OpenForum: Before you pick up a Wii U, consider this - Ars Technica

Nintendo released the original Wii in November 2006, and its successor, the Wii U, comes out this Sunday. It’s no wonder fans and gamers are talking passionately about the merits the long-awaited new system, and you can rest assured that the OpenForum has been discussing it for a few weeks. Is it worth purchasing? The OpenForum is one of the best places to find out and discuss.

There were ten things that surprised Gaming Editor Kyle Orland about the Wii U hardware when he opened the box, and the OpenForum has been speculating on elements of the new system that haven't yet been aired in the media. We identified some major points of discussion to help you figure out if you might want to consider trying to get a system at a retailer, now that pre-orders are closing out.

Game selection

Inevitably, the success of a system is dependent on the quality and playability of its games. Can Nintendo continue its success in bringing out strong titles?

Rayman, which is delayed, is impressing some readers. jrbatche says, "Got a chance to play the Rayman demo at Best Buy yesterday, and was pretty impressed. Since getting a capable PC I've been gaming mostly on that, so I was planning on sitting this one out, but it looked and played great, tablet screen looked good, and the tablet functionality with the game was pretty cool (basically controlling the environment while Rayman runs and jumps on his own)"

Enlarge / Are the core Nintendo franchises like Zelda and Mario enough to get you to pick up a Wii U?

While there are quite a few games releasing with the system, JCaelum feels that there’s some serious omissions in this release: "Where is Metroid? Where is Zelda? Where is the innovative Mario (Mario 64, Galaxy, etc)? Casual folks will yawn at the tablet controller and "core" gamers will yawn and the lack of STRONG first party titles, which is really the only reason any 'core' gamer would buy a Nintendo system."

While there are a good number of third-party titles releasing at launch, some Ars readers think that the Nintendo-made games are the reason the console has appeal. Kinneywhat says, "Lets be realistic... probably 1/4 of the people [who] buy the Wii U are doing it ONLY for Nintendo licensed games. If Zelda and Mario games didn't exist, I wouldn't have owned a Wii either. The one benefit of the Wii U, is that it's backwards compatible with games and peripherals, and I can transfer my classic games that I downloaded from the Nintendo store. Seriously though, if it weren't for Zelda games, I wouldn't have bought a Nintendo console past the N64."

The controller

babyachilles says, "I got the chance to play with a Wii U controller at Target. Unfortunately, I couldn't play games, only watch videos. Is this also true at Best Buy? At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised at the controller. It looks like it would be awkward and heavy. It is actually much lighter than I was expecting. I was surprised by this. As for awkwardness, it is quite comfortable. I don't think it would be fun to use one-handed for an extended period of time, but maybe if it was supported on your lap, it would be okay. The touchscreen is not as responsive as the tablets (iPad or Nexus 7) or smartphones (e.g., a HTC Rezound) I have or have played with."

Though many readers in the OpenForum have criticized the Wii U’s new controller, NiteStorm, thinks the controller is just fine: "I don't get why people call it a "ridiculous" controllerâ€"it's a standard controller with a screen in the middle. It's got all the buttons, unlike the Wii Remote. Pretend the screen isn't there and its just a typical controller (although much bigger)."

Grimlog is looking forward to using the controller, as well: "Nintendo released a YouTube video today going over the various WiiU features, and while the whole 'I play a game, while my wife watches Sparkly Housewives or whatever' is commonly cited, they brought up what (to me) is a fantastic use for the Gamepad. Playing a game while watching a sport (football, soccer, baseball, etc.) on TV. Many sports have significant down-time and boring spots. Instead of flicking to another channel on the TV, the Gamepad and it's content is right there!"

sysbcl is more traditional when it comes to controllers: "Give me a plain old controller. I've tried PS Move, Kinect, Wii and I'm not a fan of any of 'em. Probably just because I'm old and curmudgeonly."

For Papaspider, though, the Wii U is missing one major social feature: "Seriously? No cross-game chat? I don't do a lot of online multiplayer, but I LOVE cross-game party chatting with friends and family. Enthusiasm dampened a little bit. "

TVii

The television features in the new Wii U, called TVii, are a vast improvement over the previous Wii. Nintendo called the TVii "the most different non-gaming initiative Nintendo has ever introduced." TVii will allow users to scan listings from YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and more. TVii will also record shows for later viewing. Users can make playlists and schedule recordings. So, does this also make the Wii U purchase-worthy?

Bargeral adds information about the cost of competing TV setups: "Roku: $50 - $100, Logitech Harmony 1100 color touch remote: $240. 300 doesn't really seem out of the ballpark considering some remotes cost that much. It remains to be seen if using the WiiU pad as a universal remote is comparable to something like the harmony, but it certainly has the hardwareâ€"especially considering it could leverage the console's powerâ€"that's going to blow any remote away. If they have any sense, the dumb thing has a remote code base that's huge and expandable. And if they did a good job with the app (or fix it after release) I could see that alone selling systems."

The price point

The Wii U comes in two price configurations. The white model comes with 8GB of storage and costs $299, and the black model with 32GB costs $349. krimhorn says the price point is not going to cause problems: "I don't think the pricepoint is really an issue. It's a game console first but it also has better video browsing options than the other (current) consoles do. Speaking completely anecdotally: I know no one who would be interested in a Roku style device because of the limitation that you subscribe to other services to get the most out of it. Most of the people that I know are fully in on the (overpriced) cable+subscription channels and might have a Netflix account. Most of the people that I know that have a Netflix account also tend to have one of the other consoles for viewing Netflix on their television so a $100 device that would only work with Netflix (for them) is a non-starter."

You’ll also find some discussions about the processing power in the Wii U, and whether it can satisfy gamers used to the horsepower of PCs or other consoles. Grimlog speculates that "I wouldn't expect games like Arkham City to be ported over so rapidly... [I'm] betting that the WiiU either has a physical Wii chipset for backwards compatibility just like the PS3 did at first or has all the shader functions built-in to the WiiU CPU/GPU MCM. It must in order to have full backwards compatibility with Wii games. That's intriguing from a dev perspective since some of the hardware-based shader capabilities of the GC/Wii (just as performing multiple texture passes) were very efficient/fast. The best looking games on the WiiU would therefore need to combine the hard-wired texture functions with custom shader routines. That would be an interesting quirk."

So, are you unboxing your Wii U tomorrow? Or are you holding off on this system? Maybe you’re focused on other consoles anyway. Share your thoughts with us in the comments or in the OpenForum. Register for an account to participate in the discussion.