Wii U

[Balzac]

I'm waiting to get one, I still have a billion 360 and PS3 games to get through. Also I read that the first update was bricking many consoles. Not a good start if it is. :P

[Old Manus]

I'm surprised that people are buying these things so early after what's happening to the PS Vita and other assorted handhelds.

[Mirage]

What's happening to the Vita?

[Flaming Ice]

What's happening to the Vita?

Probably means peoples' complaint about the lack of good games.

And quite a few of the games are just old classics, nothing new.

[Old Manus]

What's happening to the Vita?

Not much, apparently.

[Levian]

The boyfriend is quite keen on buying one together and getting New Super Mario Bros as well, so that might happen sooner rather than later.

If not for that, I'd be waiting for a bigger line up of games.

[Evastio]

Anyways, more about my impressions. I will say that I feel Nintendo Land has significantly more staying power than Wii Sports. Although quite a few people stopped playing Wii Sports soon after you got it, some of the multiplayer games like Mario Chase, Luigi's Mansion, and Animal Crossing Sweet Day are really addicting and you'll find yourself going back to them a lot when playing with friends at your house (I can't say much about Metroid Blast and Zelda Battle Quest since I don't have enough Wii Motion Plus controllers for a full team of players. Pikmin Adventure I can see wearing thin for quite a few people after adventure mode is completed, though I haven't touched it since launch day). I had a friend from university come over yesterday and although my brothers and I had more experience than him with the multiplayer games, it was hardly disadvantageous towards him since the games were quite easy to pick up and learn. We also found it quite hard to switch between Nintendo Land multiplayer games since we were always so into the one we were currently playing. I wouldn't say the single player games have the same staying power as the multiplayer games after they are completed to the end (though they are rather addicting). I haven't defeated any of them yet, but failing them constantly makes me want to keep trying again repeatedly. Especially Captain Falcon's Twisted Race (I have no idea what the trick is to staying on the track after big ramps, sometimes I stay straight, other times I fly off the course even when I'm going straight). Captain Falcon's Twisted Race is pretty intense and exciting, even if you aren't an F-Zero fan. The obstacles later down the road get really fatal (some will kill you outright while others will slow you down and stop you from reaching the checkpoint in time). The second half of the race gets really difficult, and the farthest I've gotten so far is section 12 (the last one). Balloon Fight was quite simple to control, though the spikes in the air and the winds that you fight against prove to be quite challenging in later levels (especially in the part where the wind forces you to the left and unless you fight against the wind strong enough you'll hit whatever obstacles first show up from the left). Donkey Kong's Crash Course is brutal since the kart is quite frail and you need to be reallly gentle with it while moving, yet some parts force you to go really fast to make big jumps. I only made it to the second analog stick rotation part (after the swirly gate) before losing all my lives.

New Super Mario Bros. U, I've gotten farther in (mid-world 5) and quite a few of the level backgrounds I've seen are just absolutely stunning. Some of the brand new backdrops I've seen range from foggy brambled forests to ship graveyards. The new take on areas like crystalline ice caverns, haunted houses with moonlight shining through the windows, and flowing lava caves is also really vibrant and beautiful. There's also the ones that they've shown in previews like the starry snowy sky, the Van Gough painted swamp, and the gorgeous waterfall background which you just have to see for yourself firsthand. The level design gets even more chaotic and hectic with the levels keeping you on the move a lot (a combination of both enemy density forcing you to keep moving and floors and platforms shifting on you a lot). Enemy density gets even more ridiculous with at least 5 enemies on the screen at any given time in quite a few sections (if they happen to be Mega Urchins, Torpedo Teds, or Flying Cheep Cheeps, you're in for a world of pain). The Haunted House puzzles have also been stepped up quite a bit (nothing that'll get you stuck on the level for days, but growing up on Super Mario World, I'm kind of embarassed that some of these puzzles I'm figuring out slower than I should be). Some of the bosses have changed significantly and it's no longer as simple as jumping on them ASAP (Morton Jr. summons and hits Giant Pokey parts towards you and you have to evade them and wait till Pokey is short enough before you jump on Morton, Bowser Jr. fights you underwater and you have to have him hit himself with his own Tracking Torpedo Teds). Challenge Mode I've tried further in depth and I think there's around 10-15 Challenges per category (and there's 5 total: time, coin, 1UP, misc, and boost mode). I haven't unlocked all of them for any category so I don't know about the upper cap, but boost mode already has more than 10 and I've done at least seven of them. Challenge Mode so far is a lot of fun (and frustration, but in an addicting way). The challenges are also really unique, especially the boost mode challenges (not to confused with Boost Rush with the automatic scrolling and coins speeding up the scrolling), where it's absolutely mandatory that boost mode is used to complete them since most of the challenges have no floor, and the ones that do you still cannot complete without boost mode platforms. The boost mode player definitely plays a much bigger role than the Mario player in the challenges, since it's the boost mode player that has to be quick and strategic in the challenges. That's the challenge mode I played the most extensively yesterday, so I guess I'll wait until I played more from the other four categories before I go in depth on them (and I already explained some of those challenges in my first post).