I for one am bursting at the seems to observe what Nintendo has to do in order to tempt us into its successor to the Wii. You can watch it live, tomorrow at 3pm at this website.

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/new ... 47764.html

With Rayman Legends supposedly exclusive to the Wii U, i'm sold, providing the pricing for the device isn't stupidly high.

Interesting times, indeed.

edit: Additionally, the Japanese version of the video will be streamed at 8am here - http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wiiu/index.htm

Makes me sad how underwhelmed I am by not so much the Wii U but Nintendo nowadays. Hope to be proved wrong and blown away.

I genuinely don't believe Nintendo will ever blow our minds like they did with the unveiling of the Wii. Nintendo have made some incredible Wii games but overall the machine didn't live up to the megaton that was the Wii Sports reveal.

The real interest comes from me seeing how this machine is going to be pitched. I don't see the same "casual" market buying into the Wii U because the Wii is currently sitting under a TV not being used.

Sometimes modern Nintendo makes me a bit sad, but then I play something as magnificent as Super Mario 3D Land and then I remember why I have to have each one of their consoles.

I'm still playing Super Mario 3D Land when I turn the 3DS on and I hold it up there as one of the best original portable Mario games to date. The argument of no new IP from Nintendo is a valid one but when the bar of quality is so high and consistent it's hard to get annoyed by another Mario title even though we're sort of seeing that with New Super Mario Bros 2.

I really hope they announce a relatively low price point, tomorrow. I miss the days when I used to love Nintendo.

It's rumored to be around the £250 price isn't it? Couldn't afford to Day One it anyway, like the Wii I'll give it a few years to get cheap, then hoover up the classics at a lower price.

Didn't realise the new Rayman game is Wii-U exclusive. Lucky gits

£279 is the rumoured price I've seen.

I simply can't see a point when I'll buy this console as it dosn't appeal in the least to me. This makes me sad as it will be the first of their consoles I haven't bought since back in the days of choosing Sega over them. Although Mario and Zelda have had some great games in the past they don't excite me the way that they used to, and I need more from a console than a couple of game series.

I just feel that Nintendo have rested on their laurels in recent years and cant see any improvement on that with what we have so far seen on the Wii U.

Would love to be proved wrong.

I quite like the look of ZombiU, where if you die, you become a new character and your corpse becomes a zombie you can hunt down and loot. The feature in the latest Gamestm makes it sound quite interesting.

It's nearly guaranteed that there will be more than enough essential titles released for this machine to make it mandatory for me to own one. There have only been a few consoles released where this hasn't been the case. I'd have bought a Wii just to play Super Mario Galaxy.

If they announce a new in house made Metroid I'll be in. Otherwise I'll wait.....

Oh god, give me an HD first party Metroid, and, I will give you ALL OF THE MONEY. I bought a second Wii for Metroid: Other M, which, was a huge bummer, but, I chalk that up to Team Ninja.

Really, HD Nintendo games sounds good, IMO. Unfortunately for me, I've never played any of the Pikmin or Rayman games, so, those being the big launch first-party games doesn't do much for me.

But, man, a new HD Metroid: Prime?

I predict this will be one of the biggest disasters in gaming history. Who are they aiming the console at? They've already completely alienated the 'hardcore' gamer with the Wii. I can count the amount of essential releases on that system on two hands, and even then I barely played them because of the shitty, shitty motion control they shoehorned in to every bloody game. So no one with any sense will want to go near the Wii-U. As for the casual market that they absolutely conquered with the Wii, how many pensioners and housewives will want a Wii-U? They wont. They'll be happy plodding away on Wii Sports for the next five years. They don't need or care for an upgrade. The Wii was already a massive upgrade from the crosswords they were doing, or the primitive TV games they'd play in the early 80's when video gaming came in to the home. They're happy with the Wii.

The Wii-U is for no one, and that's exactly who's going to buy it. Heed my words. HEEEEED THEM!

I hope it doesn't fail. For as much as I haven't cared for Nintendo lately, I don't want to imagine a world where they don't exist.

If push came to shove, I'd probably still say the SNES is my favorite console of all time.

dezm0nd wrote:I genuinely don't believe Nintendo will ever blow our minds like they did with the unveiling of the Wii.

They didn't even do it with the Wii. Most of the reports after that E3 had reporters scratching their heads, saying they didn't get it, and quoting the infamous "two GameCubes duck taped together" line. I don't think Nintendo have ever "blown minds". Nearly every console since the SNES has been met with bemusement and "what if?", followed by occasional awe at getting it wrong.

"Sure, it's a bit on the large side and looks a little funky. But if every useful device with a crazy design got nixed in development, we wouldn't have helicopters or beer hats [Nintendo DS Review - CNET 2004]" or
"Whether it will be merely a short-lived novelty or a sea-change in videogaming, only time will tell. [Nintendo Wii - CNET 2006]"
and then there was the 3DS "Despite some flaws, such as mediocre battery life, the whole package is smothered in so much Nintendo charm that we couldn't help but have a great time when we were using the 3DS [CNET - 2011]"

All kinda sounds familiar don't it?

Just for fun, here is CNET's GameCube review comment "On a feature-for-feature level, we found the GameCube slightly lacking. However, it is ultimately the games that will sell any system, and in that respect, the GameCube is well positioned for casual gamers' families since Nintendo has a history of franchise characters."

I reckon I can cut and paste these review comments for any Nintendo system since the SNES and GameBoy.

Details from the Japan Nintendo Direct concern me. But that's mainly because of how much of an unreasonable markup I KNOW the WiiU's going to get in Australia. Even if it's not as expensive in America as the direct Yen-Dollar conversion suggests, it'll still be more expensive than the Wii; and there is no way Nintendo's going to give it the same price in Australia, even though there's no reason for it not to be.

The base model is actually around the same price of the Wii at launch (taking a Yen to € conversion - that may change later today)

Wii: EU Release: December 9th, 2006.
RRP: £180 (£210.60 adjusted for 2012 inflation)

Wii-U: EU Release TBC. RRP: TBC but £210 from Yen or £250 from Yen

At 3pm there is another Nintendo Direct from Japan which showcases software. The same time as the European console date, not sure if price is announced as retail determine their own price.