Topic: So...help me decide on a Wii U

Hello, people of Nintendolife. I know I'm not the most liked person on this site but I have an important question to ask those of you willing to help me. I've decided on picking up a Wii U around Christmas time and I'd like to acquire a few recommendations from people as well as reviews. For those who own a Wii U themselves please could you spare the time to give me a quick review/overview of what I should expect when I get one? I'd like both good and bad points about the system so I know fully about what I'm getting myself into to when I purchase one. Also if you could recommend me some games that would be appreciated( You don't have to say Wind Waker as I'm buying the Bundle that comes with it). Thanks everyone!

TL;DR Help me purchase a Wii U.

Every game that is a port on Wii U is basically better, except COD Black Ops II and Mass Effect. Graphically, even those are better, but you know that they are missing DLC and ME3 is offline only. COD Ghosts will probably replace Black Ops II prettyfast, anyway, if you care.

I have 11 games, a few indie games, and VC games. I highly recommend getting one. Perhaps superior 7th gen ports haven't been enough to convince you, but alot of the games coming out this holiday are just as much 8th gen as any other, IMO. X, Smash, Kart, and maybe the Wii U titled games will probably have you playing your Wii U at least once every 2 days.
I play mine everyday, FYI. Monster Hunter is usually running at least 2 hours a day. I'm switching between that and Pokemon Y.

Plus, Sony is paying for Injustice to appear on their systems. The Wii U already has it.

Thanks for your assistance. I know me and you haven't really gotten off on the best foot at times but I appreciate your help. Also 2014 will be an awesome year for Wii U when the heavy hitters drop.

I think you should get a Wii U. 2014 has alotta great games for U and you can always get Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD, Super Mario 3D World (hasn't released...yet), Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3, Lego City: Undercover... The Wii U does have games and it is getting games. I'm getting one for Christmas and I'm really excited!!!

@PokeTune
Don't worry about it. It's up to you on whether you want a Wii U or not. I know I'll have a blast when Mario 3D World comes out and the games of next year come out. Hell, I'll probably pick up Ghosts which comes out in about 2 weeks.

There will be stuff for you to play. Wii U will have some of the same indie games as PS4, too.

Also, Wii BC. If you haven't played Wii, or still have some Wii games, that's a good bonus.

The worst thing I can think of about the machine itself (besides current lack of games) is that the eShop is not account based. It's tied to your system. That's fine if your Wii U never breaks and you never replace it, but you're going to consider yourself very unlucky if it ever breaks. Lack of unification between it and your 3DS (if you have one) too can get frustrating. If you want Super Mario Bros. or whatever on both, you have to buy it twice.

Hrm not much to say, I guess. The Gamepad is brilliant, I love it, but few developers are making great use of it at the moment. Still though, once you've played with your UI, maps, and inventory always opened on a second screen, it's hard to go back to pause menus. One of the most annoying things about the original Wind Waker was having to pause the game every 4 seconds while sailing to make sure you're still going the right way. The Gamepad absolves that issue entirely. It's so much more convenient than it might sound. I bought a Pro Controller and I never even use it.

The Miiverse can get pretty addictive if you're into social media. The community is quite open and friendly. I've only made a few posts myself, but there's a lot of fun people on there.

It's a good dedicated gaming system. If you have any interest in Nintendo IP, you're going to want one eventually anyway. Due to install base and less network resources, online multiplats probably aren't going to be very worthwhile, if you're into stuff like CoD. I think that most Wii U owners this generation are also going to be PS4 or XBO owners. Nintendo console for Nintendo games, as it is.

Recommended games: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is great if you're into that sort of thing. Even if you already have Monster Hunter 3 for Wii, Ultimate is well-worth it. If you like platformers, Rayman Legends got rave reviews and most consider the Wii U version the definitive version. If you're into horror, Resident Evil: Revelations is pretty good. More of a return to the series roots, with more survival, less action elements. Ports from other systems are hit and miss, but Arkham City is a good port. Assassin's Creed III is virtually identical to other consoles.

Yeah the lack of an account system is really jarring. Also I heard people talk about hardlocks/freezes during updates. Should I be concerned about that? Anything I might need to know beforehand?

Hey PokeTune,

Since your getting the zelda bundle, I would first recommend that you go pick a used version of Nintendoland. You can pick it at EB games for 25$. That game best showcase your WiiU and you can get it at a discount.

If you need extra Wiimote, you should also pick WiiU Party then you can probably skip Nintendo land.

Since, your just getting a WiiU year after release, I would avoid any of the newer third party game like AC4, Call of duty: Ghost & Batman Origins and pick up last year version for much cheaper. AC3, black op 2, Batman Akrhan city if you shop around you can pick them up for probably $20 each. Rayman legends and Zombie U will also be discount by the time you get your WiiU.

Current WiiU owner have all played and enjoy Super Mario Bros U, but you'll be getting your WiiU after Super Mario 3D World release that's probably going to be the much better game of the two, if I were you that's a day 1 purchase with your WiiU bundle.

Once you're done playing all these games. Check out the WiiU Eshop games, Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101. Pikmin 3 is like a 9/10, Wonderful 101 is probably not as high rank 8.5/10 but definitely a brand new experience that you've never played before.

@PokeTune
As long as your internet is above 5mb/s download and around 1mb/s upload, you shouldn't have any problems. Alot of the freezes happen, because of an unstable internet connection, mainly because the router isn't updated or has a bunch of unnecessary settings applied. I've had about 3 freezes in the past year.

Miiverse could be interesting for you. My cousin drew a picture of me on Art Academy Sketchbook app that was pretty ridiculous and it got 15 "yeahs". It's like FaceBook for use on Wii U, exclusively, and a combined account with 3DS seems to look like it will happen.

On the technical side, you don't have to worry about anything Nintendo as pretty much fixed all of the kinks. You will definitely need a internet connection, you have a annoying day 1 update, that's is a must if you want your WiiU to run as optimized as it can.

The non-account base eshop is not really an issue unless you actually want to sell your WiiU. If your WiiU was ever to brake, Nintendo support team can restore your eshop purchase on the new system. Nintendo is also looking into having account base eshop in future updates.

Mine never hardlocked at all. Right now, I can recommend the Wii U if you like Batman: Arkham Origins ($10 cheaper without multiplayer) and Nintendo games in general

It's a Nintendo Console..... nuff said

I have a launch system, and I never got a hardlocked but did get a few freezes especially when playing black ops 2 and Nintendo land. I think the system update as fixed these issues, Haven't add to reset my system for over 6 months.

Some things to be aware of that aren't positive:

Lack of a proper account system (this has already been addressed by other users)
Poor online infrastructure if you want to play with your friends. The lack of direct friend invites and a group chat system means that organizing games with friends is very, very hard. This means that with any game with a major focus on the Wii U, even if the game has better graphics, off-TV play, and more control options, it will still likely be hard to recommend over the other versions of the game, since the social aspect that the games encourage isn't supported well by the Wii U. It's why Black Ops 2, with all its control options, better graphics, and off-TV play, still wasn't as good as the 360 version for me, since I just wasn't able to organize games with my friends without going to extreme lengths. This won't be a problem for you if you only plan on ever playing with random people when it comes to online multiplayer.
When it comes to Miiverse, I get the appeal, but it didn't wear out on me. It just didn't do it for me. Some of my friends seem to really like it, though, so you may like it.

In terms of recommended games, Rayman Legends is a necessity if you plan on playing co-op at any point in time with your Wii U. It's the best multiplayer platformer I've ever played. Nintendo Land is also a solid multiplayer game, and since it can be bought on the cheap, I'd say that you should get it. Pikmin 3 is also a good game. I wouldn't say it's spectacular; it felt like more Pikmin to me, but that's not really a bad thing. Just know that it's not the step up that Pikmin 2 offered for Pikmin 1. Make sure to try the demo for Wonderful 101 before you buy it. That game has a mixed reception for good reason: it's not for everybody.

In terms of other games, I've found the 3rd party games in general to be competent on the Wii U. Darksiders 2, Assassin's Creed 3, Need For Speed: Most Wanted U, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 all work well on the system (the last being particularly good). You aren't going to notice differences unless if you compare side-by-side to other versions of the game. With off-TV play being a cool feature, that basically rectifies any small graphical inferiorities that the Wii U versions of any games may have.

In addition, if you haven't played Deus Ex: Human Revolution, get the Director's Cut. I got the original game in 2011, and it was my second favorite game that year, behind Portal 2. Now, it's main problem in boss battles has been fixed, and the gamepad features actually seem quite good from what I can tell. Definitely an excellent game there.

Every Wii game can be played on the Wii U, which is a big plus.

That pretty much sums it up for me. Hope you like your eventual purchase.

Underscan on VC kinda sours the experience, for me. But that can be remedied with a massive TV screen, I suppose

I just hope you won't end up being a fool and buy a system only to sell it a year later just because you were expecting stuff that was never announced

That just seems like an impulse buy...

They're still updating the OS as well, so it's not quite final. They could very well address most, if not all of the issues people have(accounts, better communication, etc.) through the updates.

I know they've already fixed some issues people were having, such as:
Wii VC 4:3 ratio, Wii mode on the GamePad, Dolby Pro Logic II in Wii mode, standby updates, dual ext. HDD use, and faster loading times.

Those updates show that Nintendo isn't just ignoring the Wii U. They're genuinely trying to improve the UI and features of the console.

I still refuse to believe those people were that bad at making well thought out purchasing decisions. It's impossible. Right?

First off I don't know what everyones talking about. Mass Effect 3 was awesome on Wii U. It is an enhanced port of the original game with MOST, no all of the DLC included. If you haven't played it yet, check it out.
Black Ops is just as good as the other consoles, just no DLC.

Now, onto my opinion. Great console, if you love Nintendo games you'll love it.
Exclusive wise check out Lego City, Monster Hunter(Even if you have the wii or 3ds version), Wonderful 101, Mario, Sonic regardless of mixed reviews, and yes ZombiU if you enjoy survival horrors.
Multiplats worth picking up:
Splinter Cell-Best console version regardless of bad load times. Online will be fixed like AC3 eventually.
Rayman Legends-Best version by far.
DarkSiders 2-Comes with extra DLC.
Deus Ex-Definitive version.
Need for Speed Most Wanted U. Best vesion, by far.
AC3 as wel..if you haven't checked it out.
Some I am iffy on recommending are
Back Ops 2, and that's pretty much it...
AVOID Game Party, ESPN Sports, Transformers Prime, Spongebob, etc.

Also, make sure to use MiiVerse quite a lot. It adds more to the games than you expect it would. Get an External Hard-drive as well. Nintendo is pushing digital purchases so i'd recommended it because you do get the option of downloading games early. Kind of like Wind Waker HD for about 2 weeks before it was released physically. And, if you're into online gaming make sure you do what most people don't and order the turtle beaches, they're surprisingly durable.

I forgot pikmin 3! Amazing game, check it out.