This game drought is leaving me parched

I’m probably going to receive quite a bit of backlash for this article, but I need to write it. When I first started this thing, I said I’d write about things near and dear to my heart. This article fits that description quite well. Please don’t take offense to my opinions in this article, and remember to be civil in the comments 😉

Why I’m Writing

What games have come out for the Wii U recently? Donkey Kong? Yeah, that came out in February. 3D World? That’s pushing it, but it came out in November. Wii Fit U came out in December. Do we even want to count GBA games? I won’t, but you can feel free to. Today is April 22nd. That means there have only been three high profile game releases for the Wii U in the past six months. That is a long time to go without big releases.

At the start of the year, Reggie told us that the Wii U game drought that we experienced in 2013 would be at an end this year. That doesn’t seem to be the case at all. I never thought it’d happen, but my Wii U is starting to collect dust. There’s just nothing new on it. Sure, Mario Kart is coming at the end of May, but that’s an entire month away. And after it releases, do we have to wait until “Winter 2014” until we get our third high profile Nintendo release of the year?

This is not right. When I bought a Wii U, I was promised a lot of quality games. I haven’t even heard from a few of the titles they showed at launch since their announcement. Where is Yarn Yoshi? Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem? Does X even have a release window? Nintendo is getting into a terrible habit of saying “don’t worry, it’s coming. We’ll make you happy.” and then doing nothing to deliver on these promises. It’s gotten to the point where “It’s coming” isn’t good enough.

Nintendo is hurting itself

With so few releases for the Wii U, it almost seems like they just don’t care about the system any more. We were promised third party games at launch, but we all know the story there. If this were Sony or Microsoft, they’d have more than enough third party releases to cover the time in between their games. Nintendo is even abandoning some of their services. Nintendo TVii still doesn’t have DVR capabilities I’m pretty sure.

Thing is, because of Nintendo’s lack of interest in their own console, third parties have all but given up on the system as well. There have been a few faithfuls like Activision with Skylanders, and the guys at WB with Lego games, but everyone else has either jumped ship or never boarded in the first place.

I don’t even know if the Wii U is savable at this point. It’s really behind other consoles in terms of capabilities and features (games tied to account, party chat, coherent friend list, etc…), the games just aren’t there, and neither is the audience. Maybe Nintendo will do what Microsoft does with Windows and alternate good and bad versions.

It’s not that I don’t like the Wii U. I love it. I just wish Nintendo could convince more people of how great it is. It feels more like the Wii’s dying breath than their next console. With people able to get the system at 99 dollars a mere one and a half years after release, something is really wrong here.

Indies want in

I’ve seen so many kickstarters with Wii U stretch goals. Every highlighted word there links to a separate article discussing a game with hopes of joining the Wii U family. What has Nintendo done to help these people reach their goals of getting on the console? As far as we know, absolutely nothing. There are some fantastic ideas on there that Nintendo just seems to have no interest in helping.

Remember that game Shadow of the Eternals? If not, that links to nine minutes of footage from it. That game could’ve done wonders for the Wii U at that point in its life. Nintendo did squat about it. There are companies with great games who would love to make it to the Wii U, but Nintendo isn’t giving them a helping hand.

This company is sitting on billions and wont spare a few hundred to bring more games to its starving console. They need this kind of support. They need people developing for the system. It’s worth that money to let other developers do the advertising and game making that they won’t. I’m probably over simplifying, but I still think they should be a bit more open to it. Even buy some exclusivity.

I’m no economist

I’m no economist, so don’t expect me to come up with an amazing plan to save the console. All I know is that if you’re still saying “Mario Kart 8 and Smash will turn the console around”, you’re being very optimistic. Nintendo said it themselves, a steady stream of high quality releases is all a console needs to find it’s footing. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Nintendo needs that steady stream, but they’re not making many strides to make that happen.

Miiverse and Zorpix

For those who don’t know, Miiverse and Zorpix is a little section I do at the end of each article to give each article a lighthearted and personal feel. I haven’t been making too much noise on miiverse except for text posts, but here are a few gems from the amazing games Nintendo has managed to get out.

Post Text: I know I missed them Toad! Stop taunting me!!!

Game: Super Mario 3D World

I almost ran past this flagpole to check for goodies, but I figured I probably wouldn’t miss much. Lo and behold, there’s Captain Toad, mocking me with piles of money. Shut up Toad! Not everyone is as stacked as you are! One day, I’ll remember which level this was and come back for you. Then you’ll be sorry!

Post Text: My thoughts too… Oh well. Happy New Year anyways!

Game: Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Elmer seems to share my same sentiments about this year for the Wii U. I guess living on the 3DS, he isn’t accustomed to such droughts. Elmer is my favorite villager. Ever since he told me “I think it’s fine if boys wear girls clothes!”, he’s always been my wonderful gay pony. While I like Animal Crossing, I can’t help feeling it’s missing a few things that Tomodachi Life will seem to bring me.

Post Text: Look what I found!! >:D on hero mode, too!!

Game: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

I can’t for the life of me remember the name of this mask, but I was so happy to have gotten it, that I just had to share it on Miiverse. I think this thing reduces the amount of damage enemies do or something. I’m not sure. I should play that game again and find out. Best way to end a game drought is to replay some old favorites! I never did find all the heart pieces…

Wrapping up

If you do happen to have any suggestions for next week’s topic, any questions about the content I wrote, or just wanna say hey, feel free to sound off below! If you really feel inclined, you can mosey on over to my Twitter, Facebook, or Miiverse account. Please don’t feel offended if I don’t respond to friend requests on the Wii U, as I reserve that for people I actually know in real life (usually…). I’ll probably follow back though!