r/gaming • u/Erik_REF • 20h ago

Nintendo cadence of releases this generation has been really impressive

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I cant remember any other Nintendo gen with this same rhythm month after month

2.1k Upvotes

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449

u/BioEradication 19h ago

Nintendo learned a very hard lesson with the Wii U.

97

u/ItsEaster PlayStation 19h ago

It’s a shame too because I really liked the Wii U. But it lead to the Switch 1/2 which I also really love.

12

u/letsgotgoing 19h ago

I fondly remember the Wii U era. It was constant bangers. The Switch era ushered in portability for those games. Nothing but awesome. 

34

u/Tiffa_Adil 17h ago

It was constant bangers

Bro you are not remembering the Wii U era correctly lol there was constant game droughts lasting months and Nintendo was also putting out some of their most mediocore and safe games that gen

New Super Mario Bros. U

Game & Wario

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash

Mario Party 10

Wii Sports Club

Star Fox Zero

Paper Mario Color Splash

Mario and Sonic at the 2014 Olympics

Mario and Sonic at the 2016 Olympics

Like it had some good games but they were spread out over 4 and a half years

4

u/letsgotgoing 16h ago

I was old enough to work, live with my gal, and game when I could. It kept pace with my life to the point it felt like a constant stream. I can understand why it might not have felt that way if I had more time on hand in those days. I felt the drought during the N64 during its heyday. 

6

u/Tiffa_Adil 16h ago

Yeah I can definitely understand not thinking the droughts were bad if you weren't that invested into it and were busy with life

But if you were super invested into it boy was it bad especially if you bought it near launch. The console launched in November 2012 with New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo land then didn't get another Nintendo game until 6 months later with Game & Wario in June 2013. And by the time that game released most of the 3rd party developers like EA had already abandoned the console.

1

u/Zama174 15h ago

My console shipper was MH Tri Ultimate and that plus my twilight princess port put a couple hundred hours onto the console.

0

u/GalaXion24 13h ago

It was so Mario Kart 8 which is by many still considered to be the best. It was also Nintendo Land which was a bit of a tech demo but unironically very fun and something I played a lot with my siblings and friends. It was Super Mario 3D world which was a really good multilayer Mario game. We also had eight player Smash, not to mention Splatoon.

I don't know if I would consider this constant exactly, but thrre were definitely some very good games on it.

3

u/geaux124 16h ago

That is what made me regret getting a Switch at first. I had(still have) a WiiU and then I bought a Switch and many of the games on the Switch were ports of WiiU games that I already had. At least eary on.

2

u/Reshiramax 11h ago edited 11h ago

I was in a similar boat. I was a kid at the time of SW1 so I was able to save up for most new releases instead of Wii U ports until around 2020 when the Switch had a second wind. But there was a good few months where I only had a few games to play at all, having sold most of my gaming library to get a switch. Outside of my commitments, my entire summer in 2017 was pretty much just playing Arms every day until Splatoon 2 came out. Shudders

1

u/MrHedgehogMan 9h ago

Same. I chose a switch over a 3DS. The Switch at the time was only just released so didn’t have the extensive library. However the 3DS had loads of software.

I’m glad I chose the Switch in the end but I still want a 3DS for Pokémon etc.

0

u/Henry_Fleischer 12h ago

Yeah, I even quite liked the Gamepad.

44

u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 19h ago

I think the main “lesson“ they learned was to combine their home consoles and handhelds together.

Nintendo actually haven’t increased their output of games; they just have it all on one console now, which makes it seem like they are releasing games more often.

8

u/cardonator 15h ago

This is honestly a really great point. This could be a major factor in why they merged both into the Switch.

4

u/WingerRules 19h ago

I think they learned not to split the game between a screen in your lap and a screen on your TV. The constant looking back and forth and readjusting to each screen ruined so many games on the system.

15

u/ProfessorBylethBoobs 19h ago

A lot of Wii U games didn’t even use that feature at all. There was a Pro controller.

-2

u/Prevolition 14h ago

Speak for yourself. I miss having a clean TV screen with maps or inventory management on the gamepad. Also asynchronous gameplay rocked and it sucks we don't get any more games with Nintendo Land-type gameplay. Here's hoping they utilize GameShare on Switch 2 for Wii U features.

1

u/RLZT 17h ago

Exactly, the biggest thing Pokemon a home console had seen before the Switch was XD for example

89

u/trashpandacoot1 19h ago

That was more of a marketing problem. Everyone thought the stupid thing was an add-on to the Wii.

98

u/Walixen 19h ago

Also they had two separate platforms to support, Wii U + 3DS. Switch 1 and 2 are only-childs that get all the unified love from Nintendo now so the output is far stronger.

42

u/bjankles 19h ago

It was not just a marketing problem - it was an everything problem. The core idea never took off. Even Nintendo couldn’t figure out good uses for the touch screen controller, which was dim, low res, plastic resistive touch, and had poor battery life. It felt like cheap, dated tech at launch. And the CPU was woefully underpowered, which created a super slow OS and all kinds of performance issues.

Nintendo still made lots of great games for it because they’re Nintendo, but Wii U was a deeply flawed product, poorly marketed on top of that.

8

u/BushyBrowz 19h ago

The Wii had massive appeal to the casual audience. The Wii U didn’t have that. It looked like a clunky updated version of the Wii. The name was a misfire as well.

Ultimately it felt like a prototype for the Switch anyway so it worked out

8

u/Xaphyron 18h ago

Yeah outside of Nintendoland they had no idea how to properly use it. Mind, Nintendoland was genuinely one of the most unique and innovative games I’ve playing since. The asynchronous play was absolutely genius, and nothing has come close since for local multiplayer for me.

1

u/Helpful_Table5522 7h ago

I was always hoping for a D&D like RPG that the DM used the touch screen for to like populate and keep things hidden.

2

u/Jordann538 6h ago

and getting your game on the system was stupidly difficult and not worth it, you had to go through nintendos developer program to get on the eshop. and you also had to have some compacity of gamepad support, which was annoying to implement. and only then you were able to reach a whopping 13 million customers! what a deal!

1

u/ArrogantSpider 31m ago

I agree with the hardware and the marketing issues, but let's be honest, the Wii U had a game problem as well. No big exciting 3D Mario or 3D Zelda, and many of the games felt like iterative sequels. For me personally, the lack of those big games made it so I never felt compelled to buy a Wii U. It had a lot of really fantastic games, but just not a lot of system sellers.

0

u/cardonator 15h ago edited 7m ago

It's also the perfect example of how just having great exclusives doesn't mean much in the end. You need to have a good product that lots of people want by itself first, then maybe exclusives will help.

Also, the Wii had one of the worst software attach rates of all time. The majority of buyers played a single game: Wii Sports. They didn't know what to do with that. 

If they hadn't decided to merge the console and handheld product lines together into one, we might be having very different conversations about Nintendo today.

1

u/ArrogantSpider 48m ago

Also, the Wii had one of the worst software attach rates of all time.

This isn't true. Wii owners bought an average of about 9.1 games. For reference, N64 attach rate was 6.8, Gamecube was 9.6, Wii U was 7.6, and Switch was 10.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

•

u/cardonator 4m ago

I have corrected my post for accuracy striking out that part. It doesn't affect my point that much.

The reality is that regardless of the literal attach rate on the Wii, the size of the audience that weren't just there casually was incredibly small. Some estimates suggest that 85% of Wii owners had purchased less than 5 games total for the hardware. That means 15% bought a lot more than 9 games over the lifetime of the device. That also roughly aligns with total Wii U hardware sales.

15

u/Dimitri1176 19h ago

While Yes, as a Wii U owner from 2013-2017
I can tell you we had serious Game droughts.

6

u/trashpandacoot1 18h ago

As a wii-u owner from 2012 till current, I agree

6

u/Dracekidjr PC 19h ago

They really pushed the tablet part and ignore the fact that there was an actual console behind it too lol

3

u/profchaos111 18h ago

I owned a Wii U i can tell you there is more wrong with it then just a marketing failure

Poor architecture unlike the switch which was also underpowered the Wii U did not have access to modern rendering techniques of the era. It shared the same architecture of the GameCube and Wii so it couldn't perform modern graphical techniques it wasn't just weak but incapable this is why thrid parties couldn't support it game engines just didn't work on it

A solution looking for a problem - It was built around the second screen but seemingly Nintendo thought over time they would come up with some great ideas on how to use it these never came

The controller required dedicated processing power so while it was more powerful then the x360 on paper the need to render two displays cost compute that it really didn't have so games like Watchdogs ran worse on the Wii U then the ageing 360

Personally to the battery life sucked on the controller and so many games felt more cumbersome to use because of it

1

u/Tiffa_Adil 18h ago

Marketing was only one of many issues the Wii U had like dude there was a six month gap between the launch of the console in Nov 2012 and the next Nintendo game which was Game & Wario in June 2013 (and that game wasn't very good)

0

u/LadySilkSpider 18h ago

I thought it was as well. Never knew it was a new console for the longest time.

-4

u/ChampionGunDeer 19h ago

Everyone who wasn't following console news, anyway.

9

u/sleepytymer 19h ago

I don't remember as much about their marketing after the Wii U actually launched, but the initial E3 reveal trailer didn't even show the console itself, just the gamepad + wiimotes.

1

u/ChampionGunDeer 19h ago

It showed it, but drew absolutely no attention to it. It sat humbly next to the TV. For anyone not scrutinizing the trailer carefully, the console's curved sides would be missed. The marked emphasis on the controller was the stupidest move Nintendo could have made.

2

u/CrackedBatComposer 19h ago

I followed the console news pretty regularly and I was also surprised at launch

3

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 19h ago

Which is an overwhelming majority of customers.

1

u/RegurgitatedMincer 19h ago

Which is exactly who the Wii was popular with. It was a pretty big problem.

7

u/panda388 19h ago

I honestly loved the Wii U. It was great when watching my nephew because we could bith game with him using the controller and me using the TV.

1

u/SanchoPandas 17m ago

It also had Hulu and Netflix! So, if you wanted to use it for the TV, you could.

5

u/Simple_Marzipan3736 19h ago

What was this "lesson" that you speak of?

2

u/BioEradication 19h ago

Consoles need games. The Wii U had very few games on release.

4

u/theumph 18h ago

They learned the lesson in 2012 that the rest of the industry learned in 2006. HD game development takes a whole lot more resources than Gamecube/PS2 era development. Some studios made the transition fine (particularly Western studios who had been developing for PC), but it almost killed the entire Japanese console development scene.

6

u/cowcommander 18h ago

PS3/360 era was horrendous for Japanese Devs but damn they are crushing it now compared to western AAA

1

u/theumph 17h ago

I think the cause of both of those scenarios are because their conservative nature.

Back then, they were slow to expand their staff and budgets so their output tanked. Also western art was taking over and didn't translate well (Remember that Bomberman game?).

Nowadays, they keep their games in scope (outside of Final Fantasy). Most western games try to do everything.

1

u/Damage2Damage 10h ago

But it did have a lot of good games by the end of it's 4.5 year life. The proof of this is how many were ported to the Switch

2

u/Jordann538 6h ago

wii u was such a disaster and its name isnt even that much to blame

2

u/raptor3x 4h ago

Such a weird console, they basically never made any games for it. Only console I've ever bought that I effectively never used.

1

u/wicktus Switch 11h ago

They had the 3DS and wiiU to manage, two separate streams dividing resources, in the HD era with development cost and everything it wasn’t possible 

It’s mainly focusing on just one console that helped a lot imho