Nintendo has just unveiled a new schedule of sorts for the Wii U, one with twenty new games spanning 2014 and 2015, but only one solid release date between them.
Hyrule Warriors, with its (hopefully) firm September 26th premiere kicks off the parade that ends 2014 with a holiday release of Super Smash Bros. Many have worried that Smash may not actually make the 2014 cut, as it keeps drawing closer and closer without an actual release date in sight. Granted, Nintendo still has a few months to firm up that date, but a few fans are getting nervous nonetheless.
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that Nintendo is now putting the new Wii U Star Fox in 2015 as well, alongside the hotly anticipated Wii U Zelda title. But while Zelda at least received an official preview at this year’s E3, we’ve heard/seen next to nothing regarding Star Fox, and it remains a mystery where Miyamoto will take the franchise.
It seems…ambitious for Nintendo to list both of these games as 2015. Zelda is tacked on as the last title on a chart that does seem to largely be in chronological order. The odds seem fairly low of a game that massive in scope (the new Zelda is said to be open world with a non-traditional mission structure) will be out on time given Nintendo’s forever sliding release dates. Not that it’s a bad thing for them to delay it and make it better, it’s just that at this point, you look at a chart like this and almost expect at least half the games shown to be delayed past their proposed launch windows, Zelda especially.
The chart serves an additional purpose of at least letting consumers know that good games for the Wii U are coming. Obviously Smash, Star Fox and Zelda are the heavy hitters, but all in all it seems to be a pretty solid line-up.
But obviously Nintendo’s first-party games have never been their issue. The problem is now is that you’re probably looking at nearly every game worth playing on the Wii U over the next two years. And that means you’re missing a huge collection of third party, multi-platform titles that will be appearing on PS4 and Xbox One.
Nintendo’s third party support has gotten so bad now, losing even staple franchises like Madden and Call of Duty alongside missing out on new series like Destiny, that their calender looks nothing like its competition. That could be viewed as a plus in some ways, as a welcome alternative to the boring Microsoft/Sony slugfest, but not when it comes at the expense of a lot of great games. Xbox One and PS4 share an identical third party line-up, swapping out a few exclusive series here and there, but Nintendo is becoming more and more on an island.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun little world, but imagine if this list of great first party, third-party collabs were bolstered by a more traditional line-up of multiplatform games. There’d be no stopping Nintendo. And yet, for many, it’s clear that the Wii U cannot serve as a primary game console, as if you only own it and no other system, you’ll miss out on an incredible amount of third party games.
I think this is a pretty killer list for the Wii U, spread across the next few years. But, if these really are all the major titles Nintendo has coming up, I’m slightly worried for 2015. When the two biggest titles listed for 2015 are also the two that seem most likely to be delayed, I’m wondering how the Wii U will fare if Splatoon, Yoshi and Kirby are the biggest games of the year instead, and Nintendo has nearly no third-party, multiplatform hits to back them up.
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