VG247 Forum » Topic: Wii-U Impressions

VG247 Forum » Topic: Wii-U Impressions http://www.vg247.com/forum/topic.php?id=6961 Just another bbPress community en-US Wed, 22 May 2013 05:01:59 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://www.vg247.com/forum/search.php polygem on "Wii-U Impressions" http://www.vg247.com/forum/topic.php?id=6961#post-40046 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:08:29 +0000 polygem 40046@http://www.vg247.com/forum/ set up was fine for me, found it really smooth in all honesty. the patch and the game updates (nintyland and nsmbu) have been annoying a bit but i knew that this would happen so i was prepared. it didn´t take that long for me. i started the patch took a walk with the dog and when i came back everything was ready to go. no problem. i never had a problem yet, only once the browser did freeze in but was fixed after i did shut down the console. this stuff happened on my ps3 and 360 as well. i am deeply in love with miiverse. it´s the future, plain and simple. it is clever, it feels like it means something to share stuff. very very well done nintendo. must get copied by msony. loving nintendoland, wish it was on the hardrive, wouldn´t mind to pay full price for it. it has a lot of content, i like to hang around at the plaza and meet n greet other miis too. the presents are really nice if you are a nintendo fan. i totally like the artdesign, the game just makes me smile. it´s not a hc game where you "lose" 8 hours of your life in one sitting but it´s a game i will return to every once in a while. nsmbu is already one of my all time fave 2d mario games. i really do mean that. imho they nailed it with this. the difficulty is perfect, it can be hard but never annoying. coop is a blast. that´s when the gamepad realy makes sense. this game makes me very optimistic about future nintendo game releases for the wiiu. i like the artdesign too. it really is nothing special, it´s just a nsmb game in hd, but i really don´t mind, in fact i prefer it. it captures the nostalgic feel very well while still feeling fresh, at least it works for me. i love this game. already in my hall of fame. also have nano assault, which is a great dual stick shooter, just as good as geometry/stardust and it looks fantastic (!!!) on the screen, also bought trine 2 which is also superfun and great to play on the pad. haven´t bought zombi u yet but will very soon. loving the e-shop, clean an slick, i agree that there should be much more demos, i am pretty sure they soon will come. pricing for full games are too high, some prices (trine2 for example) are really good...pricing is an issue on ps360 too though. but where´s the virtual console???...oh yea, i have too boot into wii mode...i guess. so let´s talk about the wii then: played some wii games today and they look crisp and clean. really good. i am a bit disappointed (no, scratch that: i am disappointed) that you have to boot into a wiimode though, would have prefered to just launch them from the wii u interface. also hoped that some games could habe been played on the tablet alone, but nope....missed opportunity imho. DKCR playable on the pad would make some people buy this game for their wii u i believe. loving the browser too, works really well, using it a lot, i agree totally with your youtube opinion DrDamn, watching movies on the pad is great too. i think the system will have a bright future with some amazing games...really happy with it. DrDamn on "Wii-U Impressions" http://www.vg247.com/forum/topic.php?id=6961#post-40045 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:37:55 +0000 DrDamn 40045@http://www.vg247.com/forum/ Agree to an extent about Nintendo Land, it should simply be included with all systems and definitely not sold for £40-£50. On the surface it is a collection of 12 games most of which are equivalent to £1 mobile games. I think there is more fun to be had in attraction mode once you have people a little more used to the games though. Mario is an interesting one. I'm a world and a half in now, 12 or so levels, and you are right it could have just as well been a SNES game. There is a lot more refinement and subtlety to the level design than a lot of other games, something which is not immediately apparent. Graphically it's put to shame hugely by Rayman Legends - which also looks like it uses the Gamepad in a lot more interesting a way. It's still a very solid game though, and there is a lot of variety in the levels and gameplay - but nothing which utilises the WiiU beyond the OS features. Edit: There should be a demo for Rayman soon apparently. Edit 2: Added quite an important "not" :) Gadzooks! on "Wii-U Impressions" http://www.vg247.com/forum/topic.php?id=6961#post-40035 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:51:33 +0000 Gadzooks! 40035@http://www.vg247.com/forum/ I spent Friday evening with some friends playing a nice shiny premium, NSMBU, ZombiU and Nintendo land. It was the perfect situation for the WiiU to shine – couch multiplayer gaming is Nintendo’s forte – but I’m afraid for me it failed miserably. I really like the console hardware. The gamepad is just superb. It’s comfortable, feels good in one or two hands, is incredibly flexible, and is as far from a gimmick as is possible. It’s a genuine evolution of the controller and if MS and Sony don’t follow suit I’ll eat a variety of hats. ZombiU I thought was nice: Atmospheric, tense and challenging. It requires a bit of thought about how you proceed which is always nice, and I can see the Dark Souls influences. I’d frankly be furious about having paid for Nintendo land. While I enjoyed some of the minigames I don’t think I’d want to play any of them again. They showed off the capabilities of the gamepad very nicely, and the whole thing was neat and slick… but there was absolutely no substance to it. This should have been a freebie, a taster, tech demo, whatever you want to call it, but the games are far too basic to warrant paying for. NSMBU – This also was a huge disappointment for me. It could be a SNES game, simply put. I have no problem with Mario or colourful 2D platformers in general, but boy is this game basic. There are XBLA/indie games that put this game to serious shame. I don’t think I’ve ever been bored as quickly with a game as I was with this. The asynchronous multiplayer spiced proceedings up for a good minute or two, but placing blocks got boring as quickly as headbutting them. We didn’t connect the console to the network at my house as I’d already heard the connection horror stories, so I didn’t see MiiVerse. Can’t say it particularly interests me. There’s huge potential in the machine. I’m positive that there will be some incredible games for it than currently can’t be created on any other platform, but for now it’s potential. For me at least. The most telling thing for me was that after trying the WiiU games we had, all I wanted to do was put Boom Blox on. A certain Doctor forgot to bring it with him though. Damn! ;) It was a very disappointing showing, but also very encouraging because the tech is great. It’s capable, slick and opens up a huge number of new exciting ways to game. It just needs some better games IMO. I have funds ready and waiting for when they arrive. I don’t expect it will take too long. Summary: One thumb up, one temporarily down. DrDamn on "Wii-U Impressions" http://www.vg247.com/forum/topic.php?id=6961#post-40034 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:14:12 +0000 DrDamn 40034@http://www.vg247.com/forum/ So after my first weekend what are the overall impressions? Initial Set-up -------------- Horrible, just horrible. Started at ~10:30pm last Thursday. Failed to connect to my Virgin Media Super Hub - took an hour to work out it needed a static IP etc. Then once going it took 10-15 attempts to start the system update, which fail once whilst running and eventually took ~1 hour on a 60Mb line. There were then further updates to Nintendo Land, Mario, Netflix etc. Fairly shocking for a Nintendo console out the box. General Use ----------- Once it was up and running in general use it's just lovely. The GamePad is generally really well used and integration is well thought out and useful. Being able to do things like turn on, access tools, downloads and even some games without turning on or taking over the TV is great. Utilities out the box are decent. Browser, Netflix, Lovefilm and Youtube all useful additions. Browser I thought was surprisingly quick and lack of multi-touch is not so bad once you get used to using the sticks. No HTML5 video support though. YouTube looked very nice aesthetically but wasn't well designed in terms of using the two screens. You can't use the app by itself on just the gamepad and they could have done a lot more with the second screen when playing on the main screen. Switching apps, or bringing up friends lists etc takes too long, something they should be able to improve with updates. Gamepad ------- Nice to hold and use. Good finish and solid enough. Screen is ok to look at - not sure there are any controls for brightness etc though? Maybe hidden in the options. I found the resistive screen poor to start with as I'm used to very sensitive capacitive screens. It's still not great but I'm getting used to it. It's best to use the stylus where you want a bit more precision and can afford to use it (browsing for example). Battery life has been ok with reasonable use. I stick it in the charging cradle when not in use and that works well for me so far. Game - Mario ------------ Not played a Mario for some time properly, so familiarity of it all is not something I'm well placed to comment on. It's a nice looking game and great fun to play though. Good set of extra challenges and things to keep you going outside the main game too. As you might expect lots of nice little touches and polish to the game keep you smiling throughout too. A game that can also be played purely on the gamepad too - which works very well and looks great. Game - Nintendo Land -------------------- I thought this would be an ok diversion and perhaps a bit of a laugh couch multiplayer. Didn't think it would be worth a £40 entry fee if outside the Premium bundle. I'm really enjoying this one though. A lot more content than meets the eye and a lot which can be enjoyed single player too. As with Mario lots of nice touches and polish which complete the package. Really for me the surprise was the Attraction Mode couch multiplayer game. It works really well and has a well thought through structure. Select number of players and rough amount of time you want to play for. Each round the gamepad switches to a different player and they get a random selection to choose a games to play - either vs. all the other players or against a specific player. Anyone not playing that round gets a chance to bet on who will win and get points that way. The game balances the opponents you can chose for a one on one so it's fair too. Game - Zombi-U -------------- Just got to play this round a friends place. Really liked the pace, atmosphere and integration of the gamepad - it adds a lot. The Zombi-Me bit it does with the gamepad camera is lots of fun too. Other - eShop ------------- Seems quite well structured and has a decent amount of content in terms of screens, video and full games / wii-u-ware(?). Very low on demos though - just FIFA. They should have had demos of all the wii-u-ware stuff (make it mandatory) - and the Nintendo titles at least. Prices were generally too high - particularly retail titles. RRP is not what retail sells it for and that should be reflected. The 8% (about 10% if you want to deceptively round up) points rebate for premium owners is not enough. Demos once downloaded also then need to be installed. That's rubbish. The 360 has been doing this how it should be done since it's launch. No excuse for this not having been designed better. Other - MiiVerse ---------------- From the outside it looks like this is just a forum built in to the OS, which by itself is nice enough. Bring the community into the system and don't pollute other social networks. However the extension directly into games brings about something more substantial. Things like Mario encouraging you to comment on achievements in game and those messages not just appearing in the forum of the game, but also in friends world map directly in the game is really quite nice. Extending that to allow drawings and screen grabs as standard is also very useful. It's not a killer app as such, but it is a differentiator and a nice Nintendo take on this sort of integration. Conclusion ---------- As a system the Wii-U is a pleasure to use. In a lot of ways very well thought out and designed. The OS set-up of being able to customise the appearance and location of utilities and games is what should be standard these days. It does this well whilst using the other screen for supplementary info or a secondary view. The second screen is very natural for the majority of use and play. Only bad design in a particular application (YouTube for example) being outside that. It does add to games and general use significantly - however there isn't a single magic bullet with this like WiiSports was for the Wii. That's a good thing in the long term I think. It doesn't force a particular way of play onto games like motion control did. It does offer flexibility and freedom to use or not use as appropriate though. The system and it's games are fun - that's the bottom line. Whatever happens with third party support post PS4/NextBox you can near guarantee some quality releases for years to come from Nintendo.