Jimquisition: Who "Won" The Next-Gen Launch?

[Yuuki]

The Wii U probably won't end up being the best overall system of this generation, but did it have the most exciting and interesting launch? For me, at least, absolutely.

Define "launch". How successful was the Wii U approximately ~1 week after it released and how many games did it have?

 

[Sean951]

X-Box: Titanfall looks cool, but I have a very nice gaming rig that I put together last year that will also play it and look better.

PS4: Watch Dogs is the same thing.

Wii-U: Zombi-U, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, DonkeyKong, local multiplayer...

 

[PortalThinker113]

The Wii U probably won't end up being the best overall system of this generation, but did it have the most exciting and interesting launch? For me, at least, absolutely.

Define "launch". How successful was the Wii U approximately ~1 week after it released and how many games did it have?

Within 1 week of launch, I had personally obtained three games- Nintendo Land, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and Assassin's Creed III. I didn't end up getting New Mario U until Christmas (should have gotten that instead of AssCreed III- ugh).

In a broader sense, let's remove all games that were already available on other platforms, and focus on just those that were introduced with the system. At each system's launch, we have:

Wii U: Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros U, Rabbids Land, ZombiU, Chasing Aurora, Nano Assault Neo, and Sing Party.

PS4: Killzone: Shadowfall, Knack, Resogun.

Xbox One: Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, Forza Motorsport 5, Crimson Dragon, Zoo Tycoon, Killer Instinct, Powerstar Golf

To me, the Wii U wins that handily. I understand that my experience isn't everyone's, but I absolutely loved Nintendo Land. It was pure, unbroken fun that my friends and I enjoyed together, and still come together to enjoy to this day. New Mario U was kind of safe, but I enjoyed it, and it is easily the best of the admittedly average New Super Mario Bros series. Rabbids Land and Sing Party are obviously filler, I'll admit. I haven't played ZombiU, Chasing Aurora, or Nano Assault Neo, so I can't really comment on their quality.

You might feel differently, but the Wii U offered me something significantly different than what had come before with the GamePad's usage in Nintendo Land and Scribblenauts. I also thoroughly enjoyed the off-TV play in ACIII, despite not enjoying the actual game all that much.

EDIT: I do fully acknowledge that Nintendo Land's greatest strengths lie in its multiplayer, so if that is not what you are looking for, Wii U's launch software probably did not excite you much. Xbox One's launch seems strongest from a single-player software standpoint, but not necessarily in terms of being fresh and unique.

 

[Cybylt]

Allow me to correct myself then.

MOST ALL of the enemies were a bloody dull experience requiring little, if any actual use of the Wii Motion+. Sorry, I was bored as hell playing through the game hoping they'd actually take and use that "1 to 1" tracking for something meaningful. They never did. So excuse me for forgetting about a forgettable game.

And I had the built in controller. Still useless. Still a waste of cash. And as I already said in that post, offers nothing for the game that the regular controller did.

And One boss requiring Precision cuts still beats a game that requires only vaguely horizontal, diagonal, and vertical cuts. The fight against Sundowner was a second fight that also rewarded use of the more precise slicing mechanics in Reveangence, and didn't require an extra controller to do so.

And yes, so terrible of Metal Gear Rising to teach you that certain enemies had collectibles hidden in their left arms that you could detect, by making one 'partially' required for progress through the game.

But... Sundowner only required vertical, horizontal, or diagonal cuts across his shield. It was no more complex than the first Girahim battle. The only way you could mess them up was by throwing yourself off center with the left stick.

And I didn't say it was terrible of it, nor that it is inherently better or worse than the input methods of skyward sword, I was saying it simply didn't utilize it to the extent you were implying. The average enemy only required a vague level of precision to hit the middle for a zandatsu finish... which can be accomplished by mashing square in the cut mode, again assuming you didn't throw your aim off with the left stick.

The one point I'd say Skyward Sword truly utilized the 1:1 motion was with enemies you could pull feints on but those weren't all that plentiful compared to the ones that had fixed defense points. Then again, Zelda isn't a game all about combat.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Thank you, Jim Sterling, for reminding me of all the stuff I read months ago about how the poor Wii U's graphics capabilities were so pitiful compared to the hype about the "real" next gen consoles coming up. Well, the "real" consoles are here now and the Wii U isn't looking all that pitiful any more.

Say what? The Wii U has terrible graphics capability, it isn't even close to the PS4 or Xbone, let alone the PC. It is absolutely at the bottom of the pile, graphically speaking.

let me lol at this.

You can "lol" all you like, but do you have any facts to back it up?

Visual quality is not simply equal to output resolution. For example, computers have been able to run 1080p resolutions for decades. but in the old days, you would sacrifice things like color to do so. You could run much higher resolutions if you ran the screen in monochrome, for example. And real-time 3D rendering? Forget about it. It was strictly 2D in high-resolution modes.

There are all kinds of objective and subjective details to graphics quality, especially with the modern 3D rendering systems - you have things like how many polygons can be rendered, effects like bump-mapping or motion blur. It's entirely possible for a 720p image to look better than a 1080p one. A high-resolution image of crap still looks like crap.

The same lesson is well known in the photography world, where crappy cameras and even phones are boasting resolutions of 20 Megapixels or more. Meanwhile, a professional DSLR with only 10 or less Megapixels can take a better-looking photo. But, of course, the technically naive simply see the numbers and think the one with 20 Megapixels must be better than the one with 10 Megapixels.

I stand by my point. The Xbone and PS4 have significantly more graphics processing power than the Wii U.

 

[Talvrae]

Personally i have no interess of the Wii U, they still use the Wiimote that i hated with the Wii... and the secound screen, tablet on it is even less appealing to me

 

[FireAza]

6:06
Tastes like hipster phone nerd

 

[Fiairflair]

Jim said "iterate" rather than "reiterate." Thank God for Jim.

 

[Dragonbums]

I gotta call bullshit on that part because there was a series of enemies with electric rods/shields designed to punish that play style exactly as well as enemies immune to horizontal slashes, so unless your entire experience was running through the forest slashing at baba stems you're talking out your ass. And metal gear rising, while very fun, had exactly one boss that required precision cuts, and one point in the game where they point out you can cut off people's hands only for a keycard (or you could just go cut the door down) everything else just let you mash the slice for a cathartic finish.

That said, the plugin wiimotion+ addon was shit, and you need the built in motion+ controllers to get the most out of the game. With that, you calibrate once when you turn on the system so it knows how far you are from the sensor and you're good to go all day.

Allow me to correct myself then.

MOST ALL of the enemies were a bloody dull experience requiring little, if any actual use of the Wii Motion+. Sorry, I was bored as hell playing through the game hoping they'd actually take and use that "1 to 1" tracking for something meaningful. They never did. So excuse me for forgetting about a forgettable game.

And I had the built in controller. Still useless. Still a waste of cash. And as I already said in that post, offers nothing for the game that the regular controller did.


And One boss requiring Precision cuts still beats a game that requires only vaguely horizontal, diagonal, and vertical cuts. The fight against Sundowner was a second fight that also rewarded use of the more precise slicing mechanics in Reveangence, and didn't require an extra controller to do so.

And yes, so terrible of Metal Gear Rising to teach you that certain enemies had collectibles hidden in their left arms that you could detect, by making one 'partially' required for progress through the game.

I'm sorry dude, but every single level, even in the first stage always had those enemies you simply CANNOT beat without taking 10 hours without properly utilizing the Wii mote controls. I'm having a hard time believing that when in the great mushroom forest one of the very first enemies involved a chomp plant that you can only kill depending on whether it's mouth is open horizontally or vertically. Waggle controls will not work on it.

 

[hngst2404]

As somebody who got the wiiU deluxe edition at launch, I can certainly respect your attempt to make a case for the Wiiu. Sadly I think the wiiu was in the same boat as both the PS4 and Xbox One. That being that each system was bright and shiny and new, each system has an online marketplace for games and each system had arguably one solid launch title. The trend here being that all 3 launches were essentially identical. Much of the wiiu's functionality was not available at launch and things like the Tivo functionality have still not seen the light of day, similar to the lack of some supported features on the X1 and Ps4.

 

[Rheinmetall]

I can't afford any of the three, and my PS3 YLODed some weeks ago. My 60GB PS2 backwards compatible PS3...

 

[Vaccine]

I only play on PC, but if I was going to buy any console, it'd be a WiiU.
They don't release first party titles on PC, yet their games don't really warrant it anyway because they put aesthetics and detail before "cutting edge graphics"(I can't really say that with a straight face, next gen my ass).
While PS4/Xbone have their exclusives, they recycle assets like crazy, this gen of consoles besides the WiiU feels like NextGen.5.
PS3 was a flop at launch but came out really strong towards the end of the generation, hoping the WiiU does the same.

 

[altdoom]

With flu season here be careful what you lick Jim.

With love,
Alt+Doom

 

[Rooster893]

Interesting. I was just thinking about buying a WiiU for freshmen year in college (as my friend has it and from what I've experienced, it's very pleasing) and Jim's words make me want to acquire one even more. And yeah, the GamePad is awesome.

 

[Simalacrum]

You know, it should be pointed out that for the vast majority of gamers (you know, anybody not living in the US) the next-gen HASN'T fully launched yet; the PS4 is still up and coming for the rest of us, and Sony are very much poised to gain another large lump of users come November 29th, and thats not even mentioning Sony's traditional home ground, Japan, in early 2014.

Sure, that doesn't change the conclusion Jim made in this episode (either way the Wii U does arguably have the strongest line-up of games, as in the US), but nevertheless I feel that the claim that 'next-gen has arrived!' simply because its all come in the States is a little? US-centric. Arrogant even.

 

[Evonisia]

You know, it should be pointed out that for the vast majority of gamers (you know, anybody not living in the US) the next-gen HASN'T fully launched yet; the PS4 is still up and coming for the rest of us, and Sony are very much poised to gain another large lump of users come November 29th, and thats not even mentioning Sony's traditional home ground, Japan, in early 2014.

Sure, that doesn't change the conclusion Jim made in this episode (either way the Wii U does arguably have the strongest line-up of games, as in the US), but nevertheless I feel that the claim that 'next-gen has arrived!' simply because its all come in the States is a little? US-centric. Arrogant even.

It's just easier to declare that it's "out" on it's earliest release because well, it is out. It's also a case of waiting to declare this a 'new gen' because country x and country y don't get the PS4, Xbox One or Wii U until the ever vague '2014'. The PS4 is not out in my country but I am going to say that it's out and that the current gen started when the Xbox One was released (as it was the last console to release officially).