WiiU Categories

When I was younger and lacked any real responsibilities, I was fairly free with my money. When the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker came out on GameCube, I bought it on day one. When Halo and Halo 2 launched, I bought both those games on launch day. Things have changed, at least for myself, but I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or if in general, people are not buying games on launch day like they use to.

Amazon is often at the forefront of showing off products first. Today, a Super Smash Bros Wii U game bundle, which includes the game, controller, and controller attachment, has been listed on the site for 99.99. While no official release date has been announced by Nintendo, I think it is safe to say we will still be seeing this title before the holidays.

Nintendo isn't known for branching out and trying new things. They milk their franchises, and not in a bad way. While many companies tend to produce shovelware, where the brand sells the game rather than the gameplay itself, Nintendo almost always brings AAA experiences to the table. With Hyrule Warriors, however, Nintendo has done something unprecedented for the company: they handed one of their most important franchises to another company to use. While my skepticism of this title was off the charts, I was intrigued during an E3 event in Toronto and was sold ...

Nintendo is leading a double life, and it has to be insanely frustrating for the executives. In the west, the Wii U troubles are well documented, and while they have been selling fairly well since the launch of Mario Kart - and, will continue through Hyrule Warriors and Super Smash Bros - they still are not doing as well as they themselves had hoped. In Japan, however, Nintendo is actually selling on par with the PS4, and the New 3DS and the New 3DS LL are blowing both out of the water. It's a good time for Nintendo in Japan, even if its not in the west.

The current generation is made up of three consoles, with each console doing its best to steal sales and finish number one month after month. Different levels of 'trying' are required. Sony and the PS4 are getting sales regardless of what they do; many of Sony's new following have been swayed by statements (not always necessarily true) made about its number one competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One. Microsoft has more work to do than Sony, although almost completely abandoning Kinect has done wonders for their sales numbers. With a number of high profile releases ...

A few weeks back, I reviewed SteamWorld Dig on the Wii U. The game was so fantastic, I've now owned it on multiple different platforms including my Wii U for at home and 3DS for on the road. The game is that good. If you haven't picked it up, stop reading this useless announcement, grab the game and play it, and come back to read this at your convenience. After all, the release date for their next title isn't until Spring 2015.

The Wii U gamepad is severely underutilized on the system, and very few game creators outside of Nintendo are trying to use it as more than just an away-from-TV screen. Developer Nnooo, however, has attempted to do so with their latest release, Cubemen 2. I reviewed Cubemen 2 on the Wii U, but after playing just one match on the PC once I was done with the Wii U version, I knew I was playing the wrong version.

Nintendo has one more mega hit left in 2014 and they no it. Sure, Hyrule Warriors is huge in Japan,but no one can really believe that it will do similarly as well in the English speaking world. So, why not use Super Smash Bros as a marketing tool. Nintendo has been dropping bombshell after bombshell, and it continued this week with their Super Smashing Sales event happening on the Nintendo eShop for the next few weeks.

Nintendo understands that they are in the uphill climb. The first step to recovery: admittance. Thankfully, Nintendo execs are not just sitting on their gold thrones using their millions of dollars to 'get by' until the next Nintendo console launches. They truly believe the Wii U can be turned around, and all their effort as of late has been to market anything and everything coming out for their systems.

Nintendo has huge plans for the next four months, both on 3DS and Wii U. Some big games are coming to both systems, so I figured I would let you in on what is coming, what you should pre-order, and perhaps what you might want to hold off buying.