Doom and gloom is so last month; Nintendo’s Wii U seems to be chugging along briskly enough despite the company’s recent financial woes. At 1,643,095 units sold, Wii U has pushed ahead of Xbox 360’s lifetime sales in Japan.
While not an enormous amount of systems sold (especially pitted against 360, which is essentially inconsequential in Japan), Nintendo is estimated to be pushing roughly 9,000 Wii U consoles a week. That’s a promising start, and any news about positive sales milestones is good news for the House of Mario. Just to butter your toast a little further, take solace in knowing that 3DS has sold 15 million units to date! Maybe Nintendo should put the two consoles in a small room together to see if 3DS’s magic can rub off on its younger sibling.
Will Wii U be able to make a sprint towards the end? Are you still waiting for a particular title to snag a Wii U? Sound off below!
Source: IGN
I’m waiting for one game, a single one, that would prove to me that controller’s potential, and showcase Nintendo’s dedication to it.
The one game you just have to see to believe. The Wii Sports Tennis, if you will.
But, even outside of that, remember Metroid Prime 3? Where you had to twist your hand holding the Wii-mote, push in, and then pull off some other hand-maneuver to get a certain function to operate? And when you did it – you actually saw your hand on the screen doing it!
That’s the kind of moment that the Wii-U is missing. The first thing they should’ve done on this system was release all the GameCube games that needed that extra controller – which were great – but which nobody got because they didn’t have four Game Boy Advances or connectors. A Final Fantasy game (maybe re-skinned with a little extra content?) – the Pac-Man game – and any others that may have included an interesting introduction to the peripheral.
Instead, I know now, that I can use this second screen, exactly like an ordinary controller, to drive my kart in Mario Kart?
Yeah, uhm . . . sorry, like, I know Mario Kart 8 is going to be great. But I got the last one for the Wii – and that was great too. And the wheel-driving thing, while not perfect, was super enjoyable. And, well . . . this experience, not that it doesn’t “top” the other one, but I already put down some hard clams for a Mario Kart that looks shockingly similar to this one.
No, I couldn’t drive on the walls in that one, and this one does promise to have 16 more tracks, but that’s hard to ask $60 for, never mind $410 with the cost of the system.
Oh boy! Smash Bros. is coming out with another instalment? That’s great. Smash is awesome. Again, not $410 awesome.
Is there something this machine can actually do that would justify the price of it – the almost-decade old tech inside of it – and the fact that nobody even cares to put forth game-changing ideas using the game-changing device?
I said it before – I’ll say it again. The Wii U is like a magic wand that’s being used to prop up an uneven desk.
And I don’t reward THAT kind of thinking or action plan with $350, never mind $410. I appreciate all the great fan-service in terms of the tried and true – but if I miss this round – there’ll be a Mario Kart 10 and 12 on the next ones. Maybe then they’ll be riding bicycles on the moon, who knows.
I expect Nintendo to lead the way. They brought back the video game industry from death – and every step of the way showed it how to progress. Right now, it’s got a piece of hardware that could very well be from the year 2050 in terms of “game design possibility,” and instead, I’m getting titles from the 90’s.
It’s been two years. Kind of late for this thing to get a mission statement, never mind an identity. People reward innovation and pulse with their hard-earned cash. The Wii proved it. Unless the Wii-U can somehow manufacture that, which is nearly impossible given its stale tech, price, and reception, you’ll continue to see incremental sales bumps with every major release (as the super die-hard fans of that one game pick up a machine), until it just wobbles out in its fourth or fifth year.
Shame.
I’d say that Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is $410 awesome. …That is if can learn to play. I did and have 320 hours and counting.