Отзывы о Игровая приставка Nintendo Wii Family Edition

<промежуток класс="">Вия прибыл в день. Она работает идеально. Единственное, что плохо, что верхняя квартира находится только с одной стороны и с другой стороны проклеены. Кроме того, что она работает идеально, и это самое главное.

I got the Deluxe Wii U for Christmas, and let me say, it has not failed to amaze me. The Wii U is a wonderful console, very innovative with a revolutionary controller, and a bright future ahead of it. So let me tell you about my Wii U experience and my thoughts on the console so far. Just a warning, this is a long (but detailed) review.*BEFORE YOU SELL YOUR WII*Before you sell your Wii, THINK FOR A MOMENT. To play ANY games on the Wii U in multiplayer, you will need AT LEAST 2 Wiimotes. Yes, you can do it with 1 Wiimote and the GamePad, but that's not really all that fun. I would recommend keeping at least 2 of your Wiimotes before you sell your old Wii, or simply buy new Wiimotes, they're really cheap nowadays.*SETUP*The Wii U was set up on Christmas Eve. My dad set up the console, so I had to get the details on the setup afterwards. From what I was told, the set up went really smoothly, but the day 1 update took a couple of hours to complete. To be honest, I kind of suspected this, probably because Nintendo's servers were overloaded with people receiving Wii U's for Christmas trying to download the update. (On a side-note, my friend that also got a Wii U said that he had to wait until after Christmas Day to do the update, the servers were so loaded.) I had to sync the Wiimotes, and they synced really fast - only about 5 seconds per Wiimote.*THE CONSOLE*The Wii U itself is basically a sleeker version of the Wii. It has rounded corners, it's shinier, and only a tad bit longer and taller than the Wii. It has four USB ports (2 in front and 2 in back), an SD card slot, and all of the necessary ports needed to hook up the console. The console is also a very quiet little bugger. With no disk in it, the console barely makes a sound. And with a disk in, you can't even hear the disk quietly whirring unless you come to a silent part in whatever your doing, but even then the sound is very faint. It's nice that the console is quiet.*THE GAMEPAD*Okay, there is no doubt about it - the GamePad is revolutionary. It's exceptionally light for how big it is and although it looks clunky, it is very comfortable to hold. The controller looks very well-built. I have three younger siblings. It's been dropped. The screen, analog sticks, and buttons have been slapped out of frustration. Not a scratch has appeared on the thing yet. The GamePad was built to last. All of the buttons are firm. People claim that the analog sticks wobble around when you shake the GamePad but it's really just the stylus jiggling around in it's spot. The analog sticks are much better than the 3DS's Circle Pad, and they are clickable, although I haven't played a game that uses this function yet. The touch screen is very responsive and typing on it is quite easy (the keys are just the right size for my fingers). Don't feel like using your fingers? Whip out the stylus. The TV button on the controller is AWESOME. Simply by pressing the button, you can turn on your Wii U, TV, Cable/Satellite box, change the input, volume, and channel all from the GamePad. This is one universal remote that actually works. Nintendo TVii does have a similar remote but it has more options, however, the TV button is what you have to use to initially turn on your TV if the Wii U is not already on. That comment being said, the Wii U does NOT need to be turned on to use the TV button features. Pressing the button will simply wake the GamePad, and pressing it again will put it back to sleep. The GamePad screen, although not HD, is still very high quality (better than the 3DS). There is absolutely ZERO lag between the TV and the GamePad, and it's really quite amazing how that works. With some games (New Super Mario Bros. U, Scribblenauts, Netflix, Amazon, to name a few), it is really revolutionary how you can simply take what is being displayed on the TV and put it on the GamePad. It's just so darn simple it's amazing. I can play Mario while say one of my siblings watches a DVD. The GamePad's battery life is not stellar, but it really depends what brightness level it's at. I'd say the battery life is about equal to the 3DS's.*WII U MENU (WARAWARA PLAZA)*When you turn on the Wii U and select your user (I'll come back to this), you are greeted by all of the registered Miis on your console. The "camera," so to speak, will then zoom out and you will be greeted by a horde of Miis from all around the world rushing into your WaraWara Plaza and they will all gather around a tile representing an app or game they are playing (NSMBU and Netflix are ALWAYS there). From the WaraWara Plaza, you can see the various Miiverse posts each of these Miis have posted. It's really cool how the Miis interact, such as them having a look of surprise when someone pushes past them, or the way they appear to be talking. While the TV displays the WaraWara Plaza, the GamePad displays the actual menu with all of the options. However, these two can be switched quite easily. Imagine the bottom half of the 3DS Menu on the

As usual I waste time with old consoles like the PS2 and the GameCube while the gaming companies make newer and more fascinating consoles every few years. This time however after looking at many classic games being whisked off the shelves for popularity sakes for a total of eight years I finally decided to buy this console. Ladies and gentlemen meet, the Nintendo Wii, a console based solely on using motion controls something that is mostly ignored and it's not the Wii itself folks, no the PS3 has motion controls as well called the six axis but it's hardly used as well. Now let's get into the meat of this console straight off the bat you have the Wii Menu which is the equivalent to the main menu of the Xbox Dashboard/home menu of the PS3. The entire menu is sensor based meaning that in order to navigate through the menus and what not you need to use the motion sensory mechanism to select say, what disc you have in the "tray" right now. However don't get too comfortable with the motion scheme of the menus as I said before the fact of having this kind of technology is widely ignored to gaming companies alike, few games take advantage of this, namely Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario for that matter.
Speaking of controls let's take a look at the controller itself, unlike all of the game controllers in any system this is a weird specimen that people refer to as the Wii Remote or Wii Mote, it has the look and almost the feel of an ordinary TV remote. Unlike most if not all next gen consoles starting from the Playstation era there's something missing to it, you have your basic D-pad, your A button, a 1 and a 2 button, a B button which is on the bottom of the Wii Mote for some odd reason, a plus and a minus button followed by your average home button. With very little buttons you notice that there is no analog stick something that is needed in a controller for 3D gaming since the N64 era, that's when the Nunchuck comes into play.
The Nunchuck is basically your analog stick, why did Nintendo do this is anyone's guess perhaps they forgot to add the analog stick while developing the Wii Mote? I don't know but this is it, it also comes with two extra shoulder buttons, a C button and a Z button. Now I know that the remote does in fact have very little buttons on it and game developers have to keep in mind about that too.
I did look at the one star reviews for this and just as I suspected they have very little reasons as to why this console may suck as much, for one, the games, let's take a look at some of their games shall we.

The games are for the most part, movie/TV show related, ever wondered what it would be like if The Big Bang Theory had a game? Well it's probably for the Wii. There are such classics for the system and I can name them all off the top of my head but I won't bore you with that but let's just say that it's mostly Nintendo related games if not all. The only thing I will gripe about is the misleading on the store page but these are nitpicks so I won't add them to the final score.
On the product page here on Amazon it has a picture of the Wii itself at it's finest when it came out eight years ago, the stand the look everything here is where it got me. In the product description it says that it comes with the Wii Sports game which I was planning on using just to get used to the motion controls and it's backwards compatible. This is not the case, all of that was a big fat lie just like the promise of having cake in Portal 1, the console I got was not backwards compatible and it did not come with the Wii Sports game, but if you might notice is that with the updated versions regardless of their color, they have a GameCube game disc icon when you enter the area for the "disc tray" when in fact it's not backwards compatible, guess they forgot to edit that out, for that a lot of people consider that to be trolling. But I didn't really need that backwards thing I wanted that just to have a back up thing in case my GameCube goes out of whack for some odd reason and as for the game well I bought four Wii classics and all have arrived before the console came to my house so I had no need to worry about not being able to play any games at that time but hey, a Wii's a Wii. Like I said these are just nitpicks and I will not count them to the final score.

So with that I think it's time to reveal the final score and give a summary overall of what has been said, for this console I'll give it a 10 out of 10, it has motion controls that need to be paid attention to and not just this ones sake but the PS3 as well or gaming console that involves motion controls for that matter and the button scheme probably could have been thought out more just to add one or two more buttons to it as well as a second analog stick. The games... well I'll let you decide on that one but don't give your hopes up for anything that involves HD graphics I mean, you look at this thing and you tell me that t

The Wii U has several notable problems that may be a deterrent for some potential buyers. I will run through each of the problems in a list format.-Small Online CommunityThe only game I purchased with my Wii U is COD Black Ops 2. It's fairly easy to find a game of Team Deatmatch or Free For All but the rest of the game modes are severely lacking in total number of players. In fact a few modes usually don't have enough players to even get a game started. The Zombies mode also seems to be suffering from a lack of players. This may change as the console says more units, but currently it's very discouraging.-Poor Battery Life in GamepadThe Gamepad needs to be left on the charge anytime it's not in use. It only lasts a couple of hours before the red battery warning light appears. This will be annoying for hardcore gamers or people with cluttered rooms and a lack of available outlets to have one dedicated to the Wii U gamepad 24/7. Nyko has a battery coming out soon that will double the battery life but the additional cost and legwork is not what you want to be faced with after dishing out $300 for a console.-No 'regular' controller, lack of options with controllersThe console does not come with a typical controller. You can buy the Pro controller separately but it's expensive and lacking in features. It doesn't have a headset input and also doesn't have analog triggers. This means that you'll have to use the Wii U gamepad tablet just to have the in-game chat features. I've already mentioned the poor battery life of the gamepad tablet, so you should see how this can be extremely inconvenient. You'll end up with the tablet charging and having an auxiliary cable running to your headset. Cables make for frustration and discomfort. Even if you buy a pro controller, it won't work with some games (NSMBU) and it also can't be used to adjust Wii U settings or browse the eSHOP. I assume it also won't work in various video streaming apps (Amazon, Netflix, etc.). Also, in regards to controllers, keep in mind that only one Wii U gamepad tablet can be used with the machine. It doesn't have support for using two. Lack of options for the gamer is disappointing.-No DVD or Blu-ray support or media support in generalYou can't use the Wii U to watch DVD or Blu-ray movies. I'm sure most potential buyers probably already have a DVD player and some may even have a Blu-ray player. Still, clutter is annoying and having an entertainment system that can do mostly everything is ideal. The Playstation 3 plays Blu-rays and DVDs and the 360 plays DVDs. There also isn't anywhere on the Wii U menu to go stream videos from a server. The Playstation 3 and 360 both have features for streaming various encodes of music and movies. The Wii U has no such feature.-No ethernet portWireless for many is unreliable and introduces extra lag. Gamers and consumers in general like to have options. The Wii U does not have an ethernet port and only allows for wireless connections out of the box. You can buy a USB ethernet adapter for wired connections, but again, just like with the pro controller, after spending $300, you feel ripped off when you are left to go buy the rest of the console that Nintendo didn't include.-Poor software, no achievementsIn comparison to the PS3 and 360, the OS on the Wii U is third rate. On PS3 and 360 it's easy to pull up menus during the game and access many things outside the game like messages and game invites. I've yet to see these options on Wii U. The menu only let's you close software and open up other apps which will quit your game. Multitasking is nonexistant. Another disappointment is the lack of achievements. The PS3 and 360 offer achievements with games that are of course optional. The Wii U doesn't even offer the option. This shows a lack of sensibility from Nintendo. When the Wii brought motion gaming to consoles, Sony and Microsoft came up with solutions for their consumers. Achievements have been around for years now and neither the Wii, 3DS or Wii U offer them. Even IOS and Android have achievement systems for their games. Nintendo seems out of touch with gamers.-Poor eSHOP content, lack of appsThere's not much to see on the eSHOP. Only a few pages of retail games and some download exclusives. I realize it's a new console but I expect more. Why is there no longer the Wii News and Wii Weather apps? Sure there is a web browser, but I found the specialized apps to be highly convenient. I'd also recommend free drawing apps to take advantage of the gamepad tablet. For $300 you want to be able to do something with the device your buying. If you buy an Ipod Touch you immediately have access to hundreds of free apps. If you buy a 3DS or Wii U you have access to hardly anything. Perhaps it'd be useless to some users, but the Wii U gamepad tablet has a camera, so why aren't there any QR code readers available? I see a failure to take advantage of the hardware from Nintendo's part.-Third party supportFar Cry 3 will not be comin

I remember waiting outside in the frigid cold for the Wii to be launched in 2006. I was first in line, blew the better part of the weekend but when I finally drove home with the next generation of gaming system in a box by my side, it was all worth it. 1 to 1 motion gaming, swinging Link's sword, playing sports like the pros and a myriad of other not yet known uses for this new type of gaming filled my imagination during the drive. I couldn't get home fast enough. Then came the unboxing... Wait, what's this bar with the chord? Is this IR?? You've got to be kidding me... I felt like a kid who just found out the secret behind his favorite magic trick. I'm sure many of you have your similar stories, cursing Nintendo's name as you waggled through mediocre software, finally breaking down and spending another few hundred on an Xbox or Playstation (or both).So my point is, I was more than a bit wary with the Wii U. I kept going back and forth, researching, poking it in the store. Finally my wife decided to make the decision for me and I now have the Wii U deluxe console. Forgetting the immediate plus, that I didn't have to freeze my hindquarters off waiting outside a store for it, it's a pretty amazing piece of hardware. Nintendo apparently learned from the shortage in 2006 and produced a number of these units. Don't be fooled into paying some gouger on Amazon or Ebay astronomical prices, this deluxe edition is $350 and the standard (which I would recommend against buying) is $300 and there are plenty of retailers restocking every day.The first question, Deluxe or Standard? I will answer your question with a question. Do you feel that 24 extra gigs of storage, a game that retails for $60, 2 years of 10% points back on all Wii U eShop purchases, a gamepad cradle, a stand so you can put your system upright is worth $50? If you answered yes, then buy the Deluxe. If you answered, "I absolutely must have this console in white!!!" then buy the Standard. Something to also note, unless you're using an external harddrive, the Standard model is unable to download full retail games from the eShop due to the size of the game.Output is via HDMI cable and is included in the box. If you don't have an HDMI in, then I believe there is a separate adapter you can purchase. There are two cradles for the single gamepad included. One is just a safe place to set it when it isn't in use, the other is a charging dock. The A/C adaptor plugs into the base and it charges the gamepad while it's in the cradle. Of course you can still plug the A/C adapter into the gamepad directly if you want to use it while charging too. Only one gamepad works per Wii U. Understand that outputting video to the gamepad and screen simultaneously takes extra processing power. Five players all with active video gamepads would bring the console to its knees. So single player gamepad (or Wiimote) Multi-player Wiimote only.The gamepad is fantastic in my opinion. I'm an adult and don't have nearly the amount of time I used to to grind levels and play video games in general. Because of this, I tend to gravitate more towards the portable system. My Vita and 3DS get far more use than my PS3 and 360. Also if my wife is home and wants to watch TV or a movie, game over. With the Wii U gamepad, I can keep playing. If I'm playing an RPG that's getting a bit grindy, I can flip over to the PS3 and put something on Netflix to take the edge off the monotony. It feels great in your hands, it's solid but not overly weighty, everything is right there, buttons are positioned where they should be. My only complaint about the gamepad is that the colors aren't quite as vivid. The screen is a little washed out compared to my TV. The touchscreen is responsive and the whole system is essentially controlled via the gamepad. Not only that, but your gamepad can also control your TV/Cable box with TVii. It's a really great system that essentially turns your gamepad into a univeral remote. I've been getting about 5-6 hours per charge on the gamepad.Graphically, yes, the Wii U is superior to the PS3 and 360. You can look up side by side comparisons. The visuals of the Wii U are top notch. NEW Super Mario Bros. U looks great as well as Assassin's Creed III and Mass Effect 3. Textures, lighting and shading are all rendered beautifully. The launch lineup is probably the strongest a Nintendo console has seen largely due to the number of current PS3 and 360 games being ported. There's plenty there for early adopters to enjoy. Currently, Sony and Microsoft are stating that their next platforms will noticeably exceed the graphical capabilities of the Wii U. The overall success of the Wii U will depend on how big the graphical difference is and more importantly whether or not we will still see the amount of 3rd party support once the new Sony and MS platforms are out. This will depend on how easy the Wii U is to develop for and how easy it will be for developers to continue to port their software. If th

My friends and I eagerly awaited the launch of Nintendo's Wii U in November, and were quite anxious to see what new innovations (and fun) the console would have to offer. After spending more than a solid month with my Wii U, I feel confident in my ability to assess and discuss what it brings to the table, with an understanding that it is a console still in its infancy whose limits don't seem to have been pushed just yet. This doesn't stop it from being a great new system more or less worthy of this new generation, but it does certainly come with its fair share of setbacks, some of which will hopefully be patched up in updates to come.We'll get started with the specs; the processor is an IBM Power multi-core, alongside an AMD Radeon-based High Definition GPU. That's right, at long last, Nintendo has gone full HD, meaning we'll now be able to enjoy the likes of Mario and Zelda in glorious 1080p. The games and menus look crisp and razor-sharp so long as you have a TV display that can accommodate; this was definitely a boost the previous Wii was in serious need of. All Wii U consoles come prepackaged with an HDMI cable, but if you do not own an HD-compatible television, you'll have to purchase the standard definition AVI cord separately (or use the same cord from the original Wii). The Wii U is powered by a tri-core PowerPC-based CPU, clocking in at an average 1.24 GHz (one trait in which in falls behind its previous-generation competitors, at less than half the speeds of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, although the Wii U does offer twice the amount of RAM of either of those consoles, which helps cushion the difference). As for storage space, the Basic Set comes with 8 GB while the Deluxe Set has 32 GB; neither is spectacularly impressive and pale in comparison to what the Xbox and PlayStation offer storage-wise, but you can drastically increase this amount of space with an SD card and/or external hard drive, and this won't really be a concern at all for those disinterested in downloadable content/games. For those disinterested in the technical mumbo-jumbo, however, your heart's in the right place, because this console's tech specs take a serious backseat to its innovative new gaming experiences.As most of you surely already know, Nintendo's latest home console novelty is the addition of the Nintendo GamePad, which comes prepackaged with each and every Wii U console. The GamePad is, as its name insinuates, a tablet controller featuring a touchscreen display (of about 6.2'') surrounded by two analog joysticks (on each side of the screen), a classic D-Pad and diamond configuration face buttons. There are also two triggers behind each respective upper end of the pad, as well as a front-facing camera (used for taking pictures and/or video chat). The GamePad inherits the Wii Remote's Home Button at its bottom center, allowing you to return to the main menu at (mostly) any given time, and a Power Button that can again be used to turn on both the GamePad itself and the entire console. The GamePad is glossed with a smooth, white or black finish, depending on whether you purchase the Basic or Deluxe Set (more on that later).In and of itself, the GamePad is pretty nice; its resolution is only 158ppi, about the same as the first iPhone (so to answer one immediate question some may have, no, the GamePad's screen is not HD), but it utilizes this display pretty impressively, as most games, menus and webpages still look clean, polished and colorful. It is also impressively comfortable to hold; despite its at-first-glance size, it is extremely lightweight (lighter than most iPads) and easy to hold with its well-designed grips. Unfortunately, however, only time will tell how durable the thing is-it doesn't necessarily strike me as extremely fragile, but shake the GamePad and you'll hear the joysticks and face buttons rattle. My GamePad suffered a nasty drop recently (it was quite literally flung onto a tile floor), and although it still works perfectly fine, the black finish near the bottom was noticeably scuffed, although I will say in this instance the color worked out in my favor-the damage isn't visible at all from afar. As with most items of consumer electronics, particularly those likely to be (man)handled by young children, a protective case may be worth serious consideration. Like most handheld devices, the GamePad has a rechargeable battery that you can power up with the prepackaged GamePad charger (despite what it looks like, it is not the same as the 3DS charger, the two are not interchangeable). Obnoxiously, the GamePad has a very weak battery life and will in fact sometimes have to be charged after a measly two to three hours of use, depending on what you're using it for. This can be particularly frustrating given that you can't charge it from the Wii U console and must instead free up an entirely separate outlet for it. For this reason, if you use the Wii U moderately often you'll be best off leaving the GamePad on

I'm going to be straightforward about this one: the Wii U is a great system, and unless you get the chance to spend an extended period of time with it, you may be tempted to write it off as 'underpowered', 'outdated', 'kiddie', or just 'stupid'. Well, don't, and here's a few reasons why:+Complete backwards compatibility (this is what the 'Wii' app icon is for, as it boots itself into Wii mode to play just like a 2006 Wii, minus a few channels).+Crisp, HD graphics. The baseline resolution of games is actually higher than that of the PS3 and XBOX 360, and shows signs of being more powerful in surprising ways.+Immersive and unique gameplay. Don't let the negative reviews for ZombiU fool you; the game proves how intense a 2-screen experience can be, when done well.+A wonderfully creative social network, Miiverse, that connects you 24/7 to those around the world, and your friends. And, those drawings that people do... you'll be impressed.+Much more robust eShop for purchasing and viewing digital content. Games I recommend: Trine 2, Nano Assault Neo. Also, these titles have the best graphics on the system, currently.+Incredibly captivating and fun for groups of people, no matter the age. I've played with my little cousins, as well as my coworkers, and we all enjoyed our time with the system.+Awesome media streaming options. Now, it's complicated to get a server to stream videos and music from your computer, but it can be done. And the two-screen dynamic works wonders with Netflix in particular. Amazon is really asymmetrical, to the point where you can be doing two completely different things while you're in the app. It's pretty neat.+Super fast web browser. In benchmarks, it's been proven to be faster than IE 10 and most other browsers except for Chrome. This is incredible for a game console. Hats off to the developers.Some negatives, obviously:-Updates take time, although there's always something productive to do while you're waiting.-Unfortunately, you will not get surround sound for Wii games, because the Wii U doesn't support Pro Logic II (in layman's terms), which enabled this feature on Wii. This was a bummer for me.-There are still some stability issues and loading inconsistencies, but for it to only be suffering from software bugs is pretty great at this point. Will be fixed in the future.-Lack of TVii functionality. Not a huge downer, and we know it's coming soon, but it definitely hurts.-No Wii U-specific virtual console. It's coming eventually and has been confirmed, but as of right now, you cannot download GameCube titles. Also, worth noting that VC games from your Wii, when transferred, will not run on just your GamePad controller. Currently, you must play these on the TV, and this may alienate some consumers.-For some, lack of DVD/Blu-Ray playback capability. THIS WILL NOT PLAY MOVIES YOU OWN ON DISCS. For me, it's not a big issue, as I have a blu-ray player and other devices, but if you're looking to make this your one-stop device for everything media, you will be disappointed.-As much as I hate to mention it, if you like taking part in voice chat while playing COD or other online games, as of right now, you cannot simply use the microphone on the GamePad (or so I've been hearing, I don't use this feature, so NOT CONFIRMED). You must purchase a separate headset.All in all, this system's only a month old. It has kinks, and most of the negatives, if not all (save for the blu-ray/dvd functionality) can be fixed or rectified with a software update. If you're shopping for a game console, and you're a college kid or an adult gamer, you'll find that there are plenty of games to satisfy your tastes, plus you're getting a pretty solid media box as part of the deal. This is what the 'U' in the name stands for: YOU. Granted, there are many features yet to be unlocked, so you wouldn't be making a huge mistake to wait a while longer, but there's certainly enough value here already to warrant a purchase. Now, if you're a parent looking for a game device to entertain and enjoy with your kids, I would ESPECIALLY recommend this system, specifically the 32 GB Deluxe Set (for any consumer, it's also a much better value, and the extra flash memory is well worth it). You get Nintendoland bundled with it, and it is an absolute blast to play together. For the experienced gamer like myself, the game gets frustratingly difficult at times, and provides enough enjoyment for even solo players.Clearly, there's a lot to consider if you're pondering a purchase of this system right now. In the future, the negatives will start ticking away, and you'll be left with a much stabler and smoother experience, but you're also getting a lot right out of the box now. Just be prepared to deal with a lengthy update out of the box, do a few game updates, and you're set. Kids will get a kick out of it, and gamers will feel welcomed again (though the Wii had great games like The Last Story, Xenoblade, DKCR, SMG/SMG2, TLOZ: TP/SS, Metroid: Othe

I am an avid game player who has never actually purchased a system within the first month of launch, so I decided that I would change that trend with the Wii U. Thus the purchase was not motivated by sheer enthusiasm for the hardware or release lineup, but instead by pure circumstance. After using the Wii U for a week, I find myself both excited by its possibilities and skeptical of its actual prospects in the 8th generation of home consoles.A few thoughts:Graphics: Like many other outlets have reported, the graphics are on par with the best efforts seen on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I tend to agree with those who believe this to be a major shortcoming. While we may be reaching a graphics plateau in gaming, one does still expect to be impacted by the graphical capabilities of a new system, even if such an experience falls short of having a wow-factor. I built a new PC a year and a half ago with two AMD 6850s in crossfire mode. This set up was head and shoulders above the graphical offerings on the consoles. Had the Wii U even approached the smoothness and texture detail of my now aging PC, I would have been satisfied, but instead it is just very similar to its 7th generation competitors. On the plus side, however, Nintendo's bright color palette looks gorgeous in HD and is a welcome change of pace from the dull grays, browns, and blacks that saturate the dime a dozen post-apocalyptic shooters on the PS3 and Xbox 360.GamePad: The GamePad controller is an interesting approach to game control but ultimately feels cheap. It looks great on the coffee table, but once you pick it up the shortcomings are evident: rattling buttons, very little physical substance, a screen that, while capable, seems decades behind most other tablet touch screens on the market, and button inputs that are less than precise (try shooting multiple fire or ice balls in NSMBU and you will notice the effect). The very act of using a stylus feels extremely dated (although, admittedly, I hate fingerprints on my screen and thus use the stylus by default). The screen itself is ok, but when you play games that integrate both the TV display and the touch screen, the touch screen looks incredibly washed out in comparison to today's best LED TVs- which serves to foreground its overall cheapness. The controller does, however, mirror the TV perfectly, displays very little lag, and is comfortable enough for extended gaming sessions. Its speakers are powerful and work with the TV to produce a unique surround sound effect that is unique to the Wii U and quite welcome. The battery life, as others have noted, is abysmal so be prepared to play and charge.Miiverse: This mix of Twitter and Gamefaqs is a truly unique online offering and I only hope its functionality will be extended to include walkthroughs and tips tied to specific levels/game scenarios being played. Right now it tends to be charming and silly, but it succeeds in creating a community around the game world that is pleasant and nonintrusive.Launch Titles: The Wii U's launch titles are incredibly weak if you have purchased some of the third party titles for other platforms. I purchased New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. NSMBU is a tightly constructed, fun, and highly nostalgic experience that long time Nintendo fans cannot pass up. Nintendo Land succeeds in being engaging and different from other games on the market. It is more than a tech demo but less than a full game and should, along with NSMBU be priced below the $60 mark. Tekken is graphically impressive and silky smooth to play and seems to hint at whatever hidden graphical prowess the Wii U has, though it is not as deep as Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter, in my opinion. After spending a week with these three titles, I am left wishing that Nintendo had put out a more substantive first party release that could be engaging for a few months. As it stands, I am more or less finished with these three titles and am heading back to other platforms.Accessories: Wii Remotes, the classic Pro Controller, the new Pro Controller, and the Wii sensor bar work flawlessly and having so many control options is a marvelous choice by Nintendo. If you have little children, however, I could see potential fights ensuing over who gets the GamePad and who gets the "old" Wii Remotes.Storage: A less than marvelous choice is limiting the normal version to 8GB, 5GB of which is erased by the first time update. In an age when flash memory is typically at or below the $1/GB mark, it would have been nice of Nintendo to be different and not price gouge on memory like other tech companies...at least they gave the consumer non-proprietary expansion capabilities.OS: Aesthetically fine, but the lag between menus needs to be fixed ASAP.Remote Play: It works well when you are in the same room, but a few walls in between you and the console will greatly degrade the signal. Not all titles seem to work with this functionality, however, which is shock

All the negative critics really missed the mark on this one. You really need to spend some time with the Nintendo Wii U WITHOUT a preconceived bias against the company and WITHOUT a preconceived notion that "next generation" only refers to cutting edge hardware. If you do, you start to realize the whole new range of possibilities the Wii U opens up to you--many of which go beyond mere gaming.I admit it: although I've been a lifelong Nintendo fan, I was skeptical after reading so many cynical reviews about the "cheapness" of the gamepad, the "gimmicky" nature of the second screen, the "inferior"/"outdated"/"second-rate" hardware, and the "slow" processor. But I've owned every Nintendo ever made except the portable DS/3DS and Nintendo has never let me down, so I pre-ordered a Wii U. I thought it might prove better than the negative press, and I trusted it would be more family friendly for my two little girls than the XBox 360 I've been gaming on for the last five years.I was not disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is the Wii U a very solid gaming system--easily comparable to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3--but it also offers a rich array of new features that will make it very hard for competitors to ignore as they release their own "next gen" systems.LESS IS MOREFirst: Less technology IS more as we move into the future. I realize so-called "hardcore" gamers believe a system is only "next gen" if it has state-of-the-art technology for its time, but that comes with a price tag to match (remember the PS3's original sticker of $600+?! Six years later the new Wii U is still barely half that price). With the present economy, the smart bet is on a more affordable system that uses decent and proven hardware components, not the cutting edge stuff that costs so much and can lead to problems (remember the Xbox 360's "red ring of death"?!).More importantly, the real definition of "hardcore gamer" has changed radically. That term no longer applies to the first-person-shooter junkies who will shell out a ton of money for a state of the art system. They are fast being eclipsed by a huge market focused on simple (and very inexpensive) touch-based games (which is now the fastest growing game segment by far, due to the proliferation of "smart phones," iPads, etc.). Nintendo realizes that if they integrate a touch screen, and RESIST the impulse to adopt next-gen technology, they stand a much better chance of benefiting from that market, rather than being displaced by it. The average smartphone or iPad still has a long way to go to catch up with current-gen console power. Microsoft and Sony will likely double their hardware specs but position themselves wholly outside the reach of games that could feasibly play on their consoles AND touch devices. Nintendo is wisely keeping that door open because it welcomes a wider variety of new games for the console owner. More than likely, most new third-party developers will play the odds and turn away from next-gen processor-intensive graphics in favor of games that, instead, could be played either on touch devices or the touch-capable Wii U. That means the Wii U is smartly positioned to attract a cross-over audience from that market. Although competitors like Microsoft have announced "smart glass" as an alternative to the Wii U's gamepad screen, that technology will unavoidably suffer from latency (i.e., "lag") issues that Nintendo has completely eliminated by integrating a dedicated screen. It's simply awesome how well the Wii U gamepad's screen keeps perfect pace with the TV display.TOUCHSCREEN / SECOND SCREENThe next plus is the touchscreen's sheer practicality. Inventory management, text input (typing), game option screens, mini-maps, web browsing, and sharing a family television are all MUCH easier with the Wii U. It's so nice to just tap an item to equip it, or drag and zoom a mini-map in greater detail than it would normally display on the TV screen. It's also awesome--really simple, yet revolutionary--to seamlessly pull the game onto the gamepad screen and keep playing while another person uses the TV to watch a show. Not every game can do it, but when, for example, I play Call of Duty Black Ops II, I can sit on the couch and play while my wife watches TV, or better yet, I can take it upstairs to bed with me (our bedroom is directly above the Wii U console downstairs) and keep playing online until I'm ready to go to sleep! Simply awesome.WEB BROWSINGSome of the real game-changers are features I haven't seen any professional reviewer comment on. One is the built-in browser. If you visit YouTube on the browser (INSTEAD of using the dedicated YouTube app), you can start a video on your TV screen, then slide the video out of the way and keep browsing on the gamepad while the video continues to play on the TV. This is hands down the best "community browsing" experience I've ever had with any device. You can show videos to a room full of people, while continuing

Before you buy one of these, take $440 (deluxe system + tax + one extra game) out of the bank and sit the stack down. Look at it. Smell it. And then think about what you are getting for that with this system.Basically I bought it for two games. Nintendoland and Super Mario U. I have no interest in sloppy ports for games that I already own or never cared about. The system looks nice, the graphics look nice (on those two games anyway). I don't care about the Netflix, etc. I have a million other devices including my TV that already to all of this. It is cool that you can be watching something on Netflix and browse selection on the gamepad at same time. Other than that, the non-gaming features are meh. The load times are long for anything. Battery life is not good on the gamepad. I don't like the gamepad. I bought a nice tv because I want to look at it not a small screen. I have a 3ds, Vita, Nexus 7. I can look at one of those for that. I was very undecided as to whether or not i wanted one altogether. I decided to buy it from my brother at retail with the future in mind really only for Nintendo exclusives. I also wanted to give him someone to play with online. No one else seems to want one of these that we know.I had a chance to borrow my brother's system for days before deciding to take another new one off his hands. He couldn't use his really because of his girlfriend's kid who was getting one for Xmas. His connected to my network just fine and it stayed connected. no issues. The one that I got though would not connect for the life of me. Of course all of my other stuff worked fine. I found an article that said i should manually assign the IP and use weird DNS IP's. I did this and it then connected. Here is where the fun began. I tried doing the mother of all updates and it would download for a bit then drop connection and spit out an error code. I would then connect, test fine, and it would prompt me to download again and it would die at some point. I did this over and over for many times. Tried resetting network, etc. Nintendo's support page for this error suggested that I try again later, cut down on network traffic, or call support. I wasn't downloading or streaming anything and speedtested fine. I then decided that I would hardwire it. No ethernet port. I noticed that my original wii didn't have one either but, I never had issues with it or any other gaming system I have ever owned. I will also mention that there is no optical audio out. awesome. I called support to ask the tech if they were having network issues. He said that they were not. Then I was put on hold while the tech 'researched' the issue. The call was disconnected. I tried to call back and there was just a bunch of static. That static saved me a bunch of money. Thank you Nintendo support.This is when I came to my senses that the system in it's current state and price point are not worth the frustration or my time. I could have troubleshot why my other 15 devices have no issue and this one does. I could have called support back. I could have scoured the forums. I could have walked upstairs and grabbed one of my old routers and hooked it up to see what happens. I decided not to. After returning it to my brother, he could complete the update just fine on his network an hour later. It could have been Nintendo's issue or my network's. All my other devices say the 1st one. Like I said, not worth the effort.I feel that it's a decent system. I also feel that it's overpriced and late to the game. I am certainly not going to give this amount of money AND time just to play 2 games. I could have been playing games on my systems that work better, cost half as much, and have many times the game selection. Remember back when Nintendo made game systems and not gimmicks? Why not just a system that hangs with the competitors with a freaking regular controller? Why didn't they make the gamepad optional? I hate the gamepad. It's dumb and it has a resistive screen. It reminds me of the early $100 android tabs except with handles. It weighs considerably more than my Nexus 7 tab. They have THE system for one year. I hope they take advantage of it and realease some good exclusives. When they have 5 or more games that I'd like to play and cannot get elsewhere, I'll reconsider. Until then, I'm going enjoy my stack of cash. The system went back to the store. I have never been more excited about getting rid of 'the next big thing'.NOTE: my active router is a D-Link DIR-625. I work from home and connect to two VPN's. I have no issues ( save the ones that everyone in my org experiences). I have a desktop, laptop, work laptop, netbook, 2 tabs, smart phone, wii, 2 Xbox 360's, PS3, LG LM6700, Roku, WDTV player, PsVIta, and a 3DSXL that use this gateway regularly. That's not counting my girlfriend's tab and laptop. None of them have an issue at all. Not the ones upstairs either. The Wii U was about 8 feet from the router. I also have a 16Mb