Review: Wii U

All of Nintendo's thoughts and dreams are now in one system. Except for 3D.

Despite what some of the Internet is saying, the next generation of game consoles have arrived. Nintendo's Wii U console hit store shelves worldwide this month and already has sold 400k in units. (That is 100k more then the original Wii did in it's first week, if you're keeping tabs.) This will be my first main console review on this blog, so to celebrate I will be using a slightly different format. Another thing I should point out is that at the time of this post, I only have one game. Sense I don't have a couple games to really test to power of the Wii U, I will focus on the console its self. Design, presentation, online capabilities, backwards compatibility, and the overall system. So let's start with the first thing everyone notices:

DESIGN:

The Wii U is possibly one of the prettiest systems I own, pushing my newer XBox360 into second place. Very slick black plastic will keep your fingerprints forever though. (OR at least until you wipe off your system.) Power, ejection, and disk drive are positioned in the same place as the original Wii. The sync button now hangs out right next to the expansion slot as well. It's a little design improvement, but the back of the system holds the most important piece of new equipment: HDMI port. Let me take this time to thank Nintendo for including an HDMI cable. Thank you. So much.

Koopas and Goombas now come in small, medium, large, and holy-shit large.

The new controller is the selling point of the system as most know. At first it looks just like a tablet built into a controller, but as this review goes on you will find out that it is so much more. The controller itself comes with standard button layouts, directional pad, two nipples (or control sticks/dual shocks/whatever you want to call them), four trigger buttons, a microphone, stereo speakers, a camera, motion control, and a button designed to interact with your TV. I'll get into this magic button later though. Despite the fact that the touch-screen, it still functions very well.

So far it's all and all a damn good looking console. Maybe at a later date I need to do a top 5 vs top 5 again. Prettiest consoles VS ugliest. I'm looking at you Atari for all 5 of the ugly. 5/5

PRESENTATION: The first thing you will notice one you power up your Wii U is that alot of the focus is drawn to the controller. There is a very good reason for this as the controller will now be your ultimate tool for gaming on the Wii U. You'll set up the system's usual set up like time and t.v. settings. The controller will eventually ask you for the maker of your TV and your cable or satellite provider. After you give the controller this information, you will be able to control your TV with only the use of the GamePad. It may sound stupid, but once you mess with it for a bit it becomes an amazing little add on. Like the Wii & 3DS, you will be asked to either make a user account and select or create a Mii to go along with it. From here you can also set up your Nintendo ID for online services. I strongly suggest you do this as the online capabilities will be something to talk about. Of course accessing online will also require you to do a system update. A rather large one as well.

After the set up you'll be able to access a majority of the Wii U's functionality including the new Miiverse, whatever video streaming you like to do, the Internet, and of course play some damn games.

The only gripe here is the loading for a handful of the programs on the Wii U. Sometimes it seems like it'll take forever to get into System Set-up. On the other hand, games and other applications load quickly. Hopefully they can fix this with a system update. This should of really been fixed before release though. Docking you a partial point for that one, Big N. 4.5/5

Imagine if Cloud say this instead of the other hand at the end of FFVII. ^^

ONLINE: I want to call the Wii U's online community by the name "Online community." Alas, it's missing the things that usually make an online community what it is. There are no trolls. No group of kids looking to ruin your game. There are no perverts, camwhores, or complete dicks. Mind you, there are probably plenty of men with female Miis. The Miiverse is a friendly and well monitored community that allows you to post a sort of tweet or small facebook-like post on a game's board. Either by typing it our or drawing a witty picture, you can leave messages for fellow players as well as screen shots of something happening in game to them as they are playing. This makes for a very amusing and fun community. People finding and taking pictures of awkward moments in games such as a horse staring intently at a wall in Assassin's Creed III make a great time online. I've only had the system for a week and I already have more friends then I did on Xbox Live or PSN. Making friends is easier then it was on the Wii as well. No more Friend Codes, people. The online community itself is my favorite part of the system. 5/5

BACKWARDS CAPABILITY: Sorry kids, no GameCube games for the Wii U. Wii games work fantastic with the system though, as do all of the Wii's controllers, balance pad, and classic controllers. You can even transfer everything from your Wii over to your Wii U with the minor cost of formatting your original Wii. (I plan something special for my original Wii. >.>) Here is where my biggest bitch comes in though: To access Wii games and virtual console, you need to open the Wii application. It's not convenient compared to playing GameCube games on the original Wii. I'm hoping in the near future Nintendo does a nice system update that will allow you to play all Wii games right from the Wii U desktop. 4/5

COD:BLOPS2 (I like that name) is a port of the 360 version.

OVERALL: The Wii U is going to be a great system. High definition, great sound, fantastic operating system, and an epic online community could see the system hold out for years to come. The concerning fact is of course, the games. The fact that I can turn on the gamepad without turning on my TV to check to see what friends are online or if anyone has made a witty new post is a dream come true.

Nintendo is going to need to continue to push 3rd party developers as well as it's own to continue to keep the games flowing. Don't worry about pulling people from other consoles to play the same game. You won't pull someone who has been playing COD for years on the Xbox to play COD on the Wii U, unless you can tempt them with something a little more. My other concern is system shelf-life. I know Sony and Microsoft are both working on their next systems, but how long until we see those? How much better can graphics get? Do graphics even matter anymore? I grew up during the time that having a system that said "16-bit" on the cover made other kids want to mug you. Nintendo, I see your finally making good success with the 3DS. Show me you can do the same with the Wii U, and get the Nintendo name back into the console war at full power. 4.6/5

Zelda MiniGame Included in Nintendo Land. Harder then it looks.

There is one thing I would like to point out to the people who may ask "Well, is it stronger or weaker then PS3 and Xbox?" I will say this - despite a little bit of frame rate issues, I've heard no problems with the Wii U's graphics. A majority of the issues that people are discovering are in the games that are ports from other consoles such as COD or Batman. Don't listen to what other people say though - try the system yourself. I think you'll be glad you did.

If you've got a Nintendo Wii U or plan on getting one, hit me up online under the Nintendo Network ID name Kajimaru. See you guys online.