A few days ago, I clicked over to ign.com to settle into a nice rumor binge about the Xbox 720, or infinity, or whatever the Xbox 360 successor will be called. Those plans were quickly derailed as I noticed a headline that read 'EA Senior Engineer: Wii U is crap’. How do I not click that?
That link lead to the most fantastic series of tweets from an EA senior engineer, Bob Summerwill, tearing the Wii-U and Nintendo a new one. Just then I remembered something: somewhere in my house there was a Wii-U. It had been there for quite a while. My cousin had left it in my care for safe keeping and enjoyment while he set sail on his summer-sea-term. I also remembered that he had returned my 'Zelda: Skyward Sword', which I purchased for the Wii, but never played for more than an hour.
While the latest Zelda seemed to be a fantastic game, receiving rave reviews, I thought that in this day and age (then, early 2012) I shouldn't play any game that looks worse than an iPhone game mirrored unto an HD Television. For that reason I decided I would wait for Nintendo's next generation system that would surely upscale Zelda, or be simultaneously released with the Wii-U in HD, maybe even bundled with the Wii-U deluxe set. What a beautiful dream.
As we all know, that did not happen. However inconceivable it might have been, there was no HD Zelda to go along with the Wii-U. What an incredible lapse in judgment by Nintendo. Skyward Sword was released in late 2011, practically in 2012. The Wii-U was released in late 2012. It is unbelievable that the-powers- that-be did not see fit, or care to have Link in all his glory in HD on launch day, even if it was a year old game. Additionally, if the Wii-U wasn't hatched out of some emergency hap hazard "oh my God has anyone seen the Kinect!? What the hell are we going to do!?” board meeting, why was Skyward Sword not a Wii-U game?
Just then I remembered something else: Nintendo had seen fit to throw a marketing, money guy at its helm. In every press conference or keynote I've ever seen with the "Reggienator", I've never sensed that Reggie Fils-Aime played real video games. However, what is much worse is that I never got the sense that he understood people who do play real video games. Granted, he has taken Nintendo to awesome heights marketing the Wii to non-gamers, but like my cousin's ship, that ship has sailed. There are millions of cell phone and set-top boxes connected to TVs, or Smart TVs capable of playing decent quality games for the beer pong party casual gamer. Now what Nintendo?
EA Engineer calls Wii U "crap"
The Wii-U in my home will remain its box (at least for now), relegated to my space for old technology. I have no desire to have this thing waste an HDMI port, and my cousin who left it here has no interest in playing it instead of the current generation Xbox. That man has suffered through the atrocious resolution of Skyward Sword and has had all he could take. He is 'first-world-problems- traumatized' Nintendo! With the impending next generation systems I may never play the Wii-U outside of an HD Zelda. Does one Zelda game warrant a purchase of this already aged system? I think not. In other words, if the Wii-U isn't "crap" Nintendo’s decisions have been crap. Whatever the case, as of late, we can be sure that there has been "crap" in one form or the other oozing out of Nintendo. Kudos Summerwill.
