Miyamoto: Wii U's Second Screen Will Grow On You

[Maerx]

Cancer grows on you, but that doesn't make it a good thing.

You know just because two things share some words that comparing them doesn't necessarily make sense right?

Cancer grows on you, but that doesn't make it a good thing.

*facepalm* It's an expression.

I know I know and I'm sorry. The thing is whenever I read something from Nintendo I see excuses and promises, I want games. As much as I love Nintendo they need to face the fact that they're having problems and they need to do something about it.

My WiiU is just gonna grab dust until an actual game gets released for it, then I'll finish said game and the WiiU will grab dust again just like my Wii.

C'mon Nintendo, step it up.

 

[Ghostface2206]

You know, considering the failure that was the utilization of the Game Boy Advance link cable for the GameCube... I guess the second time around still isn't proving to be interesting enough?

Maybe if they add some capability to Bluetooth/WiFi that can turn a 3DS into a second Wii U remote, they might get more developers interested. Then again, perhaps integrating HTML5 engine support would be better.

The WiiU internet browser uses HTML 5, or does that not count?

 

[medv4380]

You'd think just once they could release them at launch. Miyamoto of all people should understand why people buy consoles in general, and Nintendo consoles in particular.

They don't have the developers to pump out franchises and new ip as fast as their fans want. The last thing I want is for them to try and satisfy this unrelenting demand again. I do not want Team Ninja, or any other non Nintendo team, given any control over something like Metroid, or other titles, because Nintendo doesn't have the capacity to do all the titles its fans want at the pace they want it.

Its a standard cake problem. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You got a Mario title at launch so you can't have all the others titles too. You must wait for quality or you wont get quality.

Their biggest problem is finding the balance between their two systems, and personally I'd prefer it if they somehow put 3DS games on the WiiU. I've always bought their hand held compatibility stuff since I don't really play, or buy, hand helds, but I enjoy their hand held games.

 

[Yoshisummons]

Those eyes, the void stares back!.

Seriously did you have to use such a creepy picture?

 

[Robetid]

I have a Wii U, and i bought it primarily because i skipped the Wii and wanted to play the zelda games on it(it is reverse compatable which i think is awesome). I ended up buying the new super mario bros. for it and am pretty impressed with it. If my roomate wants to watch TV in the living room i can play the game on the controller which is pretty convenient. Although i havent really used it much other than streaming netflix I think it has a lot of potential and look forward to what they come up with as far as utilizing the controller a bit more.

 

[The White Hunter]

OT: I do have a Wii U and I must say it's actually a really nice console, it's just a bit pricey since it's not really as powerful as the PS4 or nextbox are gonna be. And it's 1/24 as powerful as modern graphics cards give or take. It's lovely, it feels great to use and play and the Miiverse is lovely, the games that are good are great, it just needs to be a bit cheaper and have a few more games.

It's sad it's not doing well, I think if it came 2 years earlier it'd have done better.

About 1/24th? I dunno... I think you overestimate current PC hardware... But who knows, you may be right.

Ironically, it's about 20-60 times (depending on what level you estimate it's performance to actually be) as a Wii.
(60 times puts it at the upper end estimates of being about 3 times the current consoles).

I guess the one major upside here is that from what we know, the PS4 and the new Xbox are comparatively a lot weaker than the older consoles were.

Where the PS3 is about 20 times as powerful as a Wii, the PS4 is only about 5 times as powerful as a Wii U...

And that matters, because the smaller the gap, the less you have to change to get it to work.

It's actually one of the major hurdles of modern PC development.

Because back in 1995 or so, the gap between 'low end' and 'high end' PC's was one being about 10x faster than the other.
But nowadays, the gap is one being closer to 100x faster than the other.

You can see how that would make a developer's life a lot harder...

Nope, something like a 7970 or 680 is about 24 times as powerful as the PS3/360, and probably somewhere in that ballpark over the Wii U. It's kind of weird and it's definately a sign that this generation has dragged on far too long.

I can definately see how that would all make a developers work harder, but to be fair they are decidedly well compensated for their efforts (usually). I'd hate to be the guy charged with smushing Crysis 3 onto a 360. Or hell Battlefield 4, I can't wait to see how much they butcher that thing to get it running on PS3 and 360.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has won me completely. Having a completely clear screen is beautiful. Adjustable interface on the touch screen is also a nice touch. I can see the HD with the clear UI.

I was coming here to post the exact same thing.

Being able to select from a pool of various widgets to put on the touchscreen is really damn nice.

You can add a button that will let you access any item in your inventory without having to scroll though it, move various HUD elements off screen, give yourself easy access to signals (especially useful solo when you need to signal Cha-Cha), and so on. I really like the way they did it.

When you're in the village it gives you quick access to the Moga Forecast, the status of your fleet and farms, and lets you quickly check up on your Hunters for Hire.

I think the problem is a lot of developers want to over complicate things, when really all you need to do to make it useful is things like quick inventory access and maps and stuff.

 

[Negatempest]

So, I'm the only one that likes to look at a clear gaming screen? One not cluttered by overabundance of markers? Maybe keep the red screen shooters have nowadays on the 2nd screen? I kinda hate the hazy screen in shooters now.

I prefer to have the information i need in clear eyesight. Imagine playing Dark Souls without being able to see the Stamina or health bar clearly, would be a nightmare!

Customization? Maybe keep items you "want" on the main screen, while less important information (compass, ammo count, time, etc.) on the bottom screen. Kinda like it's frustrating when games in the current generation sometimes don't allow the customization of the controls. -_-

 

[Negatempest]

So, I'm the only one that likes to look at a clear gaming screen? One not cluttered by overabundance of markers? Maybe keep the red screen shooters have nowadays on the 2nd screen? I kinda hate the hazy screen in shooters now.

I love clear gaming screens. When I used to play Forza, there was nothing I liked more than disabling all the HUD elements apart from the speedometer and the lap numbers.

If the Gamepad can drag non-essential HUD elements off the screen, then fuckin' A! Games like COD are getting ridiculously overcluttered in how much info they plaster on top of the screen. Believe it or not, but those things have an effect on immersion. It's hard to get drawn into a world when there's a mess of neon maps and numbers sitting between you and it.

Really though, when has this ever been an issue? If the HUD is cluttering up the screen then the developer simply made a bad HUD. Solution; Make good HUD.

Putting info like heathbars, ammo counts, and equiped weaponry on a second screen only makes keeping it in check a giant nuisance. Instead of a quick glance to the top or side of the screen you need to avert yours eyes to a totally seperate screen in your lap.

What is the point of a touchscreen in a controller, other than creating solutions for problems we never had?

Why is HUD an issue? Cause the HUD has been getting really terrible in games now. A the moment we just deal with the HUD instead of wondering how it can be improved. Menu being put on a second screen would seem like second nature soon enough. Like analog sticks. Other games that could really use it are most action/adventure games where you can customize how much you want on the main screen so you get a Great look at the environment.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Why is HUD an issue? Cause the HUD has been getting really terrible in games now. A the moment we just deal with the HUD instead of wondering how it can be improved. Menu being put on a second screen would seem like second nature soon enough. Like analog sticks. Other games that could really use it are most action/adventure games where you can customize how much you want on the main screen so you get a Great look at the environment.

And what games were that? I've been playing games for more than a decade, and I've never not once heard anyone complain about the HUD. Bad camera, bad controls, bad framerate - These are all issues I've heard people mention. But HUD, really?

A HUD is there so you can instantly see how much health and/or ammo you have without taking your eyes off the action. That's the whole point behind a HUD. How the heck are you going to keep an eye on how close your health status is to zero and on the action when they're on seperate screens?

Many games already have the option to turn the HUD off. And every game generally has a pause option to access the menu instantly. So again, how is looking away at a screen in your lap a benefit?

 

[Negatempest]

I don't like going into deep details. T^T. Fine. Most FPS and Shooters have a hazy red HUD when attacked. The screen shakes and distracts from the action. It's unnecessary and was complained about in the beginning. But now that it's done so often it's just mostly ignored even though it's still annoying. There is no immersion in such a HUD, just a distraction from finding the culprits. Instead of some visual damage on the player to gauge where their health is at, they just make the whole screen hazy. And no, not enough games have the options to turn of the hud, plus there is no reason to remove it completely. Just out of the way from the main screen. A well designed second screen would have the campus, item menu, quest reminder, objective reminder, mini map, ammo count, etc. I mean that the player would be able to customize what they want on there like MHU3. Here you are also "assuming" that when you click on the second screen that you can no longer control your character. A well designed second screen would still allow control of your character. When you "pause" in other games to look at the menu you essentially pause the entire game or lose control of your character while scrolling the menu.

 

[lapan]

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate has won me completely. Having a completely clear screen is beautiful. Adjustable interface on the touch screen is also a nice touch. I can see the HD with the clear UI.

I use it more for quick access to pings, inventory and combining items. I have to agree that MHP3 uses the second screen perfectly though and i love the option to customize it.

 

[Madman123456]

I have not seen the second Screen being used for something that could not have been done with that, except for moving the gameplay to the joypad screen and freeing up the TV completely. Which can't be done if the Joypad screen is used for something else. Bleh.

I do see some Potential here, the second screen could be used for overview maps, inventory screens and everything else that might be nice to not have cluttering up the main screen but is still too important to move it to an extra screen that needs to be brought up with a ingame menu.

But i don't think i will buy a console for this potential. It might be really nice at some uncertain point in the future.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't like going into deep details. T^T. Fine. Most FPS and Shooters have a hazy red HUD when attacked. The screen shakes and distracts from the action. It's unnecessary and was complained about in the beginning. But now that it's done so often it's just mostly ignored even though it's still annoying. There is no immersion in such a HUD, just a distraction from finding the culprits. Instead of some visual damage on the player to gauge where their health is at, they just make the whole screen hazy. And no, not enough games have the options to turn of the hud, plus there is no reason to remove it completely. Just out of the way from the main screen. A well designed second screen would have the campus, item menu, quest reminder, objective reminder, mini map, ammo count, etc. I mean that the player would be able to customize what they want on there like MHU3. Here you are also "assuming" that when you click on the second screen that you can no longer control your character. A well designed second screen would still allow control of your character. When you "pause" in other games to look at the menu you essentially pause the entire game or lose control of your character while scrolling the menu.

So let me get this straight... You're in the middle of a battle or shoot-out, and you'd rather look away from the action to check your health and ammo on a second screen, than have your health and ammo perfectly visible in the corner of the main screen where you can focus on both it and the action?

It's like putting subtitles to a movie on a second screen; Your focus is being split.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Oh wait...we've all been had.

It'll be exactly like the Pendant.

Everyone will rush to buy a Wii U upon his recommendation, and search in vain for the mysterious amazing benefit of having two screens, only to find he was trolling us and it's really just going to devolve into the same crap every other new feature of a Nintendo console has.

But serious comment: About the best use I can imagine of the handheld's screen would be putting inventory and status and those sort of things down there so the main game isn't cluttered with sprites and bars. Unobtrusive, but useful. The problem tends to come when games try too hard to integrate touch screen or motion controls into the game and end up with an obstacle.

 

[Negatempest]

Oh wait...we've all been had.

It'll be exactly like the Pendant.

Everyone will rush to buy a Wii U upon his recommendation, and search in vain for the mysterious amazing benefit of having two screens, only to find he was trolling us and it's really just going to devolve into the same crap every other new feature of a Nintendo console has.

But serious comment: About the best use I can imagine of the handheld's screen would be putting inventory and status and those sort of things down there so the main game isn't cluttered with sprites and bars. Unobtrusive, but useful. The problem tends to come when games try too hard to integrate touch screen or motion controls into the game and end up with an obstacle.

My focus of the argument isn't to put all information on the second screen. It is to put information you don't need right away on the gamepad. Give the player the option to customize, so it can keep players happy with what they want cluttered on the main screen.

 

[lapan]

So let me get this straight... You're in the middle of a battle or shoot-out, and you'd rather look away from the action to check your health and ammo on a second screen, than have your health and ammo perfectly visible in the corner of the main screen where you can focus on both it and the action?

It's like putting subtitles to a movie on a second screen; Your focus is being split.

I keep my healthbars and HUD on the mainscreen and use the second screen for quick access inventory and faster combining. Some japanese team uses it to kill monsters in record times by quickly combining and perfectly coordinating bombs.

You can customize yourself what you want to have on the second screen.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

snip

My focus of the argument isn't to put all information on the second screen. It is to put information you don't need right away on the gamepad. Give the player the option to customize, so it can keep players happy with what they want cluttered on the main screen.

Even better. As long as you don't have to aim with it, or slide your finger across it to reload your gun, or draw a circle to lock on or something.

 

[bificommander]

I'm not sure it's either good PR or buisness practice to announce you're banking on sales improving when consumer Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.

I'm a PC gamer, the Wii is the first console I ever bought. I took it because it was cheap and because I wanted to play me some Zelda games. I've had some fun with it, but not enough that I think I'll be buying the WiiU any time soon. Especially since Skyward Sword was a letdown despite it's glowing reviews, so I'm not likely to buy a whole new console just for one game series I'd really like to play. I'll just see if I can find an Okami-copy on the cheap somewhere.