Close

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 40
  1. #1
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Wii My Day 1 WiiU review

    Right then chaps + chappettes,

    I’ve had my WiiU for the day now and cutting right to the chase, would I recommend it? Not really, I can’t even see Nintendo selling bucketloads of these like the Wii either tbh (although to get the most from the WiiU will need to be a Wii owner to sue the wiimotes you have).

    Anyway let’s start. They clearly didn’t spend a penny on design aesthetics, it’s a black (or white) box, there’s no real styling involved here, long black box, curved sides, an LED and some ports. That’s not a problem, means it’ll nicely hide away in your media shelf without anyone batting an eyelid. They even went a step further than other console manufacturers and included a HDMI cable, that was a nice touch. What was not a nice touch was realising that the gamepad needs a separate PSU to charge! Correct, there’s no cable to charge from USB or from the WiiU, you need a separate power supply for the gamepad. Now I’m steadily running out of power sockets as it is in my den so having to find another for this really grates me.

    And let’s move on to that gamepad, the real big selling point of the WiiU (or so we’re told). The thing really does feel cheap, the plastic on the front is nice and glossy (so collects fingerprints easily), but the back feels really cheap, the whole thing feels light too, and there’s a rattle when you shake it. I googled around and it’s just how they are, some people think it’s the Gyro, I’ve no idea, but when you’re spending £300 on a console you expect it to ooze quality, and this isn’t the first impression you get. The screen also, not entirely sure what the resolution is, I’d take a guess as it being the same as the DS XL, but a big shocker is that’s it’s a resistive, not capacitive screen. Even cheap £50 knock-off tablets on eBay are capacitive these days so it irks me somewhat again that a £300 console doesn’t have a capacitive screen on it’s primary feature. You really do notice it too, as some of the games in Nintendoland need a stylus, and finger controls just aren’t sensitive enough on that screen.

    The controllers on the pad feel comfortable enough, although does feel a touch big to use as a traditional input method. One other annoying thing was that in games which make no use of the gamepad (Mario world for example), there’s no way to switch the screen off and still use the controller! You can switch the screen off yes, but once you press a button it comes back on. This will be sucking battery on the controller for no reason, not to mention it’s actually a little distracting trying to play it in HD on your TV and having a big 6” screen showing it in your hands too. The sound on the controller can be adjusted with a slider, and some games put it to good use, but again, another problem is games which stream the audio to the controller as well as out of the console sound odd, more infuriating is when the tutorial voice only comes out of the pad whilst music out of both at the same time.

    The OS will be familiar to any Wii owner, although it feels really really slow tbh. When you first open the console, expect to spend at least 5 minutes setting up the thing before you get to actually play anything. I’ve not applied the day1 update yet, I’ll hold off until there’s a reason to do so, so I’m unsure if that fixes the clunkyness of the OS yet.

    On to some gaming. Nintendoland is a nice “tech demo”, a full game it is certainly not, 3 of the games you can’t even play unless you have a WiiMote and someone else around to play it with (I’ll drag the kids on to it later to try those out). The titles that I quite enjoyed were the pikmin one, and one where you gather fruit using the stylus. But that’s about it, the others tend to either use the controller as a motion controller or force you to play entirely on the gamepad, I mean really, £300 on a new HD console and you’re forcing me to play the DS again? I can’t really see me playing much else on nintendland apart from the pikmin game.

    So Super Mario Bros, well, it’s the same as the 3DS, Wii, and DS versions in it’s gameplay, 2D with bits of 3D backgrounds and stuff happening, but I’m a huge fan of the series, so being able to play this in HD for the first time ever is a real buzz for me. But again, wish I could switch off the display on the gamepad whilst playing.

    My ZombiU doesn’t arrive until tomorrow so can’t comment on that one, but I’ll update review when I’ve given it a go.

    So overall, it’s a Wii, and a DS combo, I think they’ve priced it at least £100 too high and I can see there being a big price cut (or price war) for it soon as it’s a big ask for a HD Wii.


    Day 2

    Having played a *lot* of Mario last night, and then some ZombiU this morning, has my opinion changed?

    Slightly, yes, but you have to be a huge Mario fan (which I am), is it worth spending £300 on a new Mario game, in super lovely HD, that’s a decision only you can make really. I’m glad I have a WiiU to play Mario in HD put it that way J

    I updated the firmware last night in the hope that it’d fix the sluggishness of the OS, alas, it does not. It does add a new eStore, WiiUChat, working youtube, lovefilm and Netflix and the miiverse (same as wii plaza on wii really), but otherwise, I’m not sure what else the huge (1GB) patch fixes (probably security holes).

    So my points from yesterday I still stand by, so what’s new? ZombiU, it actually makes decent use of the gamepad, you use it for a radar, for inventory management and for aiming (still not convinced by having to move the controller around for this). And the way the guy in the game gives you orders through the audio on the gamepad actually adds to the atmosphere as it does sound like he’s talking through a walkie-talkie at you.

    However, the novelty of ZombiU doesn’t quite carry on through the entire game. The graphics are “ok”, you’re not going to get too excited by them, the game itself makes no claim to be carrying a great storyline (which it doesn’t ) but it just feels a little, I don’t know, lost. I really like how when you die in the game and spawn as a new player, if you go back to where you die, your previous incarnation is there but as a zombie now, that’s a really nice touch. However I’m very disappointed that multiplayer is local only. I was looking forward to trying out the zombie king mode, but I can’t really get the kids running around whacking zombies with blood everywhere so no chance of me trying that one with them.

    Is ZombiU a system seller? No, it’s a solid title, I’d say a 65% rating, Mario U is still the A+ title that’ll shift units.


    Update

    Well a few days later, and still loving super Mario, that's pretty much all i'm playing atm. I've also bought a pro controller which seems a really nice feeling piece of kit, good layout for buttons and feels nice and light, doesn't quite topple the PS3 pad for me but I much prefer the feel of it to the 360 controller. Now I said "seems really nice" because I can't actually use it. Typically, nintendo in their infinite wisdom seem to have released a lovely controller but forgot to actually add support for it into any games. I'd have expected all their first party launch games to support it, and the fact that Mario supports the wiimote for control but not the pro controller takes the biscuit.


    Sonic Racing Transformed

    Finally got my hands on this game. Clearly they’re gunning firmly for Mario kart with this one, nice fun graphics (although not as good as 360 i'd say one which I have already), good power-ups, but the feather in the cap of this game is the game, as per title, transforms during races. It goes from being a kart game, to a flying game, to a boat racing game at various points during the race. It adds a little more to the game instead of a pure out and out racing on the track which I really like.

    There are some oddities though. Like the menu, when playing on the game controller, isnt’ touch-screen, so a bit of a lazy port I fear there. But it’s the first (and only) game I have that supports the pro controller which is nice, until I just realised the trigger buttons on the pro controller are digital, not analogue, no idea why they didn’t make them analogue like ps3/360, seems a wasted opportunity to me, especially since that’s what people are used to and expect from a controller like that.

    Apparently you can use the gamepad as a rear-view mirror too, but am yet to find the option for that. The sounds are nice bold and cheerful, I like the course design, only raced on 4 courses so far but I'm liking them, especially the variety you get when you transform.

    I did try some multi, but I guess either nobody’s playing or nintendo’s gaming network being in its infancy needs some work. Either way, tried a few times to play multi and gave up on that. It’s odd too that there’s a friends list feature on the multi menu, but all it does is show you which of your friends are online, one of my friends was actually playing the game but it gave me no option to join game or invite to game. I tried to host a game too but no joy, I checked my router logs to make sure it wasn't filtering anything out but no it wasn't a router issue so unsure as to what wasn't working online.

    So anyway, it’s a fun karter game, a lot harder than Mario kart, but still one of the better contenders for it’s throne. I’ll try multi again later on.

    Overall a thumbs-up, a really strong launch title that i'd thoroughly recommend.
    Last edited by _Belial; 4th December 2012 at 02:07 PM. Reason: pro gamepad

    27 Thanks given to _Belial

    Show/Hide list of the thanked

    AD (1st December 2012),  ant3b (30th November 2012),  B B Leo (29th November 2012),  Bald Bouncer (29th November 2012),  barrysmith (29th November 2012),  beansontoast (29th November 2012),  beerman (29th November 2012),  bobo06 (1st December 2012),  Chubbs (30th November 2012),  crazyal (2nd December 2012),  cyprus (29th November 2012),  Detector (30th November 2012),  ethanhawk (4th December 2012),  Ganty (1st December 2012),  greens117 (29th November 2012),  iNSPECTA (29th November 2012),  jw_2000_uk (30th November 2012),  lithho (1st December 2012),  Mystical_2K (30th November 2012),  Northernbloke (29th November 2012),  prezzy (29th November 2012),  Q-Ball (30th November 2012),  raelmadrid (29th November 2012),  scoobypatch (29th November 2012),  TheThingIs (30th November 2012),  tronads (29th November 2012),  XBOX4LIFE (2nd December 2012)  


  2. #2
    DF VIP Member barrysmith's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North East
    Posts
    554
    Thanks
    179
    Thanked:        71
    Karma Level
    287

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    can't wait for the postman in the morn

  3. #3
    DF VIP Member mysterym's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    90210
    Posts
    1,615
    Thanks
    70
    Thanked:        59
    Karma Level
    345

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    I've had every nintendo console since the nes, its virtually always been my first choice console. Won't bother with this yet, perhaps when there's something actually worth playing.

    In my eyes nintendo are stupid, they should have kept galaxy 2 for the launch of the wii u instead of releasing it on the wii - a hd version would have been a great start. The software is just not there and by the time it is i'll be looking for real next gen machines.

    Thanks to mysterym

    plug1 (30th November 2012)  


  4. #4
    DF VIP Member
    ZX7R's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Hertfordshire
    Posts
    3,976
    Thanks
    507
    Thanked:        799
    Karma Level
    578

    Default My Day 1 WiiU review

    Typical Nintendo. Recycle the same games in a new platform and then abandon it when customers are crying out for new AAA solid titles.

    I'm skipping the Wii Puu and shall tea-bag any I see in shop displays.

    Thanks to ZX7R

    beacytan (3rd December 2012)  


  5. #5
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    I must say, super mario WiiU is spectacular though

  6. #6
    DF VIP Member iNSPECTA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,592
    Thanks
    231
    Thanked:        267
    Karma Level
    347

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Thanks for the review mate!

    I was worried about the resistive screen the second I learnt it had one. The screen being on all the time will drive me mad & typically I sold my motion plus controllers with my Wii.

    Fortunately I've got Mario coming with it so something to look forward to.

    My excitement for its arrival dampens the more I read about it.

    My only wishes are:
    1) A proper NEW 3D Mario, not another galaxy or 64, something new using old school Nintendo innovation.
    2) A decent Zelda, if used the right way the game pad could make it awesome.
    3) proper innovative use of the game pad, not constant cloned displays, maps & inventories. Something unique and fun.

    If they fail to meet the above this will be the last Nintendo console I will support.

  7. #7
    DF VIP Member Bald Bouncer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    9,771
    Thanks
    4,161
    Thanked:        5,595
    Karma Level
    1131

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Quote Originally Posted by iNSPECTA View Post
    If they fail to meet the above this will be the last Nintendo console I will support.
    If this fails could be the last one they make, I looked at some MW2 video's on YouTube today and commentary but it wasn't that helpful as most seemed to be saying the 60fps was great etc but kept comparing it to the old Wii rather than Xbox, PC and PS3. I didn't find any video's showing the pad in use either as it all seemed to be screen capture rather than video of someone playing mixed in.

  8. #8
    DF VIP Member
    scoobypatch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Perth, West oz
    Posts
    564
    Thanks
    140
    Thanked:        48
    Karma Level
    314

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Mine comes tmrw, but I not allowed to touch it until Xmas afternoon.

  9. #9
    DF VIP Member
    ZX7R's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Hertfordshire
    Posts
    3,976
    Thanks
    507
    Thanked:        799
    Karma Level
    578

    Default My Day 1 WiiU review

    Quote Originally Posted by scoobypatch View Post
    Mine comes tmrw, but I not allowed to touch it until Xmas afternoon.
    You should at least update it now online - Imagine everyone spamming the Ninty servers come Christmas Day!

  10. #10
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    I"m doing my update now, hopefully it'll speed up the OS a bit as it's dreadfully slow atm. But it's soooo slow downloading the patch, such a shame you can't download on PC and flash from USB/SD

  11. #11
    DF VIP Member barrysmith's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    North East
    Posts
    554
    Thanks
    179
    Thanked:        71
    Karma Level
    287

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Quote Originally Posted by scoobypatch View Post
    Mine comes tmrw, but I not allowed to touch it until Xmas afternoon.
    i'm toying with the idea of updating then wrapping for xmas.

  12. #12
    DF VIP Member
    scoobypatch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    Perth, West oz
    Posts
    564
    Thanks
    140
    Thanked:        48
    Karma Level
    314

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Quote Originally Posted by ZX7R View Post
    You should at least update it now online - Imagine everyone spamming the Ninty servers come Christmas Day!
    Looks like I've been given a little time to do this tonight.

  13. #13
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Don't forget to patch your games too, took me about 20 minutes to patch mario world last night, and i hear there's a ZombiU patch as well.

  14. #14
    DF VIP Member
    ant3b's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    8,127
    Thanks
    593
    Thanked:        165
    Karma Level
    622

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    got one of these but cant play it till zmas damn the WIFE!!!

    Thanks to ant3b

    scoobypatch (30th November 2012)  


  15. #15
    DF VIP Member DJ OD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Location
    On da decks.
    Posts
    10,114
    Thanks
    1,008
    Thanked:        2,254
    Karma Level
    1104

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Resistive touch screen?

    OMG


    DJ OD

    Thanks to DJ OD

    lithho (1st December 2012)  


  16. #16
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Day2 added to Original post now

    5 Thanks given to _Belial

    Bald Bouncer (30th November 2012),  mysterym (30th November 2012),  Mystical_2K (30th November 2012),  scoobypatch (30th November 2012),  XBOX4LIFE (2nd December 2012)  


  17. #17
    DF VIP Member iNSPECTA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,592
    Thanks
    231
    Thanked:        267
    Karma Level
    347

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    Received mine today, been downloading the update for well over an hour and it's still only about 90% through. I'd highly recommend anyone who's planning on playing it on Christmas day to do the updates before hand!

    The pro controller is pretty nice, shaped like an Xbox pad but a hell of a lot lighter, reminds me of the onlive controller (but much better).
    The resistive screen on the pad is nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be, I had visions of it being similar to my old Sony Xperia X1 smartphone, thankfully it's much more responsive. It's like the DS screen, I imagine they picked this option to be more hard wearing.

    I've not had chance to play any games yet, once I have I'll update my findings.

    Edit: the rattle from the game pad seems to come from the stylus, once removed the rattle stops.
    Last edited by iNSPECTA; 30th November 2012 at 03:31 PM.

  18. #18
    DF VIP Member
    Mystical_2K's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Sunnyvale
    Posts
    4,660
    Thanks
    1,192
    Thanked:        978
    Karma Level
    671

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    thanks for the review, you have certainly helped me make my decision, im not buying one lol

    i will wait until they come down in price by at least £100 before i invest in one
    You know he grew up as a little shitspark from the old shitflint and then he turned into a shitbonfire and driven by the winds of his monumental ignorance he turned into a raging shitfirestorm. If I get to be married to Barb I'll have total control of Sunnyvale and then I can unleash the shitnami tidal wave that will engulf Ricky and extinguish his shitflames forever. And with any luck he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. Shitwaves.

  19. #19
    DF VIP Member bulletproof's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Lancashire
    Posts
    1,584
    Thanks
    93
    Thanked:        58
    Karma Level
    375

    Default My Day 1 WiiU review

    Hi

    Just wondering is anyone else having problems connecting their wii u to the Internet?

    When I try and connect I keep getting cant find wifi network. I have full signal and all my other device are connecting fine, ie Xbox, iPhone etc

    And the other thing when I first booted it up I had you tube netflicks Etc since I wipe the device and started again to try and get the wifi working I have now lost them

    Any ideas

    Thanks a lot

    Bp

  20. #20
    DF VIP Member _Belial's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    Cymru
    Posts
    7,169
    Thanks
    395
    Thanked:        509
    Karma Level
    827

    Default Re: My Day 1 WiiU review

    I read about this somewhere, i'll try to dig out a link, it's a problem with the WiiU's DHCP client, try using a static IP and it should work, i'll see if i can dig out a tutorial link.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. interesting review of Metroid Prime
    By djm2k1 in forum Nintendo Consoles
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 15th November 2002, 05:11 PM
  2. Review of Pioneer DVD-A05
    By Aido in forum PC Hardware
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 21st October 2002, 08:34 PM
  3. Xodus Xbox-Scene review
    By biggy7 in forum Microsoft Consoles
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 9th October 2002, 01:07 AM
  4. web site review
    By 0blue2 in forum Site Critique
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 26th September 2002, 08:26 AM
  5. Superman : new script review
    By TigerShark in forum Movie Talk
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 25th September 2002, 01:50 PM

Social Networking Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •