Many other gamers in my age group were hooked during the Super Nintendo/Sega Genesis era, while the older crowd are likely to have the original NES in their hearts. Some might even cite the original Atari 2600 as their first step into the world of gaming, with their reverence for the medium enduring even the colossal gaming crash of the 1980’s. On the other side of things, we have younger gamers who are being raised on Playstation consoles as new as the Playstation 4 and even Microsoft’s Xbox line, which didn’t appear until the new millennium. We also mustn’t forget those of us who played PC games during our childhood, even the consistently ridiculed edutainment games like Oregon Trail II . We’re all given so much history and so many options to choose from as fans within this medium, but those of us who call ourselves gamers find something truly fascinating with games as a whole.
The Wii U doesn’t inspire that same impulse purchase instinct. While playing the right game on one with friends is generally considered to be a good time, unlike the Wii it’s gimmick isn’t quite as viscerally satisfying. It doesn’t really grab you. It’s a system that shares many of the same shortcomings as the Wii, but has little of its charm or raw appeal.
The story also deserves notice. Minecraft itself might not have as intense of a story, but Telltale was able to grab some of the more important factors of Minecraft and create a lore to follow and better understand what the characters with. Previously, your goal was to mine for enough materials and minerals to make a portal to the End to slay the Ender Dragon. Now, that story doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone, because the ones who slayed the Ender Dragon were the members of the Order of the Stone. The members are essentially the people that you would have normally gone to the End with to help you fight the dragon, so it almost makes it seem like you were some kind of legendary hero for being able to do that if you were able to do so in the past. Everyone else in the episode doesn’t have that same goal and, funny enough, don’t look at all like the villagers that you sometimes wander upon in the original game. The storytelling and characters leave you with enough of an impression that leaves you waiting in anticipation for the next episode. You begin to make connections with your friends and build a relationship with them in the span of one single episode so it leaves you wanting to know what will come next for this party of builders.
No the real problem with the Wii U is its presence. It’s not a system that many people feel an urge to have no matter what. That’s a problem that’s only been exasperated since the release of the PS4 and Xbox One. While both those systems are more expensive than the Wii U, their expanded entertainment offerings, obvious technical superiority and greater variety of games available, make them not only more sensible overall purchases for many, but more exciting ones as well.
Looking back at my own experiences, my situation isn’t too much different than a lot of the experiences seen in the younger crowd who are being introduced to Minecraft or Wii Sports today. It might seem silly at first, but the appeal of these games is so vast and varied that it’s difficult to be scared away from gaming that badly. It’s an age where what defines a game is so ambiguous and diverse that it’s near impossible to be turned off by absolutely every title on the market. This is why games are such a fantastic medium today; there’s just so much to play. New niches are being formed and filled as we speak and even the most jaded, cynical technophobe would have to find some aspect of a video game that’s worth a considerable look. It’s hard to explain what exactly makes games so magical, since we all have our own little moments of fascination with games, ones that kept us playing throughout the entire story and into the sequel.
He’s not the only one who thinks so. A quick Google Image search of “Minecraft Wii U” reveals a host of fan made mock ups that make it clear why a Wii U version of Minecraft patch notes would not only make sense, but may result in the definitive version of the game.
The episode in itself offers a lot of promise for the rest of the announced episode, but it also cuts them short. The next slew of episodes will be adding new story arcs to the new Order of the Stone as they go on new adventures to build up their legacy. That being said, in the two hours it took to finish the episode to its completion, it made the entire premise feel very unimportant. So much had happened and so much story and character development was involved that Telltale could have made the entire plot itself into a single season if they wanted to. Some characters could have definitely used some development to give the story a little more depth and the entirety of Sky City itself has so much more that could have been explored. It’s a little bit of a shame that what could have become a great season based on the new Order of the Stone’s adventures was downgraded into a single episode that takes place over the course of about two days.