YOUR killer-app for Wii U and 3DS?

[Pandsu]

Among those of you who own one or both of these systems: What made you buy it? Was there one specific game that made you go "I just HAVE to get it now"? If so, which one?

And if you don't own any of these yet, what would persuade you to get one? Any specific title you're waiting for?


Personally, I own a 3DS and not yet a Wii U and don't really plan on getting one anytime soon.
The main game that made me go for the 3DS when I did was Kingdom Hearts 3D, since I've always been a huge fan of the franchise and just couldn't bear to miss out on a game, especially not one that was actually supposed to advance the story. The fact that the classic Power-Up system returned in Super Mario 3D Land just made the decision even easier, especially since KH3D wasn't even out yet when I had the chance to pick up the system.


As for the Wii U, Nintendo just hasn't shown anything really great yet and is continuing to let people down even with their tried and true franchises.
No Zelda so far, the next one isn't even supposed to have anything to do with the great looking tech demo we saw back when the Wii U was first revealed, no matter how much fans scream they want it. Zelda used to be my go-to franchise on Nintendo, the one title to get me interested, but even that has gone downhill recently. While I liked Twilight Princess much more than a lot of other people, that already had a ton of flaws and pretty much all the games in the franchise released after it were merely "okay", if not worse, which just doesn't live up to what I'd expect from the franchise, honestly. I just hope the new one on 3DS will be good, especially since it's a direct sequel to my favorite game in the series, but judging by what I've seen so far, I definitely have my doubts.

It just kinda seems like Nintendo has stopped trying in many ways.
While I liked Mario 3D Land a lot, actually a lot more than any other recent 3D Mario game, it sure did feel very handheld-y, which is why I don't really care too much about the new one coming out on the Wii U. The focus on the chaotic multiplayer definitely doesn't help with that, either. It looks fun, but really not special at all. Not grand, like we would've expected from the team's new, big 3D Mario release on a home console. Especially on a console that struggles as much and is in as desperate of a need for a killer-app as the Wii U.

No matter what it is, if it's Kirby, Yoshi, Mario, Zelda... all of their recent and upcoming efforts end up feeling either shallow or have lost their identity completely. Like Kirby's Epic Yarn not even really being a Kirby game at all.

And even the better, more exciting games such as Super Smash Bros. or Retro Studios' Donkey Kong Country Returns end up falling short of expectations. Smash looks good, yes, but it still seems like it's JUST as much as they need to do to sell it, no more. No cross-platform play, which would've been amazing if done right, no huge surprises so far, no great new features that make it seem like they went out of their way to make this the best smash ever, nothing. They didn't even include any cutscenes or story modes, for absolutely bullshit reasons.
And Donkey Kong Country Returns is cool, but after all the teasing they did, people definitely expected a bigger surprise. Something HUGE, like Retro developing the next Zelda, breathing new life into a slowly dying franchise, or a grandiose crossover between Star Fox and Metroid. But instead they went with what Nintendo likes to do these days, the easy route: A sequel that's exactly what you would expect.

In my opinion, Nintendo needs to sit back and take their time, even if it costs them, and make their big franchises huge again, along with some great, creative new franchises that don't try to be nothing more than a quick cash-in. Something that is not just fun and "well, I might buy it I guess", but gives them back their "WHOAH" factor and makes us feel like we NEED their system and their games. Especially since that is pretty much their only way to still stand out from and stand tall above what the other two have to offer. Because while graphics aren't everything, especially at this point, where stuff already looks really good, Nintendo doesn't seem to put much effort into delivering other, more important things, either.

I mean... why is there STILL no big, home console release of Pokemon, maybe even an MMO? Fans have been asking for that pretty much since the beginning of the franchise. But all we got were these small scale spin-offs.

If they fixed these issues, I'd be getting a Wii U in no time. Because I used to LOVE Nintendo. They were always my first choice, up until the current generation. And their games have always gotten me the most excited and passionate. But I've been disappointed too many times and delivering "just" good games, but nothing exceptional, probably won't cut it anymore now.

What about you? What would make you go out and buy a Wii U/3DS, or if you have one already, what made you buy it in the first place?

 

[Medza]

A very good post, + rep from me.

I totally agree with you on the 'whoa' factor that the Wii U really needs. I think that they are managing it with the 3DS with games like Animal Crossing , Pokemon X/Y , Monster Hunter and a whole tonne of other games, there is just a lot of chatter about the console. The word of mouth is the best advertisement that you can get and they are definitely doing it with the 3DS, but I think that they are failing to reproduce this effect on the Wii U. There are some good titles coming up like Smash Bros, but even that is a sequel, what we need is something really awe inspiring to get the people excited about the Wii U.

 

[fantanoice]

To be honest, my killer app on the WiiU was Scribblenauts Unlimited because I really wanted to crawl up into a blanket in a foetal position and play Scribblenauts on a tablet. Oh, and I had played the Rayman demo unit and was like, "Wow this only comes out in a month." and bought it for that, then Ubisoft decided to be a prick to their devs and Nintendo and pushed it back for a cross-platform release. I do urge people to still go for the WiiU version because even the demo of it blew my mind. So my killer app isn't even out yet, 8 months down the track. ¬. ¬


So far, from what I've seen from Directs and other things, the 'Epic Yarn' Yoshi game looks incredibly interesting, as does Wind Waker HD (but I still have the GC version which I haven't played yet). There seems to be some cool stuff happening on the eShop from independent studios as well.

It's strange though, everybody says that Nintendo should stop spending time with their games and start making frequent releases like CoD, but at the same time want them to release the same magic as the ones that took 5. I think they're doing a lot of things smarter now, like reusing engines (NSMB for instance) and teaming up with other studios (Retro in Mario Kart, Namco in Smash Bros) so getting things to release is a bit quicker now, but there's still a contradiction with people's expectations. I'm still not going to make a big judgement until maybe 12 months from now and seeing where they are at with releases because, I mean, this was the same with PS3, 3DS and DS: To get customers, give them games they want to play.


As for 3DS, I didn't have a DS at the time so I bought it at launch to play DS games until a 3DS game interested me. It was still a few months before I got one, and that was OoT 3D. I think in the meantime I was playing HeartGold and the first Scribblenauts.

 

[BlackSolaris]

I do have to agree with a lot of things said in this thread, but i feel that the Wii U is coming together pretty nicely, with Wondeful 101 coming (Wondeful game indeed, the demo was awesome!), bayonetta 2 and WindWaker HD. The 3DS still has a lot of the problems that the PSVita has, no company is making enough exclusives for it, even if they released the damn things for so long.

 

[Pandsu]

I for one definitely DON'T want to see annual releases by Nintendo. Them trying to get things out of the door quicker might actually be part of the problem I have with them. Because it means they probably play it safe instead of trying to, as mentioned befor, wow us. So along wih some smaller decent releasew around launch I'd have liled some amazing, surprising announcements, even if it means we'll have to wait for that thing a few years. As long as it's not quite like Final Fantasy Versus 13, Duke Nukem Forever or even The Last Guardian, I don't mind waiting that much if it means the promise of something great and exciting. Especially if the alternative looks so dull.
I mean, to me almost everything Nintendo does looks par-for-the-course. Enough, but nothing special. Even Smash Bros., which I am quite excited for nonetheless, just gives off that impression with the lack of any story mode and whatnot. It might not be needed but they could've also brought that to the next Level somehow. Instead they don't do it at all because durr hurr there will be videos of it online.

 

[amazingone]

I bought the wii u out of general curiosity. I've been supporting nintendo since NES. I've owned all of the nintendo systems and I'll probably keep buying them until the company quits and resorts to making strictly games. For the 3ds, I bought it mainly because I wanted to play mario kart 7 on it. I really liked the idea of playing mario kart on a hand held unit and playing against people online. Unfortunately, the lag was better controlled on snes's xband than it is on the 3ds.