This weekend I made my way to the Mall for a bit of Holiday gift retrieval. As I made my way through the morass of Holiday Shopping Victims I noticed a Wii U Kiosk. I navigated my way through the Horde and spent some time watching kids play and asked the attendants some questions about some of the games.
One thing I took away from checking out the Wii U is that the games are very pretty. The New Super Mario Brothers Wii U & Scribblenauts HD look stunning.
One game stood out to me as a pretty fun example of the new Wii U tablet style controller was Nintendo Land. Nintendo Land is essentially a set of Wii style party games similar in tone to Wii Play & Wii Sports. The rep. was alternating between two Nintendo Land games: Mario Chase and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.
Mario Chase is a game where one Mii takes the role of Mario with the Wii U Tablet Controller. The Mario player's screen and game is controlled entirely on the Wii U tablet while the other 4 Mii's dressed like Toad use the Wiimotes to try and catch Mario. So it seems certain games on the Wii U can support 5 players! The interesting thing watching the game was the integration Nintendo gave for Mario Chase. Only 3 kids were playing with Wiimotes so the 4th split screen box was showing the web cam of the kid holding the Wii U tablet, I snapped a pic showing it off here:
http://i.imgur.com/HCwME.jpg (Three kids with Wiimotes chasing the kid with the Wii U Tablet)
The other game they showed from Nintendo Land was The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. This was essentially Zelda Four Swords with Wiimotes. Looked like quite a bit of fun.
http://i.imgur.com/pu2sq.jpg
I asked the rep. if I could transfer my old Wii saves to the Wii U and she said I could. I sort of threw this question out expecting her to say no so I was surprised to learn you can do it. For me, this increases the chance I might upgrade to the Wii U. I wonder if Sony and Microsoft's next generation console will allow this?
http://www.nintendofuse.com/2012/11/20/wii-to-wii-u-system-transfer/
A few images from the experience:
A Wii U Kisok Panel: http://i.imgur.com/LHZ8O.jpg
Mario Chase Overmap: http://i.imgur.com/yM1kW.jpg
Mario Chase Starting: http://i.imgur.com/6sf4t.jpg
Apparently Nintendo Uses Mac: http://i.imgur.com/6hiWU.jpg
One thing I took away from checking out the Wii U is that the games are very pretty. The New Super Mario Brothers Wii U & Scribblenauts HD look stunning.
One game stood out to me as a pretty fun example of the new Wii U tablet style controller was Nintendo Land. Nintendo Land is essentially a set of Wii style party games similar in tone to Wii Play & Wii Sports. The rep. was alternating between two Nintendo Land games: Mario Chase and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.
Mario Chase is a game where one Mii takes the role of Mario with the Wii U Tablet Controller. The Mario player's screen and game is controlled entirely on the Wii U tablet while the other 4 Mii's dressed like Toad use the Wiimotes to try and catch Mario. So it seems certain games on the Wii U can support 5 players! The interesting thing watching the game was the integration Nintendo gave for Mario Chase. Only 3 kids were playing with Wiimotes so the 4th split screen box was showing the web cam of the kid holding the Wii U tablet, I snapped a pic showing it off here:
http://i.imgur.com/HCwME.jpg (Three kids with Wiimotes chasing the kid with the Wii U Tablet)
The other game they showed from Nintendo Land was The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. This was essentially Zelda Four Swords with Wiimotes. Looked like quite a bit of fun.
http://i.imgur.com/pu2sq.jpg
I asked the rep. if I could transfer my old Wii saves to the Wii U and she said I could. I sort of threw this question out expecting her to say no so I was surprised to learn you can do it. For me, this increases the chance I might upgrade to the Wii U. I wonder if Sony and Microsoft's next generation console will allow this?
http://www.nintendofuse.com/2012/11/20/wii-to-wii-u-system-transfer/
A few images from the experience:
A Wii U Kisok Panel: http://i.imgur.com/LHZ8O.jpg
Mario Chase Overmap: http://i.imgur.com/yM1kW.jpg
Mario Chase Starting: http://i.imgur.com/6sf4t.jpg
Apparently Nintendo Uses Mac: http://i.imgur.com/6hiWU.jpg
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It really does look unique, interesting, and fun. But so did the Wii, and with the exception of first-party titles, I barely ever touched it. There were a few good ones, like MadWorld and No More Heroes, but it's been collecting dust since Super Mario Galaxy 2. Nintendo made something amazing, but the lagging graphics and tons of shovelware kinda pushed out third-party developers.
Hopefully the Wii U is different, but I worry that once the new round of consoles that MS and Sony release will push it to the same spot as the Wii.
The last game I played seriously on the Wii was Super Mario Galaxy. My wife and I still pull out the Wii for the Just Dance games at parties. We just picked up Just Dance 4. I have a soft spot for the Wii, but like you it mostly goes unplayed. In the end, my Playstation 3 did more so hopefully the Wii U can fill that void.
I am wondering what Microsoft and Sony are doing next, so far I have no idea what that is but I will hold off until I know more for sure.
I'll admit that up until a couple weeks ago, everything I heard about the Wii U had been kind of underwhelming. But now that the system is out and people are getting some hands on experience with it, I'm seeing a lot of really positive reviews. Hopefully this enthusiasm will stick better with the Wii U than it did with the Wii.
I think the Wii U made some choices to give it lets over the next generation better than the Wii. A few reasons:
That said, for me the most exciting platforms are the PC, Steam in your Living Room and Apple TV with apps.