Or at least a similar architecture to PS4/Xbone, to allow (MAYBE) more third-party support?

Just curious. How much would it have pissed you off if Nintendo abandoned BC and made an entirely new (and entirely standard) chipset for the Wii U? Was their decision the right one? How much have you used it to this point?

Honestly, BC is pretty important to me. I'm not even sure why. It just irritates me when it's missing. That's why it took me so long to pick up a PS3.

URL to share (right click and copy)

Normally, I would say that I would want BC with the last generation. However, since the XBOX One and the PS4 are both NOT backwards compatible, that means I'm forced to keep my PS3 and rebuy a 360 in order to play collection of last generation of games. It also means that, once I get a PS4 and and XBOX One, I'll have to move my PS3 and 360 to another room where my old LCD TV is located right now. So, in effect, since I have to do it with the other systems anyway,I might as well have done it with the Wii U also. It's a fine trade-off for getting a more powerful machine.

Absolutely not. I wish my Wii U played N64 games to be honest. Then I wouldn't have to fight with the TV for inputs if I wanted to kick back and play some Banjo Kazooie or Tetrissphere.

My dream console has a port for every old system's cart/disc. I just wish the Wii U played Gamecube games still. I long for some Mario Sunshine, but sold my Gamecube and my original Wii broke.

EDIT: I honestly don't see where the Wii U lack of power is an issue. I mean, the thing had plenty of power compared to the PS3 and 360 yet we got pretty much zero ports, so who cares if it has more power? Would Nintendo really use it? Doubtful, only Mario Kart seems to even remotely tap into the power the Wii U DOES have. So it would go to waste anyway! Pointless then.

First, I think its cool when a company adds backwards compatibility to a new console. With that said, I never once used my Wii to play GC games. Same for the Wii U, I still have my Wii....though I do plan on transferring all my data, VC/WiiWare games so I can play them upscaled to 1080p.

So yes, I would have traded backwards compatibility for more power. Though, I think adding backwards compatibility does not cost as much as adding more power to a newer console. I could be wrong.

@-JKR-yeah but surely more power would've been great for the interface. The Wii U is pretty slow compared to practically every electronic device out there. I know these thins all work differently but something like Miiverse shouldn't really take so long to load. The new machines really make the Wii u show it's age in that regard IMO.

I think that before anyone can properly answer this question we would have to know how much more processing power the Wii U would have were it not for BC. I mean, if I could trade BC for enough power to unquestionably rival the PS4/XB1 then sure!! But, if that trade only gets us a few more shaders here and there then ... I'd keep the BC.

@NinSage That's a good point. I'm not really concerned with "more power" just to have it... to me "more power" is useless unless it brings along with it more third party support, which probably means something close to PS4 / Bone powers. Doubt that a simple BC trade-off could get anything close to that.

WITH THAT SAID...

If we're just talking theoretical here then yeah, I'd trade it for PS4 / Bone levels of power. Although I'd have to take my Wii back from my nieces and nephews, which would not be cool. Either that or buy a new one. Because I do play "old" games and I'm especially not giving up my ability to play Super Mario Galaxy and such again.

Zero said:

... to me "more power" is useless unless it brings along with it more third party support, which probably means something close to PS4 / Bone powers. Doubt that a simple BC trade-off could get anything close to that.

That's precisely what I was getting at. Well said.

I'd be more inclined to keep backwards compatibility if Wii U had Gamecube controller compatibility. Brawl is not the same without it and that's the game I play the most on Wii.

@-JKR-

Your dream console is a PC!

NinSage said:

Zero said:

... to me "more power" is useless unless it brings along with it more third party support, which probably means something close to PS4 / Bone powers. Doubt that a simple BC trade-off could get anything close to that.

That's precisely what I was getting at. Well said.

This actually makes me think of something. I don't think I'd care much for this nebulous goal of "more power" for a trade-off of backwards compatibility...but I might be tempted to trade BC for stronger third party support. Like, original Wii levels of third party support.

I mean, we know the Wii U isn't going to get all the same games as PS4/XBO (and some may prefer that) but if we could get different games that were unique (and exclusive) to Nintendo's console from third parties that had the same level of polish and effort as what was coming out on the competition's machines...then yeah. I might go for that instead of "more power."

That's kind of what happened on Wii, and I was cool with it.

@PogueSquadron

I dunno, man. I think that's bad programming right there. When the Wii U came out it was insane-slow. Not just "slow" but "should not have been released in this state" slow. Then a few patches later and it's fixed to just "slow." Can't blame the power there, unless the patches upgraded the system's hardware somehow.

I really chalk the Wii U's sluggishness up to Nintendo being really terrible at that part of console design. Games? Great! Innovative controls? Great! UI? Absolutely terrible.

@Jargon

You can't put a Gamecube disc into a PC, silly! No place for the controller to go, either.

Yeah, I would make that trade. I like backwards compatibility, but that's more of a convenience thing. I'd have no problem leaving my Wii hooked up in the living room if it meant that developers had more at their disposal to make Wii U games better. Ultimately, Wii U games are primarily what you are buying a Wii U for, and anything that would serve to improve that experience in any way I would take ahead of backwards compatibility.

@-JKR- I think you can say that to a point, but the Wii U isn't sluggish compared to the 360 and PS3. It's just super sluggish compared to the systems that are more powerful. Great programming can only get you so far. As is, the Wii U doesn't feel snappy at all, and I think part of that at least has to so with the guts of the console (given that it's UI performance feels similar to consoles of similar power).

@-JKR-

No but you can look at the Gamecube disc you legally own and then download its contents from the internet. As for the controller: Ask and you shall receive.

But what I was actually getting at is that you can play PC games from 30 years ago on a new PC.

@PogueSquadron

It is sluggish compared to the 360, PS3, and Wii if we're talking about UI.

You think so? I think some parts work better, like smoothly navigating pages on the eshop, getting into the web browser while playing a game,and stuff like that, though when it comes to switching tasks, yeah, it's more sluggish. I groan if I ever hit the wrong thing to take me to another part of the system accidentally.

So is that really all it is? Nintendo being bad at UI? I'd kill for this thing to be snappier. It's the main reason I rarely ever use Miiverse. Just takes forever to get in and out of.

@PogueSquadron

I'm not sure what it is, but I agree it is a barrier to using the Miiverse more often. I had hoped that its appearance on 3DS would get me more engaged but it seems to take even longer on 3DS (which I suppose makes sense since it wasn't designed for it).

I have a huge Wii backlog. I LOVE the fact that I don't have to have two systems side-by-side to play Wii and Wii U games. So, I would prefer backwards compatibility to a slight bump in power. Besides, just because the cool kids stripped their systems of BC does not make it acceptable, as far as I'm concerned; they're the ones that opened this Pandora's box in the first place.

@Jargon
I don't use the Miiverse on the 3DS at all, precisely because it's too slow. It takes 3 or 4 seconds to load every page, that time can add up.

Y'know, I might trade in "native" backward compatibility if *both* Gamecube and Wii games were available for download on Virtual Console, and we got an overall more powerful machine in exchange. The operative word of course being, 'might.'

-JKR- said:

I really chalk the Wii U's sluggishness up to Nintendo being really terrible at that part of console design. Games? Great! Innovative controls? Great! UI? Absolutely terrible.

They should have Sakurai design the system's UI.

Deerock69 said:

Besides, just because the cool kids stripped their systems of BC does not make it acceptable, as far as I'm concerned; they're the ones that opened this Pandora's box in the first place.

I'd agree with you there. Unfortunately, we're in the minority. Sony and Microsoft fans don't take issue with the loss of backward compatibility. Which is kind of surprising for Microsoft fans, since they've had BC for their last-gen console, never had it taken away, and were even able to download digital versions of original Xbox games.

Sony fans don't seem quite as upset, likely due to them never really having the chance to get used to having that feature. (PS2 BC was stripped out of PS3 models early last gen, Vita can't read UMDs, now the PS4 doesn't read PS3 discs, etc.)

Strangely, Sony has kept PSOne games playable on all their systems. I wonder why they don't feel the need to keep BC for their newer systems, but are apparently dead-set on keeping original PSX games playable on each Playstation device they make, even over a decade and a half later. (and probably longer than that)

@GameDadGrant
Yeah the irony is that if Wii U could have caught up to the PS4/Xbox One it could probably pretty easily emulate Wii games. I mean the PS3 could emulate PS2 games and Wii/PS2 games are basically of the same generation (well not Galaxy, that's more advanced, but most Wii games).

GameDadGrant said:

They should have Sakurai design the system's UI.

Please no, anything but that.

Personally, I have no problems with the power levels on the Wii U. Nintendo's Wii U games look pretty darn good. Multi-platform games I'm going to play on PS4. So no - I'd prefer to keep the backwards compatibility.