Smash Brothers for WiiU has finally arrived, and after years of anticipation we have finally seen the newest iteration of the grandiose franchise that has accounted for around 30 million in sales within 15 years and only 4 games. And after all the remarkable reviews, after all the hype, all the TLC given by Nintendo, after the Conan appearance, and after all the hardcore gamers seeing a nice lineup boasted by Namco and Sega support, just how well did it do?
Approximately 500,000 on opening week. Couldn’t even get first place. And couldn’t even outsell a remake of a 10-year old Pokemon game. It got destroyed by Pokemon, nullified by Grand Theft Auto, and couldn’t even defeat FarCry. This is Nintendo’s most important release in quite some time and those weak opening numbers are quite disappointing. And with looming reports of WiiU getting stomped in the Black Friday rush, there really isn’t much reason to believe in Nintendo rising out of the cellar in the eighth generation console wars.
Now, I can yell until I turn blue in the face as to some of the mistakes Nintendo has committed this year, and even with this game. No Melee re-release to hype up the next installment ala Halo Master Collection. Not much of a title (Would it kill you to give the game a proper title?). Not much of a commercial to advertise the much-anticipated game. And of course, no price cut/bundle combination strategy that has been used very successfully by Microsoft and the XBox One.
But even if Nintendo got all of this right, there is a good chance that the WiiU will not only absolutely miss the success of the Wii, but will absolutely get destroyed by the competition. And there is a simple, simple reason why: The Nintendo 3DS believe it or not.
Funny, I feel like I had written slightly about this before......
......but it bears repeating because its getting much, much worse. Especially with the WiiU still not hitting a nerve in the Western Hemisphere.
The WiiU has become a hybrid of a mediocre gigantic version of the 3DS with the totally-forgotten family-friendly anti-hardcore image of the Nintendo Wii. The WiiU has failed to shake off the bitter aftertaste of the Wii while at the same time fail to provide a lineup of games that gives the remaining Nintendo fans reason to purchase the system---and not because they are bad games but because there’s a cheaper alternative to every single one of their better efforts:
WiiU:
Smash Brothers WiiU
Mario Kart 8
New Super Mario Bros. U
Super Mario 3D World
Zelda: Wind Waker
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
3DS:
Smash Brothers 3DS
Mario Kart 7
New Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2 (Hooray for backwards-compatibility)
Super Mario 3D Land
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS
Star Fox 64 3D (I am throwing that in there because the WiiU is getting a Star Fox game)
The 3DS is cheaper, offers more games, offers cheaper games, is portable, and has Pokemon---something still lacking in console Nintendo systems. So honestly, why fork over $300 and get the WiiU when there is a similar lineup of games in the cheaper handheld while at the same time having a far better Virtual Console and a far better consistency of new games?
The WiiU is lacking an independent identity, and its killing its chances of taking off. The Nintendo Wii right off the bat knew what it was, a family-friendly, cheaper, simpler approach to gaming and it absolutely worked—while at the same time distance itself from the also-unique DS. The WiiU came out and in the midst of the delays and lack of software, we didn’t really know what to expect. The PS4 is PS3 on quality steroids, the XBox One is a machine of pure American entertainment. How would you describe the WiiU? Honestly? With the touchscreen, basically an expensive HD 3DS. It will even have DS games in the Virtual Console in the near future.
It needs some separation from the 3DS and extremely fast if it plans on ever being even slightly relevant. And even in the Virtual Console aspect there NEEDS to be some separation. WiiU needs Gamecube (and even some Wii games) and needs to stay away from the N64, GBA, and DS games that are associated with the 3DS. We are also talking about new IPs, bringing back old forgotten IPs (Golden Sun, seriously, where is it?), and making sure that the next installment of the popular IPs feels like the next step forward. Look at GTA IV and GTA V. Look at Metal Gear Solid IV and look at the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V. Now look at Super Mario 3D Land and look at Super Mario 3D World. Lastly look at Donkey Kong Country Returns and look at Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. Which game combinations look and play the most alike?
You need to give the WiiU some experiences that you can’t experience on the 3DS. We are talking about the MMORPG Pokemon, we are talking about the massive open-world Mario game, we are talking about the Metroid game that has the epic Halo feel, we are talking about the massive massive sequel to whether Star Fox, F-Zero, Golden Sun, or whatever hardcore franchise has seen minimal action in the past half-decade; and lastly we are talking about that Zelda game that requires Skyrim amount of hours to finish.
The biggest drawback to Smash Brothers WiiU sales, were the phenomenal sales of the 3DS installment. And that connection alone is the perfect allegory to what is happening to the WiiU---its value is being diminished by the more attractive sibling. The Nintendo WiiU needs a massive makeover otherwise it will become another Gamecube: decent powerful system, great games, but nobody bought it....
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