• November 20, 2012, 2:36 PM JST

Nintendo Wii U Review Roundup

By Matthew Lynley

The Nintendo 7974.OK -3.56% Wii U, its first console released in the past six years, came out on Sunday.

Bloomberg

Nintendo has a lot going for the Wii U, but it just isn’t there yet.

In addition to a traditional console, it features a “GamePad” that essentially doubles as a big tablet with a controller attached to it.
So far, the verdict has been mixed. Many reviewers across the Web are praising Nintendo for creating a console that definitely feels like a step forward.
But the reaction so far seems to be along the lines of, “give it a while.” The software isn’t fully baked yet and while there’s a decent line-up of games, all the pieces aren’t quite there, according to reviewers.
Here are some highlights from reviews around the Web:
The GamePad
The GamePad is the hallmark feature of the Wii U — it’s a big tablet-like device with a controller built into it. One major advantage is that it can essentially turn the Wii U into a portable console players can carry around the house. ”The Wii U is close — tantalizingly close — to being a portable console,” writes The Verge’s David Pierce. “So close, in fact, that I found myself wondering constantly why the GamePad wasn’t the console, and the TV-connected piece a peripheral.”
But the battery life of the GamePad and the build quality, however, left something to be desired: “Most tradeoffs I could live with, but not the battery, which insisted on dying after only about three hours of gameplay — Nintendo obviously sacrificed battery size to keep the GamePad light, and it overshot the balance a bit,” Pierce writes. “I had to have the GamePad’s charger, which includes yet another huge brick, accessible at all times when I was playing, because as you’ll see there’s basically no Wii U without the GamePad.”
“Sadly, overall, the GamePad controller gives off a relatively low-grade impression,” Engadget’s Ben Gilbert writes. “It looks and feels like a toy. The four main buttons resemble aspirin pills and aren’t of the polish we expect from modern game consoles; glossy plus / minus buttons accentuate this tragedy even further. Shallow, squishy shoulder buttons akin to those on Sony's 6758.TO -0.73% DualShock 3 compare poorly to those found on the current Xbox 360 controller as well as competent third-party equivalents (the Razer Onza, for instance). And the convex analog sticks had our thumbs easily slipping during long Mario sessions.”
Gameplay
But enough about the hardware — let’s talk about the experience. As a concept, second-screen gameplay seems like a natural evolution, according to most reviewers. At least, when the games get them right.
“Every game implements the GamePad differently, and most don’t do it very well. Some of the games in Nintendo Land take place almost entirely on the GamePad, so all you see on your TV is ‘Look at the GamePad!’,” Pierce writes. “Others are mirrored, so you’re seeing exactly the same thing on the TV and on the GamePad – it’s distracting to see things happening on both screens, and I wound up constantly shifting my gaze because I’d see some movement out of the corner of my eye.”
“In terms of gaming I think the most potential lies in “off-TV” play,” CNET’s Jeff Bakalar writes. “This promising features place-shifts all the action to the GamePad controller. It essentially gives you Wii U graphics and performance in a tablet-size form factor, eliminating the need for a TV altogether.
Even with that “off-TV” play, the GamePad still holds up to other devices. “The resolution of the GamePad screen, while inferior to an HDTV or an iPad, still presents game graphics exceedingly well. Mario looked just as vibrant and was just as playable on the GamePad screen as it was on the TV. Madden transferred fine,” Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo writes. “Nintendo Land‘s Pikmin and Zelda games looked technically better on the GamePad screen than any console games in their respective series ever looked on televisions. Graphically, visually, the GamePad holds its own.”
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