I guess I will use this thread for my reactions. This is the most ass backward system I have ever encountered, I wish I can say I love it, but most of it I was scratching my head at the horrible design choices. I ignored the update at first and decided to just jump into a game and discovered the best thing about the system, IT BACKGROUND DOWNLOADS THE UPDATE. It does this for all games do, I background downloaded the NintendoLand patch while playing it. That is by far the best feature the Wii U has.

So this is what I am talking about, you have this amazing giant TV right well instead of using that you have to look at the pad to navigate menus. Oh but there is a button to switch the menu to the TV, ok good oh but wait YOU CANT USE THE GAMEPAD TO CONTROL THE TV. You have to switch to a wiimote in order to navigate menus on the TV. So now I need to pull out the wiimote, which is still synced to my wii so turning it on turns on my wii, yay. So screw all that I will navigate everything using the pad, so now I feel I am using giant portable.

When I did get the update done I didnt really explore the menu but it was messy. There were miis everywhere and a bunch of logos floating in a circle, I couldnt tell what they did from looking at them making them the opposite of simple. I tried entering miiverse but it wasn't working.

Oh navigating menus in this thing is horrible. Everything takes FOREVER to load, I hate the stupid gingle that plays as you stare at a white screen waiting to get anywhere in this menu.

I have only played NintendoLand with a friend, some games are fun, most are a waste. The Zelda one is basically that sword game from resort but the person on the gamepad gets a useless bow and arrow instead of awesome 1:1 sword combat. You use the gyro on the pad to aim which works well but the wiimote does it better. So I spend my time watching this tiny screen while my friend was swinging a sword on a giant HDTV, gamepad fail. Mario chase was the most fun we had, simple concept, perfect in execution. It gives a true reason to have a gamepad as I see things he can't. Pikmin was boring as hell. Metroid is cool but too simple. There is a stupid design choice with it where on the wiimote you have to hold A to be able to move the camera with the wiimote, meaning you always have to be holding down A, why cant it just control like every FPS ever on a wiimote. Luigi's mansion was a fun game much like Mario's where it makes use of the two screens. Basically the only mini games that really work are the ones that are like pacman connectivity demo we had many years ago, the Wii U is the console version of that.

The gamepad is pretty cool and feels great to hold. I still have better games to play so lets see how it holds up with those but I do not like the interface and using the gamepad many times feels forced where all it is doing is taking away from staring at a much nicer TV screen.

_Bear said:

I think in time Vader we will grow to love it, but right now I'm not liking it much.

What is your ID?

Couldn't resist. Opened ZombiU. I can understand where some of the reviewers are coming from --IF-- they were dumb enough to expect this to be a FPS. It's not. At all. It shares more in common with Dead Island than anything else and I actually enjoyed that game quite a bit! The only reason I didn't play it more was it was primarily an online, co-op game and that was BEFORE I discovered the joys of online co-op. **Thanks, once again, Travo!** I love the fact you can modify your weapons, just like in Dead Island! The best thing about ZombiU from what I can see so far is it succeeds in creating a fantastic atmosphere and sense of tense anticipation. It's slow, methodical and purposely paced... until you run into a horde, shit your pants and run for it! The one thing that held me back from trying it, believe it or not, was the mention of glitches and crashes --MORE-- than the negative gameplay opinions. I didn't play too far. Got to the market, tripped the alarm, then immediately died!    What I played, I liked and I have no regrets breaking the seal whatsoever!

More to come!

I've finally spend some more time with NintendoLand. Jesus Christ, and I thought the Wii U menu was sensory overload. Too many games, too many Mii's, too many trophies, TOO MANY MII's!!!!!!! HELP!!! I NEED AN ADULT!!! I NEED AN ADULT!!!!

I'm finding some games I like though. The Ninja Castle game is awesome. The Zelda time-attack game is good times. And while at first I didn't quite get it, I love the Balloon Fight game. What surprises me more than anything though is that a lot of these games are really tough. They ramp up in difficulty really quick. Totally caught me off guard.

As far as other thoughts.... I really like the music in the eShop Channel. Can't wait to get a game.

Phantom_Leo

Now that I deleted my profanity-filled rant and my blinding RAGE has subsided a little bit, let me pass on the experience I had with NintendoLand tonight. I had played a bit of F-Zero. I had played a bit of Donkey Kong. I had just scored the Jukebox and was listening to some Donkey Kong music, feeling pretty happy and nostalgic at the same time... When I ran into the first Mii wandering around my plaza. His comment simply read: "This is gay."

I was blindsided. It's no worse than anything you'd hear on ANY game's online multiplayer mode, in fact, it's relatively tame... but, still, I wasn't expecting it and it hit me like a ton of bricks. In my home. In my NintendoLand Plaza... It's like the equivalent of someone posting "N**g**s" out in a public place, but this was in the privacy of my own home. I know Nintendo can't police every post, everywhere, but this upset me. FIRST MII COMMENT I SEE IN MY PLAZA...

I immediately got enraged. I started fumbling for a way to kick this person out of my park. Saw nothing. Clicked on his Mii... brought me to his profile, I think, where there were a number of unexplained buttons. I started pressing random things to try to bring up a menu to report the comment or block him from my Park... and landed up "LIKING" his comment. Sounds funny, but it's not. I wanted to rip the Wii U from my TV and break the Pad in half. I eventually got to this persons profile and reported it... but... the damage was already done.

This isn't Call of Duty where I EXPECT this kind of crap. This is a NINTENDO game. I know a lot of you are going to read this and not understand WHY I am so upset, but something sooo simple can leave a person feeling sooo vulnerable and violated in his own home...

Didn't like that experience. Not one bit. Starting to sour towards the Social Networking aspect of the Wii U. Quickly. Sorry.

Really you have to expect that on any kind of open online forum Leo..its just the nature of the beast. What sucks is if you try to censor it too much, then it takes away the freedom to express yourself sometimes even among friends.

For what its worth, the kid likely didn't mean anything by it. I'm sure you know, that was always kind of used as a slang word for "this is retarded" or "this is stupid" or whatever. Just don't take it seriously.

And I was just going to post on how its strange that Leo isnt using miiverse all that much. Sorry to hear that Leo. Dont let a few bad apples ruin an otherwise fun experience. It is so weird cause all I see are the most cool, nice posts I have ever seen on any gaming online mode. Everyone on gaf is talking about how nice everyone is. Its like a huge community of positivity, even in the crappy games. Shame that is what you saw Leo.

phantom_leo said:

Yours?

My Wii U handle is Manpretty

Why advertise falsely?

Oh and Vader, what about you? I looked for  a DVader and found one, but I wasn't convinced it was you.

I'm going to report you guys to Nintendo.