After a whole year of speculation, I finally got my hands on a Wii U and it’s interesting games. I played quite a bit of the first party Nintendo game “Nintendo Land,” and I have to say that these games were extremely fun. Each of the games that were being shown have four players using Wii remotes while one player is dedicated to using the Wii Gamepad. For example, in the Luigi’s Mansion mini game shown had the four players with Wii Remotes navigating a map with flash lights attempting to find an invisible ghost, who only made his presence known with a rumble of the Wii remote when he was near a player. Controlling that ghost was the player with the Wii game pad who was able to see himself and the entire map on the screen in the gamepad. I was extremely impressed with Nintendo Land, and the Wii U itelf for that matter.
The gamepad is extremely solid and well built, with the quality of the gamepad being something that I was a bit skeptical of since I originally saw the controller. I fully expected it to feel plasticky with a cheap screen, but I was completely wrong. I do however question the Wii U’s graphical capabilities. Nothing that I saw looked any better than the most basic Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 game. Even though the Wii U is HD, I expect the inevitable Playstation 4 and next Xbox to put these graphics to shame. From the sound of it though, Nintendo doesn’t seem to be putting emphasis on visuals at all, and instead are looking to put out fun games that are enjoyed by the whole family. I have no doubt that Nintendo has another cash-cow on their hands as the Wii U was one of the best things I saw at all of E3.
My biggest problem with the Wii U is it’s unhealthy lack of third part titles that really stand out. This console is creeping up on it’s launch date and sure it’s gonna have killer first party titles, but it’s big sellers are Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition and Mass Effect 3? Games that came out on PS3 and 360 months ago. Now these games will certainly have differences that have them stand out from their original incarnations, but I doubt there is enough to make a casual gamer want to seek these games out.
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