The Wii U Experience

With my last few posts, some of you probably think that I hate the Wii U.  It's actually quite the opposite.  I like the Wii U.  I'm just a little upset with the way that Nintendo presented it.  At E3 2011, a lot of non-gamers mistook the Wii U as an add on accessory for the original Wii console.  Why was that?  Well, despite Nintendo's "hardcore" presentation, they failed to show the actual console itself in the presentation.  At E3 2012, Nintendo was like "Oops, hey guys, we ARE making a new console!"  As you can see in my last post, E3 2012 wasn't exactly good for Nintendo either.  Fast forward to now, Nintendo has everything set in stone for the Wii U, and the next console generation will finally begin.

I already covered what the Wii U was capable of.  So let me just go over what was changed about it since I last talked about it in January. 

•  The Wii U is releasing in two versions: A Basic Set that is $300 which includes the console, the Wii U gamepad, sensor bar, and hookups (even a HDMI cable).  And a deluxe set that is $350 and includes everything I said above except it's Black, comes with the game Nintendoland, a Wii U stand, and some eShop bonuses.
• The Wii U will have a wireless pro controller that will last up to 80 hours.  This controller is said to last a whopping 80 hours.  The controller layout is very similar to the Xbox 360 controller.
•  IT HAS NO FRIEND CODES.  Yes, I was required to put this in caps.  The console will have Nintendo ids.  Praise da lord.
• The Wii U Console has four USB ports, and will be able to expand on the existing 32 GB memory with a SD card or an external hard drive (up to 2 TB).
• The Wii U is slightly longer than the original Wii console.  I didn't notice how long it was until it was until I saw it at GameStop.

The Wii U and original Wii Console (from Ign.com)

Back in July, I managed to get an invite to a Wii U Experience event in Washington, DC.  The event had a lot of E3 2012 builds of several Wii U launch titles.  I only tried out three games: Zombi U, Nintendoland, and Pikmin 3.  Before I go on about the games, let me talk about the controller.

The Wii U Experience event in Washington DC back in late July

The Wii U Controller

The Wii U controller is interesting.  If you have not seen it, it’s basically an iPad Mini with buttons and a smaller screen.  The screen however is still only a touch screen with single touch, meaning you can't do all of the fancy multi touch features that most smartphones are well known for using today.  It's not a big deal, but a bit of a bummer in my opinion (to note the 3DS that was released last year did not have a multi touch screen either).  The Wii U also has the same motion control technology that the Wii remote has, but it does not require a sensor bar (but one is included with the Wii U console in the United States).  This means you do not have to be facing the TV at all times, like you did with the Wii.  The technology that is the selling point (or gimmick as some like to say) is how you can play Wii U games without a TV.  Sadly, this feature was not available at the Wii U experience event.  When I asked about the feature to the woman in charge of coaching people in Pikmin 3, she had no idea that the Wii U even had this feature.  After describing it to her, she said to me: "I don't think that works, do you want me to ask my boss?" I kindly declined, but it worried me since the console was only three months away from launch at that time. 

The Games

The Wii U Experience had a lot of games.  But it also had a lot of lines, and a lot of game hogs.  That aside, I chose not to play games such as Super Mario Bros. U and Wii Fit U because they weren't offering anything new.  I also ignored ports of current games on display such as Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge.  The first game I tried out was Zombi U. 

Zombi U

Zombi U is a shooter with some survival horror mechanics thrown in it.  Think of how Resident Evil used to be without all of the stupid quick time events (QTEs). The level I played in the demo was somewhat linear, but was still pretty fun.  Thanks to the guy in charge of the game, he coached me on what to do/not do.  The game has a Metroid Prime like scanner system that scans any object around you for items and whatnot.  The coolest thing about it was how you can go 360 degrees with the controller to scan items.  The movement in the game is thankfully done with the joystick on the controller.  The game required me to find a key which made me backtrack a little (remember when games did that? lol), and the man in charge of the game kept constantly warning me of the stupid  nurse zombie that I would be encountering soon.  Needless to say, my body was ready.  The zombies that I encountered were relatively easy to kill.  The guy coaching me as surprised on how many headshots I pulled off and mentioned to me that no one else that night was even trying to shoot them in the head.  That's scary in itself.  Overall, from what I played, I liked Zombi U.

Nintendoland

Nintendoland at the Wii U Experience

Remember how Wii Play on the original Wii felt more like a glorified tech demo than a game?  Well, can you guess what Nintendoland is?  The exact same thing... sort of.  Nintendoland is basically a collection of mini games that are basically demonstrating on what the Wii U controller can do.  While this is cool, the only thing I have a problem with is how Nintendo is not offering this game for free with every Wii U console.  The only version of the console in the United States that offers it for free is the deluxe version of the console.  Everyone else that buys the slightly cheaper Basic set has to fork out an outrageous $60 for the game.  Nintendoland for the most part has some decent multiplayer games on it.  The ones I played were the Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, and the Ninja star mini games. 

I very briefly played the same Ninja star game.  I was actually very disappointed in it because the control felt like it wasn't right and while flinging ninja stars with the Wii U controller's touch screen was cool, I was having a ton of trouble actually hitting anything.  After I noticed that it was nearly impossible to hit anything with the very limited amount of time I had (between each target), I ended up just shooting a million ninja stars at every enemy which made it impossible for me to miss.  Did I mention it had no limit on how many I could throw?  I guess that was cool.  I suppose my character was a very over prepared ninja since it felt like I threw about a thousand ninja stars by the end of the game.  Long story short, I didn't like it. 

The second game I tried out was the Luigi's Mansion mini game.  This game has four players.  Three Mii Players (with Luigi hats on) and a ghost player.  Three players play via the TV on Wii remotes while one player plays as the ghost on the Wii U controller.  The game takes place in a dark room where the three players playing via the TV have flashlights while the rest of the room is completely dark.  The player with the Wii U controller can see the entire room.  The goal of the game as the luigi players is to point your flashlight at the ghost.  The light hurts the ghost and it will eventually die if you point the light(s) at it for too long.  The ghost on the other hand has to sneak up on every Luigi and knock them down.  Once a player is down, they have to be revived by a fellow player.  To add more challenge to the game, each Luigi can also run out of battery life on their flashlights which also make them vulnerable to enemy attacks, but thankfully, many batteries are scattered throughout the room.  I had the chance to play as both roles in the game (and winning both)!  Honestly, I had a ton of fun with this game.  I felt it was fun playing each role, and that the players playing as the Luigis had to rely on team work to survive and to kill the ghost, while the player playing as the ghost had to strategize on when to attack a player that was away from other players, or had a dead flashlight.  Overall, this is by far my favorite game that I played from the demo version of Nintendoland.

The last game I tried out in Nintendoland was the Animal Crossing mini game.  While I'm a huge fan of the Animal Crossing series, I was actually saddened on how badly this mini game turned out.  Basically, think of how the Luigi's Mansion game I mentioned was like in terms on how people played the game.  Three people play with Wii remotes on the TV and one person plays the bad guy on the Wii U controller screen.  For the people playing as the Mii animals on the wii remotes, they basically have to pick up as much candy as they can.  But the person playing on the Wii U controller has to control the police dogs from the Animal Crossing games.  While this may sound easy, the hardest part is controlling one dog per analog stick.  I had a lot of trouble playing the role of the police dogs on the Wii U controller because even if you control both dogs at once going in one direction, it is still really hard to control both dogs at once.  Needless to say, it wasn't as bad as the ninja star game, but I didn't like it.

Pikmin 3

Pikmin 3 at the Wii U Experience

I really don't have too much to say about Pikmin 3 because it was more of the same.    If you played the Wii versions of Pikmin 1 & 2, Pikmin 3 controls exactly the same as the last games. While I never was a huge fan of the Pikmin series, I really enjoyed my time with Pikmin 3.  The graphics were a huge step up from the previous games, and I had a blast with the boss battle that I had at the end of the demo.  For fans of the series, I think you'll love it.  As for myself, I'll wait for it to drop in price.

To conclude...

I was on the fence about buying a Wii U at first. Amazingly enough, the thing that pulled me over was seeing a trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 with Mario characters.  And while thinking about that, I thought how amazing Mario, Zelda, and Smash Bros. will be and how amazing all of those games will look in HD and with next gen (or I guess I should say this gen?  Whatever, lol) graphics. 

I reserved the Wii U Deluxe Set the day the release date was announced, and I'm glad I did because the console seems to be almost impossible to reserve now.  I'll be back with my impressions of the final hardware and the final versions of the games I'll be playing. 

I will have Nintendoland, New Super Mario Bros. U, Zombi U, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.  I also have the Wii U pro controller on the way as well.

As one final bonus, I saw a Wii U setup in Wal Mart a few nights ago.  I took some HD video of the controller in action.  Sadly no games were playable on it (only videos).  Enjoy!

I'll be getting my Wii U on Sunday morning!  Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!