[Coda]

Who wants a Wii U?

(That's a link. Click it.)

[Lestrade]

It's not the weight that concerns me, it's the size. I just can't imagine it being comfortable in my hands for long at all.

The first-gen XBox controller was pretty much unusable for me ^_^* If this is worse I can't even imagine it. How is a kid supposed to play it?

[Coda]

My five-year-old son has no problems managing the controls. While the controller itself is large the button placement is quite reasonable -- a little more compact than a Wii Classic Controller, maybe around the spacing of a PS3's buttons.

[Coda]

Aw. Coda was trying to be a clever hacker, but the Wii U's browser lies.

I figured out how to get almost complete control over the GamePad's controls from within a web page. The only buttons I can't make use of are B, Y, and Home; X, ZL, and ZR are possible but awkward, and I can track the TV button to know when the user has the TV remote open. (I MIGHT be able to figure something out with ZL and ZR, but I haven't dug enough yet.) I have both sticks, the D-pad, the touch screen, and the L, R, A, +, and - buttons under complete control.

Well, the browser CLAIMS to support the Wii Remote. You can see the pointer on the screen, and there are functions to access it.

But it doesn't DO anything. :(

Fiddle with it as I might, I don't get ANY readings from the Wii Remote. Not only can the Wii Remote not do anything but point at the screen NORMALLY, I can't find any way to turn it on so I can read the values out of it like you could in the Wii's Internet Channel.

Poop.

[Belial]

So how good is this thing anyway? isn't it just a glorified tablet?

And reading this doesn't give me warm fuzzies.

Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata has apologized for the Wii U’s time-consuming day one update — a compulsory patch that takes as long as an hour to download and which prevents users from accessing the Miiverse, play Wii Games or use Hulu Plus.

In an interview with IGN, the company president said that he was “very sorry,” and that he feels users should be able to “use all of the functions [of a console] as soon as they open the box.”

He added that people can expect further, incremental software bumps that’ll add functionality to the system over time, and that new Mario and Zelda games would be announced just as soon as the company had worked out how to produce games that utilize the console’s unique hardware.

[Chi]

Sometimes I have to wait longer than that for my PS3 so that was no trouble for me. Also, it was maybe 30 minutes for me to update.

I got a Wii U yesterday and have only played Nintendo Land too. I enjoyed most of the games even though half of them are 1 player. That was kind of a bum. I really liked the graphics and the gameplay feel. If there is one more thing I can say, the little NPC for Nintendo Land, I forget it's name, is ANNOYING. It stops you every time you leave a game to tell you about a feature when you just want to play the game. It was annoying for me but I think it would be useful for a little kid or an adult trying to play with a child. And I mean a non-savvy adult. xD;

[Coda]

Belial, that really only says that Nintendo cares about the quality of the system. I would rather their big-name titles really be awesome masterpieces that showcase the platform than to have them be one more name on the list. The initial update was a faux pas, but waiting on those titles I don't have a problem with.

Hehe, don't worry, Monita shuts up after a while. Two or three times through a given game and you don't hear from her again.

In other news, http://greenmaw.com/ahigerd/canvas3d.html on the WiiU browser -- up and down are forward and backwards, A resets the view angle.

[Belial]

I don't know, it seems weird to me that they released this without even knowing how to make or put games onto it.

[Coda]

It's not so weird from a business perspective. Nintendo NEEDED to release the Wii U as quickly as possible even if that meant finishing the software AFTER they had sent the hardware specifications to fabrication. The Wii had lost most of its traction in the market and the 3DS still isn't selling well enough on its own. Nintendo had to release a product not just for the sales values but also to get third-party developers back in the game -- consider just how few good third-party Wii games were produced. Releasing the Wii U told developers that their efforts weren't going to just be vaporware.

[Belial]

In my viewpoint, as a consumer, the Wii seems to rely heavily more on flashy trends. We have a wii and for a while it was fun but we hardly use it now as the controllers for the PS3 and the Xbox are more familiar.

Some changes are hard to accept and those controllers I still can't get used to.

I'm sure other people feel different about it however.

[Coda]

That's something Nintendo's hoping to correct with the Wii U. The reason that happened with the Wii is because the motion controls were so hard to code properly for that few third-party developers wanted to try, and the console didn't have the raw horsepower for third-party developers to want to risk putting hours into Wii versions when a PS3/360 release would sell just as well.

[Belial]

Its strange, I like to think of myself as open minded but yet I can't even deal with a controller that isn't like the Xbox or PS3.

Maybe change is too scary for me, ha ha ha.

[Coda]

Nintendo recognizes that, and therefore


Also the GamePad in use feels like that too, all the buttons are where you'd expect, your hands are just farther apart than usual.

[Ducky]

i picked up on of the test gamepads in a store recently and it felt very off. Just the spacing between your hands. Odd, but not bad at all. I could easily see myself getting use to it.

[Lestrade]

I think the reason that announcement is so alarming is that it really sounds exactly like what I suspected when I first heard it announced is coming to pass -- they released a system with a goofy gimmick (AGAIN), but this time they don't even really know what they're doing with their goofy gimmick.

The ads are SO unappealing. They keep showing kids playing games on the tablet while it's playing on the screen as well, but looking at the tablet screen the entire time, and all I can think is "if I wanted to play a handheld game, I already have a DS for that...)

[Xurxo]

I want a Wii U but I'm waiting this one out for a little while since I want the price to drop a little bit before I do get it. I like the Lego games, so I'm really excited for that. I kind of want to see how it goes. I've heard very mixed reviews for it.