Wii-U in stores, first impressions?

[Lord Helmet]

So I've read in a couple of places that the OS on the WiiU is laggy and slow? Is this true?

[goldenegg]

So I've read in a couple of places that the OS on the WiiU is laggy and slow? Is this true?

 

Laggy? No. Slow? Yes, it can be slow to go from the menu to settings for example. It's not really that terrible and it's not an issue seen in games. I still hope it's something that can be tweaked over time through updates.

[phaxda]

It's true. It can take up to 20 seconds to move from one channel to another. It's not Hyperscan-level annoying, but right up there. Kind of drives me nuts.

 

So I've read in a couple of places that the OS on the WiiU is laggy and slow? Is this true?

[toptenmaterial]

Hopefully a firmware update will fix these OS issues. I do not own the Wii U so I cannot comment on it.

 

According to some news stories on google, the supply shortage is over.

[Lord Helmet]

It's true. It can take up to 20 seconds to move from one channel to another. It's not Hyperscan-level annoying, but right up there. Kind of drives me nuts.

 

20 seconds? Wow that's a bit ridiculous.

[toptenmaterial]

20 seconds? Wow that's a bit ridiculous.

 

Now, what causes that? From what I understand, the CPU is nearly as powerful as the 360, but with much more RAM. So what is it? Shitty OS?

[xg4bx]

Unless my skills have just completely atrophied, New Super Mario U is the hardest Mario I've played in years. I didnt feel a real challenge until the last world in the Wii one but I hit world 3 in this one and it just started owning me.

[Jinks]

Cant wait to play the new smb u.. Will let yall know about it in 2014 fall or winter when u is avaible on shelves.. Too bad they never release enough consoles for the demand unless your a video game store stalker or pre order guy these nintendo systems have all been two years behind release date for avaiblity to the average consumer/gamer.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Jinks

[goldenegg]

Unless my skills have just completely atrophied, New Super Mario U is the hardest Mario I've played in years. I didnt feel a real challenge until the last world in the Wii one but I hit world 3 in this one and it just started owning me.

 

I think it's more that they've added a lot of new gameplay elements, rather than simply repeating what's been done before. I'm about to start World 7 tonight and might even get around to defeating Bowser. Even if I do, I still have a ton to do, as I've barely got any of the gold coins in the levels (some are insanely tricky to get) and there's still the secret exits to find.

 

I was a little worried that I'd be Mario'd out, since I just played NSMB2 on the 3DS a month ago. With all the changes they've made here, I just keep wanting more!

[atarian63]

not to beat a dead horse but went to target near our local mall late this afternoon after the crazies had mostly dispersed, tried best buy as well as HH greg and all were sold out,about 1/4 of the games gone too! Hopefully nintendo will get some out right away! Did see $199 ps3 slim 250 with 2 pack in games for $199, seemed like a decent deal,some customer at target said they were giving $50 gift cards with these earlier in the day.

[Atariboy]

I thought the point of so much RAM being dedicated to OS functions was to make menu navigation and such as seamless as possible with minimum loadtimes?

[Jinks]

I always thought gc and wii had faster load times than ps2-3. seems now they really wanted the gaming experience for hard core gamers will wait for the longer load times? 20 sec. too long..

[phaxda]

I agree completely with everything in this article:

 

http://www.wired.com...2/11/10-things/

 

 

2. Brutally Slow OS.

 

This is the problem that makes every other problem seem that much worse. Clicking on anything in Wii U’s menu, anything at all that you try to do, takes For. E. Ver. People can post text and images to the Miiverse feed, kind of like Twitter where you can draw pictures. But imagine Twitter where every time you wanted to view a new tweet you had to wait five seconds. Booting up, loading software, loading games, refreshing feeds…. Everything is accompanied by an agonizing wait.

 

And this is why I am leaving my old Wii hooked up:

 

So instead of simply being able to drop all of your previously owned Virtual Console classic games into a folder on Wii U’s main menu, you have to navigate into the Wii mode, basically rebooting the system, to do it. Most things on Wii U take forever, but man does this take forever: one minute, 28 seconds, two controllers and five clicks from startup to gameplay.

[Jinks]

But all light speed compared to firing up a c64 game from disc..

I think my wii boots up in less than 5 seconds. I can have it from off to power on to playing a COD online match in about a minute-minute 20

Edited November 24, 2012 by Jinks

[Austin]

Has anyone figured out the details of the license transfer? What I want to be sure of before buying a Wii-U is if my old Virtual Console games will be tied to the supposed Wii-U Nintendo account, as opposed to the games being linked specifically to the console.

[+HatNJ]

But all light speed compared to firing up a c64 game from disc..

I think my wii boots up in less than 5 seconds. I can have it from off to power on to playing a COD online match in about a minute-minute 20

 

Thats a little unfair comparison 2012 console 1982 computer?

 

How about comparing the N64 ?? that has a very fast load time

[toptenmaterial]

 

 

Thats a little unfair comparison 2012 console 1982 computer?

 

How about comparing the N64 ?? that has a very fast load time

 

Or the load time of a VCS?

[chrisbid]

the load times in the OS are brutal, but the load screens in individual games are quite quick. i will give nintendo the benefit of the doubt that times can/will be improved with future OS updates, but i can totally understand why somebody else would not give them the same luxury.

 

what we have here is the reason why i dislike hard drives in consoles, its too much of a safety cushion to deploy incomplete/buggy software.

[goldenegg]

Has anyone figured out the details of the license transfer? What I want to be sure of before buying a Wii-U is if my old Virtual Console games will be tied to the supposed Wii-U Nintendo account, as opposed to the games being linked specifically to the console.

 

Your Virtual Console and WiiWare purchase entitlement will move to Wii U and can only be used on that system from that point forward. Your Wii will not longer be entitled to used those games. Like with the Wii, all purchases are tied to the console itself. There has been comments from Nintendo that Wii U purchases may eventually be linked to the account, rather than the system. I wouldn't expect that to affect Wii content though.

 

It's important to note that the Wii Store and the Nintendo eShop (where Wii U content is located) are two completely different things. You will download existing VC and WiiWare tiles from the Wii Store, accessible through Wii mode on the Wii U.

[onlysublime]

Are you trolling? I originally responded to your post where you said ...

 

You are the one who mentioned playing in HD and having the Wii U render in HD resolution (which is what 1080P is).

 

anything 720P and above is considered HD. they should render all Wii games at 720P games or above. Or as close to 720P as possible. Upconverting is okay when there's no other option. I'd rather believe this is a business decision more than anything else. Companies love to sell remakes with all new graphics.

[Atariboy]

It's my understanding that rendering games at a higher resolution isn't something that's easy to do. Beyond Nintendo's N64 emulator I'm not even aware of a commercially released product in the handheld or console world that has ever done it with older code for an earlier platform running via emulation or via hardware.

 

We don't even know how the Wii U is accomplishing Wii U compatibility. If it's via emulation, there very well might not be enough surplus processing power available to even consider taking the process further. Among those aware of Dolphin, I don't think anyone ever thought that there was a legitimate chance of the Wii U doing something comparable anyways so I'm not sure why you're acting as if it was expected of them.

 

And if it's not running via emulation and instead the Wii U's hardware is able to run Wii code natively, it would seem very difficult to set something up to accomplish such a significant jump over what the Wii's standard hardware could do. How would you patch out problems, for instance, which you would certainly get with such a significant change in the hardware itself when it's the actual hardware in the Wii U at fault rather than a piece of software that is emulating older hardware that can easily be patched? My guess is that the Wii U's CPU and GPU is 100% compatible with Wii code and are running it natively. Any changes to it (And you would need a whole boat load of changes if Wii software was suddenly to be rendered in HD) would be rife with problems when the CPU and GPU the code is expecting to run on inadvertently isn't running the code exactly like standard Wii hardware did. Look at just what something that sounds so basic and harmless as faster CD loading times for a Playstation title running on a Playstation 2 can do to your compatibility level.

 

No matter what, the Wii U doesn't do it and I'm sure never will do it. So a handful of HD collections would at least knock out the majority of 1st party GCN/Wii titles that people really would love to enjoy playing in HD. Particularly the Metroid Prime's, the 3D Mario platformers, and the 3D Zelda's from the last two generations would seem like ideal candidates. With just how nice these games look running in HD and the time it will take to get Wii U specific entries out there for all three (New Zelda's seem to take about 4-5 years to develop and the last one is only a year old), it seems like it should be an easy decision to port these over during the first year or two of the console's life. And in Metroid's case, it may sadly be the only way we will get a 3D Wii U entry since the Metroid Prime sales took a big dive with each sequel after the first enjoyed a lot of success and Other M was a disaster that was quickly available for $10 everywhere. Not sure I see them green-lighting a full fledged 3D sequel anytime soon but a quick and economical HD port of three AAA modern classics might just be the ticket (And might even be why the Wii's Metroid Prime Trilogy saw such a quick disappearance from store shelfs a couple of years back).

 

So here's to hoping that Nintendo decides to follow the lead of other publishers on the competition and give some of their 1st party classics the HD makeover treatment.

 

Has anyone figured out the details of the license transfer? What I want to be sure of before buying a Wii-U is if my old Virtual Console games will be tied to the supposed Wii-U Nintendo account, as opposed to the games being linked specifically to the console.

 

At this point you can't even transfer your Nintendo account to another Wii U. So it may never matter.

 

But I don't think it's known if your transferred Wii DLC will be tied to your Nintendo account or to the Wii U hardware itself. Hopefully if they ever provide an easy way for someone to transfer their accounts, it's the former.

 

Your Virtual Console and WiiWare purchase entitlement will move to Wii U and can only be used on that system from that point forward. Your Wii will not longer be entitled to used those games. Like with the Wii, all purchases are tied to the console itself. There has been comments from Nintendo that Wii U purchases may eventually be linked to the account, rather than the system. I wouldn't expect that to affect Wii content though.

 

It's important to note that the Wii Store and the Nintendo eShop (where Wii U content is located) are two completely different things. You will download existing VC and WiiWare tiles from the Wii Store, accessible through Wii mode on the Wii U.

 

None of that is relevant...

 

He wasn't asking if his DLC would still work on his Wii after doing the transfer, Nintendo has never stated what way your Wii DLC is linked to you after it has been transferred to your Wii U, and Wii U purchases have been linked to the user's Nintendo account since day 1.

Edited November 26, 2012 by Atariboy

[moycon]

not to beat a dead horse but went to target near our local mall late this afternoon after the crazies had mostly dispersed, tried best buy as well as HH greg and all were sold out,about 1/4 of the games gone too! Hopefully nintendo will get some out right away!

 

Let me know if you still need one. There are units readily available in my area.

[atarian63]

Let me know if you still need one. There are units readily available in my area.

I appreciate it, got 2 online. Sounds like they are becoming available more and more again from what people are saying here. Thanks!

[NinjaWarrior]

If the tablet controller takes off for some odd reason for game, Sony will sure to follow

[goldenegg]

None of that is relevant...

 

He wasn't asking if his DLC would still work on his Wii after doing the transfer, Nintendo has never stated what way your Wii DLC is linked to you after it has been transferred to your Wii U, and Wii U purchases have been linked to the user's Nintendo account since day 1.

 

It's actually quite relevant. I spent 3 days going back and forth with Nintendo support on the phone regarding account transfer issues and am now quite familiar with how things work. I even spent over an hour on the phone with a developer, who was brought in to my case to finally resolve the issue.

 

The Wii mode on the Wii U makes the console act exactly as a Wii console would. It has a Wii console ID (apparently separate from the Wii U console ID) assigned to it, which is used by the Wii Store to identify the console. When you perform the transfer between the Wii and Wii U, the transfer happens behind the scenes (i.e. nothing is copied to the SD card) where all purchases and available credit are simply transferred to the new console ID. Accessing the Wii Store from the original Wii console after the transfer will show no download history or credits.

 

For Wii U eShop purchases, they are currently tied to the console. One of the first things I did after starting the Wii U for the first time was purchase Trine 2. As part of my support request, I was asked to exchange my console (it was a stupid request on their part and didn't fix anything). After I got the new console, I expected (as you do) that my purchase would be tied to the Nintendo account. To my surprise, it didn't show my purchase or the credits in my account. The support rep explained that the eShop currently ties all purchases to the console. He made changes on his end to move my content to the new console.

 

Edit:

 

I should note that the support rep made changes on his end to allow my Nintendo Account to be used on the new system. That is how I was able to successfully log in.

Edited November 26, 2012 by goldenegg