Mai's Wii U Experience

Joined Jun 2004
11K Posts | 0+
Georgia
Last week I had the opportunity to have hands-on experience with the Wii U, so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on it. :D

Since I'm sure someone will ask: the reason I had this opportunity is because I've been a member of Club Nintendo forever, and they sent me an invitation. Most of the other people there seemed to be in the industry in some way. I had some of the Nintendo people ask me if I worked at GameStop.

But I digress; back to the subject.

From what I played, it’s a great party system. A lot of games support five players, even. As far as deep, single player games, I didn't see anything besides ports of games already available on PS3 and 360. To be fair, though, launch game lineups are always weak, and I think I may get the Wii U in a few years when more games are available. But I wouldn’t buy it at launch.

The cool thing was that, with the games I played, I pretty much got to experience all of the control styles. I used the Wii U GamePad (tablet) to play games in Nintendoland, used the regular Wiimote for New Super Mario U, and got to try the Wii U Pro Controller for ZombiU.

The GamePad is a lot lighter than I expected, and it is very comfortable.There’s a lot of interesting ways that it can be used. If you ever used the GBA for any games on a Gamecube (FF Crystal Chronicles, Zelda Four Swords, Pacman Vs., going to the island in Animal Crossing, etc.) it’s pretty similar, except that the GamePad’s graphics are identical to the Wii U, and of course the power of it will make more things possible as well.

I know a lot of people have been interested in ZombiU. I played the multiplayer version, which is CTF. The survivor uses the Wii U Pro Controller and tries to capture flags, fighting off the zombies with guns and needles. It controls like any typical first person shooter. The other player is the Zombie Lord and uses the GamePad to place zombie troops around the map and try to capture flags and also prevent the survivor from capturing them.

Now I’d like to talk about the Wii U Pro Controller.
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Coming from a person who plays FPS on the 360, this control scheme takes some getting used to. The left analog and d-pad have the same placement as a 360 controller, but the right analog and buttons are reversed. I found myself looking down when I had to reload. It would probably be okay after I got used to it, though.

Of the games I played, I'm going to say that Nintendoland was actually my favorite. It did a great job of showing what Nintendo is going for with the Wii U.

On the subject of the Wii U's graphics, most of the games were set up on 70" (or possibly even larger, I couldn't say) tvs, and looked amazing. It really is HD.

Anyway, tl;dr version: The Wii U is pretty cool, and I’m definitely more interested in it now than I was before I got to try it. The tech geek in me loves the GamePad. :D
 
Thanks for sharing. I personally would need to have a hands on experience before it would interest me. I don't know if I could get used to looking down and also across the room to play a game. That is my concern. If the Wii U controller could be used to play a game on its screen alone, then that would grab me. It would make a nice portable.
 
That's cool! Did they invite you to something local, or did you have to travel to test it out?

I like that they're focusing on local multiplayer instead of online, but I initially thought the idea behind the WiiU controller being both a system and a controller meant that if I and all my friends owned one, then when we got together we could all play together on our respective controllers/systems.

But now I understand only one, two WiiU controllers (with screen) can connect to one system at a time? To me that kind of makes the whole thing less interesting. It's like all those GBA/GC connect ideas, except only one person can connect their GBA to the console at a time. :?
 
retro junkie said:
Thanks for sharing. I personally would need to have a hands on experience before it would interest me. I don't know if I could get used to looking down and also across the room to play a game. That is my concern. If the Wii U controller could be used to play a game on its screen alone, then that would grab me. It would make a nice portable.

I think they do have it so that you can play the Wii U games on the GamePad. That was one of the big selling points as I recall. Something about how awesome it was for families because if the parents decided they wanted the tv, the kids could continue playing their game on the Wii U GamePad. They just weren't demonstrating it at the event. The GamePads are wireless but they had them all tethered so they couldn't be stolen.

stealth toilet said:
That's cool! Did they invite you to something local, or did you have to travel to test it out?

I like that they're focusing on local multiplayer instead of online, but I initially thought the idea behind the WiiU controller being both a system and a controller meant that if I and all my friends owned one, then when we got together we could all play together on our respective controllers/systems.

But now I understand only one, two WiiU controllers (with screen) can connect to one system at a time? To me that kind of makes the whole thing less interesting. It's like all those GBA/GC connect ideas, except only one person can connect their GBA to the console at a time. :?

It was in Atlanta for a few days, actually. The invitation allowed me to pick what day and time I wanted to go. August 2 was the most convenient for me, and it only took me half an hour to get there. :D

The idea Nintendo is going for with the Wii U is "asymmetrical" control. It's basically, not everyone has to use the same controller in order to enjoy the experience. This is what allows for five players to play at the same time, instead of just four. Many of the games have four people using WiiMotes, while the fifth player uses the GamePad. Some games use all three controllers. I guess it's mostly just a way of thinking outside the box, and from what I played, it does work. Some games just do it better than others.

For example, Nintendoland, which is comprised of mini-games, made really good use of the GamePad. The mini-game I played was based on Luigi's Mansion. The people using Wiimotes controlled characters on the tv, while the person holding the GamePad controls a ghost. The people on the tv can't see the ghost, but the ghost on the GamePad can see everything. The ghost's goal is to capture all of the humans, while the humans are supposed to dispel the ghost by flashing light on it. You would think the ghost has the advantage, because the ghost can see all of the players and the entire map. But the humans actually have some advantages, too. Like, the humans can revive each other if the ghost gets one of them. So the ghost actually has to be able to get all four players out without them being able to revive each other. It takes some strategy, especially since the WiiMotes rumble when the ghost is near, so the humans can't be taken totally by surprise. You have to sneak up on them really well.

New Super Mario U, on the other hand, wasn't as impressive. The person using the GamePad only acts as a helping hand to the four players using WiiMotes. They can add blocks so you don't fall when you miss a jump, and they can knock out enemies before you get to them. I mean, it's no doubt useful, but it may not be as fun for that fifth player as being the ghost in Nintendoland.
 
Wow! That sounds so nice, Mai! YOu are making me really excited for it to come out. Tho, the part that I liked best is the five player part. I wish every multiplayer game was 5 player becuz then my whole fam could play together instead of taking turns. I am glad the graphics looked good too, tho that is not much of an issue for me. :)
 
I definitely gotta do more research on the wii u. Before reading this thread, I thought it was just a fancy new controller for the wii. Now I'm definitely more interested.
 
jr_mcg said:
I definitely gotta do more research on the wii u. Before reading this thread, I thought it was just a fancy new controller for the wii. Now I'm definitely more interested.
haha what the heck :p
thinking the wiiu was just a controller for the wii?
 
All game informer showed a pic of was the gamepad, and I didn't bother to read the article.


I mean, who wants to read an article about a game controller??
 
jr_mcg said:
I definitely gotta do more research on the wii u. Before reading this thread, I thought it was just a fancy new controller for the wii. Now I'm definitely more interested.

Don't feel bad! That's actually a pretty common misconception, which is part of why I think Nintendo decided to do demonstrations of it. A lot of Nintendo products are hard to explain just with words and in videos; you really have to have a hands-on experience.
 
Mai Valentine said:
Don't feel bad! That's actually a pretty common misconception, which is part of why I think Nintendo decided to do demonstrations of it. A lot of Nintendo products are hard to explain just with words and in videos; you really have to have a hands-on experience.
You got that right. 8)