Let's start with the interface. It's familiar to Wii owners in the sense that it has big buttons and convenient configurations, but this time, there is a second screen present in the form of the GamePad. At first, I had to get used to concentrating my current view, and I'm sure that this will happen again every time a Wii U game comes up with a new way of navigation.
The GamePad does not feel cheap as many others stated, nor is it heavy at all. It's just another way of holding a controller, but this time, it comes with a touchscreen in the middle and it's horizontally larger than many traditional ones, but nothing ridiculous.
Near Field Communication is also implemented, which will make several physical objects be able to interact with the controller in the future. Other than that, traditional buttons are placed conveniently, along with a microphone, a front-facing camera, a gyrometer, accelerometer and a magnetometer.
But the most important feature is the presence of a second screen. Now, way back in the early 80's, the Game & Watch and more recently the Nintendo DS already had second screens. The Wii U's version however is powered up with the previous functionalities listed, and also, it is by my knowledge the first console variant of this idea. (the Dreamcast's controller was just baby steps)
This means that all of the mandatory information will most likely be on your TV screen, while all of the additional resources will be displayed through the GamePad, when speaking in general. This basically means that you have 2 perspectives available which allow for creative new situations to happen.
One of my favorite "side effects" so to speak of the GamePad is that some Wii U games allow you to play their experience thoroughly on the GamePad by itself, discontinueing on the TV, which grants you the power to play on the toilet or in your warm, fuzzy bed for example.
Returning to the interface, the home page consists of a prettier collection of all the available square formed software installed on the console, but on the other screen, either on the TV or the GamePad, there is this little new social experiment called Miiverse.
Miiverse is a much appreciated difference from other ways of communicating together in that it is meant to be game related with positive comments, that it allows screenshots of games to be uploaded and many people somehow feel more motivated to draw posts thanks to the touch screen.
I somehow feel that discussions will be relatively lessened by the restrictions Nintendo has laid out, but this doesn't have to be negative, it's rather a relief not to see endless discussions that most of the time proceed going into nowhere, or your average internet humor, what with trolls, memes and such these days. Plus, the spoiler policy that is in strict use is a thumbs up for me.
Thus, it was a good decision to implement it in this way, which lets us see that with a more user friendly policy present, minimal moderations and getting the messages more to the point in less time, either written or drawn, Miiverse is different.
While looking further, I opened up the internet browser to test it, and to my surprise after hearing postive comments about it already, it really is the fastest known console browser I have seen yet. On the other hand, the separate YouTube application has crashed upon me, but other than that, works fine. This is obviously an issue for Google to patch up in the future.
The Nintendo eShop that comes with the Wii U is also enjoyable to look around into, having another pleasant song playing, demo's and video's available, a rating system and who knows what else is upcoming? A Virtual Console feature seems likely amongst other promising things like the connection with the 3DS eShop.
Miscellaneous stuff such as Wii U chat, Wii system transfer and Nintendo TVii are untouched by me for now. Because either I haven't needed them yet, or they aren't available yet. But I hope to experience more about the 1st and 3rd items next year. Perhaps another post regarding the Wii U features will indeed be needed.
As for the high definition graphics, truthfully, Nintendo is late to the party with this as they were with internet connectivity before that. But what can I say about them other than their beauty? I am certainly not obsessed with it as it simply isn't as much needed like Nintendo has proved to us countless of times already.
In any case, Nintendo continues to innovate and set itself apart from the others, while making a huge advancement towards internet, social media, graphics and overall connectivity. The Wii U has impressed me as well as many others so far in regards to the new ways of gaming.
The launch line-up is also nothing to take lightly. Although they will never be as important as they were at the beginning of a console's lifetime, it does remain impressive. In my eyes, there is plenty of quality based third party support available already.
Wii U games will be reviewed individually in the nearby future.
No comments:
Post a Comment