Thursday, April 26, 2012

W is for Wii U

What a polarizing device and it's not even released yet.

What to say about the Wii U? Perhaps there are two sides. First, personally I have always been somewhat of a Nintendo fanatic. But, there's a lot Nintendo does that's worth being fanatical about. Second, while I love my Wii and you couldn't pry it from my cold, dead hands, there's a lot of games it can't handle. It's not HD and it's graphically inferior to the PS3 and 360. I am not such a blinded fangirl that I can't see the Wii's problems concerning the lack of "hardcore" titles.

However, I remain optimistic about the Wii U. It will be HD. There are rumors about just how powerful the graphics will be. But, the consensus points to this gen 360 and PS3 graphics.  Does that bother me? Not really. Yes, great graphics are pretty and shiny. But, they don't make or break a game for me.  Would I love amazing graphics that blow the current gen away? Of course, but it's not going to happen with the Wii U.

It seems you can turn the Wii U on and play games on the controller without needing a TV screen. That's awesome, especially in a house like mine. Say my son wants to use the PS3, I can still play the Wii U on the tablet controller.

Another cool thing about the Wii U is duel support for both its games the games on the 3DS. Right now, the news just hit about this feature for the next Super Smash Bros. If this takes off, I'm sure many more games will have this support.

What about the rumored apps store it's building? Since Nintendo doesn't license its games to iPads and the like, if the Wii U is able to have the very popular games that are on tablets and phones right now, plus an ebook reader feature then great. I'm very interested to see if Nintendo can pull this off.


On the downside, I worry about third party support. It's something Nintendo has been lacking for years. Although, as long as Nintendo continues to make its exclusives, I'll be okay. Another worrying thing is the amount of crappy party games that plague the Wii. I can only hope Nintendo gets rid of this trend for the Wii U. I can only hope they return to releasing more hardcore games. Maybe they can truly be the console for everyone. If any company can pull that off,  Nintendo can.

But of course, the angry hardcore gamer in me still just wants to scream "Fuck everyone else and focus on us."


We will certainly get more info at E3 this June. The Wii U is set to come out this November. I will be waiting in a line at midnight to buy one.

3 comments:

  1. I'm pretty excited about the Wii U. After the success of the Wii, it's time Nintendo stepped up their game and brought out something that would cater to all types of gamers. So hopefully we'll indeed get more than current generation graphics and games like GTA V and RE6. But it's success boils down to one thing really: price. Here's hoping they don't make the same foreseeable mistake they did with the 3DS.

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    1. I agree. I've heard rumors it will sell for $300.00. I've also heard around $600.00, but I doubt it will be that expensive.

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  2. I know nothing about Wii, but I think maybe I should...thanks!

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