Date played: November 23rd and 24th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10
The Wii U is here! I pre-ordered a deluxe set with New Super Mario Bros U, Assassin's Creed 3 and ZombiU. The deluxe set also includes Nintendo Land, a charging cradle and stand for the Gamepad, some discounts on the online shop and a little stand for the console. My first impression was pretty bad since I had to do a massive update for the system and all the games. Once all that was over though, it was all good.
I made some Mii's and setup my online profile. Finally, Nintendo moved away from friend codes and has a simple, user name based system. The interface is very similar to the 3DS since it is setup with some squares in a grid layout. The Miiverse is the biggest change, it's sort of like Facebook for games, or a message board with graphics. People can post in a certain game's section and talk about all sorts of things, as well as make drawings using the Gamepad's touch screen. My daughter had a blast drawing scribbles, but others have made some truly remarkable drawings.
Then I played some fucking games baby! We started with Nintendo Land. My brother was visiting and my girlfriend was there also so we played a ton of three player games. This may look like just another mini-game collection but it's a notch above every other similar game. The HD graphics look damn good and are very colorful and the individual games are a lot of fun, with a few exceptions. Pikmin is cool, the player with the Gamepad controls Olimar and the other players control large Pikmin. Chase Mii is tons of fun, the player with the Gamepad must escape and the others must catch him. The trick is, the guy with the pad can see the entire play field and the regular players see from a 3D perspective, making communication the key to winning.
There are a ton of other games that I'll talk about in a future post, but most of them are really fun,, even more so with other players. Then we jumped into NSMBU. I only have two Wii remotes, which meant that we could only play with two players and had the third player using Boost mode. Boost mode allows the pad user to place blocks in the game to help with tough jumps, tap enemies to stun them, find hidden items and even interact with some of the level geometry like wheels and levers. It's cool and fun but I wish we had to option to use the Gamepad to control a third character. Otherwise, this has to be the best 2D Mario game since World. The world map is interesting, the levels are well designed and full of surprises and the game is just fun to play.
Last but not least, I played a bit of Assassin's Creed 3. It feels and looks just like I imagine it does on PS3 and 360, although the frame rate seems more stable. The story's beginning surprised me as it stars an Englishman sent to America to find some Templar shit. So far, I've been just talking to people on the ship and there seems to be a mutiny brewing. I learned how to fight with my fists and I imagine I will soon be foiling the crew's mutiny plans. The Gamepad is used as a replacement for the on-screen UI, so nothing crazy. I haven't received ZombiU yet.
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 10/10
The Wii U is here! I pre-ordered a deluxe set with New Super Mario Bros U, Assassin's Creed 3 and ZombiU. The deluxe set also includes Nintendo Land, a charging cradle and stand for the Gamepad, some discounts on the online shop and a little stand for the console. My first impression was pretty bad since I had to do a massive update for the system and all the games. Once all that was over though, it was all good.
I made some Mii's and setup my online profile. Finally, Nintendo moved away from friend codes and has a simple, user name based system. The interface is very similar to the 3DS since it is setup with some squares in a grid layout. The Miiverse is the biggest change, it's sort of like Facebook for games, or a message board with graphics. People can post in a certain game's section and talk about all sorts of things, as well as make drawings using the Gamepad's touch screen. My daughter had a blast drawing scribbles, but others have made some truly remarkable drawings.
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| A new hardware launch is always super exciting for me! |
There are a ton of other games that I'll talk about in a future post, but most of them are really fun,, even more so with other players. Then we jumped into NSMBU. I only have two Wii remotes, which meant that we could only play with two players and had the third player using Boost mode. Boost mode allows the pad user to place blocks in the game to help with tough jumps, tap enemies to stun them, find hidden items and even interact with some of the level geometry like wheels and levers. It's cool and fun but I wish we had to option to use the Gamepad to control a third character. Otherwise, this has to be the best 2D Mario game since World. The world map is interesting, the levels are well designed and full of surprises and the game is just fun to play.
Last but not least, I played a bit of Assassin's Creed 3. It feels and looks just like I imagine it does on PS3 and 360, although the frame rate seems more stable. The story's beginning surprised me as it stars an Englishman sent to America to find some Templar shit. So far, I've been just talking to people on the ship and there seems to be a mutiny brewing. I learned how to fight with my fists and I imagine I will soon be foiling the crew's mutiny plans. The Gamepad is used as a replacement for the on-screen UI, so nothing crazy. I haven't received ZombiU yet.
