Fanboy Rant

I admit it, I'm a Nintendo fanboy. When I was young my gaming time was split between an Amiga 500 and a Famicom (Japanese NES), so Mario and friends have been part of my gaming experience right from the start. Still I would like to think that I can remain somewhat objective and criticise when appropriate. At E3 last year Nintendo unveiled the Wii U, which despite having a stupid name has me excited and looking forward to the final release later this year. However, this enthusiasm isn't shared by all, Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush securities who specialises in the video game industry, recently stated on NeoGAF that the potential market for the Wii U is going to be about half that of the Wii and that it should have been released back in 2009 as the Wii HD.

Pachter is not alone in his lack of excitement for the Wii U, many web analysts have come down against the console, seeing it as an HD remake of the Wii with a funny controller to try and trick you into thinking different. Personally I disagree, Nintendo has time and again released new systems with new controllers and control schemes that have resulted in new innovations of gameplay. The d-pad, now a gaming standard, was popularised by Nintendo, as was the analog stick, diamond button layout, touch screen gaming, and motion controls. Since the announcement of the Wii U rumours have surfaced that the next XBox is also going to feature a touch screen interface, which suggests that once again Nintendo is setting the new industry standard.

I think the problem people have is that they consider the Wii U to not be 'next generation', because the Wii didn't have the same graphical capabilities as the other consoles they just assume that this console will only be equal in power to the XBox 360 and PS3. Even if this were the case, which I doubt it will be, graphics are not what make a game good! For me what matters most is the gameplay. If a game controls well and you can tell what you are doing then that's 90% of the battle. And the Wii U's touch screen provides developers with another option when designing controls. I'm sure a large number of the early titles will feel like they have to use the touch screen and suffer because of it but as the platform matures we will be treated with real innovation. It's important to remember that in addition to the touch screen the console still supports the Wii remote so developers can still design motion games.

The one thing I am concerned about is the Nintendo Network. The Wii has poor online gaming support and the Nintendo Network is supposed to fix this. However, Nintendo often do things their own way which makes me nervous, ideally I would like something similar to the Steam community, with cross game chat, achievements, leaderboards, and if privacy is a concern let players set the level of their connection as either invisible, friends only, or public.

At E3 this year we will get to see the final build of the Wii U, which might make this discussion premature but still I am excited about the Wii U!