Review – Wii U

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The Wii U has been on store shelves for a week, and since then most of us at One-Quest have been spending our free time playing with the new console. But, we aren’t the only ones! It’s been announced that in it’s first week the Wii U has sold more then 400,000 units! These are some strong numbers, and with the holiday shopping season upon us, that number will continue to climb.

From stomping goombas, to smashing zombies the Wii U has something for everyone. Read on to see how some of us feel about this powerful little console.

Eric

I’ve used the Wii U every single day since I’ve brought it home. One of my favorite uses for it, besides playing the amazing launch line-up, is using the GamePad to watch Netflix or Hulu while I blast random psychos in Borderland 2 on my PS3! Multi-tasking at it’s purest form! The games are a load of fun, even the Deluxe pack in NintendoLand. In fact I think I’ve had more fun with NintendoLand than with any of the games I’ve purchased. That’s not to say they aren’t fun, but NintendoLand was designed as the launch showcase, and it really succeeds in defining what this system is capable of! NintendoLand is filled with exciting single player experiences like F-Zero, that show off how the GamePad can help further immerse you into the games, and epic multi-player games that show off how using the 2 completely different controllers can create an experience not available anywhere else! Seriously, Metroid in NintendoLand is one of the coolest games I’ve ever played, and it’s just a mini game!

New Super Mario Bros. U is nothing short of a blast either! My wife and I have developed a strong liking to Boost Mode, not to be confused with Boost Rush. Boost Mode allows up to 4 players to run around on screen using Wii Remotes, and 1 player to place helpful stepping blocks using the GamePad. It sounds weird, but this allows you to access otherwise unreachable areas and be saved from an untimely demise. Being the GamePad player isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds either, especially when there are 4 players running around and all hoping for that miraculous block to save their lives! It’s chaotic fun at it’s finest.

ZombiU is a different story. While NintendoLand and NSMBU are all about fast paced action and fun, ZombiU goes in an incredibly different direction. It’s a First-Person Survival/Horror game. Being First-Person my original tactics were to run in and shoot, or whack, everything in sight. I soon learned that this game requires a slower, more thought out approach to dealing with the zombie hoards. 1 hour and 5 deaths later, I finally started to figure it out. You have to take your time, much like in the early Resident Evil games. You have to plan ahead, make sure you’re prepared for the unexpected, but save enough space in your limited inventory for new finds during your exploration. ZombiU is very tense, and terribly unforgiving. This game is HARD. But I love it! I welcome the challenge. I welcome the return of the survival/horror genre. Especially if more games play like this one.

The MiiVerse is also a load of fun. Once you log into the WiiU you’ll notice that everyone is posting their thoughts on certain games. It’s kind of like pictochat from the Nintendo DS, but each game has it’s own message board. The most popular games and apps are displayed on the Wii U home screen, with Miis wandering around them. Periodically displaying a message showing their love, or frustration, with that particular software. It also looks like everyone on using the Wii Us MiiVerse is a professional artist. Some of the drawings popping up are insanely detailed! I just hope Nintendo adds a color option soon! From the MiiVerse you can manage a freinds list, see what games they’re playing, send messages back and forth. You can even send screen shots from in the game to your friends! It’s an amazing social media tool, and I can’t wait for MiiVerse to be made available on smartphones and PCs!

Overall, I love the Wii U. It is every bit worth the money I paid for it. The only downside is that WiiTVii isn’t available yet, but it’s something I can’t wait for! It’s going to be nice to be able to see what shows are available on whichever streaming service, without the need to open and close each one just to find out it was on another. The controller is light, and insanely responsive. The TV and GamePad screens sync flawlessly. Battery Life is absurd! I have only been warned of a dying GamePad once, and that was toward the middle of a large 8 hour multiplayer gaming session. All we did was plug in the charging wire, and we were good to go!

Chris

I picked up the Wii U on day one, like many others. This is the first console I’ve had the confidence in to pick up at launch. Usually they lack solid launch games, and the prices are usually a bit ridiculous. The Nintendo Wii proved that Nintendo is great at thinking outside the box, and while I didn’t use it as much as my PS3 or 360, the games I got for it were of a degree that you wanted to play over and over again. Now we’ve got the Wii U, the next step for Nintendo is trying to make a console that brings in the casual family gamer, and the core hardcore gamer. They’re definitely closing that gap too, I’m not sure if they’ve quite made it or not though. The system still uses the Wiimote and Nunchuck for some games, or game modes, while it utilizes the new Gamepad for others. There’s also the Pro Controller that looks like an Xbox 360 controller with the right analog on the top instead of bottom. Regardless of that though, I’ve been having a lot of fun with the system, the Gamepad is a lot of fun to use, even when you’re just messing around with the Miiverse.

I’ve only really spent time with New Super Mario Brothers U, and it’s been a lot of fun. I have two games going right now, a single player, and a multiplayer with my girlfriend. We’ve been switching between controlling Mario with the Wiimote and helping out with the Gamepad. While it’s not really needed to enjoy the game, that second person helping out really makes the game a lot of fun and adds a new layer of strategy to the game. Like most of the Mario games it’s got replay value, trying to get all the hidden doors, star coins, star road, etc it’s definitely worth the money.

I have two other Wii U games at the moment, ZombiU and Nintendo Land. I’ve only played a bit of ZombiU and I’m not sure I really like it, that was the game I was most excited to play, and unfortunately got a bit let down. That’s not to say it’s a bad game, it’s just not my type of game. It got a lot of bad reviews initially, but I think if people actually take the time and give it a chance they’ll find something that is enjoyable, especially for people who like to beat their high score. Now as far as Nintendo Land goes, I’ve heard all kinds of amazing things about it, but I haven’t actually played it yet. Sometime this week that will be remedied though, I’ll be sure to include an update when that happens.

The last thing I want to touch on is the Wii integration, Nintendo was smart in allowing you to sync all of your saved games, and Virtual Console purchases over to the Wii U from your old Wii. It’s a fairly easy process, and all you need is an SD card and internet connection for both consoles. I’m not going to get into the details about the transfer, but it was fairly quick and painless. The problem I have is, you end up just running a Wii emulator, you can’t just pop a Wii game in and play it, or pick your VC game from the main menu. You have to pick the Wii channel and wait for it to load, and then you get your old standard definition Wii. It’s great that you can do it, but why not integrate it into the new console better, you don’t have to run an emulator on the PS3 or 360, well on the ones that still play old games anyway.

Overall I’m really pleased with the purchase, and can’t wait for more of the big franchise games Nintendo is known for. Plus there are quite a few third party games that are shaping up to be a good edition to any game collection. Nintendo says they’ll be in better availability than the Wii was, so if you’re holding off I suggest not waiting and just going for it!

There you have it folks, two rave reviews for the Wii U! It looks like the rest of the staff were too busy playing theirs, or hiding under a bridge, to drop and opinion. I’m sure we’ll hear from them soon enough.

Now go buy a Wii U!

Don’t forget to tell us what you think about the Wii U in the comments below!

Eric is not a boss. You can Email Eric or follow Eric on Twitter @EricSweeten or Facebook

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