Dubious of the Wii U? Yeah? Well you'll buy one anyway. Cliffy B says so

So, despite Epic Games' so far non-committal response to the Wii U (in that they haven't said a thing about whether they'll provide it with games or not), Creative Director Cliff Bleszinski has come out with major support of Nintendo's new one.

Some of his justificationsmay bea bit odd depending on how you interpret his meaning, but he does make some sound points. And even if you don't agree with him, you're going to find out whether he's right or not next year anyway. Because you are going to buy one regardless of what you currently think. Cliff knows this.

Speaking toIndustryGamers, Mr. B said these words, probably into a recording device of some sort:

"From what I’ve seen, it looks pretty cool. It seems like you can stream your game from your television directly to your [tablet] controller, so if you have irritable bowel syndrome, or a small bladder, you can still play it in the toilet. That’s great. But, you know, from what people are saying online, they’re like, 'Oh, it’s just a DreamCast, whatever.' But it’s like, 'Dude, what’s old is new sometimes.'

"The Power Glove [back on NES] led to the Wii, right? The Virtual Boy led to the 3DS, right? A lot of these older technologies that you forget about are [the technological predecessors]. The Kinect is a sophisticated webcam, right? So I’m just dying to see it. It’s Nintendo. I’ll buy it. I know I’ll buy it. They’ll talk sh*t but they’ll buy it"

Interesting point on the Dreamcast. I'll admit I've made similar references myself, in terms of my worry that the Wii U's (so far unconfirmed) power level at his point in the current generation might see it being superceded by new machines from Microsoft and Sony before it has a chance to really flourish. And while Cliff's remarks about previous, failed technology leading to some of Nintendo's biggest current successes (Ninty is historically a conscientious little beaver, always quietly working away on ideas it believes in whether they come to full fruition at first or not), I'm not sure how he's referring to Dreamcast comparisons being a good thing.

Of course, despite its lesser power than, and ultimate smashing by the PS2, the DC is one of the most beloved consoles in history because of a none-more healthy line-up of brilliant original games. If Cliff is saying that the Wii U will do well for that reason, then he's probably right. Nintendois developing for this thing, and the third-parties are sounding genuinely excited about what they can do with its new touch-screen controller tech. Of course he could also just be comparing the touch-screen pad to a massively cranked-up version of the Dreamcast's playable VMU. Which is sort of is. But we're talking a major scaling up of concept there.

But regardless, he reckons that the doubters will be brought round. But will you? Are you a doubter? Will you be brought round? Yeah? Hmm? Tell me in the comments.

July 11, 2011