Let me start by saying that i was never a huge fan of Nintendo, back inthe 90s i had a Sega MegaDrive 2 ( Saturn in the US i guess ) then a PS1 and continued with Sony Ever since, Nintendo consoles weren't popular where i lived. The first Nintendo system i actually played was Wii, i was curious about the controller so i tried it a couple of times. But ever since the WiiU was announced i got very interested in the touch screen, i always wanted manufacturers to put a touch screen in the controller, always thought it would improve gameplay and open a whole new dimention of gaming experience. That and the so many great things i heard about Nintendo exclusives like (3D Mario-Zelda-Pikmin) made me set my mind on buying one, and i can honestly say that i don't regret it. I bought the Premium version like a month ago or so, so let's get started on it.
Console:
The console itself has a slick and very nice design, it's small and looks very elegant setting there on your TV console. The stand included also very helful because without it i would have forced to move something to make it lie horizontally, but the stand makes it fit perfectly. The disk drive is very responisive and fast once you make the disk touchs it's edge it gets sucked in very fast, no need to push to the middle.
There is also a white notification light that let's you know there is a disk inside even when it's turned off. It's also worth mentioning that the system is very quiet.
Controller:
Looking at photos and watching videos at it before i bought the system, the controller seemd huge,bulky and heavy thing, but boy once i held it in my hands for the first time it felt very comfortable an natural. It's not heavy at all, your thumbs sit comfortably on the analog sticks, and i never felt sore or anything after long sessions. Yes at first i felt weird
Because my hands were wide apart but i got over that feeling very quickly.
The touch screen is well sized with good resolution and very responisve in an overwhelming action game like The Wonderful 101 which requires a lot of gesture drawing the touch screen was never frustrating or sat me back. The controller also contains a speaker, a stylus, a gyroscope , NFC,and a camera which i never used.
It also has it's own charging dock wich requires a seperate power outlet, and now that i mention it i should say that the battery isn't very good in that thing, maybe the touch screen has something to do with it , but its's not that big of a deal, we all used to that using charging our mobile phones twicw a day.
OS:
Very similar to the one in the 3DS nothing much to talk about here so i'm going to mention the 2 new additions that makes the WiiU OS very unique:
1- You can play any game on the touch screen instead of the TV, and you can control your TV volum and channels with it.
2- Miiverse !! What an amazing idea ! It's oractically a forum or a community for all the games, but it's very fun and useful because you can access it right in the middle of the game. You can check what people have been saying about this praticular game, ask something if you stuck, and The Wonderful 101 let's you post your scores by just one tap on an icon.
I was thinking that Sony should domsomething like that but then i realized that the major thing that makes Miiverse so fun and practical is the touch screen. Which the PS4 lacks.
One other good good thing about the OS and The touch screen is that you can do anything without having tonturn on your TV or switching channels, if you want to check something real quick or start a game and going through all the menues while your show is about to end is very useful. On my PS3 i had to memorize that i must go left twice the one dow to start a game and memorize when to press start on that particular game so when i switch the TV i'm good to go, I can proudly say that 9 times out of 10 i can enter a game in battlefield without having to look at the game menues.
To conclude this scetion i must say that the only downside to the OS is that it's slow when it comes to loasing apps like Miiverse or the e-shop.
All good stuff, but why isn't the console selling well if it's that good as i say you ask ?!
Here is my opinion, first of all Nintendo made a huge mistake by having a design that is very similar to the Wii, and to make it worse they kept the name WIi in huge letters and added one small letter that can easly be missed or missunderstood. That was very bad desicion from Nintendo.
But hey those are reason that made the casual and parents not buy or even. Otice the system, but what about people who were following it and actually knew it exist ?!
Well first of all the obvious reason was the lack of games , launch titles weren't many or that great. And up to this point there still no huge 3rd party support, but here is the dilemma some developers say that they need to see the sales grow up so they can start supporting it, but where will the sales come from if they don't already support it right now ?! This answer always made me disrespect the people who said it, not to mention that idiot executive at Bethesda.
Only company i must salute and respect is Ubisoft because they have been there from the beginning, ZombiU-Assassin's Creed-Rayman-Splinter Cell-Watchdogs all available or will be on WiiU. That is a company that knows it's business, yes their games on the system might be having the lowest selling numbers comparing to their games on other systems but atleast they are selling themselves to the Nintendo fans and adding mature games that the system doesn't or ever been known for which makes them on their own league right now. And helping the system grow so they can even make more money in the future by creating loyal fanbase.
But the only problem isn't just lack of games, there are idiots who bashed the system from day 1, mostly stupid teenagers who call everything a gimmick. A word invented by idiots for idiots. Thise kind of people who say : touch screen? Gimmick, gyroscope ? Gimmick, camera phone ?! Gimmick, move ? Gimmick, Wii ? Gimmick, Kinect ? Gimmick, GPS in cars ? Gimmick, every new piece of technology is a gimmick to them, guess what idiots ?! You don't deserve technology , you should be go live in a cave or in a whole underground, because you refuse to move forward with the future, those same idiots who called touch screen phones gimmicky and stupid when the imate started getting little popular, now almost 90% of phones are touchscreen. Someof those people think they are cool by not getting those devices and make fun of people who does, and some are being afraid of being made fun of.
I for one love technology, i'm curious about any new invention and always want to try them all, and if i don't like something at least i respect the people behind it, because maybe one day it evolves into something better and more practical and useful.
I know i got carried away with my ranting so let's get back on topic here. And let me conclude this review.
Conclusion:
The WiiU is a very good system and despite it's low specs compared to PS4 or even the Xbone that doesn't make it's games any less fun to play, you have been playing games with similar specs for like 7 years now and every year there was better looking games on PC so you weren't having fun all this time?!
The only downside is the Internet connctivity which requires static ip and configuring DMZ and some annoying stuff, in Splinter Cell i managed to play co-op couple of times but havent't been able after that, if with someone on my friend list.
There are already some great games on the system like Pikmin-Wonderful 101- Super Mario & ZombieU which by the way is very unique survivng experience and makes good use of the controller, like for instance the voice of the guy talking to you comes from the speaker implemented in the controller that makes you feel like holding a radio in your hands, and using the touch screen as a sonar to spot zombies and other interesting points, among others. There is the upcoming Zelda: WindWaker which looks very good and have diverse gameplay mechanics, also Mario Kart And 3D Mario are doming this year , not to mention all the 3rd party games.
It's great time now to. Buy a WiiU with several games out and others coming shortly specially with the price drop. I gurantee you will not regret your purchase and it will only get better from here on.And all the little things i mentioned about having a responsive drive or a notification light or a stand, may not be huge selling point to the system or disadvantage to others, but they are very good details that somehow makes your life little easier, and i very much respect companies who pay attention to the little details.
I hope i wasn't to boring and that you made it all the way here, and i also hope that i manage to give thorough details about the system from my personal experience that could help you make up your mind about the system.And sorry for any misspellings or grammar mistakes.
Thank You.
Debbie Timmins from The Average Gamer tries out the Wii U controller at E3 2011 and then gets a bit carried away playing the Pirate demo, I mean the shield pose demo.
"Most of the technical demos were pretty dry, as you might expect. I have spared you the video footage of me failing to draw a 70° angle, so consider yourself lucky."
since when have the average gamer gotten their hands on the wiiu or anyone except for nintendo knows what its truly capable of.... the only thing i will say from looking at e3 nintendo has something special on their hands
MMGN writes: Mario Kart will eventually make its way to Wii U – that’s a given. But what can we expect from Nintendo when it brings its popular kart racing series to its new console? How can the gameplay change? What new features can we expect? With the new Wii U controller there are a ton of exciting possibilities, so let’s get creative and take a look at a few ways Mario Kart can take advantage of the Wii U’s capabilities.
Needs to have real life tracks taken from Nascar/F1/WRC/Fantasy with pit stops in GP mode imagine a pit stop with Wario and team changing ur tyres WOW full body deformation ect still the same Mariokart but alot faster and harder 250cc class with 16 players online WoW a nice garage where u pimp u Kart ect Mariokart would be amazing.
Real life tracks taken from Nascar? But... I like to be able to turn right... And... I don't live in a trailer...
i think i have grown out of it now. Nintendo needs its own Gran tourismo or forza.
if they want to appeal to the hardcore market they will need to make a new hardcore racer, as the hardcore crowd wont be at all impressed with mario kart.
even as a fun racer, mario kart has lost its way. only mario kart on the snes and n64 were any good, the rest were rubbish. the 3ds looks set to continue the rubbish tradition... driving under water? flying? rubbish!
"Nintendo needs its own Gran tourismo or forza. "
I rather have F-zero thank your very much.
GT and Forza are boring. Of course thats just my opinion. I rather see them do a Burnout if F-zero wasn't their franchise.
''I rather have F-zero thank your very much. ''
Yeah, f-zero has always been a great franchise, but its still a niche title (futuristic racer.) sony could easily answer f zero with wipeout. ie the f zero experience isnt totally unique. sonys answer to mario kart is mod racers (or crash bandicoot racing lol) But what is nintendos answer to gran tourismo?
wave race and 1080 snowboarding were great because they were decent attempts at a serious racing experience, they need to bring those games back for wiiu. they need to bring a 'real car racing' experience to wiiu. Not just mario kart.
what im talking about is an actual 'hardcore' driving experience, like gran tourismo/forza. Nintendo don't have that and never really have.
If nintendo are serious about winning hearts and minds of so called hardcore gamers, they will need that 'serious driving' title. The hardcore crowd will expect it. Its a fact hard core driving titles like gt and forza are system sellers on their respective consoles, so if nintendo wants to win, it needs one. otherwise those gamers will simply stick with sony/microsoft.
are we really supposed to believe players who love the sophistication of gran tourismo, and slickness of forza, are going to be thrilled with mario kart, or even f zero? come on, get real.
''GT and Forza are boring. ''
thats your opinion, fair enough, but its not the wider opinion as sales figures show. These simulation racers are amongst the most highly anticipated games on those so called hardcore systems. People obviously enjoy them, and they have almost universal critical acclaim.
Nintendo doesn't offer an alternative to the 'niche racing title.' so we dont have any choice but to play mario kart or f zero. What if i want to play a simulation racer? simple- i cant. this is the problem.
Nintendo have realised its lack of fps games and third person action franchises has been a weakness, but it also needs to address this driving game problem, or else people are going to get their fix elsewhere.
Its the same with the fighting genre, instead of getting us street fighter, tekken, mortal kombat etc, they have given us smash bros and punchout. fine, those games are fun, but we need those popular franchises. nintendo realise this and have announced street fighter v tekken for wiiu.
we NEED a serious driving game. mario kart just isnt cutting it anymore.
" sony could easily answer f zero with wipeout. "
Absolutely not.
Maybe as futuristic racers, but in gameplay F-zero murders wipeout.
I understand your point, but honestly, I just can't see nintendo make a realistic racer.
F-zero GX was hard, and they should continue in that trend. Its an amazing racer.
they need to make it more hardcore
On Mario Kart Wii
NGamer UK was disappointed that Battle mode can now only be played in teams; no free-for-all option is offered which removes the 'last man standing' element of previous Mario Kart Battle modes - They are right
GameTrailers and IGN also commented that it is easy to fall from first place to last by being continuously attacked by several weapons, many of which are unavoidable, leading to a certain amount of luck in racing. This makes it more accessible for beginners, but can be extremely discouraging for skilled players.[24][25] GameSpot also noted that "nostalgia doesn't save most of the classic courses from being boring".[7] - right too
they need to change that (more focusing on GAMEPLAY)
i expect all the nintendo games in hd to be something special especially the first time around
A lot of people have talked frequently about the inconsistent and long gaps between Wii game releases from Nintendo. No one is necessarily mad at Nintendo about it (outside of refusing to localize games they already have), but many admit it's annoying and that Nintendo could maybe better pace itself. What people are going to have to realize about the Wii U, and why Nintendo is so insistent on getting the third parties super involved, is that without their support the Wii U has a very slim chance at success.
Basically, it gives developers another piece of hardware to place their software on.
That is a bad idea you need first party exclusives to push hardware, 3rd party ports don't push hardware as seen with the 3DS.
actually no i expect the opposite....since nintendo are scheduling around 3rd parties...i expect first party games to be on time and not delayed...i think with the wiiu everything will work out close to perfect...the 3ds was an example for nintendo to learn from and 3ds lineup scheduling will only get better too
First off, I think the word "delayed" is a bit misused here. The author is trying to say that first party games will come less frequently on the WiiU, not that there will be constant delays.
On topic - I have to disagree with the author. One only needs to look to Sony's 1st party studios as an example. Once a good engine is built for the hardware, high quality games can be made with reasonable development lengths (Uncharted series, for example).
My biggest problems with the Wii U were:
1. Almost every game didn't support the pro controller (even the big titles didn't, keep in mind I mean the ones that came out with it). ZombiU only used it for two player mode.
2. How slow it was (which I heard they finally fix that, but come on Nintendo).
3. Lack of dlc, COD Blops 2 had no dlc and more games coming out aren't putting any for Wii U.
4. Lack of memory space, don't give me that bs "well you could use a flash drivc" yeah I could. But I won't because I don't think I can install games to it and I like my system looking nice with less things sticking out.
5. The range for the Gamepad controller blows, I can't even sit down in are tv room because the chairs are to far and I can't screw with my gf by changing the channels to the tv from a good range.
And also add horrible and uncompetitive specs to that list
"you have been playing games with similar specs for like 7 years now and every year there was better looking games on PC so you weren't having fun all this time?!"
to many people they dont believe that including me