Nintendo Wii U Run Down

            Nintendo’s latest console the Wii U was released back on November 18^th in North America and in Europe on the 30^th.  Japan will be receiving the system on December 8^th, so I’m not totally late with this article.  I find that many people are apprehensive or confused about what the Wii U is and why they should consider buying it, so before going into the list of launch titles available for purchase I will give a general explanation of the system.

            The Wii U is Nintendo’s latest home console marking the 8^th generation of console’s first foray into the home and in the process making me wish I had chosen a name for this blog that wouldn’t eventually go out of relevance.  It comes in two models: the Basic model retailing at $299 comes with a white version of the console, 1 Gamepad and an 8GB hard drive (while that is really small it has expandable memory meaning you can get it a much larger hard drive for relatively cheap) and the Deluxe model for $349 that comes in black with everything in the Basic plus Nintendo Land, a 32GB hard drive, a Gamepad stand and a charging station.  

In terms of power the console is a little tricky to describe.  From what I’ve heard there are developers that have built for it saying everything from it being slightly less powerful than the 360, to being better than the 360 and PS3 in some respects while worse in others, to it being significantly better.  Basically the way I see it is that the games available for it are still going to look like they would run on a 360 or PS3.

           

The other thing that has to be brought up when talking about the Wii U is its new controller that has actually been the focal point of Nintendo’s messaging about the system to the point of some confusion from potential customers.  The Gamepad as they have called it was actually so focused on that a friend of mine about a month or two ago, until I set him straight, thought that the Wii U was a portable system.  This was coming from a guy who buys games every other week and just picked up a 3DS this past summer.  The simplest way I can think of to describe the Wii U is that of a DS crossed with a home console. You have this large controller in your hand with a screen in the centre of it that provides additional info like say your inventory or map that doesn’t support multi-touch and you interact with by using a stylus. In addition to giving you the same sort of opportunities that it did on the DS the Gamepad also has a motion sensor and in certain games can be held up to the TV to offer a different viewing mode although currently the two examples of this that I know of in games is useless. In ZombiU you can do this to make the screen on your Gamepad the scoped vision from a rifle but that is extra work for what you could just do on your screen. Same with in Arkham City where it would just give you a highlighted Detective Mode, which is useless when you could just turn the whole screen that way at the press of a button.  Finally with what might be Nintendo’s most highlighted feature for the Gamepad is the ability to transfer the system’s display to the controller so someone else can watch TV and you can either play in your lap beside them or in another room.

           

Now that covers the basics of the system, but there are still some pieces of info that are worth noting when considering this system.  First off the previously mentioned, highly touted, ability to play your game without the TV is limited. The system was never meant or implied to be totally portable so you obviously can’t leave the house, but it turns out that depending on the thickness and density of your walls and size of your house you may not even be able to play from certain rooms. This means if you have concrete walls and the Wii U is in your living room you may not be able to take the Gamepad to your room and continue playing while someone takes over the TV.

           

Next up is the console’s issue with voice-chat. The Gamepad’s built in microphone does not work for voice-chat and Nintendo does not produce their own official headsets, so if you want to chat with friends you will need to pick up a 3^rd party manufactured one. Now this isn’t a very significant issue, however, the Pro Controller, which Nintendo made for the more ‘hardcore’ Wii U games, does not have a headset jack, meaning that if you want to play something like Black Ops 2 with a more standard type of controller and want to talk to other players you will apparently have to have your Gamepad running as well and plug your mic into that. On top of that Nintendo is not pushing in game voice-chat as a big thing, in other words it isn’t standard for their games and is up to the discretion of 3^rd party developers as to whether or not they choice to input the feature. While I haven’t heard anyone address the matter I assume that means there will not be cross-game chat do to the fact that many games simply don’t support chat options and Nintendo’s apathetic attitude towards it.

           

Thirdly Nintendo’s TVii, which allows users to watch and interact with their TV services through the Wii U, is not currently available. It is supposed to be released in Japan on December 8^th and in North America sometime this month, which is far faster than it is being rolled out in Europe as they are only to be getting the service in select regions “throughout 2013”.

           

Lastly in what may or may not be a significant issue for you the Wii U does not have any form of achievements or trophies. Some people don’t really care about them but I find it nice to have something to mark my progress and give a little extra motivation to experiment in the game. Though I definitely don’t see it as a deal breaker it is worth pointing out.

           

Now that I’ve addressed everything about the Wii U that I can think of here is a list of all of its launch titles throughout North America, Europe and Japan.

  

Launch Titles	North America	Europe	Japan
Assassin’s Creed 3	˅		˅
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition	˅	˅	˅
Ben 10: Omniverse		˅
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2	˅	˅
Darksiders 2	˅
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two	˅	˅
ESPN Sports Connection	˅
Family Party: 30 Great Games: Obstacle Arcade		˅
FIFA  Soccer 13	˅	˅
Game Party Champions	˅
Just Dance 4	˅	˅
Mass Effect 3	˅	˅	˅
Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate			˅
New Super Mario Bros. U	˅	˅	˅
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge	˅		˅
Nintendo Land	˅	˅	˅
Rabbids Land	˅
Scribblenauts: Unlimited	˅
Sing Party	˅
Skylanders: Giants	˅
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed	˅	˅
Tank! Tank! Tank!	˅	˅
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition	˅	˅	˅
Transformers Prime	˅
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013	˅
Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper	˅		˅
Wipeout: The Game 3	˅
ZombiU	˅	˅	˅