Wii U : And you thought the Wii was a stupid name...
 

Didn't see a thread yet, so I figured mine as well start one up.

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So, Nintendo's sixth home console just released yesterday. Many pre-ordered or stood in line to grab one opening day. So far, they are relatively reasonably priced on Amazon and eBay, but that probably will change after Black Friday. So far, most of the reviews from Kotaku, GAF, and 1up have been mostly positive for the new console. Right now, around where I live, it has already sold out at every retail location from what I have heard. Kotaku has a nice everything you need to know page that I highly recommend checking out for those seeking out some info about the console.

HERE'S SOME REVIEWS ABOUT THE BIGGER LAUNCH GAMES

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ZombiU
72 on Metacritic.
Mostly, it's being docked points for crappy visuals and controls along with really challenging gameplay. I was fairly interested with this as it was described as Demon Souls meets zombie survival, but so far the reviews have given me pause. I still would love to try it for myself, so I probably will end up picking it up some time this holiday season.

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New Super Mario Bros. U
82 score on Metacritic.
This looks like more of what we got with NSMB on the Wii, but with a few new features (speed runs, coin mode, things like that) along with HD. Still will probably be a blast playing this with friends.

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Nintendo Land
76 on Metacritic.
Coming packaged with the deluxe Wii U, Nintendo Land gives a little something for Nintendo's first-party IPs with several mini-games. A Luigi's Mansion hide and seek, a Zelda adventure, and a Balloon Fight-esque game (though a balloon fight HD would have been amazing). Overall, the reviews are saying it is more deep experience than Wii Sports, but still leaves you wanting more.

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Rabbids Land
No score yet on Metacritic.
Another party game for the Wii U, Rabbids Land is a Mario Party type of game with a game board and players rolling the dice to move. Much like Mario Party, it is packed with fun mini-games and looks like it will fall into the category of great with friends, but not so great solo.

Of course, there are a ton of 3rd party releases on the Wii U, like Assassins Creed 3, Darksiders 2, and Mass Effect 3 among others. Here are some impressions reviews...

-Assassins Creed 3 will have some different gameplay elements on the Wii U, says Kotaku.

-Darksiders 2 offers offers DLC bonuses for those who are into that. IGN says the differences aren't all that big, but a good value if you haven't played it yet and want the extra DLC.

-Mass Effect 3 gives us a good idea on what the Wii U brings to the table.

-Ninja Gaiden 3 review from Kotaku, "It sucks less."

-A nice Batman : Arkham City comparison between the Wii U and 360/PS3.

There are several good games on the way in the near future, including Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends, and The Wonderful 101. Also announced are the usual games you understand Nintendo will churn out, such as a Zelda game in the works along with Super Smash Bros.

The Wii U eShop is up and running and has a bunch of stuff available, including the ability to download full Wii U games like Zombi U or NSMBU. As a word of warning, be sure to get more additional memory, even if you purchased the deluxe version, if you plan to download and buy games digitally, as explained by Nintendo with BEEEAAADS.

I was fortunate enough to get one from Target on Sunday morning. I haven't cracked it open quite yet though. Have any of you picked one up? Like it? Hate it? Fucked it?

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I waited in line for three hours yesterday morning. It was apparent after the store opened at 8:00 that I didn't need to get up even that late (when compared to the launch of the Wii). With six people in line, four of whom got there 20 minutes before opening, I could have easily gotten a Deluxe model if I had just shown up at 7:30 in lieu of 5:00. Hell, if I just wanted a basic model, I could have probably gotten there after opening. I imagine people just weren't aware that it's out yet. I told my girlfriend I picked one up, and she started to chastise me for buying an import model, since the US one would be coming out next month or so. People will probably start going feral this week through the rest of the year.

So far? Loving it. Nintendo Land, which I figured was going to be another Wii Sports and hold my interest for a day before boring me, has turned into quite the surprise. Yes, it's another collection of mini-games and no one will be talking about it next year, but some of the games are quite deep. Pikmin is essentially an action-RPG giving us a taste of what to expect out of Pikmin 3. Zelda is a great brawler that can turn into a fantastic, riotous clusterfuck. And Metroid? Fuck yes is it fun to be the gunship.

I was also surprised to see how much Miiverse is like a social network. I thought it was going to be collections of random, disorganized thoughts and comments. It is, but then there are Communities and the ability to directly comment on and "Like" posts (called "Yeah"). Very interesting.

I will probably pick up New Super Mario Bros U after payday. I must admit I am a little tempted to pick up Mass Effect, just to have a meaty RPG on the system already. Played the hell out of it on the 360, but I'm a very big fan. However, 60 bucks is unacceptable to me. I'll wait for a price drop.

The hardware has been criticized as being cheap and plastic-y, which I thought was an odd accusation to levy. Consoles have never screamed luxurious, and I'm not surprised the Wii U didn't break that trend. I would have preferred a matted finish over a glossy one, but the Game Pad is light and comfortable, the console itself is compact and quiet, and now all three of my main consoles are black. Hurray

The software is a little slow and needs to be addressed. I don't care that the default TV interface is bare and disorganized, as you normally use the Game Pad's default grid view to interact with it. Simple, organized, clean. The loading times, however, are indeed noticeable. Not the 30 seconds I've been told by people, but a solid 10 or 12 seconds to boot up, and about 8-10 for a disc to load. Certain apps also push that 10-12 second mark. The Wii backwards compatibility thing is kinda weird too. I boot up the Wii U, select the Wii start screen, then boot into the old Wii GUI? Strange.

Final verdict? Pleased and optimistic for the future, but Nintendo needs to not drag its feet like usual. Get another firmware update going.

Preordered the Deluxe and dealt with slow updates. I'll chalk this up to "the servers being busy," or so I hope.

The menu load times are frustrating, but otherwise its been a pleasant process. I wish the Wii->WiiU transfer would go wirelessly or via bluetooth, but whatever. It was there day 1.

I'm just hoping they find a way to transition the Virtual Console content to the WiiU menu so I'm not grabbing a Wiimote just to use a Classic Controller to play that content. Let me use this sexy WiiU Pro Controller.

I will say though that the tablet is lightweight and looks and feels perfect. I have zero complaints about it and I think this is something they've nailed.

YouTube and Internet Browsing works fine. Netflix is a bit better than their last version. Hopefully the TVii app isn't one of those that keeps getting pushed back.

Nintendoland has been fun so far and does well to find creative ways to introduce gameplay mechanics. I hope this keeps getting DLC to increase its value. Playing Mario tomorrow, so I'll weigh in on that I hope.

At this point all I really want is for the virtual console content to be playable on the tablet. I dont know the hardware well enough to see if it has enough "storage" to make those playable on the go. Otherwise, stream that shit to my tablet and let me lay in bed playing Chrono Trigger.

Pretty sure you could have been playing Chrono Trigger in bed for several years on the PSP with minimal effort dude. Could have been playing it in bed on a laptop for even longer...

I only really want to mention that the wee-ooo sound effect from Kung Pow has been the message tone on my phone for a good three months now. Also, as someone who has never liked Mario games, I can't see myself buying a Wii-U any time soon, if ever.

So far it's been pretty good. I've mostly just been messing around with the system features and miiverse. Sunday was brutal for Nintendo's servers from the system update that took like an hour to just download and then all the errors from miiverse being overloaded. Monday was so much better. Miiverse was usable, I had fun sending stupid messages to skills and also trying out the chat feature with him. I then downloaded, installed, and played some of Mighty Switch Force Hyper Drive Edition which is what you'd expect. It's the same game in HD minus the 3D effect which is still fun. I've also played about 1 and a half worlds of New Super Mario Bros. U which is probably the first decent game in the series. Took them long enough. I haven't gotten around to playing Nintendo Land or Zombie U. Partly because I'm enjoying just playing on the gamepad and the really old 32 inch TV I have in my room is cutting off the outer edges of the picture for some stupid reason and I'd like to experience the game on a better display. Oh and Netflix on this thing is pretty nice too.

I wouldn't say the Wii U is a must have yet if you're looking to buy it to get a must have exclusive title. I'm not even sure when that will happen either. Pikmin 3 will be fun and so will Wonderful 101 but the only titles in the future that I see being the super must haves are possibly Bayonetta 2 and the next Smash Bros. So if you're holding out for an entire year I understand. However I must state that your best bang for your buck is to get the Deluxe model. The extra storage really helps and having a pack-in title for less than retail plus charging cradle etc. etc. is really worth the extra 50 bucks. I don't understand why Nintendo even has two versions of the console. They should just have a black model and a white model with all the stuff the deluxe model has packed in.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34761/8Og4c.gif

skills.gif

no lie the first message he sent me had a dick in it

but really it would have been shocking if it hadn't

Additional Spam:
Oh also I made a thread for sharing your Nintendo Network ID. Feel free to share yours there and I'll add it to the grand list of IDs I have found so far. If you are in the list and you would like to be removed please let me know.

http://www.gamingforce.org/forums/vi...epository.html

Well I was initially joking about the "did you send me a dick" thing. Anyway, I now frequent Miiverse just to see what Acer has recently drawn. Is there a way to save those? It would be a fun way to see how you've chronicled your playthrough of Mario!

Heads up to anyone buying one of these, turning it off while it's downloading and installing the huge initial update will turn it into a paperweight.

There's no announcement yet as to whether Nintendo will apply the update to consoles before selling them in Europe or if they'll continue to challenge Sony for the award for longest time before putting in a game disc and getting to play the game (To be fair, with the U you have one initial mammoth install, with PS3 it tend to be ten minutes each time you put in a game more than 6 months old).

Yeah, pretty stupid of Nintendo not to have a fail safe on updates like that. I've heard if you tell it no when it asks you to update you can then go into download management and have it download the update in the background while you play games and such. But yeah pretty terribad that a power outage while trying to download the HOUR LONG download can potentially brick your brand new console. I have no idea what they were thinking.

Oh and speaking of PS3 style updates before you even start New Super Mario Bros. U you get to download an update for that too. But hey at the very least Nintendo isn't taking the Microsoft route to patching games. All developers can patch their games FOR FREE.

wtf this sux

In a bit of news unrelated to them vidyas, Nintendo TVii will launch tomorrow.

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It's difficult to say exactly how much of this functionality is tied into TiVo services, but I suppose we'll find out tomorrow.

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Okay so today they announced some new stuff. Among them, additional improvements to load times and....

Virtual Console gaming on the game pad. Fuck yes.
But of course, this is Nintendo, so they have to still screw it up. They have to make modified versions apparently (gg game saves, probably) and will offer them at the same price as they were before. Unless you want to play the one you transferred over. That will cost you for NES and SNES games anywhere from $1 to $1.50 to "upgrade." So you can still play through the wii bullshit emulator, or pay to have it as it should be. For a game you already own.

Additionally for the 30th anniversary of the Famicom, they're releasing some games for a month at a time at 30 cents apiece: Balloon Fight, F-Zero, Punch Out (Mr Dream), Kirbys Adventure, Super Metroid, Yoshi, Donkey Kong.

They're adding a way to actually take screenshots as you want on the gamepad, so we can stop wondering how people kept taking screenshots and realizing they're automatically captured.

The Miiverse communities will be expanded to custom closed communities, so I guess we can create a GFF community for our collection of cock and ball drawings. Miiverse is also coming to smartphones, first via a browser, then on a dedicated app.

Iwata says shut the fuck up about first party support, they're making Pikmin 3 and its here soon.

THIS IS WHERE NEW GAMES HAPPEN:

Confirmation of a new 3D Mario game in line from the Galaxy series and that there is a Mario Kart in the works as well as a formal introduction of Smash Brothers at E3. Additionally the use of a single game pad for two players to use at the same time (turn it sideways and realize that both players have an analog stick and "four" buttons).

YOSHI'S EPIC YARN.

Also a Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem title. Nothing shown or discussed exactly on this, but its got Atlus listed as a coop development team.

Talking about Zelda, they're working on an original title to change a few elements, such as forcing sequential order for dungeons. Also they're showing off a HD remake of Wind Waker and pretty much said "just play this while we work on new content." Allowing the off-TV gameplay on the pad and it'll add miiverse compatibility, etc.

Lastly, a Monolith Soft title was shown off. Now, I'm going to throw a shitfit about this, because I now wish that Xenoblade was just pushed off another year and put on the WiiU, because this looks great. HEY SKILLS, IT HAS SWORDS AND MECHS.

That thing I just mentioned:

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If you did not have a fierce erection after watching the trailer for X, you should check your pulse. Good God, that was glorious.

Oh hey, look what came out today.

EARTHBOUND

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Now you have a reason to turn your Wii U back on.

Wow! Now that's a birthday present. <3

Also this video does a better job advertising Earthbound than the entirety of of the original ad campaign. They learned!

Giygas music in the trailer just made me queue up the whole soundtrack.

i wiil not get one :mad:

oh hey I almost forgot we had a thread for this

Well, for those of us with a Wii U Nintendo has finally made it so you can buy an extended battery for the gamepad on their online store. Makes it last supposedly for 8 hours. Far better than the maybe 3 hours it was getting with the standard battery.

Go and nab one before they uh I dunno sell out? Is that a thing that even happens with the Wii U? I dunno. Anyway, I'd buy one. I did. You have a Wii U? Then ya might as well too. Pretend it's a great new game or something.

https://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wc...encyPreference

I hope this adds some much needed weight to the gamepad, too. One of it's biggest flaws is how light it is.

I purchased a Wii U for what I think is a pretty good deal. Best Buy has the New Super Mario Bros. bundle on sale for $259.99 and I used my American Express card where I had an offer of getting $25 back on a Best Buy purchase of $250 or more.