So nintendo finally dropped the curtain on their new console the "Wii U" trying to ride on the back of the Wii's success with the naming which is very shrewd. although the unveiling of the console was probably one of the most confusing things ever, most people wasn't sure what they had seen at first as they only showed the controller. most people thought it was just a new controller for the Wii, but it was indeed a new console (which we didnt find out until after the conference, which is when they actually started giving info out about it.)
A bit of a messy start then, but on to the console itself it looks just like the Wii but a little chubbier. its reportedly more powerful than this generations consoles PS3/360 which are now getting on for 6 to 7 years into their respected life cycle's, but nobody really knows the power of it as that's something Ninty's keeping close to its chest for now.
But some devs have been talking it up such as Ubisoft (who showed their support by showing some games ghost re-con online and killer freaks from outer space) also they had a list of third party developers all committing to the cause, but admittedly all the stuff that was shown was from the PS3/360 counter parts as presumably they hadn't had time to prepare anything.
On to the controller which was star of their presentation, it has a 6.5 inch touch screen in the centre which has non capacitive features as opposed to capacitive (which means you can only touch it once to get working as with capacitive you can touch it with two fingers and it still responds.) it also has 2 slide pads instead of analogue sticks (similar too the 3DS one) which some people have said doesn't feel as accurate as analogue sticks. a cross pad, 4 buttons adorn the front, but it also has 2 top shoulder buttons and 2 trigger buttons on the back and a ridge to rest your middle fingers on and for comfort.
people who tried the pad said it was light to hold (so hopefully it wont get too uncomfortable to hold for long periods) but once the battery is in place it may be heavier.
More controversially Nintendo stated you would be only be able to use one touch screen controller per machine, at the time Nintendo said this was a cost issue and they didn't want to sell them separately, although its not official it is worrying seeing as the second player will have to use a Wii-mote (the console will be backwards compatible with the Wii games and peripherals).
On to the tech demos that were shown:
Battle Mii:
A game where one person controls a ship with the touch pad while another 2 people hunt them down with their Wii-motes, graphically it looked just like a Mii game with higher res graphics but it had a metroidy look to it.
Chase Mii:
A game where one person has the touch pad (again) and another 4 have to chase him through a maze and catch him, a bit like tag.it required team work from the 4 chasing but the player with the touch pad had the advantage of having a map of the area and seeing where the others were.
Shield Pose:
This was a Rhythm action game using the touch pads screen to look all around you in a 360 degree motion to stop arrows from hitting you. it was pirate themed and the pirate in the middle of the screen tells you which direction they were coming from, you could look left of the screen right and up and in each direction was a ship or the moon. it made good use of the area outside your TV as it brought your living room into the game. hopefully we will see more of this kind of thing in the future games.
They showed 2 HD videos one of a bird flying over a pond in glorious high def, you could also control the camera and move the pad 360 degree area around the screen.
Then there was Zelda HD which gave us a glimpse into what graphically we might expect from the Wii U, and boy did it look good, you were able to change the cameras and day and night cycle and also bring a map up on either the main screen or on the touch pad. the lighting looked amazing and the detail looked awesome. you could also put the action straight onto the touch pad which didn't suffer from much graphical degradation.
So it all looks like its going in the right direction for the WiiU, we just have to wait for the Tokyo game show where im sure we will see some actual game footage, console specs, and probably pricing.
As for me I cant wait to play one, I just hope they get the pricing right (300-350) and you can expect it to release
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