Monday, February 11, 2013

You've already won me over, in spite of me

Yeah, I went with Alanis for this one.  It fits.

I spent the weekend with the Wii U.  I truly wasn't prepared for how much I love it.  I don't own a Wii.  Never really had an interest, and the majority of the games released for it just didn't appeal to me.  I thought it was an interesting novelty, and I completely understood it's mass appeal, I just didn't feel the need to own one.  It's not that I dislike Nintendo.  Far from it.  I have owned every single handheld system they've released, and I still have a working Gamecube kicking around somewhere.

The Wii U has an impressive line-up of games, and the developer support being tossed behind it bodes well for the future.  The ability to purchase full games online through the console is a blessing in a rural area, where it can be hard at times to find physical copies of games, especially when one refuses to shop at Gamestop.

The online functionality is interesting.  When constantly connected to the internet, the initial screen (dubbed Waruwaru Plaza I believe) shows what games are popular, little Mii's from other people, comments about some of the games that are updated seemingly daily, and overall just gives the appearance that I am part of a larger community of gaming.  Netflix capability means that this has a very good chance of replacing my PS3 as our entertainment device of choice.  If only it had a Blu-ray player.

My favorite function though, is the ability to play most Wii U (and some Virtual Console) games on the gamepad screen, sans television.  As a parent who shares the TV with 5 other people, this function is worth the price of admission alone.  Let's say I really want to play Tekken Tag Tournament 2, but my kids want to watch My Little Pony.  Well, with a couple of button pushes, they can watch their show on the TV, and I can continue my losing streak on the pad as if it were a high-powered handheld system.  It even has a headphone jack and volume control built right in.  This functionality now guarantees that any cross-platform title that comes out will be bought for the Wii U over the PS3 or computer.

It's also backwards compatible with the Wii, so now my kids and wife are thrilled to have access to all the casual and family titles that are on the Wii, and I can finally play some new Zelda games, as I did not care for the control scheme on the DS ones.

Overall, I'm completely thrilled with my new system, and it's the perfect start to the new console generation.

No comments:

Post a Comment