7 Wii U Potentials

Most people (or at least most people who comment on websites) seem to be either extremely sceptical or pessimistic about Nintendo’s upcoming console, the Wii U. I’m in the minority who think there is a lot of potential behind the technology. The touch screen game pad to be precise.

“BAH! What does this obvious NINTENDO fan boy know of such things?” many of you readers bark in disgust from behind your monocle retinas. Well, here is a list of things that could be done with the Wii U, if Nintendo or any developer was willing to – by the way Nintendo, these ideas only come with a 10% commission.

7. Rhythm games

Many people when they hear rhythm games think of titles like Guitar Hero and Just Dance. As much fun as strumming plastic instruments and living out your ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ fantasies are, the genre has quite a wide scope. The Wii U would be a perfect time to bring back the Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents (EBA) franchises.

If you haven’t heard of these games before, they were hugely popular rhythm games for the Nintendo DS (especially in Japan) where you had to tap or drag your stylus on specific parts of the screen in time to the music for some highly addictive fun. They featured some catchy (and sometimes terrible) pop tracks, over the top manga style art, and ridiculous scenarios involving burly male cheerleaders. I can see it translating very well either using the same stylus formulae or using just your fingers for more complicated tapping and dragging.

Alternately, they could port the arcade game, DJMAX Technika; yet another popular rhythm game. If your local arcade has this game (note, if you actually do have a local arcade then you are one lucky individual), I definitely recommend giving it a crack so you can see why it would work well for Wii U. The added bonus for either Ouendan/EBA or DJMAX is that you could release just one version and keep adding infinite amounts of DLC. I’m getting excited just thinking about it!

6. RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games

Now before anyone tears my head off, I’m more than aware that the best way to play a real-time strategy game is with a keyboard and mouse. There is no disputing that. However, there are plenty of people out there who’ve only ever played console games, and anyone can tell you StarCraft and Command & Conquer on Nintendo 64 just didn’t work well. But for the first time, developers can tap into the home console market and create some good RTS games for an audience who may never have played any of the wide variety of games in the genre.

I don’t know what the possibilities of this happening are but imagine if Blizzard and Nintendo made some sort of deal to have some of their games published. Hell, I’m sure Pikmin 3 will play better than its predecessors.

5. Sports games

Have you ever seen those diagrams on TV where they break down the plays of an American football game? I’m sure there are more technical terms but I’m not a sports guy so I don’t know them.

Anyway, wouldn’t it be great to play a game where you literally draw your own strategies and put them into play? Combining a sports game with a strategy game sounds amazing to me and even gets me a little excited about a genre I otherwise avoid for the most part. Including the ability to control the player or an entire team would actually only add to this, however if done correctly, you could create a whole game based on taking a coach/managers role.

4. Phoenix Wright

Anyone who owns a DS and has never played an Ace Attorney game is really missing out. If you don’t know, in the Phoenix Wright series you play as a defence attorney attempting to prove your client’s innocence by searching for clues and evidence and finding contradictions in the prosecutor’s/witness’ allegations.

It doesn’t sound exciting but it is incredibly intense and captivating, leaving you hanging from the edge of your seat till your client walks free and providing a sense of satisfaction few other games offer. As you could guess, I’m a fan and I think the Wii U could add a little bit more to the experience.

Imagine you have the witness up on the stand speaking to the court room, while you peruse the evidence on your game pad, whether its studying photos, reviewing video footage or reading autopsy reports, it would make you feel a bit more like an actual lawyer.

But of course, what everyone really wants to do is smugly lay down the game pad, slam their fist into the coffee table and scream at their TV: “OBJECTION!”. Of course, you would use it to enhance the investigation itself but honestly, I just want to scream “objection” at my TV and I know plenty of others would too – truth be told I do this already but it would be nice if my insanity were put into context!

3. Simulation games

Hey remember what I said earlier about RTS games not being that great on home consoles and the Wii U potentially making those experiences better? Now pretend instead of RTS games, I said simulation games. I’m sure The Sims is okay on PS3 and it will always be better on a desktop or laptop, but with the Wii U gamepad, it could certainly be a lot more fun than a controller. Not just the Sims though, but any simulation game, from Roller Coaster Tycoon to SimCity, Harvest Moon to *shudders* Farmville, all these games and more could be extremely engaging on the game pad.

[Note, I’ve never played Farmville so I don’t really have anything against the game or people who play it… but still… *shudders*]

2. Dungeon & Dragons (DnD)

So who knows the basics of DnD? What if you make an MMORPG similar to the table top RPG? Think of it as World of War Craft meets Little Big Planet. In theory you could log on as a player and form parties to quest with or log on as a Dungeon Master (DM) and wait for a party to enter the scenario you have set for them.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have the DM with the game pad controlling everything from the enemies to the weather? Not sure if it’s even possible to do it right but DAMN IT, we need to try!

1. Pokemon MMORPG (Massively Multiply Online Role Playing Game)

Hey, if Nintendo gets this crazy Internet thing right and we can actually play with our friends online, they have no excuse not to give us a Pokémon MMORPG. Then World of Warcraft would actually have some competition! We could spend a whole day talking about a Pokémon MMORPG but we’ll save that for another day.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed my vague game play ideas. Perhaps now, you too will start thinking of the unique possibilities of the Wii U. I, myself, can’t wait to see what the future brings!

For more Wii U take a look our list of Must Have Features For Next Gen Consoles. Let us know in the comments below what you will be playing on the Wii U, or what you would like to see.