"Morning After" impressions of the Wii U
Posted: November 18th, 2012, 2:28 pm
My local Fred Meyer store stayed open an extra 15 minutes for the holders of Wii U pre-order slips to pick up their systems in peace, which was awesome. I walked in through the back entrance, where the first of no less than 5 different employees met me at each junction to point me in the right direction, as they shortcutted me through back areas in order to get me directly into the electronics section without risk of me slipping off and hiding in the store, I assume. I picked up my Wii U Deluxe console, in black, with the included NintendoLand game, and a copy of New Super Mario Brothers U so my kids would still love me, and was out in 5 minutes.
Unpacking the console reminded me of the first unpacking of my original Wii console, mostly because the cords are all the same brown color (even the included HDMI) and there was a longer version of the original Wii sensor bar, which I left in the box because I have the wireless one made by Nintendo which is even longer still. The console itself is longer and a bit thicker than the Wii, and feels solid. The little feet that allow it to stand vertically are much less obtrusive than the thing that came with the Wii, which I love. The power and eject buttons look good sitting flush with the face of the console, and have a nice soft feel when pressed.
This is my first time actually seeing the controller in person, and I have to admit I was a bit taken back by how wide it is. And the funny thing is that it doesn't look like Nintendo tried very hard to keep its size under control, because it looks to me like they could have easily moved things together a bit tighter and shaved some extra bulk off the sides of the controller. That being said, holding the controller with your thumbs on the sticks and fingers on the appropriate back buttons feels EXTREMELY comfortable to me. Each finger feel like it is sitting exactly where it is most comfortable, and you don't really need to even curl a finger to have it in the ready position, they're already there. After an hour or so of using the tablet controller I grabbed my Classic Controller Pro from my original Wii and held it for a minute to compare. While it is definitely a comfortable controller, it did not have a natural, neutral feel like the tablet controller did. I was completely expecting the tablet controller to feel awkward, so this is a bit of a relief to me.
The screen on the controller is of good quality, but certainly not the best. It feels more like an upgraded version of the DS touchscreen than the kind of "real glass" screens we are all getting used to from our phones and tablets. It had very good touch sensitivity. I didn't feel like I had to "press", which would be my first concern with that kind of screen. I think I am going to be putting a screen protector on this thing as soon as possible, though. I rather expected that Nintendo would use that kind of screen in order to keep costs down a bit for people wanting to buy multiple tablet controllers for the Wii U. Other things of note on the controller are the front mounted camera, which allows the Wii U to take a picture of your face and try to replicate it in the form of a Mii character, a feature which had my wife and 3 kids laughing up a storm this morning. The tablet also has the ability to control your TV (volume, power, input), which is a nice feature, but not something I will personally need or use being a home theater nerd with a fancy universal remote.
I think the sound of the system is worth noting. Nintendo put good quality little stereo speakers on the front of the tablet controller, and then did some cool things with the surround sound of the system to make it blend with the tablet sound and create and almost surreal effect. The audio effects that play while you are on the system menu and doing anything other than playing a game (similar to the ones the Wii has) fill the room and almost treat the speakers on the controller as an extra set, independent of the surround system, and the effect is really cool. But it isn't always in effect, like when my kids were watching preview videos of downloadable games and the controller was just playing the same thing as the surround system, with just a hint of a delay, causing us to turn the volume of the controller down until the video was over.
The only other details that I think are worth noting right now: 1. The systems graphics are beautiful, and the step up to HDMI is more subtle than people pretend it is, but it's definitely noticeable. I won't say anything about the graphical capabilities of the system until I have played something besides NintendoLand and NSMBU. 2. The black controller and screen and fingerprint MAGNETS, and it's a bit annoying. 3. The charge cradle that comes with the Deluxe system is nice. The contact points stay hidden until you actually place the controller on the stand, and it does a good job of automatically positioning the controller as you put it down so you won't be fidgeting with it, trying to get it to make contact. 4. Load times between system screens are annoyingly long. For example, loading up the Mii creating program or the Miiverse (online gaming community) takes a noticeably long time compared to what I was expecting. I'm not sure yet if this had anything to do with the fact that this is the first time my console was being asked to do these things. 5. The controller feels light, but sturdy. All I can say is that I don't feel nearly as nervous about its well-being as I thought I would.
That's all I'll say for now. But so far, so good.
Unpacking the console reminded me of the first unpacking of my original Wii console, mostly because the cords are all the same brown color (even the included HDMI) and there was a longer version of the original Wii sensor bar, which I left in the box because I have the wireless one made by Nintendo which is even longer still. The console itself is longer and a bit thicker than the Wii, and feels solid. The little feet that allow it to stand vertically are much less obtrusive than the thing that came with the Wii, which I love. The power and eject buttons look good sitting flush with the face of the console, and have a nice soft feel when pressed.
This is my first time actually seeing the controller in person, and I have to admit I was a bit taken back by how wide it is. And the funny thing is that it doesn't look like Nintendo tried very hard to keep its size under control, because it looks to me like they could have easily moved things together a bit tighter and shaved some extra bulk off the sides of the controller. That being said, holding the controller with your thumbs on the sticks and fingers on the appropriate back buttons feels EXTREMELY comfortable to me. Each finger feel like it is sitting exactly where it is most comfortable, and you don't really need to even curl a finger to have it in the ready position, they're already there. After an hour or so of using the tablet controller I grabbed my Classic Controller Pro from my original Wii and held it for a minute to compare. While it is definitely a comfortable controller, it did not have a natural, neutral feel like the tablet controller did. I was completely expecting the tablet controller to feel awkward, so this is a bit of a relief to me.
The screen on the controller is of good quality, but certainly not the best. It feels more like an upgraded version of the DS touchscreen than the kind of "real glass" screens we are all getting used to from our phones and tablets. It had very good touch sensitivity. I didn't feel like I had to "press", which would be my first concern with that kind of screen. I think I am going to be putting a screen protector on this thing as soon as possible, though. I rather expected that Nintendo would use that kind of screen in order to keep costs down a bit for people wanting to buy multiple tablet controllers for the Wii U. Other things of note on the controller are the front mounted camera, which allows the Wii U to take a picture of your face and try to replicate it in the form of a Mii character, a feature which had my wife and 3 kids laughing up a storm this morning. The tablet also has the ability to control your TV (volume, power, input), which is a nice feature, but not something I will personally need or use being a home theater nerd with a fancy universal remote.
I think the sound of the system is worth noting. Nintendo put good quality little stereo speakers on the front of the tablet controller, and then did some cool things with the surround sound of the system to make it blend with the tablet sound and create and almost surreal effect. The audio effects that play while you are on the system menu and doing anything other than playing a game (similar to the ones the Wii has) fill the room and almost treat the speakers on the controller as an extra set, independent of the surround system, and the effect is really cool. But it isn't always in effect, like when my kids were watching preview videos of downloadable games and the controller was just playing the same thing as the surround system, with just a hint of a delay, causing us to turn the volume of the controller down until the video was over.
The only other details that I think are worth noting right now: 1. The systems graphics are beautiful, and the step up to HDMI is more subtle than people pretend it is, but it's definitely noticeable. I won't say anything about the graphical capabilities of the system until I have played something besides NintendoLand and NSMBU. 2. The black controller and screen and fingerprint MAGNETS, and it's a bit annoying. 3. The charge cradle that comes with the Deluxe system is nice. The contact points stay hidden until you actually place the controller on the stand, and it does a good job of automatically positioning the controller as you put it down so you won't be fidgeting with it, trying to get it to make contact. 4. Load times between system screens are annoyingly long. For example, loading up the Mii creating program or the Miiverse (online gaming community) takes a noticeably long time compared to what I was expecting. I'm not sure yet if this had anything to do with the fact that this is the first time my console was being asked to do these things. 5. The controller feels light, but sturdy. All I can say is that I don't feel nearly as nervous about its well-being as I thought I would.
That's all I'll say for now. But so far, so good.