That’s actually not true anymore, at least for Wii games. The last major system update activated Dolby Surround for Wii titles, either through the RCA jacks or the HDMI cable.
But yes, Wii U titles output their audio in uncompressed LPCM 5.1 surround, so the only way to use that is with a receiver that supports HDMI. So your choices are: stereo over RCA jacks, or uncompressed 5.1 surround sound over HDMI. It’s an odd combination of old and new technologies.
Data transfer from the Wii worked but my hoped for ability to play my virtual console or Wii games on the WU controller screen using the WU controller’s buttons & sticks isn’t available. Pointing a Wii remote at the WU controller like its a little TV is odd and I don’t see myself doing it often.
As far as digital stores go, Looks like the Wii and WU stores are 100% separate and the titles I have aren’t even offered on the WU. Even though the digital copy of Super Mario RPG I got with my Club N coins was advertised as a Wii & WiiU title. More digital disappointment from N. Digital sales could help revive this console the way it’s breathed life into the Vita, but it’s not going to happen if N keeps using their clunky and limited digital strategy.
Tom got burned earlier in this thread when the Wii/DSi/3DS/WiiU points cards are all separate. Haha!
And already hit my first issue with the online. I had the same issue that Rick did above, which wasn’t as bad because I knew it was coming. After the hour or so of updating though, it turns out my ID was still tied to the last Wii U I briefly owned. So now I’ve got money and purchases tied to an account that’s on my 3DS but can’t be linked to this Wii U because I already owned one. Going to give them a call tomorrow and see if they can help but I’m not hopeful, which means I won’t be spending any more money digitally once my credit runs out.
Has anyone played Pure Chess? This looks REALLY cool and is only about $10. Just came out today or yesterday.
I’m not much of a chess guy (but based on your nick, I guess you are). My last chess videogame was Battle Chess on a 386, and I haven’t looked back.
Started The Wonderful 101 last weekend, and had some serious WTF am I supposed to do? moments. I think I control the people I come into close proximity with, but then they fly away in their underwear and I am supposed to hit A or X but nothing seems to happen. But then I really don’t want that rocket-powered school bus to flatten the elementary school . . .
Shelved it and ordered Lego City for a more fair way to evaluate the WiiU in action.
So I just discovered that my WiiU is scratching to top sheet of my game disc…super. So far it’s only in the center of the disc so it hasn’t affected usability, but I still wish I had noticed sooner since I think the warranty just expired (pretty sure it was a year). I emailed customer support an Nintendo in case it’s a known issue and they extended the warranty on it, but I kinda doubt it.
Hopefully the issue is localized to the center portion of the disc and doesn’t migrate out into the data parts…otherwise it might just be time for a PS4.
It took me a few tries before Wonderful 101 started to click for me. It took some time to figure out what was going on. Once I had some idea of what was going on, I started to have fun. After even more time, it started to make sense. That’s when I wanted to start going for high scores. So yeah, come back to it.
Lego City is awesome, and starts out pretty quickly being awesome on the other hand.
Update: They responded Tuesday night (one week after first contact) and I had a chance today to confirm the transfer worked, loaded my Mii from the cloud and went to make sure my balance was available in the eShop. Which conveniently kept spewing an error code that gave no information other than to contact Nintendo. Googling around it appears the error code has to do with the eShop for my NNID still being tied to my old console. While the rep I talked to today was as helpful as she could be (she didn’t have any info and had to pass my issue up the chain), I now have to wait another 3-5 business days to hear back and hope they can resolve the issue. Which will bring my ordeal to two weeks of waiting for Nintendo to fix my gimped console, for a non-issue on the other two platforms. If the first party offerings weren’t so good I’d have probably resold the package and made it someone else’s problem by now.
But, with this system, they have the benefit of making you buy two copies of games if you have more than one 3DS. So, the money keeps rolling in. : P
In other news, Lego City is being enjoyed thoroughly in the house.
Just found out via Polygon that the next Fatal Frame game is being developed for Wii U. Very excited about this. Gamepad integration would appear to be perfect for a game like this. :)
I’ve only seen the EU version of the latest Nintendo Direct, but it seems Nintendo is all-in (alternatively: desperate) when it comes to Mario Kart 8. If you buy the game before the end of July, you can download one of the following games for free: Nintendo Land, Wonderful 101, Pikmin, New Super Mario Bros. U, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Wintergames, Sonic Lost World, Zelda: Wind Waker HD or Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.
Guess they know they don’t have many bullets left - and if MK8 doesn’t provide a big bump, Super Smash Bros definitely is not going to help it. (Frankly, I don’t think MK8 will help the system a lot beyond its release month.)
There’s also a $329 bundle with an extra controller, the wheel adapter thingy, Mario kart 8, and the download game coming.
Almost tempting, especially with Wonderful 101. But with the Xbox One and PS4, I now have game backlogs on four consoles, PC, and two handhelds.
That can’t be a very long backlog.
Probably not but at least we know that they will grow with time.
An actual third-party Wii U exclusive has been announced!
Sooo, Nintendo sold 2.72m units in the past 12 months - compared to 3.45m in the first five months after its release. The original sales forecast for the fiscal year: 9m. They missed their initial fiscal target (Y970b revenue, Y55b profits) quite a bit with an actual revenue of Y572b and losses of Y23.22b. Wii U sales forecast for the current fiscal year 4m.
You got my hopes up that X was coming out. Now I will go back to ignoring the last generation of consoles.
I think X is a first party title.
Nintendo’s 5 ideas to save the company by the President, Satoru Iwata. Summarized:
[ol]
[li]video sharing/ranking with Mario Kart
[/li][li]encouraging indie and digital dev
[/li][li]pushing skylanders NFC tech
[/li][li]exploring emerging markets and new tech at home like being able to pay with card using NFC in gamepad
[/li][li]fitness and health
[/li][/ol]
I’m really enjoying my Wii U but most of these areas seem meh. They need to do more than “encourage” indie development and they seriously need to revamp the digital store. WHY do I need to re-enter my CC details every time I buy something??