NINTENDO WII U DELUXE REVIEW

When the Wii U was released at the end of 2012, people complained that its interface was very, very slow and that there where not enough games for the system.

I just picked up my system, June 2013,  and that was after Nintendo had released a patch to speed up its interface.  I am happy to say that I have no complaints with regard to the time it takes to boot up and switch between applications.

One thing to note is that once get the Wii U - set it up, and connect to the internet via WiFi, there is BIG DAY ONE UPDATE that needs to be installed ... expect to wait over an hour before this update is complete.

THE HARDWARE

I got the Deluxe Model which is Black, has 32 GB  internal memory, and comes with the game Nintendo Land, a charging dock for the Wii U Game Pad, and a cradle for the Wii U Game Pad as well.  It cost $350.00,  The basic set, which is white,  costs $300.00 and does not come with a game or the cradle or charging dock for the Wii U Game Pad.  Both models come with an HDMI cord - this is a first for a Nintendo System - HD gaming.

Both models have 4 USB ports and an SD card slot.  Both models can use a USB external hard drive which has a plug (its own power source).

The Wii U is backwards compatible with the Wii ... any game you purchased on the Wii will work on the Wii U, retail or digital (you can transfer all of you content from the Wii to the Wii U and any games that are not currently on your Wii but you purchased digitally, can be downloaded to the Wii U.  All of the controllers for the Wii are compatible with the Wii U.

The Game Pad 

The game pad has a nice large touch screen on it, a stylus, dual analog sticks, a set of left and right shoulder buttons (Top L / R and lower Rz / Lz) , a D pad, a tv button (the pad can be used as remote control for you TV), a power button and a,b,x, and y buttons, in addition to headphone jack,  a camera (facing you), a microphone, two speakers, an accessory jack, and a charging jack, there is also some type of Near Contact Reader on it as well but no games support that at the moment.  I believe it will be used to read information from cards or toys.

This is the most comfortable game pad I have ever used and I have been gaming since the days of Pong!  It is not as heavy as you think it might be, its actually quite light.   It is not a gimmick, it is an awesome and comfortable tool with no discernible lag between what you see on the pad and your TV.

So what can you do with it?  You can play a game on (most games I have) while someone else uses the TV for something else.  This is really a joy !!!  It is also used a second screen within games .... for example, a character within a  game calls you and the see the simulated video call on your pad.  You may have a differnt perspective as others do while playing a muli-player game (one perspective on the TV another on the Pad).  Instead of split screen, one person can see their perspective on the TV and you see yours on the pad.  It can be used to manage your inventory in a game ... the possibilities of its uses are endless and exciting really.

The Game Pads Battery Life

 Here is where a negative comes in but is easily corrected ..... I get about 2-3 hours of gaming off of a full charge with its screen set the highest brightness.  That is a short time (especially if you forget to charge in between gaming sessions) so to compensate for this I picked up a Niko Power Pak Battery for it (internal battery @ $20.00) and now I get about 10 hours of battery life without adding much weight at all to it.

The internet browser

The internet browser is 1,0000 x better than I expected and has become my go to browser ... what a surprise !!!

External Hard Drive

I connected an external hard drive to the system to expand its memory and it works like a charm .... allowing me to download games instead of getting retail packaged games.  This is a great optional feature.  It runs smooth and there is no difference when playing a game that is on the external drive or internal drive in terms of lag or anything.  When you turn on or off the Wii U System, it automatically turns on and off the External Hard Drive ( Nice Touch ! )  BE WARNED, once you hook up your external drive and use it for the system, it will erase the drives content and it will only be able to be used with the system ... sure you can reformat it to work with your PC again, but then you will lose all the Nintendo content on it and vise versa.

Video Chat

 You can video chat with your Miiverse friends using the Wii U Control Pads camera which faces you and microphone.  The chat service is through Nintendo and not Skype or anything like that.

Miiverse

this is an online community and I enjoy it for several reasons .... you create a Mii (a graphic representation of yourself) and others do too, then you add them to your friends list and can video chat with them or send them notes.  While playing a game you can pause the game, then post to that games community, you can attach an in game screen shot (at the point where you paused the game) and add a comment too that everyone in the community can see ... a neat feature.  Unlike other gaming communities there are no curse words or people talking about your mother and such .... these types of comments do not make it to the community ... it is policed .. and that is refreshing really.

Games

No one makes a better platformer or action adventure game than Nintendo (Super Mario & Zelda games) (and I also own the PS3 and PS Vita).  Currently I am enjoying Super Mario Brothers Wii U, Luigi Wii U, Super Mario World (SNES Virtual Console Download), Bit Trip Runner 2, Toki Tori 2, Nano Assault Neo, Trine 2, Zen Pinball 2, and Mutant Mudds Deluxe, and Lego City Undercover ... All of these games are enjoyable ... and you simply will not find a Mario game on any other system!  Great games are headed to the Wii U Very Soon - Super Mario World 3D, Pikmin 3, Mario Kart Wii U and Smash Brothers.  In the distant future there will be a brand new Wii U Zelda Game, until then, Nintendo is releasing Wind Waker HD, a revamped Game Cube Game - but I never really cared for that particular title in the series.

3rd Party Software Support

Currently, there is not much 3rd Party Support for the Wii U ... to be honest, that does not bother me at all, I get Nintendo Systems for their 1st Party Games ... For example ... Black Ops 2 is out for the Wii U and the PS3 ... if I wanted it, I would just get it for the PS3.  

Conclusion - 9 out of 10 - Overall this really is a great system and is much better than I thought it would be, its family friendly, has great graphics, and its just downright fun fun fun ... I took away one point for the battery life of the Wii U pad, but that is very  easily corrected with a NYKO replacement extended life battery.   Great games for this system on the way so if you considered picking it up - DO SO, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.  In my opinion, it is the best system Nintendo has released since the SNES

Hi all,

 

Just wanted to reach out and let all of you know that I picked up the NYKO Power Pak internal battery for the Wii U Pad.

 

I installed it then fully charged it before using the Wii U.  I am getting 10 hours of battery life out of it !!!!

 

I paid $20.00 for it and think it is well worth it.

 

Installing is a bit tricky so you better watch some videos on You Tube,  particularly the one with the triple twist method, even after using this method, I had to re open the back of the pad and giggle the wires a little bit until I could see the power indicator on the pad reading full ... Since I did that it has been smooth sailing.

 

Nintendo will release their own larger capacity battery, however, it will not last as long as this one because this one is larger and has more capacity.

 

NOTICE THE SIZE DIFFERENCE IN THE STANDARD BATTERY IN THE WHITE PAD VERSES THE BLACK PAD.

Thanks a bunch, great to live in a city featured in so many video games .... hehe

For a moment, I had to take a look in the mirror to make sure I was still 45 years old !!!! this game brought me back to the days of floppy disks and the Commodore 64 with its horrific load times ... For a moment I really thought I was in my dorm room at collage back in 1987 !!!

I picked mine up at Amazon.

I think Nintendo went with a smaller battery initially to keep the pad as light as possible although this battery doesnt add that much weight really.

Just a little note, you can put the battery cover back on ...

I think people may have had problems with this because they tried to put the connector in upsidedown ... strangly enough, even Nintendos connector is upsidedown, so you must twist its wires too.

In the case of the NYKO battery, A TRIPLE TWIST SEEMS TO MAKE THE CONNECTOR MORE STABLE AS IT HAS LESS WIGGLE ROOM, THEREFORE LESS OF A CHANCE OF COMING LOOSE / LOOSING CONNECTION.

Other than load times, I do enjoy the game.

I did not play nintendo games for a while, its refreshing to be back and I have realized that with the new Wii U games I got and the old Wii games I transfered, I have a boatload of Nintendo games to play and 75% of them are top notch !!!

I waited a year to get the Wii U after it was released and I have enough to keep me busy for at least a year before I run out and grab a PS4.

I love Miiverse and the fact that its policed ... I'm tired of people trashing each other in forums.

I am sure you will see the other systems doin what Nintendo is already doing .... posting in game pics, leaving notes in games other players can see ... but I have a feeling it wont be all that policed.

I'm no prude but seeing excessive use of curse words gets annoying quick.

It was announced for Japan, eventually it will come to USA and elsewhere.

Kmart allows you to ship retail goods internationally through Sears.com. Find the products you love at Kmart and get international shipping with Sears! ...of quality, style and features at great prices every day, additional discounts do not apply.

I feel like Nintendo is just getting started with this system and very great things are to come. As with any new system, It takes a while to work the kinks out and learn how to get the most out of a system.

Usually the first games that come out for a system don't push the system to its max, time is needed for the developers, even 1st parties, to learn how to work with the system.

To me, Mario Brothers Wii U is stunning, but Mario World 3D will look even better, and so on and so on.

Who knows what these secret games will be, a new way to play IPs we already know, an old way to play new IPs, or a new way to play new IPs ... Only time will tell, but to me it sounds exciting at the very least.
 

I am sure you can pick one up, try sites originating in China, they usually ship world wide.

Mine is keeping me very busy, very busy indeed !!!

Oh God, now that would be a let down !!!

I hear ya, but keep looking, Im sure you will find it.

EA seems to be looking at strictly the number of players playing their games on Wii U in multiplayer, however, for me, the Wii U is the most social gaming system I have ever owned - I feel immersed in Miiverse and love it. I hardly ever send notes to other players on my Vita or PS3, but the way Nintendo set up Miiverse, I'm constantly dropping notes and pics into the community and feel connected to the communities.

If Mario and Zelda games are KIDDY, then I like KIDDY games ... I have a Vita and PS3, none of the ADULT games come anywhere close to the awesome game play found in Nintendo's KIDDY games!

The beauty is each community sticks with a particular game and you can access that community within the game instantly .... No searching for a thread or anything like that, and at some points in some games after an accomplishment, the systems asks if you want to post to Miiverse ... Its all fun and as you say, unexpected really. Now that the E3 community is gone I hope they put a general Nintendo community up so we can talk about things beyond particular games.

Hey IvyTamwood, I added you to my miiverse , add me as well if you like.

Yeah ... Its just a bunch of fun !!!

I really think Nintendo wanted to make the control pad as light as possible so people would not say its a heavy brick or they would say wow, that's really light when they picked it up for the first the, like I did, but for me, even with the larger battery, the pad does not seem too heavy.

Thanks a bunch! Let me put it mildly, I have over 180 games for the PS3 and PS Vita, not one of them even comes close to the fun, tight, and right game play you will find in Super Mario Brothers Wii U or Luigi U.

The PS4 will interact in many ways as the Wii U and Wii U pad interact but there are big differences, For one thing, the screen on the Vita is much smaller than the Wii Pad and the Vita Itself is smaller therefore not giving you full sized inputs. Not to mention, there are two less shoulder buttons on the Vita, making remote play very awkward for games that make use of 3 or more shoulder buttons - touching the back screen of a Vita as a shoulder button input is very awkward indeed. The Vita does not have a stylus, which allows for pin point accuracy... With the Wii U Pad, you have a choice, stylus or finger input.

Let me expand a bit. The Wii U system which comes with its pad can cost as little as $250.00, The PS4 with a VITA will cost you over $600.00 and for $450.00 you can get a Wii U system and a Nintendo 3DS XL !!!. The Vita and PS4 will interact to a degree, but will never be fully married because not everyone with a PS4 will have or want a Vita. Therefore it will be more risky and expensive for developers to design games in which the PS4 and Vita fully interact.

The Vita does have a nice screen but it is smaller than you think when it comes to gaming. I like that the Wii U Pads screen is Wide and Tall too. The Vitas screen is wide but short. I am sure that with remote play streaming a game to the Vita will be smooth, but with the PS3 IT IS HORRIBLE. There is something else too, because of the shape of the Vita screen, when games made for the PS3 are scaled down the vita, good luck reading some of the text, its microscopic. The text in many of games designed only for the Vita and not the PS3, is also microscopic ... Impossible to read! This does not happen with the Wii Pad, or the 3DS XL, that is because of their screen shapes and because Nintendo developers are ''more aware'' of text size when making a game.

Nintendo may give us less games but they give us great games in my opinion. For every 20 PlayStation Games I have one or two are good or really good or great, The rest are so so or bad, For every 10 Nintendo games I have, 6 of them are awesome, 2 are great, and 2 are good.

Nintendo transports me to another world with their graphics, they bring me to fantasy land, they make laugh or say wow, they bring out the imaginative child in me. Other game systems may have life like graphics but all too often you say THAT ALMOST LOOKS REAL, but its the almost part your eyes always tend to focus on. Who wants to see a life like Mario stomping a life like turtle? Who wants to see a life like city in the background as Mario runs across the screen? I'd rather see those bright colored poka dot rounded top domes or even a beautiful Vangough 'Stary Night' ...

Thanks dry bones, glad it whet your appetite !!!

How would have rated it and how do you rate it now?

I didn't get my PS3 until Christmas of 2011 - that was perfect !!! the system was out for years with tons of games and digital download top notch games were very cheap.

I really think I will wait to get the PS4 until they come out with a slim version - not that I'm obsessed with it being slim but by the time a company comes out with a slimmer model, there are a lot of games out for the system, the good games that came out at launch are cheap, and kinks in the hardware and operating system have been worked out.

One thing I can say about Nintendo Games is that they maintain their value! It is rare to find even a cheap used Nintendo game unless its two generations removed, and even then its rare. Super Mario Bros Wii used costs almost what the game did when it was newly released.