The Wii U-Have got to be kiding me

Ed Beers

Well, it was bound to happen, Ed Beers here again with the news we would have up on a LUG-Cast but well, life keeps happening, hard. So, to try and keep up with gaming news (nearly) as it comes out. And the news of the moment is, of course, the Wii U finally having a price point and release date... Joy.

Nintendo announced this Thursday that the Wii U will be coming to stores this year, November 18th in the US, December 8th in Japan. It will come in two different packs, one bare bones 300 dollar pack that comes with the system, the gamepad, 8 gigs of internal flash memory, and all the cords you need to plug it in. The other pack is a 350 dollar pack, with 32 gigs instead of 8, comes with the series of mini-games full of reference to games you wish were in the launch titles Nintendo Land, and gives you a 10% digital discount on online purchases till 2014. Though they have not spoken to how much additional gamepads will cost in the US, there is a estimated cost in Japan roughly around 180 dollars US, but there isn't much worry over that since there's no talk yet of games that will use multiple pads for gimmicky I mean original inspired gameplay.

Now the box itself, from what I understand, the inner workings of the Wii U are suppose to be better, faster, and hold more than the aging last leg consoles PS3 and 360. That might be true, I would have several ways of checking that if any of the info on what's inside the box was confirmed, could compare and contrast like people have done with the image above of Arkham City Vs Arkham City: Armored Edition or whatever fancy name they've given it. I'll try to be fair and wait for actual fully finished gameplay for me to compare when it does come out, but till then, well consider what a internally powerful juggernaut the Wii failed to be I feel justified in my disbelief.

The system will be using at least single layered Blu-ray discs for their games which at least means we won't have another format war. However it feels that having the box play actual DVDs or Blu-rays just would detract from the true gaming focused machine that it is... Right... So tell me then Nintendo, more about this TVii program you are so proud of. That's right the Wii U will have a 'free service' that allows you to watch on your TV or on your gamepad shows from other services you already pay for, like Hulu, Netflix, or even TV recorded onto your home DVR... But nah having it play DVDs would just, you know, distract you from how game focused they are now.

I, have to be honest I do not get a lot of things about all of this. Why is it coming out in the US near a month before? Why does it not come out with any games (that are likely to be around 60 dollars per)? Why does it not come with any wii-motes or nunchucks which you may or may not need for many of these games? Do they think only people who bought a Wii will buy a Wii U? Do they not want new people to join in? Why do they not want their machine playing DVDs and Blu-ray discs but are fine with video and TV streaming? Why are people drooling over the idea of spending 300 to 350 plus tax on a system without a single REAL game? ... No I do not think of Nintendo Land as a real game. I mean sure, there's the whole talk of Bayonneta 2 coming to the system exclusively, but there's barely anything else that isn't just a specialized port of a pre-existing PS3 or 360 title. I don't get wanting a version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 where you can grab a mushroom and grow giant, the game's as bizarre as is with devils and orges flying around fighting bears. I mean I didn't really enjoy what they tried to do with the Wii, but I at least understood what they were going for, what they were trying to do. I don't even have that advantage to explaining the Wii U. I don't get the price or what Nintendo is trying to do with this... I don't hope that it does badly but I'm not actively rooting for it, sorry Ten-dog, We've been tight for a long time but, I just don't get this.