I have always been a strong advocate of the importance of Nintendo releasing a $250 model of the Wii U. THAT was the price Nintendo needed to have any sort of shot over the competition, and more importantly, to make it worthwhile to us gamers. Why? My main logic points to the Wii back in 2006.. IT released back in 2006 for that same price, and came with one of the most fun and revolutionary games in quite some time, Wii Sports. Now fast forward to $2012.. Wii U, a console that did not excite me anywhere NEAR to the extent of the Wii (and I believe I can speak for many when I say this), costed $50 MORE at launch, and this was for a gimped version. While there were certainly a sprinkling of interesting looking Wii U games for me, they were fewer and farther between than the Wii had, and furthermore, the notion of a tablet controller seemed nowhere close to as interesting and revolutionary to me as a 3D motion controller/pointer..
Now, here we are a year later, and Nintendo has knocked $50 off the price of the deluxe package, and perhaps in a desperation move, has bundled what seems to be their most quality Wii U game; New Super Mario Bros U, with it. So Nintendo has essentially brought the price down to the level I wanted them to. Even though the whole package was still $50 more than I had hoped, technically you were only spending $250 on the console itself, as it now came bundled with a game worth the extra $50 (and a damn great game at that!) At that point, I was on the brink. But Best Buy took this one step further and made my decision that much easier, by including Nintendoland, AND a sweet looking Luigi themed remote for only $20 more. I could now buy all of this:
for only $320, and IN ADDITION, Best Buy would grant me $30 of credit simply for picking it up at the store. What had once cost $350 simply for a deluxe console and Nintendoland, now essentially costed $290, and I would get the added bonus of NSMB U, NSLU, AND a Luigi motion plus remote!
Well, that was it for me. I'd be a damn fool to pass up that deal, especially as a major fan of the classic Mario games, and someone who was in need of another motion plus.
So now, here I stand, once one of Wii U's biggest critics, ending up with a Wii U earlier than anticipated.. So what is my stance on this thing?
Well, for one, I am having a blast playing it so far! Now, I'm going to get my bit of negativity out of the way right off the bat, and state for the record, this console just does not have that fresh, revolutionary feel of the Wii that blew my mind back in the day. But then again, neither did my Xbox 360, and I still enjoy playing that to this day! Not every console has to knock your socks off to be a fun, enjoyable experience. And ESPECIALLY considering the savings I got this for, I would say it was well worth the money!
The tablet controller, excuse me.. "gamepad," while certainly taking some more time to wrap your head around than the Wiimote, is surprisingly comfortable and feels "right" to use after you get over the brief mind fuck of having to glance down at your controller from the TV every now and then. Again, it's no revolution like the Wii, but rather, it reminds me of the DS in both form and function - it is intuitive and is a neat little feature to add a bit extra to certain games.
I also enjoy the off play feature, as usually someone else in my family is using up the good TV, and I don't like to play games alone in my basement or up in my room in solitude to often. Now I can play games in the presence of my family without feeling akward as they all stare me gaming on the family room TV as they wait for me to stop.
That said, I still prefer the Wiimote, and am glad Nintendo stuck with this as an option for most Wii U games. I do hope in the future they return to emphasizing this control scheme more once again, like with the Wii.
The Games:
Nintendoland - Surprisingly fun to play, particularly with friends and family. This game feels esentially like like Wii Sports combined with Mario party or Monkey Ball. Sadly, it seems to take on more of the Mario Party/Monkey Ball vibe, as it's not quite as easy and intuitive as Wii Sports, and also like those games, it seems to have as many duds as gems within the game. But the gems that exist.. are just ridiculously fun! In the single player mode, I really enjoy the Donkey Kong game and F-zero. They both take me back to those arcade experiences, with rapid fire intensity and the desire to carry on and on as you try to beat your score. Online play, (or at least online leaderboards) would have made these so much more epic, but the fact that they are still so much fun even without the need for them says a lot about their quality.
The multiplayer games.. My friends/family and I REALLY have enjoyed Sweet Day. Yes, ironically the ANIMAL CROSSING game is the best Nintendoland game. As of now, it seems to be the star of the game, as that is the one we find ourselves returning to, and about 75% of our Nintendoland time has been devoted to it. It makes for some really intense gameplay and hilarious moments, complete with the friendly heckling that the best multiplayer games tend to offer. To a lesser extent, we also enjoyed Mario Chase and Luigi's Mansion. In the co-op side of things, Zelda is also very fun and intense. Me and my one more "hardcore" Nintendo fan friends seem to be the only ones to really appreciate the Pikmin co op game, but let me tell you, we had a hell of a fun time with that one!
The negative aspects of the game.. Like I said, there are a few duds in the mix, like the game where you guide Yoshi. It seems like it just belongs on DS, and looks like Nintendo is banking on the fun of the touch screen thing WAY more than they should have.. That robot dude also gets to me a little, and his monotonous rambling as he goes through the endless tutorials bugs me to no end. I just want to play the damn game! I don't need to be stopped and have every game explained to me like I'm a 7 year old. But this is perhaps coming to my ADD nature and extreme bias against gameplay disrupting things like cutscenes and tutorials.
Overall, I'd give it an 8/10. Wouldn't spend more than $30 on the game, especially if you intend on playing alone. But for a more budget price, and if playing mainly the multiplayer, the game REALLY shines, and is good ol fashion gaming fun!
New Super Mario Bros U - As a hardcore Mario fan, particularly of the classic 2D style, I was a bit concerned coming into this one. After all, it looked all too similar to the older NSMB games, and didn't seem to push a whole lot of Wii U consoles. So would it live up to my nearly unreachable expectations? For the most part, absolutely!
This game just reminds me why I fell in love with the Mario franchise back when I was 6 years old playing my NES with my dad and sister. The mechanics are flawless and intuitive, the controls crisp and responsive, the worlds still colorful, varied, and mesmerizing, and the addictive gameplay ever-present. I will say, I'm a tad disapointed that the worlds ARE largely the same stereotypical worlds we've grown used to seeing time and time again (water, dessert, etc) but there are some really neat new(ish) worlds as well! Specifically, the really cool astro-themed ice world that sort of pays homage to that awesome ice world in Mario 1, the still somewhat fresh soda jungle, and the awesome giant-ish world.
As usual, the simultaenous multiplayer makes an insanely fun game even MORE fun and interesting, and now we have an additional 5th player (if you can all it that) who can create platforms and help the other 4 out. While this is a neat little feature, I do feel it's not entirely necessary, and that once again, Nintendo seems to be using it as some last minute afterthought in order to push the touch screen tablet stuff.
The new powerups are pretty cool, but nothing TOO special. It looks like 3D Worlds wins in this department (though perhaps not much else). But I've yet to play that game so that is all I will say on the subject. I do love the return to that cool flying "P", and the squirrel suit is cool to see, as it's somewhat new, though I can't help but feel it is a somewhat gimped version of the Mario 3 raccoon suit, and even the Mario world cape.
Overall, what more can you say? This game is Mario done RIGHT (and GAMING done right for that matter), and if it only had a few more new worlds and powerups, it would be perfection. But this is about as close as you can get to it, which is why I give it a 9.5/10.
The luigi expansion pack I have yet to play, but the addons look pretty cool thus far..
The Miiverse stuff and eshop, I won't talk TOO much about, as it's more of an afterthought to me, (and my fingers are beginning to hurt from all this typing! >_<), but I will say that it is a pretty neat feature, that you will get, at the very least, several minutes of entertainment out of if you're just sort of wandering around the menu screen and want that little something extra to occupy yourself with after your 4 hour marathon of Mario U. You can tell Nintendo is really trying to ride the facebook popularity wave with the message board format and the "yeahs" being the equivilant of likes. Lack of achievements is a tad disapointing, but it's cool that you can brag about your gaming accomplishments if you really feel the need to show off the e-penis, and take even show pictures to capture the moment.
My overall Wii U experience has been a positive one, and I'm very confident that while I am glad I held off for over a year, I have picked it up at the right time, as the library is FINALLY started to look robust and worth our while. We not only have NSMB/Luigi and Monster Hunter, but we also now have Mario 3D Land, Zelda WW, the long overdue Rayman Legends, Wonderful 101, and Pikmin 3, with the jugguarnaunts of Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart 8, and Smash Brothers on the horizon. If you are a Nintendo fan who was on the fence, even one of the more poor/wary ones like me, I'd say now is the time my friends, ESPECIALLY if you can somehow jump on a good deal like the one I found! At the end of the day, it is no Wii.. but it doesn't have to be! It is still thus far a blast to play, and a solid console in its own right. I'd give my entire Wii U experience so far, with everything factored in: 8.8/10
