Nintendo Wii u

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When looking at the Nintendo Wii U, it's important to remember that when the Wii launched in 2006, some people laughed at the console's intention to "disrupt" gaming.

It didn't look like a disruptive piece of kit – but it was. The proof lies in the fact that Microsoft and Sony subsequently felt obliged to create the Kinect and Move, not to mention the entire generation of people it introduced to video games. But surely it couldn't pull of the same trick again with Wii U?

Oh yes it can. Although there was trepidation mixed in with the excitement when we pitched up at Nintendo's still half-built booth at E3, on the day before the press conference at which it would launch Wii U, for an ultra-exclusive sneak preview of the new console.

Which was conducted in a gloriously cloak-and-dagger manner – a wristband had to be obtained, security insisted we hide our press badge, we were given a lengthy list of questions we couldn't ask, photography and audio-recording devices were strictly banned, and we had to wait outside a demo room sealed by a blast-door that would tax a professional safe cracker.

Upon entering the inner sanctum, Wii U itself, although apparently hooked up to a big screen, initially remained concealed – indeed, the console remained a shadowy presence throughout, partly hidden in a cupboard. What we could see of it resembled a slightly more rounded Wii, but in truth, it looked like a prototype not yet given the benefit of an industrial designer.

We were told that none of the games we would be playing were actual games, but rather tech-demos. And our first glimpse of anything running on the console was emphatically that: a lengthy fly-through in an immaculately constructed virtual Japanese garden, from the viewpoint of various birds, designed to show off Wii U's graphics-processing power.

Which was impressive if not jaw-dropping – on a par with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, running in full HD, with depth of focus and convincingly modelled water and weather effects. We had established that Wii U will be able to run the sort of third-party titles that currently only make it onto the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but before long, we began to yearn for some signs of Nintendo's fabled disruptive gameplay.

What the hell is that?

They weren't long in coming. With a theatrical flourish, the new controller was produced. On clapping eyes on it, our initial reaction ran thus. What? The hell? Is that?

The controller is one of the strangest bits of kit you will ever see. It basically resembles an unholy mating of a tablet PC and a gamepad. It's huge – you need both hands to grip it – and dominated by a massive, 6.2in touchscreen.

It has two analogue sticks, all the buttons you would expect to find on a gamepad (including two triggers on the back plus two bumpers, which weren't used during the demo), a camera pointing at you and a tiny speaker. It motion-senses like a Wiimote and has a gyro-sensor like the 3DS. The whole shebang basically has most of the elements found in the PlayStation Vita (bar the processor and graphics chips), and is much bigger than Sony's new handheld.

It's clearly not something you can wave around with abandon like the Wiimote, so we initially found it more than a little confusing. Luckily, the chance to experience some proper gameplay was at hand, and the point of the new controller became clearer.

Nintendo had been banging on about how that bizarre piece of design was all about providing new gameplay experiences, and from the off, there was no disputing that it delivers on that count.

Mii Chase

The first tech-demo we played – although it looked suspiciously like a mini-game that you might find in a Wii U version of Wii Play – was called Mii Chase. On entering the room, we had noticed a collection of Wimotes, which seemed odd, but Mii Chase rammed home the message that part of the point of the new controller is about interplay with the familiar remote control.

Mii Chase was an ultra-simple game for up to five people. I would navigate Mario, using the new controller, around a maze-like circular level, while four people equipped with Wiimotes would, after I had been given a head-start, try to chase me down within a certain time. The twist was that they had to share a split-screen on the TV, whereas my screen on the new controller showed a third-person view of my character, plus a top-down map with the whereabouts of my pursuers.

In gameplay terms, this was almost laughably simple, yet the whole experience felt fresh and innovative, as well as fun. The need for the pursuers to co-operate generated a raucous atmosphere, yet the private information communicated by the new controller's screen meant I could stay one step ahead of them.

If you think about it, there are an awful lot of Wiis out there, and if people are going to upgrade to Wii U, they'll be thankful that those Wiimotes, at least, won't become redundant. So to create gameplay from the interplay between the two types of controller could just be a stroke of genius.

Battle Mii

Next up was Battle Mii, in a similar vein to Mii Chase, but somewhat more sophisticated. Battle Mii is a first/third-person shooter, with two people (playing as their Miis) on the ground, armed with a gun and three lives each.

The person with the new controller pilots a hover-ship (equipped with six lives), using the analogue sticks as if piloting a helicopter in a game, while shooting with one trigger and using the other to zoom. Tilting the controller changed your camera view, so you could use that to aim.

Again, the dynamic was Wiimotes versus new controller. There was a Metroid theme to proceedings – the ground-based characters could roll into a ball like Samus – and health and armour power-ups. The gameplay experience was very different according to whether you were on the ground or in the air and, again, Battle Mii felt refreshingly unlike anything we had played before.

Shield Pose

Shield Pose showed that Wii U isn't just about the tension between the new controller and Wiimote-wielding adversaries. It used the new controller on its own, and required no pressing of buttons whatsoever.

The premise was endearingly madcap: a bunch of pirates on three ships – one central, one to the left and one to the right – plus the moon above were firing arrows at you, and you had to use the new controller as a shield. There was a rhythm element, too: you had to raise the new controller from the horizontal at just the right time (on a musical cue), then lower it, also with the rhythm, to shake the arrows off.

The head pirate called which direction the arrows would come from, and after a while you would have to raise the new controller and point it in various directions before shaking off your arrows. Simple, again, but completely original – and there was an endearingly humorous element to the game.

More tech-demos

Our hands-on finished with two more tech-demos. The first, Panorama View, had nothing obvious to do with anything recognisable as a game, but was startling and impressive. It was simply video footage taken from a car driving down a Kyoto city street. Or rather, stitched-together video from several cameras, as you could use the new controller's gyro-sensor to move your viewpoint around, as if you were actually in the moving car – looking up, down behind and around.

The last demo was blandly entitled HD Experience, but it will excite Nintendo fanboys. It was essentially a cut-scene depicting what a Zelda game would look like on Wii U set in a huge, gothic interior, with Link taking on a giant spider-boss.

Nintendo had mapped various functions onto the new controller's touchscreen, such as toggling the lighting between day and night, and scrolling through different camera angles. There was also a map, and you could press a button to switch images between the new controller's screen and the TV screen.

It demonstrated that the new controller's touch-screen can operate much like the touch-screen on a 3DS, letting you access inventory and so on.

Check out the video of it on Youtube as I like the uses they show for the iPad... sorry Wii U controller.

Alot decent games announced for it including Assasins Creed and a new Super Smash Bros, amongst others.

Also whilst we are talking about Nintys E3 show, i'm glad they are using more of the 3DS's power and that 3DS Metal Gear Solid game looks like a PS3 game.

Whats the point of hooking it up to a telly if its got a built in screen on the controller, and with the size of the thing i bet its dodgy to use.

Funny you say that Fergie as the e3 footage shown the tv channel being turned over and the game that was on the tv going straight to the controller.

It also showed games similar to the iPad that just use the controller screen.

The best part for me is the combination with various current Wii gera such as the Wii gun having the screen controller attached to it for a silent scope like sniper game (ie; tiny on tv, close up telescope on controller screen) and the controller on the floor showing the golf ball and you swing the Wii-mote over it.

Seriously check out the video on youtube as it's not bad.

However we all know when Sony and Microsoft release their next consoles Wii U will be 3rd place again and no doubt they will copy the idea if it proves successful (like they did with PS move and Kinect).

Worthy wrote:

Check out the video of it on Youtube as I like the uses they show for the iPad... sorry Wii U controller.

was this the video

the wii, aimed at kids and mums and worthy of course lol, all looks a bit too complex and breakable for those groups. Imagine 10 year olds with that shit, wouldn't last 2 weeks

boschbourne06 wrote:

Worthy wrote:

Check out the video of it on Youtube as I like the uses they show for the iPad... sorry Wii U controller.

was this the video

No it was the one where Reggie announced it at E3 and show a video for the controller, but thanks for posting that anyway as i've not seen it yet.

As for Sextons comment, i'm not quite a Nintendo fan boy as such (trust me i've seen proper fan boys and they are far too one sided), i'm just a fan of new ideas other than “lets add bigger graphics” and thats why i'm torn between keeping my 3DS or selling it for the PSPvita (I like the touch pad on the back).

BTW the video for Wii U also shows the controller being used for live video chat which uses the camera on the front of the controller, so that and this talk by them that online with Wii U will rival Xbox live and PSN, makes me think they are straying from the family stuff a bit.

never said you were a fanboy


Nintendo was always on top when I was growing up, but then playsation came along and took over, be nice to see nintendo come back with something substantial to make gaming move on as a whole. But they will need to be taking over a different market by the look of it, as their current one imo would struggle with the new concepts, which would then leave the gap open for microsoft or playstation to really pander to the younger gamers

I no you didn't Sexton, just thought i'd point that out incase I came across as one.

I agree with you though Nintendo need to up their game and after watching the whole of their e3 confrence on Youtube, I think they are heading in the right direction.

http://goo.gl/ZhNf8

It's official, bye bye friend codes and hello gamer tags!!

So with Xbox Live/PSN style Gamer Tags, video chat and a shit load of hardcore games like Mass Effect, Gears of War, etc... getting released it seems Nintendo have been listening to the fans.

But surely they're gonna sell less? They targeted people who weren't involved with games, and it worked because they all bought the Wii because it was cheaper, looked easy to use and had light-hearted games. It didn't matter that most people's Wii's are sat in the corner doing nothing, loads of bought them, well more than bought the PS3 and Xbox, so why are they making it like the PS3 and Xbox?

Simple Leak, they still have gimmicks and the family friendly stuff, but they now have the stuff for hardcore gamers too and basically Wii U is taking the best parts of the Wii, PS3, Xbox360 and Ipad, then putting them all together in one console.

Nintendo has never labelled the Wii as a kids console, everybody else did and now Nintendo wants to show that Wii U is for everybody, not just kids as hardcore gamers feel the current Wii left them out after Mario Kart and Smash Bros.

So long story short, Nintendo are adding hardcore gamers to their target audience whilst still keeping the family happy... best of both worlds.

leak, in the 90s and early 2000s nintendo dominated hand held gaming, now there is a more even split to that, as there is with consoles, so the consoles need to keep stepping up to keep nintendo strong
i

Nintendo have had a big drop in sale figures and there disappointed with the sale figures with the 3Ds as there not good and its not selling. So they dropped the price a lot on the Wii to try and get there sales up. Also the Wii u has been slatted already and people are not high on it and now Nintendo fear its not going to sell like the 3Ds and wont huge like the Nintendo Wii first was.

I think they've gone overload with everything. Tried to put too much into one thing.

boschbourne06 wrote:

Nintendo have had a big drop in sale figures and there disappointed with the sale figures with the 3Ds as there not good and its not selling. So they dropped the price a lot on the Wii to try and get there sales up. Also the Wii u has been slatted already and people are not high on it and now Nintendo fear its not going to sell like the 3Ds and wont huge like the Nintendo Wii first was.

Intresting as nearly everyone is claiming that Nintendo stole the show at this years E3, so I sense that the author of that article is looking to much into 'the current moment in the quiet mid-season' as opposed to 'all the decent Nintendo stuff that will be out by the time Christmas comes' as even the current Wii has decent big name releases such as Zelda Skyward Sword and Mario Party 9 coming... not to mention alot of big name 3DS releases, so forget the here and now and wait for Christmas before writing them off.

Worthy wrote:

boschbourne06 wrote:

Nintendo have had a big drop in sale figures and there disappointed with the sale figures with the 3Ds as there not good and its not selling. So they dropped the price a lot on the Wii to try and get there sales up. Also the Wii u has been slatted already and people are not high on it and now Nintendo fear its not going to sell like the 3Ds and wont huge like the Nintendo Wii first was.

Intresting as nearly everyone is claiming that Nintendo stole the show at this years E3, so I sense that the author of that article is looking to much into 'the current moment in the quiet mid-season' as opposed to 'all the decent Nintendo stuff that will be out by the time Christmas comes' as even the current Wii has decent big name releases such as Zelda Skyward Sword and Mario Party 9 coming... not to mention alot of big name 3DS releases, so forget the here and now and wait for Christmas before writing them off.

i no the price drop on the wii is because of 3Ds not selling as all game sites i go on had an article about it. however today i have read on a couple of sites about the Wii U how people are mocking Nintendo because they dont think it will live up to the hype and wont be as good a Wii and its getting slatted alot for it. i personally think it wont be as good as the Wii which got boring after a month or 2.

And i wouldnt be surprised if they did steal the show because Sony and Microsoft didn't have any big announcements like a new console like PS4 or New Xbox otherwise they would have stole it

goes with what I was saying, nintendo cant rely on a handheld gaming dominance anymore, playstaion have eaten into that market, along with mobile phones supporting more and more games and with the emergence of tablet pcs especially the ipad and the hundreds of thousands of game apps you can now get for on the move gaming.

It's mainly Sony/Xbox fanboys who are down on the Wii U and keep kicking off about seeing their favourite PS3/Xbox 360 games coming on it.

Although the only real bad things that I have seen on some gaming sites is that the Nintendo President isn't happy about the representatives at the e3 confrence not explaining the Wii U very well (I agree as some think the controller is for the current Wii) and that some share holders are turning their backs on Nintendo as they think that they'll lose money until the Wii U comes out.

However, like you said Nintendo had alot of big announcements at E3 that were popular and even Luigi's Mansion 2 on the 3DS got one of the biggest cheers in the whole e3 Nintendo confrence, so it's clear that they'll do well.

BTW I didn't know the current Wii price drop was to do with the 3DS as I heard it's because of the Wii U announcement.

Sexton Hardcastle wrote:

goes with what I was saying, nintendo cant rely on a handheld gaming dominance anymore, playstaion have eaten into that market, along with mobile phones supporting more and more games and with the emergence of tablet pcs especially the ipad and the hundreds of thousands of game apps you can now get for on the move gaming.

They don't rely on just the handheld market though as they make the most money from there own brand of games which is not suprising when the likes of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit Plus are still in the gaming charts top ten long after there release (seriously it must be 4 or 5 years ago when Mario Kart Wii first came out).

BTW Wii U is not a handheld (just pointing that out as people have thought it was).

they used to be able to rely on it, that is my point, now they cant fall back on it, so they have to make everything better on all fronts, which is a good thing for everyone.

in the 90s and 2000s gameboy was one of the biggest brands of anything, they could release a new one every 2 years and sell out world wide.

the wii was massive, but were talking about the next stage, where there is more pressure on them finding the next big seller. the wii u will have to offer alot and it probably will, but then the ps4 will appear and x box will hit back and the cycle goes on as each brand jostles in each market.

I agree Sexton as the moment PS4 or Xbox 900 (i've just made them names up) get released then the Wii U will go to 3rd place.

I also predict tge 3DS vs PSP Vita will be a closer battle than the DS vs PSP.