Wii U Reviews and Experience Part 1

So I got my first real hands on with the Wii U since having a quick bash at a store. Here are my impressions of the games I played and the experience in general.

ZombiU: I really wanted to play this game as the reviews have been so mixed. Safe to say I can understand why. The game is a mixture of play-styles and ideas, it has shining moments and ugly bugs.

The control scheme itself feels clunky. You move and strike with your cricket bat at a relatively low speed, which is meant to give the game it's scary feel but comes across as tedious at times. You just can't see enough of the world around you, meaning if you try and run you will get stuck on objects, some objects are jump-able but others, though at the right height, are inexplicably impassable. It can also be frustratingly hard at times, with zombies able to kill you in one hit if they get close enough. Load times appeared to be the longest out of any of the games I played on the Wii U and it had some bugs like, characters speaking too softly whilst others spoke loudly and framerates dropping too low at times.

However, there are redeeming moments, sneakily placed zombies will grab you and scare the crap out of you. You get to use some cool weapons and if you survive long enough you level up your skill with them. Sometimes everything goes right and those moments are quite satisfying. It's a real survival horror type game with the emphasis on survival. There are some more modern FPS like moments where you are given a mounted heavy machine gun and you mow down zombies but in general it is about slow and careful planning. If it sounds appealing to you it is well worth getting but it is not the kind of title that breaks it's genre's boundaries and it won't please everyone 7/10.

New Super Mario Bros. U: Surprisingly I had a lot of fun with this game. I was immensely disappointed with the first one on the Wii but somehow this version captures the entire essence of all the Mario games and wraps it all into one neat package. It's just about the little things. I love the return of the baby yoshis, each with unique powers. The game looks incredible in high definition, especially the lighting. The difficulty level is quite rewarding and there are so many extras with the likes of Challenges to play through. Admittedly I didn't once touch multiplayer and perhaps that is the key but Mario was never about simultaneous multiplayer it is about the life-by-life, level-by-level kind. This is one of the few games in which shake controls actually work, all it does is give you a little extra length in your jump but it is so intuitive when you are in a panic. Well worth it for those new to Mario and Mario fans alike 8/10.

Wii U Experience: I really liked the controller, it was comfortable to hold and it had a good weight about it. Not too heavy that it would be taxing over a long time yet weighty enough that it felt solid, like it would last a long time. The screen really requires a screen protector though as the stylus had left a lot of scratch marks on it. I also really liked that games allowed you to use either tilt controls or the analog sticks for some things. The scanner in ZombiU is a good example of this. The game showed me how to scan things using tilt but then I realised the right analog achieved the same results. This is great for people like me who hate inaccurate tilt controls and I think this was done as a result of Nintendo's design. It is a sort of everything in one controller.

The load times were mixed, when playing a game like Mario it wasn't really noticeable once you had started the game up for the first time. ZombiU on the other hand had plenty of annoying loading. Starting up games was about the equivalent of what most people are used to for loading up a PC release. Obviously Nintendo have it down pat but it will take awhile for those 3rd party developers to really get the hang of it.

There has yet to be any official world wide sales figures for the Wii U but from what I have gathered so far they have sold 765,000 units in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.A., total. One can't help but think Nintendo would be a little disappointed with these results given that their target is 5.5 million units by the end of March. However finalised Christmas figures aren't out yet and neither is an accurate world wide result. Personally I enjoyed my experience with it overall and I think it is well worth getting, I am just waiting for that killer title that will really make me want it.