Deconstructing the method to Nintendo's madness | Hacker News Reader

Deconstructing the method to Nintendo's madness

engadget.com

23 pointscoldpie11 comments

This is the main menu for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: http://i.imgur.com/04qZmg4.jpg

The menu items on that screen are not touchable via the Wii U gamepad touchscreen. You're required to use the control stick to awkwardly select menu items in a non-standard grid that appears to be designed for a touchscreen.

Nintendo's latest blockbuster game for the Wii U, on their touchscreen tablet console, does not have touch controls on a screen that clearly looks like it was designed for a tablet touchscreen. That is what is so frustrating with today's Nintendo in a nutshell.

This is the main menu for Super Smash Bros Brawl for Wii: http://faqsmedia.ign.com/faqs/image/article/849/849163/vario...

You cannot use your wiimote to select the menu items, you can only use the controller's D-pad. It's how Smash games have always been. Plus, there is really no reason for you to use touch screen controls for the game.

"But we've always had crappy design sense" is a terrible excuse for continuing to have crappy design sense.

Also, when one of the primary distinguishing features of a product is a touch screen enabled device, in my opinion you always have a reason to allow use of that screen for controls in game.

i recall you needing to use the pointer to place a token on the character you wanted to select, on the very next screen.

The game only used the wiimote in the sideways controller-like configuration.

> Plus, there is really no reason for you to use touch screen controls for the game.

For the fighting, sure, but there's no reason that Nintendo's touchscreen tablet console shouldn't have touch controls for the menu.

Perhaps a better example is the T9-like keyboard you use to input player names in Smash 4. You're playing with the Wii U Gamepad, a touchscreen tablet that's the main differentiator of the console, and you're selecting T9 letters with your analog stick like you're using a Nokia phone in 1998. Why is there no on-tablet keyboard?!?

Nintendo are really taking the piss. They waited so long to release a successor to SMB Wii, that some third party went and did it for them. http://newerteam.com/ Then finally they release the Wii U, and SMB 3D world. When I looked at the prospect of buying a Wii U, more controllers, more games, etc. and compared it to a cheap PC with SteamOS, I just couldn't buy the Wii U. Nintendo games are really great, but they are too few for me to justify paying so much money for a device + accessories. I am not a console collector, and I hope that I have bought the last console. In the mean time, Battle Block theatre will have to get us by.

OMFG Newer is AWESOME.... thanks for that link!

IMO, Nintendo would still be better off if they ditched the console business and focused on games. The unique control devices like the Wiimote and the WiiU tablet thing are nifty, but I feel they're at best a gimmick and at worst a significant downgrade from a normal controller (Metroid Prime 3, I'm looking at you.)

There's nothing they can do on their own console that they can't do on someone else's. Zelda or Metroid on a PS4 would be awesome; and while I'll still probably buy a WiiU once those games come out, I'd also buy them on a PS4 or Xbox One. Unless Nintendo makes a whole lot of profit on the WiiU, they're not coming out very far ahead considering the large expenses involved with designing a console.

I enjoyed Metroid Prime 3. Probably the first and the last console shooter type game I'll ever enjoy. It was a pity more games didn't bother exploring using the Wiimote as a pointing device, although the Wii's underwhelming graphics certainly didn't help matters.

Prime 3 was a great game that would have been better with a normal gamepad. In fact, you can play it with one in Dolphin and it's an entirely superior experience.

I can't think of a single Wii game (outside the Wii Fit / Wii Sports gimmick games) that wouldn't have been better with a normal gamepad. The Wiimote is a little too clever for its own good, and as a tradeoff "traditional" games almost necessarily have to be very easy in order to compensate for the inaccuracy of the control mechanism. Even then, the Wiimote ends up being frustrating more often than not.

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