I made a semi-impulsive purchase a few days ago, a premium Wii U package with New Super Mario Bros U and the Luigi game included. It arrived yesterday and I thought, given the lack of recent Nintendo attention in the Gaming forum and the general poor status the Wii U has, I would start a mini-blog about my experience with it. I'll keep updating this post and if anyone feels the urge they can post below it. Buying decision: - A new generation of consoles always gets me hyped, but the Sony/MS options are always more money at launch than I'd care to spend and my PC is decently spec'd so I can maintain a finger in the top-end gaming pie with that. - Wii U backwards compatibility - I'm not a 'fanboi', but I did buy a Wii about a year after launch (and I bought a used Gamecube before that - both were significantly motivated by the knowledge they were soft-moddable) so I have a full set of wiimotes/nunchucks, plus some Wii games, plus some (but not major) affinity to some of the Nintendo IPs. - Off-TV play - this was a massive factor. I've been mourning a lack of gaming since my daughter turned up on the scene. My PC is kept in a separate building to the main house and it doesn't go down well if I regularly disappear for hours on end to play games. Being able to use the gamepad to play full games (now including Wii games, although currently only the screen works, you still have to use a separate controller – hoping another update will improve this further) while in the same room as the other half/kid should be much more conducive to me actually being able to play games on a semi-regular basis. - Family-friendly – my other-half had an NES when she was a kid, so she has some affinity for Mario games, and having a young daughter now makes Nintendo the obvious family choice. - Timing – we’re approaching the festive season, which coincides with my daughter’s birthday, plus it’s my birthday next week. I told myself a week ago that £200 for the premium might get me interested, and then I saw a 24hr deal so just went for it. First Impressions: It arrived yesterday. I’m keeping it secret, at least until my birthday, but have managed to spend some time on it already. Having a n HD Wii is a nice step up. My main TV is only 720p, but it looks good. It’s underpowered, or so it seems. If you’re used to a PC with an SSD, or a fast phone, navigating the Wii U menus etc. is generally less than snappy, not so that it’s a problem, just noticeable. The Gamepad/touchscreen functionality is great, particularly with the simple setup to make it able to control your TV’s main functions – it makes the gamepad feel a part of the home, well integrated. I went into the eshop and downloaded Wii Sports Club. At first I thought the whole thing was free, so to find out about the pricing model for it was a bit disappointing, particularly as I only found out after I’d played about 90 minutes of my trial on Wii Tennis. Despite the game’s simplicity, and the fact it was nothing new, just having the online play and HD visuals was really great and I will probably pay to get unlimited access to the tennis. I had one really laggy match-up, we didn’t even start the match cos the lag was so bad. It was a one-off and most of the time there was either no lag or just occasional flashes of lag. Certainly not enough to put me off. But it is disappointing, given Nintendo’s heritage and bank balance, that they don’t do more to make the online aspect as good as it can be. That one laggy match-up should never have been setup in the first place. I then tested the backwards compatibility by playing some games of Pro Evo Soccer 2008 (Wii) on the screen of the gamepad. It was as good as you could possibly expect it to be. The sensor bar built into the gamepad worked perfectly from as close as I would ever want to be to the screen. In fact, given the smaller screen size it masks the poorer quality graphics of the original Wii somewhat. I was really enjoying playing PES again- anyone who plays football sims that hasn't played PES on the Wii really must. I really hope a new, HD, version with the same gameplay mechanics is released for the Wii U. That’s as far as I’ve got with it for now. Probably have to wait until my birthday and I do the big unveiling before I can play it again, but I’m really looking forward to it and so far have no regrets about the purchase and would recommend it to anyone, especially if they've already got the Wiimotes and other Wii peripherals. I guess someone with a PS3 and a Vita may not be as interested, but I’m finding the Wii U a very appealing prospect right now and can't wait to get me some Mario/Luigi action.
Thanks for the first impressions, it will be interesting to see what your follow up comments are. I'd be particularly interested to see what you think of the controller situation. Do you end up using the touchscreen controller or the Wii controllers instead?
Nearly a year down the line and I am still wondering about my WiiU. It's biggest problem without a doubt is that publishers just seem to lose interest, probably due to the less that startling launch sales figures. Unfortunately by ignoring it they exacerbated the problem. ZombieU is still by far the best game for the WiiU in my opinion. Graphically not that great, but the gameplay is very tense and just what you want from a survival game. I am not at all interested in the usual Wii franchises like Mario etc, but Sonic All Star Racing is pretty good. I have not bought many other games for it, Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends and Lego City Undercover are the only others with the latter probably being the one I played the most (mostly with my kids it has to be said). The other two are not bad games though, they just didn't blow my socks off and don't really give me a reason to keep playing them. Overall I have been disappointed with the lack of use of the Wii Controller - a second screen has a lot of possibilities and other than the innovative use it gets in ZombieU, there's not been many other innovations. I did have the demo of the latest FIFA game and that was pretty good - standard stuff though and nicer graphics than anything I saw on the Wii of course. I am hoping that it hasn't died and that Nintendo get some publishers and developers on board to make some exciting content. But for the former there isn't much incentive unless unit sales suddenly take off - with the PS4 and XB1 coming out that's probably unlikely.
One of the big appeals of the Wii/Wii U is the comparatively cheaper initial investment in the hardware. As such, it's not to be unexpected if a significant proportion of those that do buy the consoles are generally price-sensitive people, and the cost of new games upon release doesn't seem to take this into account - buy 5 games on release and you've spent as much as you did on the console. As such there must be many like me who just automatically ignore new releases and go hunting for the older titles or search the used market for everything. What I'd like to know is the price point at which I'm no longer 'supporting' the developer if I buy a game. I'd like to be supportive, but I'm not going to pay £35 for a game, simple as. If I wait til a game drops to £10-15, am I still 'supporting' the developer? I'd like to hear about any experiments in game pricing e.g games that have been released new at lower price but deliberately had that price maintained, or near enough, throughout its shelf life. If I knew every game could be bought new for £10-15 I'd buy a lot more, either directly from Nintendo or via third party retailers. But as it is I'm destined to just scour Ebay for most of my games, used, like I did yesterday picking up Zombi U for £7. I know the 2nd hand market props up the industry as it gives others more incentive to buy early, knowing they can sell them on, but how much money are the middle men (e.g. Ebay, Game etc.) taking out without contributing much? Now the premium bundles are regularly dipping below £200 online I think sales should pick up in the run up to Christmas, but Nintendo's pricing policy for Wii Sports Club is disappointing. If they'd have chucked in free use of that, or a free copy of Nintendoland, with every console then they'd be shifting a lot more like the Wii did. Not sure why they've not repeated what they did with the original Wii Sports, given the impact it had on the Wii's sales.
I don't buy into the argument that the used market kills development. The used market sustains the interest in a console and probably lengthens its lifespan. However I suspect that as long as there is a baseline of people willing to pay full-whack for a game (full disclosure - I am one of them!) then they are unlikely to drop their prices. I will say though that this year I have probably spent less than 20% on games compared to last year and previous years. Partly this is my own financial circumstance and partly due to the lack of innovation in games. I am now much less likely to jump on a game having had my fingers burned too many times last year (and several years before - it takes me a while to learn a lesson!). You are right though, given the relatively poor sales of the WiiU, Nintendo could have used Christmas as an opportunity to tempt people in with some great deals. Not everyone is going to be able to afford an XB1 or a PS4 and a great deal from Nintendo may just have got them a few more sales. They still need a bigger line up of titles though.
I bought mine last week after a 24hr price drop to £200 too. For the first time I'm not bothered about getting the new consoles at launch - both due to how expensive they are and that there are no games for either that are screaming "must play" at me (that are not coming out on current gen systems). My Wii-U came on Thursday and after a 2hr or so wait for it to update (something is definitely up with my 'net connection) I spent about an hour playing 2 player Mario with my nephew Thursday night, watched a bit of netflix on Saturday night and spent Sunday playing a few demos (Rayman Origins and Wonderful 101) before spending the rest of the day playing Zelda Skyward Sword (I'd bought it at the beginning of the month for the Wii but had not got around to playing it before). So, my first thoughts of the system... Tablet battery life is a bit weak at only 2 and a half hours playtime (however you can play with the AC jack in if needs be). It's nice to be able to play Mario games in HD. I think Nintendo missed a trick by not including a DS cartridge slot and allowing DS games to be played on it (let's face it, it has everything it needs to be able to do this and even the Game Cube had an add-on to play GB Advance games). Mario: Typical (2D) Mario game, but still very enjoyable. 2-4 players mean you need 2-4 wiimotes, the player using the tablet cannot control a character, and can only tap on enemies/blocks place platforms for the wiimote controlled character(s) to jump on. a bit disappointing that you can't also use the tablet as an actual controller in the multi-player game. I'm really looking forward to playing Super Mario World 3D when it's released later this month. Wonderful 101: The game seems a bit busy and took a bit of getting used to but the more I played of the demo the more I enjoyed it. I'm not sold on the tablet interface for the main game as I found myself using the right stick to draw the merge attacks rather than resorting to using the stylus (I don't want to use my finger to draw on the screen as I find smudges annoying). There were a few neat touches like when your team entered a warehouse the view on the tablet switched to a view inside the warehouse which you could look around to see any collectibles and the solution on the wall for a puzzle. Rayman Origins: I definitely think I'll pick this one up, I really had fun with this demo. The controls switched between tablet and joypad controls really well with sections requiring you to control the fly (I forget his name) on the tablet for a CPU-controlled player (or 2nd player maybe?) to navigate the section of the level. Netflix Plays nice, and you can watch the film on either the main TV or on the Tablet. Not as up to date as the PS3 client (but then neither is the 360 version) as it doesn't allow for the profile switching that was included in the last PS3 netflix client update (something I found really useful). No iPlayer app, even in the seperate Wii market place.
Been pc gaming for the last five years my last consoles were the gamecube and ps2 and all the consoles back to megadrive and snes apart from xbox. But today I have finally bought the wii u premium mario and luigi I loved the dreamcast & ps1 but my favourite is the snes I hoping that nintendo will up its game on ips. And am looking forward to unboxing and playing tommorrow and am looking forward to mario 3d land and a few wii games l will update again after a few hours play tommorrow as you can see i'm a pc playerfirst nintendo fanboy second going back to star wars & blastermaster and mario 1,2 and 3. on the nes
Minor update to OP: My house is not big, in fact, it's fairly small. Early indications are that I may well be able to use the gamepad anywhere in the house without losing signal from the main console. My average toilet session is about to jump from 15 mins (due to reading on phone) to 45 mins, me thinks... Nice to see some uptake by fellow BTers
I bought mine last week purely for 1st party titles. I'm currently having a blast in Super Mario 3D World and plan to play Zelda next. Good games to play with the children.
Rayman Origins is an absolute hoot on any platform. I encourage anyone to get it. It sounds like a nice way of controlling the buddy to cut the ropes or move the platforms - it gets really frantic using an XBox controller on the PC - I can't imagine how this is done on a WiiU pad as you're controlling the main protagonist, as well as the fly, both at the same time in some later levels.
Picked up a few games over Christmas: Castlevania IV, Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, Batman Arkham City and my nephew had Disney Infinity. I haven't played them all yet (in fact I've only played Rayman and Castlevania IV), but Rayman is awesome fun.
I wrote a fairly substantial update for this a few months back but when I hit the 'post' button got a 'token expired' error and lost it all and got fed up. Can't remember what I was saying in it now, but it was all useful stuff no doubt. Today I've received my Gamepad back from Nintendo after sending it for repair. I'd already sent it back once and they didn't fully resolve the fault first time round, so I was mega pissed. It had already taken me some time to get round to packaging it up and sending, so in all I've been without proper use of it for over a month. It came back today with a report of 'No fault found', so my heart sank somewhat. But I booted up the game that the fault had presented itself in (FIFA 13 - which I play a lot of) and lo and behold the fault was cleared. So overall I'm relieved. But the whole episode has highlighted how important the Gamepad is to the Wii U experience. Without it there are several apps (e.g. Nintendo Land) that you can't even boot into, and I have become rather dependent on the off-TV play option, so to think that once the warranty expires it would cost £80-odd to replace it is a bit daunting (hopefully the cost will come down over time). But for now at least I'm back up and running. Man I love playing FIFA 13 on it - it's a revelation to me how good it is (despite missing features available on other versions). I've played FIFA 14 on the Xbox One and both in looks and gameplay I'd take the Wii U FIFA 13 option any day. Perhaps that's because I'm so used to FIFA 13 now, but I certainly felt no urge to upgrade at all. I even find the off-TV play at lower res preferable to craning my neck up at the TV. Aside from the gamepad fault issue, I'm very happy with my purchase. I've not used a PS4, but the Xbox One was very underwhelming to me (the speech input control was laughable - it seems any background noise e.g. other people in the room chatting, and it doesn't work - hardly very social). But games don't have to be cutting edge to look great nowadays and I'm chomping at the bit to find time to complete the games I've got so I can move on to the likes of Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, Mario World 3D, Arkham City, Assassin's Creed, Mario Kart 8 etc. and there's one particular game I'm v.excited about (based on the trailer - please don't let me down)...
I hadn't seen that trailer before, looks good. Personally I'm looking forward to Bayonetta 2. I've picked up a few more games since christmas, but saying that I've still only been playing mainly Super Mario Bros U and SM 3D World (and Castlevania IV from the Nintendo store) If anyone wants to add me as a friend on it my nintendo ID is Blademrk.
Super Mario 3D world is a brilliant game, it's what finally convinced me to get a Wii U. Just waiting on Mario Kart and Smash Bros now. I'll probably get Child of Light as well. The Wii U was the only console I could justify getting; it offers titles significantly different enough from PC to be worth having. I don't feel I can say the same for PS4 or Xbox One.
I've already posted this in the bargain thread but I'll post here too... Mario 3D World is currently £28 on Zavvi
I'm not much of a blogger so haven't kept this thread going as perhaps I might have intended when I started this thread, but I thought it was worth posting these. I only came across them this morning, and evidently they'll be more to come as there's no mention of Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, or Super Mario Maker in the three below. Most games are exclusive to Nintendo platforms, or were originally (e.g. ZombiU; Shovel Knight) and I think the videos showcase well the variety and fun available on the console that can't be had elsewhere. I've never bought so many games in my life. Call it dead, call it under-powered, call it what you like, it's unique and great to have.
