Christberg
Member
Wii U demo stations are starting to show up at Best Buy and Gamestop across the country. Tonight I got to see and play with the Wii U a little for the first time.
You can find your local demo station on Nintendo's site here.
Notes/general first impressions follow
Gamepad:
Light. Decent screen quality, dot pitch is fine, brightness and color accuracy are decent. Control sticks and buttons work well. Lag for button presses is imperceptible on the display. Extra width takes a little getting used to, but didn't hamper gameplay at all. Tilt sensor is quite accurate.
Being that this is the key feature of the system I spent a lot of time just feeling out and I wasn't disappointed. I expect this device to be my gamepad of choice going forward. It just offers scads of options others don't and sacrifices almost nothing to get there.
Console:
Bigger than expected but not bad. About 2X the internal volume of the Wii, maybe a little more. Still way smaller than my launch PS3. Think double length, external, fat DVD drive.
Demos:
There were videos or screenshot B-rolls for just about every other launch title. It's all stuff you can easily find on the internet so we'll just skip over that.
The only playable demo was Rayman Legends. This is what you'd expect out of a Rayman Origins sequel: Pretty graphics, good controls, nice art style. They had one of the dreaded "Murphy Levels" on display and it was much more entertaining than the stupid mosquito levels in Origins. Both the touch screen and tilt sensors worked well and provided a fun change of pace. I'll be fine with these as long as it isn't the majority of the game. No way to attempt this on a competitive console as the input lag would likely break the AI character.
Post impressions as you get a chance to play. If you have questions I'll try and answer them.
You can find your local demo station on Nintendo's site here.
Notes/general first impressions follow
Gamepad:
Light. Decent screen quality, dot pitch is fine, brightness and color accuracy are decent. Control sticks and buttons work well. Lag for button presses is imperceptible on the display. Extra width takes a little getting used to, but didn't hamper gameplay at all. Tilt sensor is quite accurate.
Being that this is the key feature of the system I spent a lot of time just feeling out and I wasn't disappointed. I expect this device to be my gamepad of choice going forward. It just offers scads of options others don't and sacrifices almost nothing to get there.
Console:
Bigger than expected but not bad. About 2X the internal volume of the Wii, maybe a little more. Still way smaller than my launch PS3. Think double length, external, fat DVD drive.
Demos:
There were videos or screenshot B-rolls for just about every other launch title. It's all stuff you can easily find on the internet so we'll just skip over that.
The only playable demo was Rayman Legends. This is what you'd expect out of a Rayman Origins sequel: Pretty graphics, good controls, nice art style. They had one of the dreaded "Murphy Levels" on display and it was much more entertaining than the stupid mosquito levels in Origins. Both the touch screen and tilt sensors worked well and provided a fun change of pace. I'll be fine with these as long as it isn't the majority of the game. No way to attempt this on a competitive console as the input lag would likely break the AI character.
Post impressions as you get a chance to play. If you have questions I'll try and answer them.
Already preordered weeks ago but it's good to hear it's sturdy. Shame about the shoulder buttons but it's not like I'm buying a Wii U for racing games :-D