or Wind Waker HD. The Zelda formula is wearing thin by now, obviously you can say the same about COD or FIFA, but Nintendo has a different audience.

No way the Wii U will sink Nintendo. They could never sell another Wii U console/game and they would still live to fight another day.

1. They have fuckloads of money saved up. So much. I think they've only ever made one annual loss since the NES days.

2. The 3DS is doing really well. Not as well as (the most successful console ever) the original DS, but it is selling just fine, and software sales are through the roof.

3. They make a profit on everything. They rarely sell hardware at a loss (did for a very small time with the 3DS) and they are the developer and publisher of the majority of successful games on their platforms. They don't really engage in the fidelity arms race that most other big devs have to in order to sell lots of games, many of Nintendo's most successful games will have been developed for relatively cheap (I think the first Brain Training game was made by like a team of 12 over 6 months, and sold millions and millions of copies).

4. They are actually a pretty small company. Their running costs are tiny for a company with the kind of global reach they have.

I agree that they are going to have to do some serious soul searching, and their current trajectory is worrying, but talk of Nintendo disappearing is madness. They could easily weather 3/4 consoles that are significantly less successful than the Gamecube.

With you with wind waker, but then again it is 10 years old and it will be new for some people. But this new Mario does look good.

Oh yeah, agreed on all counts.

It couldn't sink them financially, but it might spook shareholders expecting Wii levels of sucess. The shareholders could force them to do something that basically ends them. I wouldn't be surprised if it is enough to sink Iwata at the least (which would be an immense shame).

I agree that the wii u by itself won't sink Nintendo, but in the long run they may have to rethink their strategy if they want to survive. The casual market that made the DS and the wii such big its are gone and won't be coming back. They will probably going to focus more on the younger market, since the Nintendo brand is still very strong and respected in that area.

About the 1st point you brought up, isn't that kind of a urban myth propagated by video game websites comment sections? Even with my paltry knowledge of economics i know that's not how a company operates. If they start having losses then the stockholders will be spooked and investment will plummet.

Also: Wonderful 101. Can't wait to play that. So thats 6 games (and I'ld happily pick up the Wii Sports remakes - although I don't know much about them).

As much as I would like a PS4, with Down Deep being F2P, I'm not actually interested in anything in its line up

I am currently enjoying Wind Waker far more than I'd have imagined, and am very much looking forward to Super Mario 3D World.

That is all.

Super Mario 3d World trailers - top one is about 3 weeks old - bottom one was released yesterday

Hmmm, play have a WiiU 32Gb version with NSMB and the Luigi game for £199.99.

Hovering over the buy it button....

That's an incredibly small HDD.

It's the biggest currently selling.

I bought it.

Gulp.

I bet they release an upgrade when the other consoles release.

But the chrimbo excuse comes but once a year...

How much content can you install on 4GB?

You can install and run anything of an attached external apparently.

You can indeed.

Some of the downloads are pretty big - Wii Fit U (free to download now, etc) is over 5Gb, for example.

That's only 600MB~, so not too bad really.

You're determined to get a bite here aren't you?

Thanks for obliging.

I don't get ya Elk.

Whys 5Gb only 600Mb? Eh?

I'm quite happy admitting Nintendo have made a rubbish console. But nintendo games are coming out for it and I'm not yet dead inside - so how can I resist!

I have trouble 'seeing' numbers, so it's no wonder than I got the download size wrong. Oh well.

The download for Wii Sports Club was 40Mb, and, err, it's Wii Sports Tennis and Bowling in high-definition with some limited online play. Requires a Wii Motion Plus as well, which seems to make some difference to the complexity of the Tennis mode as far as I can tell, but then I last played Wii Sports in February 2007. Hardly a thrilling release that will act as official console-saviour, however.

MB !=Mb

Although generally speaking, people will understand from context even if they are massive peados.

I'm not a massive paedo then - thank goodness!

The 'tache says otherwise.

Er, all this is pretty wooosh for me.

Anyhow, picked up the WiiU. Basically because of how much I've adored my 3DS (my iPad is languishing).

This is the console line up that I required to make me jump:

• 1) NSMBU + NSLBU (Mario, innit)
• 2) Monster Hunter (I want to sync to the 3DS version and get online)
• 3) Zelda Windwaker (Best. Zelda. Ever.)
• 4) The Wonderful 101 (So very excited about this)
• 5) Nintendo Land (After loving the streetpass games so must, I'm bizarrely stoked about this)
• 6) Super Mario 3D Land. (Oh god, this looks so bloody good).
• 7) COD:Ghosts Multiplayer on the second screen sounds a wonderful way to watch something mindless on TV.
• WILDCARD) Zombi U (Looks to be absolute trash, but Darksouls-esque FPS Zombi Roguelike has gotta be worth a punt for a tenner)

And Mario Kart and Donkey Kong next year are enough to keep me happy. At least until the PS4 is established.

World!

Other than that, I like your post.

I'm sure you don't care, and neither probably should you, but: megabits (Mb) and megabytes (MB) aren't the same so technically it matters how you capitalise the 'b'. A megabit is an eighth the size of a megabyte hence all of Elk's hilarious* jokes in his last few posts because, taken literally, you were quoting file and disk sizes much smaller than what you actually meant.

*If you're a raging twat-basket like he is anyway.

I'm here, all weak.

Oh right! Obviously. Yep thats incredibly :belm: of me.

Thanks Bamba.

I post in the few seconds I get at work, so I've no time to properly pay attention to what I've done or read.

You're only at work for a few seconds? I envy you.

Anyone working more than 60s a day is wasting their life.

Fucking loving the WiiU.

It's just lovely.

I mean, I had to shout for my wife over so she could watch me migrate my files over from the Wii.

The user interface is such a refreshing sorbet from years of Microsoft exploiting me for profit.

In other exciting news, whilst the pad won't reach the bedroom, it will reach the bathtub. Lovely.

"Yes dear, that's... Lovely."

Actually she squealed like a little girl.

But hen asked when it would finish so she could play GTA.

Does that make you cock?

Anyone with a WiiU wanna be friends? Send a request to Skeptobot!

Ahem. 3DS friend code still pending ...

I want friends! I'm Bluecup there as well.

Well, it has arrived. UserId is unsurprisingly MrDaveXXVIII.

First impressions:
What a silly hat.
Console a little longer than I was expecting.
Pad is alot more comfortable than I was expecting.
Why do they never allow you to turn off the annoying system menu music. Particularly annoying during long updates.
Nnngh, how many times do I have to get them to send a confirm email address email before it actually works
Games seem fun, but screen on pad for them is marvellously superfluous I wish I could turn it off to stop it using battery up. And distracting my eyes.
The tv remote mode seems remarkably lacking in functionality. There's no way it can replace any remote I have,
Oh, I've applied an email filter to all things Nintendo due to the sheer amount of spam they enjoy sending my way.
Ahh, a rather more sensible friends system this time around.

Not my end. I'll re-add you.

Oh, maybe I entered your code wrong, then. Oops, sorry, in that case. I'll try again when I have a moment.

So, a few more thoughts:
Super Mario 3d world (Or whatever it's called, it's not exactly an inspired name) is not perhaps the 10/10 game it was marked up to be. Good yes, but a few flaws, mainly to do with the camera (No doubt the case due to the 4 player coop but on later levels it makes it very hard to figure out if you're going to fall into lava) and Stu physics. Also, the levels towards the end of the game pretty much stop being fun (I'm sure they'd be fine if you don't mind being rushed, but I don't like to be rushed in this kind of game) But I believe the main flaw I've come across is that there's all kinds of empty space and I keep worrying about the missing buildings that might have once occupied that space. Very off putting and entirely ruins the game.
Have not played too much of NSMBU, but it seems to be much of what you would expect from a Mario game.
Gamepad does seem to cause my right hand to lock up after extended periods of use.
ZombiU seems like a game that Zombie fans might like quite a bit. Not too sure about myself, and I'm not really playing the demo again because of...
Why do Nintendo insist on only allowing a few uses of a demo. Not a good way to sell as it's putting me off even starting the demo. Dim move, as I believe I commented on with the 3DS.
Wind Waker looks like Wind Waker, but I'm mainly saving that for next week.
Sure the netflix app UI could've been made much better. Title selection process is a bit more laborious than, say, the PS3, although password entry much easier. Playback can be as flaky as on PC browsers. The ability to flip it onto the pad is rather nice, but somewhat let down by the poor range of the pad.
I've now got lots of star points, but I'm not putting them into the system so they can't steal them. How do you like those apples Nintendo?

Two very good lulz in that summary. I'd POTW ya, but, y'know, the votes just go in an industrial sized electronic bin in Grim...'a back yard.

The New Super Mario Bros series is an entirely separate set of games from the Galaxy/3D ones and nowhere near as good. Even the original NSMB for the DS, which got good reviews everywhere, has a lot of problems, and the series only seems to have gotten worse from there.