There’s a lot of noise and opinions out there about what needs to be done to help the Wii U hold its own, because, quite frankly, just about anything would be an improvement. From user-friendliness, to system speed, to game catalog, let’s look at what could change — and why most of it probably won’t.
Make the Wii’s games directly playable on the Wii U — all of them
While the Wii has a robust indie game selection (called “WiiWare”), as well as a lengthy back catalog (called “Virtual Console”) for sale, using the eShop on the Wii U is like starting your collection over from scratch. Users can get the new console to play anything on the Wii in a special emulation mode, but that means starting up the Wii U, going into Wii mode, and buying or playing the game there.
Why not integrate these titles into the Wii U more obviously, like the 3DS does with older downloadable DSi games?
Court consumers, don’t toy with them
Nintendo’s old habit of extending what “launch window” means has cropped up in a major way with the Wii U. A major part of the system’s initially warm reception was the amazing release schedule. Titles like “Pikmin 3,” “Wonderful 101” and “WiiFit U” were slated to buffer the system’s lineup well past the holidays. Now it’s July, and Nintendo’s remaining 2013 lineup contains a lot of the same games we were talking about last year.
Stop the controller schizophrenia
Some games allow you to control everything with the GamePad (good). A few let you use just the Wiimote (that’s fine). Some titles have players share the GamePad (also fine). But in too many games, including first-party offerings like “New Super Mario Bros. U” and the upcoming “Pikmin 3,” players must pick up one controller only to switch to another in the middle of a game.
Even the Wii U’s operating system suffers from this strange controller schizophrenia. It seems like we have a fancy new controller that nobody quite knows how to use.
Developers could use some fresh ideas, a little freedom, and some consistency all at once. Here’s just a few:
• Allow the 3DS to be used as a controller for the Wii U — that way everyone can get their own personal screen.
• Provide Wiimote pointer support to every system menu and every game screen so players can navigate the way they want.
• Use more of the GamePad’s more interesting features — like alternate viewpoints or private perspectives on a shared multiplayer experience.
Speed it up — for real
For a system supposedly more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360, you’d hope it would use some of that power for speed, but time and time again in speed tests, the load times of Wii U games are longer than their previous-generation console counterparts. Nintendo released its last patch aimed at speeding things up in April. A lot of progress was made, but with some actions still taking more than 20 seconds, there is still a long way to go.
WHY IT WON’T HAPPEN: This probably isn’t a question of whether Nintendo will try to speed things up, just a question of by how much. In the meantime, the clock is ticking away every time a potential customer walks up to a Wii U demo station and waits for a game to load.
Be original, be bold
After criticism that it “played it safe” with this year’s E3 showing, Nintendo hit back. In an interview with Kotaku, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto said: “From my perspective, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you should make new characters and those would be fun games,’ but creating a new character doesn’t necessarily mean the game is going to be fun. You really need to be focusing on creating a new gameplay experience that’s fun and unique.”
In other words, we do our innovating within our older franchises; you just don’t see it.
Let's break down some of this innovation. The upcoming “Super Mario 3D World” includes a playable Princess Peach for the first time since “Super Mario Bros. 2.” It also includes a slightly different perspective (borrowed from "Super Mario 3D Land"), four-person multiplayer (borrowed from other "New Super Mario Bros." titles) and cat suits (completely new!).
Nintendo needs bold, original IPs to showcase the Wii U's strengths. The Wii was actually full of them: Wii Fit, Wii Play, Wii Music (don’t laugh) and the record-smashing, grandma-friendly Wii Sports, among others. Nine months into the Wii U, all we have is “Nintendo Land” to fill that challenge, and there’s not a single “Wii noun” game for sale, nor is there a clear, couldn't-be-done-anywhere-else take on an establshed Nintendo franchise.
Nintendo’s challenge
It comes down to this: what does Nintendo want the Wii U to be? The 100 million Wii owners out there have a big choice ahead of them from this holiday season on: Do they want to buy into the promise of the Wii U, where family-friendly franchises will eventually show up, or do they want a decidedly “next-gen,” do-it-all system from Microsoft or Sony for just slightly more investment?
The biggest possible advantage Nintendo has is in software. But Nintendo is behind in the online store, they’re behind in media hype, they’re behind in consumer friendliness, and they’re behind on monetizing their back catalog. Their history of innovation on the Wii, however waggle laden at times, has taken a backseat to playing it safe, and that’s exactly what the Wii U can’t afford to do.
