Yet Another Disappointing Nintendo Direct

It was a long direct so I got my hopes up why do I keep doing this to myself. This one started on a high note and ended on a bitter one.Nearly the entire direct was devoted to 3ds which is doing fine. Not even short on games by any stretch. To make it worst most of the games coming out for it got a release date. What new info did we get for Wii U just the release date for MK8. All we got were trailers he didn't talk about the wii u games at all. Nintendo has really been testing my patience with wii u. I want one I really do but they make me feel uncertain like I keep pushing back when I'll buy one. At this rate I won't get one this year. There is literally no games to buy for it right now that are so great that make me say hey I better get a wii u asap

I guess I'll say it in this thread too -- Nintendo's got tricks up their sleeve for e3. None of their internal studios have announced any games beyond Mario Kart in May. They're all obviously working on something.

I'm throwing down my bets there's a new Star Fox game coming at the end of the year.

To be fair, they did say this Nintendo Direct will be mostly focusing on games that will be released this Spring and that's exactly what they did. Bayonetta, Smash Bros and X are exceptions since they're pretty far into development for new trailers and could potentially be released during the Summer or Fall. You claim that there's literally no Wii U games to buy for it, but I see 4 upcoming games I want to get my hands on.

yup...seems they were saving a lot for e3 1 hour presentation..

@KBFloYd: They showed their entire hand last February, and it ended up disappointing people during e3 when they had nothing new to show.

I was actually fairly happy with it, but I also had my expectations at almost nothing. I'm happy Kirby and Mario Golf have a release date. I've been wanting a new Mario Golf game since forever.

@ANIMEguy10034: up and coming games with no release date you mean?(besides MK8 and DKTF)

it wasnt as good but it was still pretty good.

maybe this year will be the same and we get a direct in feb or march doing the same...and if they dont ...then definitely get hype for e3..

@Celsius765: Yep. :)

^ well Bayonetta 2 they still showed a 2014 release. :P

@ANIMEguy10034: yeah I can't get hyped when I don't know when these games will come out and knowing those small handful of titles is all I have to look forward to

@KBFloYd: I'm going to repeat this all the way to e3, Nintendo's best are dead silent, they've got something cooking.

@IMAHAPYHIPPO: you better pray they do or this will be abother abyssmal year

@Celsius765: I mean looking at the lineup for the end of the year as it is, it's not looking all that bad --

If I had to guess --

Hyrule Warriors will probably kick things off in August, followed by Bayonetta, Shin Megami X Fire Emblem, Yarn Yoshi, X, Smash Bros in the September-November schedule.

Again, I'm aware Hyrule Warriors isn't on the top of everyone's list, but it's certainly one I'm excited about.

I'm calling it now -- again -- Star Fox is coming to Wii U by the end of 2014.

As was already mentioned, and to be fair, Nintendo did say that this was for the spring release games.

Whatever changes they're making due to the recent drama will not come about until at least the fall. The unified accounts is a big task. Any partnerships they may have recently formed will not be ready for announcement yet. I would expect these things to be mentioned in E3.

They did announce GBA games on the VC, so that's a start. I'm sure DS games will follow soon after (hopefully summer).

I'm currently plying Steel Diver Sub Wars and it's a great F2P game, I'd recommend trying it out if submarine deathmatch sounds interesting to you! I'm also very excited for Inazuma Eleven.

@Grieverr: I know I just would appreciate feeling like I know Wii u will get better. Right now I feel like I'm going through a dark cave with Nintendo as my guide they are not helping and refuse to give me a torch to light the way ( I hope that made sense)

@Celsius765: It's hard being a Nintendo fan. They pump out more first party content than anyone, but nobody buys third party games on their consoles, so the library always looks pretty vapid. If you look at it objectively, you'll see that the Wii U has more first party titles announced than any other console right now. It's just a bummer there isn't anything to fill in the gaps.

Pretty much, to be a Nintendo gamer, you need to have a 3ds and a Wii U because all of those Wii U droughts are filled in with 3ds releases.

@Celsius765: haha! I hear you! I feel somewhat the same way. I really like the Wii U and will always like Nintendo games, so I'm rooting for them. I'm hoping these last few weeks of "Wii U failure" articles and Iwata's announcements to change things will result in great games. It's just too soon for anything to happen.

As much as I hate digital games, the Wii U has some good ones if you wanna spend some money right now. Unepic seems to be universally liked, and I'm looking forward to Child of Light.

What kind of games do you like and would like to see on the Wii U? Do you have a 3DS? I've been playing the new Steel Diver since they announced in the Direct. It's pretty fun, I'll probably end up paying for the full game.

@Grieverr: I have a 3ds but I am dirt poor right now so I only have 2 games for it

I'm just waiting for E3. The directs are ok but E3 is where the big guns will come out for all 3 competitors. If Nintendo blows this E3, they will be done for this gen which will put a bad taste in the mouths of the public and consumers will become more hesitant to buy their next console.

1 year of drought you can let slide, but any more than that and it is becoming atrocious.

They have 4 months to learn competitive marketing 101 again or else they may be out the door this gen.

What was disappointing about it? Nintendo specifically said that this direct would be focused on upcoming games this Spring, and that's exactly what it was. They even had the courtesy to throw in some surprises like Little Mac in Smash 4, the Koopa kids in MK8, and a new gameplay trailer for X. The Direct met my expectations just fine. The big guns will be brought out when E3 rolls around. But even without any big announcements today, Smash 4, MK8, X, NES Remix 2, Shovel Knight, and plenty of other games are looking awesome and I'm glad to have a Wii U.

@Celsius765: Steel Diver is free. Well, free to play, at least. give it a try!

Yep, it was horrible.

Sadly you're probably right. Donkey kong and a couple indie games is all i'll get until then... And Bayonetta is the only game out of those i'm getting, maybe there are some surprises. I wouldn't dare hope for any surprises though :/

Well at least DK will be fantastic...

Wii U - a desert simulator

I guess going into shows like this anymore, I never know what to expect in the way of surprises and unexpected announcements. None of the surprises were big game-changers, but they were decent. Little Mac in Smash Bros., Koopa Kids in Mario Kart, free-to-play Steel Diver on the eShop available now. I think these were all pleasant surprises. And a few games caught my attention during the presentation, which might be worth picking up one day.

The thing that is bothersome, though, is that yeah the direct was about Springtime... But a lot of those games they showed aren't even going to be released in the Springtime. Bayonetta is just sometime in 2014 right? No confirmed release date? Project X is nowhere close to being completed yet I'd imagine? And it's kind of a stretch to call Mario Kart a Spring release when it's in late May - that's pretty much Summer. I guess I can forgive the Smash Bros. talk, since they've been unveiling the roster little by little like this for a while now. But it's obvious that Nintendo used this opportunity to show off some other upcoming titles since otherwise, there isn't a plethora of upcoming games in the Spring.

Nintendo did do well just to give us release dates in general, and it's good that at least one or two big games aren't really far off. And I also don't know if it was their strategy or not, but Nintendo did a decent job of showing off upcoming eShop games, which I think is good if they're trying to work on strengthening their offerings on the eShop. I do think that for as long as the direct was though, it would have been nice to hear Iwata touch base on the state of the company and Wii-U, and give fans more confidence in the near future.

Yeah it was an average direct. It was exactly as I expected. I have higher expectations for the Direct around E3.

Ahh it wasn't all bad. Was hoping for some big announcement. But hopefully they'll pull out all the stops for e3

It's only disappointing because people tend to get too hyped about the Nintendo Direct's despite Nintendo basically telling you what it'll entail prior to.

Why do people think that Nintendo is going to have anything worthwhile at E3?

What were you really expecting??? They said featuring upcoming spring game releases....

We got new info on SSB, and Mario Kart.... they officially announced NES remix 2, and GBA games coming to the Eshop. New Indie games coming soon, Child of Light/ Shovel Knight, and new footage of X and Bayonetta.

It was an OK direct. I'm excited about NES Remix 2, and a great lineup of classic NES games. Which leads me to think they'll do SNES remix next too.

@Superzone: what was disappointing was 30 minutes of the direct was devoted to 3ds titles. I know wii u doesn't have much yet but there was certainly more that could have been talked about like yoshi yarn, the next big zelda, or if the big mario game is in the works (I don't count 3d world as the big game of the gen). They had me excited when the direct started then it cooled down considerably when they started jabbering on about Steel Diver and Mario Golf. I should be excited by X but I still haven't even played Xenoblade so I can't be certain it's something to be excited about. I dunno where they were going with that shitty baseball title. I dunno I guess I'll have to hope E3 doesn't disappoint. I don't remember last year's e3 direct very well but surely they'll have something to show this time

@The-Butcher248: I was expecting nearly equal time discussing games coming to both 3ds and wiiu. I didn't expect any new titles announced for wii u but I did expect updates on more first party titles than the few that were mentioned. I got worked by the smash bros trailer I guess. that direct calmed down too quickly xD

Because there's enough time between now and E3 that Nintendo can make some headway with any proposed changes. Iwata has talked about partnerships, making the gamepad more attractive, etc... By the time E3 gets here, they can potentially announce:

- NNID profiles becoming cloud based on not stuck with your hardware

- New partnerships, meaning they're allowing other devs to develop Nintendo IP's in order to have a more constant flow of games

- Even more partnerships in the form of actually having a few 3rd party games

- A "renewed" effort to expand the VC to other consoles, like on the Wii

- Announce blockbuster games for the Christmas season. Maybe the new Zelda, a console Pokemon, Metroid, a new IP, etc...

- Give people incentives to buy Wii U. So either a price drop, or a sale on games, double Nintendo Club coins...something, anything

- I'd personally like to see them ditch the Directs and announce more aggressive marketing and public conferences

You want something to hold you over until you're sold on the WiiU? Play Xenoblade. It's one of the best and most content-heavy games of last generation.

I believe Iwata said that was something they would implement in future hardware because current hardware just isn't designed for it. I could be wrong, but I remember wondering why that wasn't something that could be implemented through firmware. I guess the current system must be so ingrained into the OS that it's not worth changing.

@JordanElek: yeah I don't hav $80 or more to buy Xenoblade

But you want Nintendo to announce more games so you can buy a WiiU? And more games?

You can get Xenoblade for $60 at Gamestop. If you really want a torch to give you light, get Xenoblade. It's worth $60. There's more game there than five average $60 games.

Hmm... I can see that being the case. Understandable, but disappointing if that's the case.

I must admit though I find it kind of hilarious that GBA games are coming to the Wii U and still aren't available on the 3DS.

Totally agree.

This is what I'm thinking. E3 is roughly four months away. Nuclear announcements tend to be made around that time, not before(if any actually exist).

Iwata's comment about how HD development takes so much longer than they anticipated makes me less hopeful, though. Most of their big teams simply won't have time to come up with something amazing by the end of the year. It looks to me like Smash will be their big holiday game, and that's it.

You're correct

Everyone who's like "something huge for Nintendo at E3" hasn't been paying attention to the company, ever.

Now granted there's two kinds of people

1. The people who want actual games and when they're not delivered will be upset

2. The people who think a trailer with no release date is somehow a good thing

The people who fall into the latter category are dolts. They're going to be the ones who are like "DID YOU SEE THAT ZELDA TRAILER?!?!?!?!"

Nintendo does not have any ammunition this year. They're playing catch up with the Wii U.

In my day we didn't even have Nintendo directs.

I can only think of a few where significant announcements have been made.

It was nice to get some new trailers for upcoming games.

the lack ds virtual console info and hyrule warrior was disappointing. i wanted to see the work in progress on those 2 things.

but wat was more disappoing is that they is that they showed nothing new for wiiu. my most anticipated games this year is darksouls 2 bayo 2 and x. but nintendo keeps shuving them up our through, every person know about them no need for them to keep mentioning them and teasing them with no release date. i really belive alot of wat we expect this year will get delayed to feb 2015.

also i dont know why but i lost all hype for donkey kong. after teasing us for a big announcement and it ending up being cranky. everytime nintendo mentions this game, i start loosing interest in it.

either way i really hope bayo and x gets release and not at the end of the year. i mean bayo was ment to get released in 2014 and i bought the wiiu for many reasons but that was the game i wanted the most and now i have to wait a year and a half for it. release the damn game already

I kinda wish we could pitch suggestions to nintendo like there are unlocalized gba games that'd be sweet to have in the vc

I agree, the possibilities are there for delays. Nintendo wasn't ready for HD development, which is pretty inexcusable, and it has cost them thus far.

Oh Jason, you and your generalizations...

@YearoftheSnake5: See, I've always been perfectly fine with Nintendo's games taking a long time to reach completion because they always turn out great. That said, I'm holding a reserved excitement for their claim they're going to be more open with third parties using their IP. I've never thought the problem was taking a long time to make their games, the problem is that they have very little to pad those development times. In theory, that means we could get a more rounded out library for the Wii U.

@Celsius765: One question, though. Every few posts, you mention how you can't buy any of the games available because you have no money. So, why are you so disappointed Nintendo's not announcing even more games you won't be able to buy? Not a hostile question, just curious.

I was thinking they would bring GC games to Wii U. GBA games seem more fit for 3DS...

(Yes, I'm aware that GC games will take up over a few gigs of space. Still think it would be more proper to bring that over to Wii U instead of GBA games. Keep the handheld games on the handheld systems and home console games to the home console systems.)...

@IMAHAPYHIPPO: because I hope to have plenty to choose from once I can buy games. But I want something exciting. I don't care for mellow games like baseball and golf or games like steel diver. I prefer adventure games or rpg. I'm sure yoshi's island will be fun for a casual play through but I doubt it will have anything a game with a story can provide

As soon as little Mac was announced for smash, the Nintendo Direct was instantly worth it for me. He looks so sweet. I hope this means more Punch-Out!! games in the near future. That series is pure genius.