The Wii U has launched, garnering 400,000 console sales within its first week on the market, but is the Nintendo's next-generation offering worth the investment?
Critics seem to agree that the Wii U presents a novel approach to gaming with plenty of potential for the future, but bemoan the lack of a killer app and question the Big N's ineffective marketing strategy for the system. Whether or not the Wii U is simply an added peripheral to the original Wii is not clear to the general public. For a better understanding of the hardware, the GamePad controller, and console services, check out the reviews below.
"Focusing solely on gaming, it's going to be tough to recommend the Wii U to anyone who already owns a PS3 or Xbox 360. A sizable chunk of the system's launch games are already or soon to be available on the aforementioned systems. Just like with the original Wii, first-party and exclusive titles are really where the Wii U needs to knock it out of the park in order to incentivize a console purchase.
In almost every other department, save for what Nintendo TVii is supposed to provide, the other consoles on the market have the Wii U beat: network and offline media playback, diversity of streaming services, exclusive games, and speedy operating systems.
Despite its unique dual-screen presentation, innovative GamePad controller, and ambitious Nintendo TVii service, the Wii U still has a lot to prove."
"When you do start playing titles such as Nintendo Land (a giant theme park filled with daft mini-games) or the horror adventure ZombiU, or the latest Mario adventure New Super Mario Brothers U, it's enormous fun, especially with friends. There are more than 20 other games on the launch line-up with all the big brands including Batman: Arkham City, Assassin's Creed III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 covered - fans can also look forward to new versions of Wii Fit, Zelda and Pikmin, plus an intriguing range of indie titles such as Cloudberry Kingdom. And Wii U promises to offer much more, from video-on-demand services such as Netflix to its own social network. While the online entertainment offerings were quite haphazard on Wii, Nintendo is keen to dip its whole foot into the 21st century this time round."
"In all, the Wii U is still as much a tech demo as anything else. It can do remarkable things, but exactly what those things are and how we can best use them are yet to be determined. The Wii-style gameplay is as much fun as ever, but it's been outdone by Kinect and Nintendo does little here to gain ground. The new console could be great, if developers get on board and come up with clever ways to make use of the entire system. Or, it could be a graphically weak system with a giant controller and a terrible media ecosystem."
"As with all console purchases, a look ahead is necessary. No doubt, developers will find exciting ways to harness the GamePad and the system's other unique options to deliver one-of-a-kind experiences in the years ahead. But with the hardware performance seemingly only meeting that of several-year-old competitors, it may well feel outdated in many ways if other new hardware rolls out in a year or two."
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