Godmachine
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2003
- Messages
- 10,472
Spent a few hours with a Wii U now, played some Wind Waker and NintendoLand.
Nintendo Land is a freaking train wreck of usability. Way too much, look up, now look down, now have people hold the WiiMote vertically. Now hold it horizontally... now use the D-pad to seleciton something instead of pointing at it... The games were pretty fun, but people playing spent way too much time trading around controllers, picking their Mii, and so on. Also the auto on the tablet is out of sync with the home theater enough to be annoying as shit for everyone not using it. The Zelda game sucks (you can't see what is going to hit you) and the Pikmin game is just terrible. The other games are really fun though.
Speaking of Miis, what a freaking joke. The tablet is good for creating Miis, but overall they look like shit and the higher resolution just makes them look worse than they do on the Wii.
The Wind Waker tablet looks cheap and feels cheap. It is super light the gloss black looks terrible with the gold trim on it. Shitty battery life on the tablet at well, probably because the battery is tiny.
Wind Waker itself is nothing special. Too much lighting effects and washed out colors. It lost the super bright and clean color pallet of the original, replaced it with higher resolution and duller colors. It really lost its charm on me, I would rather place the GC version. Also I think it takes more time to look down and poke shit on the tablet compared to just using a menu on the screen. The whole "OMG second screen" got old very quickly, I would have rather just used the TV. And Wind Waker doesn't support remote play on the tablet /facepalm For a game Nintendo wants to sell at full retail price, they should have done better.
You can buy an extended battery pack for the Wii U gamepad for $35 from : http://www.play-asia.com/wii-u-gamepad-battery-pack-2550mah-paOS-13-49-en-70-6oan.html
It takes the battery life up to 8 hours (with power savings enabled) which is huge and it takes maybe 30 seconds to install. I think the reason you think the gamepad is cheap is because its lightweight but if it was heavier or more "solid" feeling I think it would have caused more hand strain over long term usage. Hell a 360 controller with a large NiHm battery pack weights more than the gamepad does yet no one complains about that. I have a large hands personally and love the wide gamepad , its absolutely comfortable for long term gaming sessions and that's something that drove me nuts about the tiny Wii mote's.
The gamepad screen is so much easier to use for inventory management in Wind Waker HD its kinda surprising to hear someone complain about it considering its been praised by gamers and reviewers alike for how functional it is in Wind Waker. The game also looks a ton better in 1080p on a large TV versus a 720p gamepad screen.
I think the price was an issue but they are already addressing it by lowering the cost of the system by $50 with the Wind Waker bundle making it a very attractive buy. Nintendo land is what it is , its not really what I would call a "full game" and more of a tech demo .. albeit a fun one.
The Wii U isn't for everyone but I think all the nice upgrades they made to Wind Waker HD without ruining the overall feel of it was a pretty well done task. Some of the changes are subtle , no question but I'm glad they didn't fuck with it and end up with a totally difference experience. The number one complaint was all the sailing and how long it took but they fixed that by offering a 50 percent upgrade in sailing speed which solves the problem. You can still glitch swimming however and travel super fast to different islands so if you can't stand it , there is a way (though its hard to pull off consistently) to bypass some of it.
Since you've only played two games on the Wii U , one of which was a hokey launch title packed in with the system I think you should try some of the gems coming out soon before passing judgement.
I bought the extended battery pack for the gamepad and let me say .. it really makes a HUGE difference to only have to charge it once after about two days of average (5+ hour session) usage. I think the short gamepad battery life is an issue that can be easily fixed with a small upgrade. Nintendo could have been assholes about it and completely sealed off the battery from being able to be upgraded (COUGH Apple COUGH) but they didn't which was a pretty smart move. I also don't believe its fair to ding Nintendo for the battery life on the gamepad , its got a friggin large touchscreen display on it and it actually looks really decent. I prefer playing virtual console games on it over my TV simply because it feels more natural. Nintendo chose to go for something that was more interactive then the standard controller and thank god it wasn't just a slightly upgraded version of the motion controllers from the Wii.
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