So, it's been two weeks now since I bought my shiny new Wii U. And while I certainly could wait longer before writing this blog, I feel like I've spent enough time with it to have enough to say about it, and the games I have for it. I'll start with the system itself.

I knew the Wii U was going to be smaller than the current gen consoles, and the last gen consoles (not counting the Wii), but I was still a little surprised by how small. Specifically, how narrow it is. I was thinking that I might have to remove my 360 from its spot in my "entertainment center" to make room for the Wii U (not that I use my 360 at all these days). But lo and behold, I was able to get it to fit between the PS4 and 360 without any trouble at all. If I ever get an Xbox One and try to fit it in there, then I may have to do some creative organizing, but for the time being, everything fits. (Except for the PS3 I have on a thing that's supposed to be a little lap table for laptops, but never mind that). In terms of looks, I think it's fine. It's not rad looking like the PS4, but not dumb looking like the Xbox One. I do the the all shiny nature of it makes dust more apparent than it would be if it was more matte (I should add, I have a black Wii U), and my house tends to get really dusty.

The interface of the console definitely feels like it is continuing the Wii tradition of big squares in a grid. It's not a bad interface by any means, but it's more like the Wii than I was expecting. I do think it's odd that when on the Wii U's main menu, you can swap between two menus, the Wii-looking one, and a Miiverse-y one where you can go into different parts of the Miiverse and do stuff (but more on the Miiverse later). The part that I think is weird is that you swap the two between the TV screen, and the Gamepad screen (more on that as well later), but you can only interact with the one on the Gamepad. At least so far as I can tell, there isn't any way to do stuff with the TV screen. Maybe if I was using a different type of controller, like a Pro controller, or a Wiimote, this wouldn't be the case. But I don't have a Pro controller yet (I plan on getting one), and I'm not using Wiimotes unless I have no other options.

I will say this about the interface: It's easy to navigate, and easy to rearrange stuff. I can drag things around with the touchscreen on the Gamepad, to my heart's desire. It's a feature that would be nice to have on something like my PS4, where I have a bunch of downloaded games, but no way to sort them. It also has some neat features like a log that keeps track of time spent in games and other things like the Miiverse, on either a daily or monthly basis. The Wii had a similar feature, and I'm told that the 3DS and Xbox One (of all things) also have similar features. It's nice to know how many hours I've spent in games, after all.

The only other thing worth noting about the main menu stuff on the Wii U is that there's a Quick Start menu on the Gamepad when the Wii U is turned on, which allows for faster access to stuff. It's a nice feature, but one that I'll probably quickly forget about once I get a Pro controller and stop using the Gamepad.

Which brings me to my next topic: The Gamepad. I don't think it's a very good controller. It's not comfortable to hold for long periods of time, some of the button placement is a little awkward, the screen is not great, the camera is crappy, the rumble is so bad I just turned it off, the battery life is poor, the range is poor, and I'm pretty sure the headphone jack is literally broken on mine. But let me tackle these things one at a time.

1. Despite having a couple of "bumps" on the back that could be considered "grips," this this is basically just a large rectangle, and it feels awkward to hold. Never mind that it's larger and heavier than other controllers, which doesn't help either.

2. This controller uses a "symmetrical" design with the buttons and sticks like PlayStation controllers, and unlock Xbox Ones. But unlike PlayStation controllers, here the sticks are above the buttons, rather than below. That's fine, but the Start and Select (which are oddly also labeled + and -) are so low relative to the sticks (which is where my thumbs naturally rest when using it) that it feels a little awkward to reach down and hit them. Same with the Power button, and I practically have to remove my hand from the controller to hit the Home button in the center bottom of the controller. These aren't terrible things, by any stretch, but they don't improve the experience either.

3. For a controller where the main selling point is that there's a screen in it, the screen certainly isn't very good. Both in terms of the quality of the picture, and the touchscreen itself. It's a touch-ass-touch screen, when means pressure, not however it is that capacitive iPhone type touch screens works. I don't really mind that aspect of it, because I'd rather use a stylus than my greasy fingers and have to be wiping off the screen all the time. Then again, this house is so dusty that I've been putting a thing over the controller when I'm not using it to keep dust from collecting anyway, so I dunno. Maybe I should do something about all the dust in this house, but that would require effort!

4. The only thing I've used the camera for thus far is the Mii Maker, which resulted in comically bad Miis. This one's not that big of a deal, because it's not like I was going to take selfies with it or anything (not that I think I can).

5. Rumble, on the other hand, is a bigger bummer. Then again, I'm used to playing without rumble, whether it was the old SIXAXIS in the early days of the PS3, or using the DualShock 4 with my PS3 in these late days of the PS3. Conversely, I'm sure it saves on battery, so it helps there.

6. The battery died in my controller on the very first day. Granted, maybe it would have been smart to just keep it plugged in the first day, but why would I do the smart thing? Since then I turned the brightness all the way down, turned the rumble off, and try to keep it in the charging cradle thing when not being used. I haven't had any issues since then, but I also haven't really tested it to see how long the battery lasts. Long enough, though. And if worst comes to worst, I can just play with it plugged into the AC Adapter.

7. One of the advertised features of the controller is the ability to play (most) games on the controller, like it was a giant Game Boy. So, I decided to test the range of the controller by taking it around my house. I wasn't able to even get into my bathroom before it lost the connection, so what's even the point? You may think I'm joking (and I partly am), but hey, wouldn't it be nice if it worked in the bathroom?

CORRECTION! While I thought my headphone jack in the controller was broken, I ended up writing several paragraphs about that. But then I decided to make sure...And it turns out I'm just an idiot. It just needs to be FORCED in, much harder than with most things. And after talking with someone (fellow mod Ross, Hi Ross!), it sounds like there still might be something wrong with mine, just not what I thought was wrong. Anyway, I now know that it does work, I get audio out of it, and really I could have cut all of this to make me look less stupid, but where's the fun in that?

Anyway, it's a real shame that the controller isn't better to use overall, because I do like aspects of it, conceptually. Like the touch screen. I've used that to draw some really awful pictures in the Miiverse! Like this one, for example!

Anyway, I really like the Miiverse. It's a silly thing in the way that I want Nintendo things to be. But I'm pretty sure that once I get a Pro controller and start using it, my Miiverse drawings are going to grind to a halt. I'll probably keep putting text and screen shots there, but I don't see why I would go to the trouble to get out the big Gamepad just to draw something silly. I know that people have, in recent months, complained about how stamps have ruined the Miiverse, because it's gotten rid of a lot of the drawings. And that's definitely true for Miiverse pages for games with stamps. But there's still some really "good" art on the Miiverse, and some actually good art, to the point where I really hope that some of these people have other outlets for their talents. Because they deserve better.

Is there anything else I want to cover before I get to the actual games? I think the Netflix app on the Wii U has a really terrible design choice, in that it is not possible to select sub accounts. That wouldn't be a problem if I only had one, but I don't. Both my dad and I share the same Netflix account, and we each have a sub account. And because my dad is the one with the credit card who pays for Netflix (which I can thank my lack of a job for), his is the default one, I guess. That means I can't watch Star Trek on my Wii U because it doesn't know which episode of Enterprise I left off on, and I'm too lazy to remember! I literally had a moment the other day where I went from playing a game on my Wii U, to wanting to use Netflix, and I realized this when I had to turn off a machine with Netflix in it to use another machine with Netflix in it. Hopefully Nintendo fixes that at some point, but it doesn't really matter when my PS4 does Netflix as well (and better).

Okay, now I think I can get to the games! My Wii U came bundled with New Super Mario Bros U/New Super Luigi U on a disc, and I bought Mario Kart 8. On top of that, I got Wind Waker HD free through that Club Nintendo thing (which has since expired, for those out there that hadn't taken advantage of it).

New Super Mario Bros. U

I had a realization the other day, as I was playing this game. I had never actually finished a side scrolling Mario game. I had played the Game Boy Color version of Super Mario Bros 1 up to World 8, but never finished it. I think I got about halfway through SMB 2 (GBA version) before I stopped, and I got about halfway into New Super Mario Bros (the first one on DS) before I stopped. The real tragedy, though, is Super Mario World (GBA again). I'm pretty sure that I actually made it to the final boss, but never beat it, because I couldn't figure out what to do. I had finished all the 3D ones that I had played. Super Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy, but none of the sidescrollers.

So there I was, wondering if I really wanted New Super Mario Bros. U to be the first sidescrolling Mario game that I ever finished in my entire life. Then I stopped worrying about it because no one cares about stuff like that and beat the game. Well, it wasn't quite that easy, because I am apparently the world's worst NSMBU player.

Seriously, I had gotten the vibe before playing this game that it was easy. And maybe it is if you are better than I am, but I was having a fair amount of trouble with some parts of this game. I even game overed at some point. And the thing that people don't tell you, because I guess no one else ever game overed in this game, but the game over system in NSMBU is MESSED UP. You lose all of your progress since the last time the game did a save after one of the castles. I'm not kidding. After that happened to me, I looked up a spot to get hell of lives, and then I got 70-something lives. It was a little overkill, but I ended with my life count in the 50s, and that was with normal 1up attainment throughout the course of the game.

Now, I don't mind when games are hard, usually. And I beat the game without too much trouble, so I'm not saying it was Ninja Gaiden II hard, or anything. (NG II being the game so ridiculously hard that even on easy, it was still the hardest game I ever finished.) But I prefer when games are hard in good ways, not in bad ways. If I die and I feel like I messed up, that's fine. The problem with NSMBU is that most of the time when I died, I felt like it wasn't my fault.

In a lot of ways, this game is the anti-Super Meat Boy. Now, I only ever played the first world of Super Meat Boy, because I was doing it on my friend's computer, etc. But I know enough about the game to talk about it. The controls in that game are super tight, and when you die, it restarts almost instantly. NSMBU is so slidy and loose that it feels like every level is an ice level (never mind the actual ice levels). If the game had tighter movement, I would have been able to get through it much more easily.

And it's a shame, too, because I really like a lot of things in the game. It doesn't really do many new things, or carve out an identity of its own, but it does play with a lot of the traditional Mario tropes in some interesting ways, mostly in the level design. Like, there's one level where a Lakitu is throwing piranha plants. There's baby Yoshis that can eat ghosts. EAT GHOSTS. There's a lot of neat little things in this game, and if it played better, it could have been something really cool and special. Even so, I did enjoy it overall, and I'm glad I played it.

I also really love the background art in this level.

New Super Luigi U

Now, I know what you're thinking. If I was complaining about the feel in the main game, then I must HATE this. Well, you're wrong! While I would still like it more if it was a tighter feeling game, I think the faster paced and shorter levels on NSLU makes it a much more enjoyable game. Now, I should be clear, I haven't finished it yet. Maybe I'll absolutely hate it by the end, I dunno. You'll have to wait until I finish it and follow this up in a future blog. But until then, I'm enjoying it more than the main game.

Wind Waker HD

Like New Super Luigi U, I haven't finished this yet, but I did play the game to completion on the GameCube, so I don't really have to. I'm mostly writing about my thoughts on this new version, I can do some big retrospective thing on my thoughts on all the older Zelda games at some point in the future.

But for this version specifically...I'm a little torn. It definitely looks better than the GameCube version, but it still looks like an uprezzed GameCube game. Not that I should have expected anything more than that, but you know. It still looks really nice, don't get me wrong. For the most part, the art style more than makes up for the relatively simple geometry in the environments, characters, etc. But there's times when this game looks pretty GameCube-y.

Really, though, my biggest complaint is with the controls. While this game has an option to invert x-axis for third person view, and an option to invert y-axis for first person view, that's it. No option to invert y-axis for third person, no option to invert x-axis for first person. Now, I don't invert x-axis at all (because I'm not a monster), but come on Nintendo! What kind of person would invert one for one point of view, but not for the other? And why is it a different axis for both options?! ARGH! So, I'm left in this awkward situation where I have it properly inverted in first person, but not in third, and I'm constantly moving the camera the wrong way. And I refuse to change, because it's a part of me, and I can't change. It's like asking me to stop being bi, it just won't happen.

Okay, that's a lie, if I really wanted to, I could force myself to stop playing inverted, but I'm not going to do that. Not when I can continually annoy people by playing with my y-axis inverted like I should. But it is hampering my enjoyment of the game, and that's too bad, because it's still a really good game, overall!

Aside from the graphics, the other "big" additions are a magic sail that changes the wind direction automatically (which is useful, but would be really hard to find if you don't already know from the internet), and the ability to take selfies and put pictures of them on Miiverse. Seriously, Link takes selfies. Oh, and you can put the pictures, or just plain messages, into little Tingle bottles, and throw them out to sea for others to find. And you can find them too, and see stupid things other people have done.

I'm going to keep playing it, of course. It's still a great game, after all.

Also, I took a funeral selfie.

Mario Kart 8.

The last Mario Kart game that I had played was Mario Kart DS. Which I liked quite a lot. And I like this Mario Kart quite a lot. I think it looks really nice, and it's a fun Mario Kart game. Maybe the best Mario Kart game, overall. Not the best kart racer, that's still Diddy Kong Racing. But this is a really good one, and I really like the online stuff. Especially with a full twelve racers, it gets chaotic in a way that I love.

It's not perfect, though. The game doesn't really have a ton of options for changing things, like the number of laps in a race. I think that's partly because two of the tracks, Mount Wario and Rainbow Road 64, aren't done in the traditional 3 lap style. Instead, it's just one long lap that has two checkpoints along it, but when you pass one, it says you've gone to the next lap. There are some options that can be set for regular races against the AI, or online races with friends, like what items to have, but not much else.

But back to those two tracks, Mount Wario and Rainbow Road 64. I really like Mount Wario, because it's this long trek down a mountain that involves going through a big cave, and across a dam. It's a cool race, and I wish there were more like it. But I don't like what was done to Rainbow Road 64. See, the thing I liked most about Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 64 was that it was super long. Way longer than it probably should have been, really. But I liked that. By Mario Kart standards, it was an endurance race. Sure, there were weird shortcuts you could take, but the intended route took a long time for one lap, and you had to do three of them. But in this one, one lap has been made into the entire three laps of the race. I wouldn't mind if there was an option to set it to be like in Mario Kart 64, but so far as I can tell, there isn't.

About the only other thing I can think of worth mentioning is the music. I think it's really great, which is a little unfortunate, for me, because I've been mostly playing this whilst listening to stuff on my computer, and not the in game music. But that's just me.

That was supposed to be the Luigi Death Stare.

So, that's about it for the Wii U stuff. Overall I'm happy with it. I definitely want a Pro controller, but I am enjoying the games I have for it. I'd like to play Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, and I plan on downloading Shovel Knight once I'm done with the stuff I have. Aside from that, I'm mostly looking to the future for my Wii U stuff. Bayonetta 2, and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U are games that I will get. And knowing my luck, I'll get that dumb Hyrule Warriors game too, because I bet Ross won't stop talking about it. Ever.

What else has been going on? Well, I continue to make no progress on my third novel. If anything, I'm feeling like I might have to completely start from scratch. Again. And I had already gotten about a third of the way into it. I dunno, I'm thinking this book might be cursed. I'll get it, or something done eventually, though.

Oh, and I became a mod on Giant Bomb too. That was pretty cool. It's more work than I expected, actually. Not a whole lot more, but still a bit more. I still really like it though. I mean, if nothing else, it's nice to just be able to give back to this incredible website that I've been visiting for years. To know that I'm a respected enough member of the community to be given this level of responsibility! It's great! And I haven't managed to screw it up yet, so it's probably going to last for a while. Probably.

I can't really say much else about it, so I can keep the shroud of mystery around the mods intact (if I don't, I have to make a blood sacrifice to the puppy gods to appease Rorie). Instead, I'll just leave you with more silly things I've put on the Miiverse.

Gallery

#YearOfLuigi

@viciousbearmauling: I played a bit of the demo, and it didn't really click with me. Not the way that Platinum's other games have, at least. I'll definitely give the demo another shot (I didn't finish the demo), but...eh...I mean, if I have a limited budget...

Yeah, here's the thing with Rainbow Road (from Mario Kart 64): if all you do is one lap of it, it feels like it's about 75% of a full, normal race. Granted, that means three laps of it in MK64 meant that it felt like 225% of a normal race, but I kinda prefer that to forcing you to only do one lap.

I think MK64's time trial mode actually gave the length of a lap for each course in metric units. Which I thought was a weird acknowledgement of real world measurements for a Mario game to have. Anyway, I swear most courses are like 500-1000 m in length, and Rainbow Road is like 2000 m.

Though I really question the scale they used, because I feel like Luigi Raceway is longer than 717 m. The main straightaway is easily like 400 m in my mind, then there are all the curvy parts that would be even longer. Maybe I'm making some bad assumptions about how fast the carts are and/or how big the trees and characters are.

@bisonhero: No, I agree that this was is probably smarter, I just wish I had the option to do it the old way. It just doesn't feel the same.

Just a heads up on the pro controller - Watch out for bootlegs, I've had to send two back to Amazon so far.

I'm glad you are enjoying your Wii U. I've had mine since Day 1 and I like it a lot.

Tropical Freeze singlehandedly made my Wii U worth the investment.

I've got a Jolla phone. I say that because I've been experiencing the same thing with that in the months since its release as with the Wii U. The device came out with such bare-bones functionality that every update that speeded up load times and added stuff like the Quick Start menu(which was added in the last update and I fucking love) makes it feel like a completely new thing. At least the Wii U doesn't crash on me several times a day. Also, I kind of love it, despite not being able to use it in the bathroom.

Get Super Mario 3D World!

You ought to try out Monster Hunter, that game will probably be the best value for money if you like that sort of thing.

@mooseymcman: Yeah, the option to do multiple laps of it would've been nice. Mario Kart Wii actually had a buttload of custom settings hidden away on a wrench icon that a lot of people wouldn't notice (local multiplayer only). I don't think Mario Kart 8 lets you customise much of anything (well, aside from the karts).

:U

@mooseymcman: Limitied budget?!?! You're a Giant Bomb Moderator!!! You have got to have phat stackz all ova da place.

@viciousbearmauling: I know you're joking, but this is purely volunteer work. They don't even give me free premium access!

@viciousbearmauling said:

Yep, the mods get a dollar every time they lock a thread. Here's a simulation of an aged Rorie paying Moosey for his services:

@bisonhero: You know, it took a lot of restraint on my part to not do something to you with my mod powers for including a clip from a movie that I really, really hate. I could too, you know. I have the power.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way about the N64 Rainbow Road. That course loses almost all of its magic when you take the endurance element out of it. The way it works in Mario Kart 8 doesn't give you anytime to catch up. If someone gets out in front they're gone and it's nearly impossible to catch up.

The bit (jokingly) equating playing inverted to being bisexual got a good chuckle out of me. Nice blog duder.

The WiiU is pretty damn awesome. Can't wait for Smash Bros, Bayonetta 2, and FUCKING ZELDA!

@steamrickroller said:

Great game, is a must buy from the Eshop to be sure. This blog is making me want to go out and buy a Wii U but I refuse to do it until the new Xeno game hits!

It's not the first time I've used that to defend my inverted nature, actually! Thanks.

OK, back on topic:

Yeah, I hear you about the gamepad. I remember before I owned one, someone on a GB stream commented that it was lighter than they expected (I guess they expected like iPad weight?). But guess what, dawg, the gamepad is actually pretty heavy as far as controllers go. I'm sure Nintendo made it as light as they could, but there's still just a lot of plastic and electronic guts weighing that thing down.

And yeah, the ergonomics of it just aren't the best. If I play it for more than maybe an hour or so, my hands get kinda sore. There's no curvy handles on the side which have been standard on everything since the N64/PS1 days, so there's nothing to rest in the palms of your hands. Instead, all the weight is directly on your middle fingers, which are supporting the weird ridge that runs the length of the gamepad on the back, while your index fingers are on the triggers. It's kind of a lot of weight to place solely on the bottom three fingers of your two hands, for 1-3 hours at a time.

I didn't mind the screen as much as you. It's obviously not iPad quality or anything, but the resolution isn't terrible. Then again, I've mostly only looked at it while playing Mario Kart 8, where there isn't much small text to get totally mangled by aliasing. The range on it isn't amazing, but I can still play stuff one floor above the Wii U (basement) if I'm in the room directly above the Wii U, which has been convenient one or two times. It really does seem aimed at Japanese homes where (at best) there is a single TV in the whole house, and the adults are watching the evening news/a drama or something, so the kid can still play Mario on the gamepad instead of monopolizing the TV screen. It is of questionable utility in larger homes in Europe or the Americas.

I think I'm the last mod to not own a Wii U. I'll never submit to the dark side, never!

I fixed that for you. ;)

Right, I still need to play Wonderful 101. And I should probably buy Earthbound for the sake of solidarity. Oh yeah and I got Pikmin 3 for free so maybe I'll play that eventually. Hm.

But yeah, I was super bummed to see that I couldn't take my Wii U pad into the bathroom a scant 20 feet away. Even going into the adjoining kitchen 15 feet away gets dicey.

That gravestone selfie reminded me of the Game Grumps final battle selfie and I just lost it. More games need to have that feature; I loved taking dumb pictures in GTA V.

Play Wonderful 101, just do it. The demo isn't great in that it gives you a ton of stuff that you wouldn't have at that point in the game and not explaining any of it.

@corruptedevil: Holy shit! I had no clue the Wonderful 101 got that wild.

It IS a Platinum game.

@corruptedevil: True, but I feel like most of what I've seen of that game is just fairly clumsy gameplay footage.

@corruptedevil: Rules of nature was added in after the fact, right?

Yes

@corruptedevil: I'm significantly less interested then.

Wonderful 101 has really good music as well.

I think Mario Kart is much better than Diddy Kong Racing.

Alright, game on, maybe if I mention the part where the game LITERALLY BECOMES PUNCH OUT!

Cool Baby Yoshi

That's definitely been my favourite moment in W101 thus far. Super bad-ass and more over the top than most cartoons of this nature.

Are there more moments of this nature after this point? Haven't picked up the game in a while even though I really enjoyed my time with it thus far.

Almost every boss is that over the top or more so, with the final boss being absolutely insane.

Nice writeup, your experience with the Wii U is pretty similar to my own, dust horrors included. You've heard it before, but totally get Shovel Knight. It's the bomb.

I'm really excited for Hyrule Warriors. I have no idea why. Well, I have an idea (THEY ANNOUNCED YOU CAN PLAY AS GANONDORF), but I still feel dirty about it.

Good.

teeheehee

hey someone had to right?

I bought a Wii U about a month ago. With it, I bought Mario Kart 8, Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World. I also got New Super Mario Bros U with the console but...since I have 3D World, I haven't even opened it. Am I really missing anything if I already have the clearly superior Mario experience?

@mariachimacabre: I def think so. While 3d is a ton of fun there is still something to said for a traditional mario style game. I've played through both with my daughter and we had a blast playing both. They have a different feel to them.

As someone who is always tempted by the WiiU and remains on the fence, this is my greatest fear with the system.

Despite my love of Nintendo games and my continued efforts I never ended up liking the Wii remote. Ultimately my dislike of it came between me and the games I wanted to play.

My first Miiverse post.

I love my Wii U, use it nearly every day... mostly to draw on the Miiverse.

I bought my Wii U a few weeks before the PS4's release when I still had Sony's console on preorder. I canceled my preorder when Watch Dogs was delayed and I realized I'd rather wait for a price drop, redesign or bundle before jumping in. The Wii U is still the only current console I own and as a PC owner I don't feel the burning need for a PS4 or Xone quite yet. Wind Waker, 3D World, Rayman Legends, Mario Kart 8 and a handful of virtual console games have more then justified the purchase.

I can`t say I have had the same issues with the controller. I think it feels comfortable and I play almost everything off that screen while I watch Giant Bomb content. I do wish the colours were as vibrant as they are on my TV, though.

The Wii U is just looking more and more appealing. Wind Waker HD, Tropical Freeze, 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Monster Hunter, Super Smash Brothers, Devil's Third (I refuse to believe that an Itagaki-headed action game in development for liked 4 years so far will be nothing but great!)... that's just off the top of my head. Glad to see you're so excited for it!

Wait... what? That... MAN! I bought Wonderful 101 back in January, but only got a few levels in. I... I need to go back.

Every level like an ice level?! Jesus fuck, no, that sounds horrible. Oh god.

I think at some point I'll get a Wii U to play Mario Kart and Smash Bros. It's been too long since I had a Nintendo console, and the last time I did (N64) those two games were pretty much all I played.

If I do I'll be sure to get a pro controller with it so I don't have to deal with any gamepad or wiimote crap. I imagine I'd eventually dabble in it at some point, seeing as it's all already right there and could be fun to mess with for a bit.

But when I think about the things I'd rather get, like a new PC and a PS4, there just doesn't seem to be enough attached to the Wii U to compel me to get it first, or even at all once I get those other things. Smash and Mario Kart can't do all the heavy lifting. I suppose I'd get the Mario U games just because.

I very much could put down Bayonetta (and did, though I still hope to get back to it), so the sequel being Wii U exclusive does nothing for me.

A more expansive open world Zelda sounds great, but there's no shortage of expansive open world games, let alone open world fantasy games what with the Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age, and Witcher 3 on the way. I certainly won't count it out though, seeing as we know so little about it. Obviously there's no limit to how many fantasy open world games there are, but when I can get all the others on another console, I see little reason to buy another console to get one more. Unless it comes out and people are all "it's like Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past had a baby and that baby grew up and ate them both; 11/10".

That Monolith game looks really pretty rad. X, or whatever they announced the name was. Maybe if I ever find myself with an excess of funds I'll buy a console for the handful of games I'd really like to play on it, but there always seems to be something else that's easier to justify buying. Maybe it'd be easier if I looked at it as just a Nintendo first-party box, which certainly isn't an uncommon practice.

Look at it like, I dunno, a breadmaker or something. But why the fuck would I ever buy a breadmaker. For that one time every few months I might feel like baking bread? If a Wii U could bake bread AND play Smash Bros, then I'd probably have to buy it just to support the appliance/console hybrid future. Is a breadmaker an appliance? It seems too small to be called one. I wouldn't call a toaster or a rice cooker an appliance. But I might call a microwave an appliance, and those can be pretty small.

So basically, video game consoles are toys. Oh man, or are they appliances too? They seem too big to be gadgets, and calling them tech is just shitty. Video game appliances.

Just to complicate things even futher, apparently Amazon views Bionicle Heroes and Robert E. Lee: Civil War General as kitchen small appliances. To be specific, Bionicle Heroes is a coffee machine.

...

GODDAMNIT WII U WHAT DARK PATH HAVE YOU SET ME UPON.

Really looking forward to getting a Wii U but will have to wait until awhile as I've got £100 in Game shares but I can’t cash them in until October but I’m already buying games…