It's still an issue of the games you purchased though.  NSMBU and Luigi-U aren't really going to make you say WOW until you see some of the bigger effects later in the game.  Mario and Sonic...  well didn't you play the Wii version?  It was pretty basic.  I don't like telling people to spend more money but you really need to check out Super Mario 3d world, it's a fun game for multiplayer, graphics look amazing and the gameplay is a lot of fun.  I was in the same boat as you having only the 2 pack in games for the first week.   I rented Call Of Duty ghosts and cleared it which tided me over to SM3dW.  My 2 daughters (4 and 2) LOVE playing it (and dieing a LOT) and watching me play it.  It's a must have.

I just rented Rayman Legends.  It's a lot of fun as well.  The opening blew me away graphics wise.  The levels graphics aren't as impressive.  Not sure what happened there it all looked like the same models.  Gameplay is top knotch.  As for whether it's a family game, I'm not sure yet some of the themes are a little iffy for me so far (worried about giving the kids bad dreams).  If your kids are older then they'll like it.

I have to agree with you about the input.  The UI is a mess.  It's not good at all.  It needs WORK.  The Wii was a luxury system.  It didn't require you to mess with configurations much, let you pretty instantly start the machine and jump into any game or channel like netflix and you'd be PLAYING or WATCHING something QUICKLY.  The Wii U, UI is a big WTF?  The icons make no sense.  I often hit one because I don't remember WTH it does so I want to be reminded.  

The eshop is ok, much better then the Wii's shop but not perfect.  Gifting is gone....?  Music isn't as catchy and some things are slower then I'd like. 

The new tracking tool for your time spent playing is much better then the Wii's but still needs some improvement such as the stuff that the Nintendo Channel gave you (hours others played the game etc).  It should also show you the over all view of your play time.

The mandatory patch sucked but as others have said, going forward you will never have to deal with that again as long as you set up the background download.  You buy a new game, just skip the patch and play it.  It'll download the patch in the background and install it later for you.

In Wii Mode, it makes no sense for Nintendo to not have made the Wii U controller work with it.  The system knows the controller is there, it tells you to use another controller, so it's getting the commands.  Plus Wii mode is a tad slower then a real Wii.  

I've had the system for a month now and it's had 100 hours of use already.  I'd say that's about equal to what my Wii had during it's first month. 

Get at least Super Mario 3D World and Rayman Legends. The graphical leap to the original Wii is pretty obvious and they're some of the most fun platformers ever. They also don't need updates so far.

I have around 20 Wii U retail games and I never thought of getting Mario & Sonic at Sochi, that stuff is horrible...

You just proved my point.  Having already had many Wii games, when you purchase a new console, you get the pack in game(Mario Brothers) and I let my kids pick another.  I know that the Wii games will only play in Wii mode at the native 480p.  I never said that they didn't.  What I mentioned was that the Mario Brothers and the Olympics games that are running at 720p seem to be graphically the same as their old school bretheren.  I was unimpressed that the latest versions of a game seem to be so similar to the 15 year old versions.  I know that if the WiiU was the only console that I owned and that the 1 game that I was buying was going to be the only game that I would have to play, I would have put more effort into the research.  But if you have kids, you will know that research isn't always what kids want, they want what they want for their own reasons.

Right, the kids want whatever they want. I get that. I wanted stuff all the time when I was a kid. But, I actually discovered that my favorite games weren't the ones that I really wanted. It was the ones that my relatives gave me for my birthday or Christmas. I discovered Madden 2005 (was never a big football fan) as one of my favorite games to play. I must have poured over 1000 hours into it. Even when we're young, it's important to go beyond what we 'want'.

Otherwise, I'd probably be an evil person today. Haha.

I have 2 eyes and 1 brain. I own a high end PC and Nintendo consoles.I dont have a clue what are you talking about. WiiU graphics are on par with Ps360, outclassing them in places where struggling in others due to architectural differences.

Your comments relating to "Nintendo for the kids while i play PS360" makes me puke and i dont respect you enough to keep arguing whatever nonsense you are trying to prove.

Bye bye bye.

I mean... you didn't make good game choices. The Mario & Sonic games are not good. They've never been good. New Super Mario Bros. U is fine, but nothing to write home about... It's great because it's a 2D Mario game and those are fun, but nothing about it will feel new. 

There's a lot of fantastic games on the Wii. Super Mario 3D World, Wind Waker HD, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Lego City Undercover, Sonic Racing Transformed, Rayman Legends, Nintendo Land. You just didn't choose well. 

you can thank Microsoft with their xbox for starting this update trend shit. Console gaming isn't what it use to be sadly.

you are now an unpaid beta tester lol.

Yeah nintendo update are slow, was the same on the original wii.

I think you don t remember what a n64 game look like...

and you buy it for your kid and they love it...so where s problem?

Don't be fooled. We never had him to begin with...

Zombi U is a pretty great game, not kid friendly tho.