Topic: Condsidering buying a Wii U but curious about a few things

Ok so I seen on this site that the prices in the UK are down so I decided to have a look here in Ireland.
€250 is what I consider appropiate for the Wii U since an external HDD will be absolutely mandatory in this day and age. Battlefield 4 takes up 38GB on my PS4 and some indie games can be 2-6GB in size. A few years time,game sizes are gonna be ridiculous!!!
Sure enough prices are down to €225 for the premium bundle and the shop is selling the New Mario Bros U with the Luigi DLC included for €35, absolute bargain. However I have a few concerns.

1) Is there going to be a new bundle or newer model released soon that's causing this lower price?
I bought a Wii a month and a half before the black Wii came out and it pissed me off big time haha. I held out at release since I was awfully busy that year but a few years later happened to come across a pretty good deal but still don't want something similar to happen again.
I know it's most likely January sales and they're really trying to shift units but isn't MK8 or Smash bros or one them out soon in Late Feb or March so there could be a new bundle? (Not sure)

2) Has there been any issues where the earliest produced consoles can't play certain games due to disc drive limitations or other concerns?
I'm saying this because a housemate I lived with 2 years ago eventually picked up a copy of Smash Bros Brawl but it couldn't run on his Wii due to the fact that he had a release model which only had a laser capable of reading single layered discs (The game was dual-layered). I'd hate not to be able to play a game a few years down the line because of a little problem like this

Some answers to your questions.
1) Neither Mario Kart 8 nor Super Smash Bros are due to release in that timeframe, so no bundles expected.

2)

I'm saying this because a housemate I lived with 2 years ago eventually picked up a copy of Smash Bros Brawl but it couldn't run on his Wii due to the fact that he had a release model which only had a laser capable of reading single layered discs (The game was dual-layered)

Totally not true. I have a release model Wii and it is to this day perfectly capable of playing dual-layered discs, including Brawl. Your mate had a problem called dust accumulation on the drive lenses, easily avoided by keeping it.. you know clean. Besides, Nintendo consoles are the most reliable and durable hardware I've encountered. If you take good care of them, they can last ages.

So far I have not had problems playing any games, and I buy a lot of Wii U games. As for a new bundle I would have no idea, Nintendo hasn't mentioned one yet. As for a new model we have heard nothing of a new model yet, and I don't think we'll be seeing one any time soon. So I think you'll be purchasing one now. Also if it makes you feel better, I bought my Wii U at launch and it still works perfectly and the fact that they update the Wii U helps.

I bought a limited edition Wii U Zedla Wind Waker bundle yestarday, lets face it there are enough Wii U exclusive games to define a worthy purchase

Tons of exclusives, and as long as you're not downloading ALL of your Big N games (MK8, SSB4, Etc.) I would say that you don't even need external-as long as you don't get the 8 GB.

@ Samurai
Ok thanks for the feedback. Ah right. You see we both had Wii's and Brawl. Neither of our discs would work in his but they would in my Wii. He found online that it might be the problem with the laser. That's good to know thanks! And yeah you're absolutely right about the reliability. I have Ninty consoles since the SNES that still work fine to this day

Yeah I'm looking forward to the exclusives I wouldn't be able to get on my PS4. Big fan of Zelda and hope there'll be a new Metroid and Star Fox (No Fox McCloud since the Cube!). But I like other games too and I also like the idea of the other options the gamepad could be employed in games so if there was a decent implementation, I'd probably buy that version over a PS version.

Just curious what sizes are games taking up on WiiU?

windwaker takes up 1777 megabytes. nintendo has always been great at compression. third partys not so much. resident evil revelations takes up 12 gigs on my u. you can hook up external harddrives and flash drives as well.

The Wii thing was a combination of a slow read speed and dust accumulation through the front disc drive, which would ineffectively wipe discs and allow the dirt, hair, dust, etc. build up in the drive.

I had a launch Wii that played Brawl, then didn't. Got it cleaned and it worked again for a few years and then stopped. Of course it still reads every other disc. I will say that newer Wii models do not seem to have this problem, though.

Deus Ex and Need For Speed are exponentially improved on Wii U. Have you seen Human Revolution DC running on PS3/360. Yuck. It's far and away the best version of the game besides PC. Same with Most Wanted U. Mass Effect 3 is greatly enhanced by the GamePad, as well (playing co-op with my nephew where he controlled the powers with the touchscreen and vice versa with my wife were awesome experiences that made the game for me). I've heard similar things about Blacklist, but I refuse to try it because of the mind-boggling decision to nix local multi. Lego games with dual screen multi (as opposed to that disorienting split screen) are the best way to play them.

Not wanting to play it on Nintendo platform sounds like some old fashioned (Mortal Kombat era) thinking. The GamePad alone renders every one of these games incomparably more intuitive and accessible.

Yeah the quality of 3rd party games is pretty bad these days so I don't buy too many of them these last few years. I only pick something up if it genuinely interests me and quality seems good and I'm not really into the yearly rehashes like Need for speed, AC,Fifa, etc so I think I'll be fine. The idea behind Watchdogs seems pretty cool to me so I'll probably pick this up but I see this easily becoming a yearly thing to replace Assassins' Creed.

I hear Lego City is supposed to be really good., and good use of gamepad. Also , it's a Wii U Exclusive..

To each his own I guess. I personally like Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell. And Batman Arkham. Just finished Origins last night and I think it's received more criticism than it deserved. If you're a Batman fan, you'll like it. If you're not, maybe I'd go for something else but I still think it's a solid action-adventure game.+ Having the map and weapons selection on the gamepad screen is really really great in open world games like AC and Batman. It removes the need to always hit the pause menu to go to the map.. Not a big thing I guess but I got really tired of tabbing into the map screen all the time in AC.

SM3DW is like 2 or 3 gigs if I remember correctly. Rayman Legends is like 5 or 6 gigs. Assasin's Creed is somewhere between 12 and 18, can't remember.

You'd be surprised how much you can fit onto your Wii U main hard drive if you don't go for the AAA 3rd party cinematic action games.

This is probably what it is. I think Ubi stated that they now have an ending to the AC story, so once that's over we'll probably see a stream of Watch_Dogs titles.

You know, I loved those games. Why haven't they made a sequel?

Go with Nintendo games and you have plenty of space

You can't go wrong with the Wii U. All the media negativity is generally propagated by bias, rather than real information that is of concern.
1) Get the Wind Waker HD bundle, you can't go wrong with the cool, gold embossing on the Gamepad. No matter what bundle comes out later, it's not going to have that gold embossing! (Maybe when the new Zelda U comes out, it might have a special console, but that's easily not until the end of the year or even over a year from now!)

2) Nintendo systems are the most reliable and dependable on the market overall. Like with ANY electronics you buy, there's always a chance of getting one with manufacturing defects, but with Nintendo, that's a VERY low likelihood. To top that off, they are VERY good about warranty repairs. My Gamepad's gyroscope got messed up because of family time with Nintendo Land and aggressive spinning of that thing. I sent it in to get the gyroscope replaced, and got it back the next week!

Buy a Wii U, you'll love it!