Wii U pre-production review

Coming into the New Year, there were rumors that we would gain some insight into not one but three next-gen consoles. We can already strike one of those off the list, as Sony has come out and announced they have no intention of offering any details regarding the PS4 during E3. We had assumed Microsoft would offer some details on their next Xbox during the Consumer Electronics Show; and again we were left disappointed.

However, there is still one more next-gen console, and to our relief and in a U-Turn, Nintendo brought their Wii U to CES 2012. Those who attended the event were treated to some hands-on time with this next-gen console. Okay, so we know this is nothing new, as this had been reported last week; although what these sources had said on the day were not insightful enough, as there was so much else going on.

The dust has now settled on the event, so not it’s time to find out what those who got to play with the Nintendo Wii U really thought, and if the company can redefine gaming, just as they did with the original Wii. Motion sensing controls was a big draw for the console, so offered gaming on a completely new level, so you can see why the new model is a huge risk.

A recent article has now had time to think about what they saw during CES, and from what we can see, they believe more questions were being asked than were answered, and we still have no idea when Nintendo plans to answer them. We have no clue as to online gameplay; this is a must if the Wii U has any hope of competing with the Xbox 360 and PS3 again.

The biggest feature on the Wii U has to be the new touchscreen controller, which can be seen in detail in the video we have embedded for you below. In one game (Chase Mii) the TV would show gameplay footage, while the controller would offer certain features of the game, such as health etc. However, the best was yet to come, as another demo of a car being driven around had the same image on the screen as it had on the controller. What was different though was when the controller was moved the view within the car on the screen would change – now that has to have a few benefits in future games?

The moment we learned of the new Wii U last year, it was so hard to see the benefits of the new controller. However, an interesting article recently said the moment the device is in your hands and trying it out for the first time, it’s easy to see the “the many possibilities.” What we did find interesting is what they had to say about what is the biggest threat to the Wii U.

Most would say it would be new versions of Microsoft and Sony’s consoles, but this would be wrong, as Nintendo need to fear tablet devices. There could be some truth to this, you only have to look at the upcoming Razor tablet and the iPad 3, with its rumored new A6 processor, which is said to have a GPU 20 times faster than the one currently used in the iPad 2.

Nintendo will have a much tougher time trying to sell as many units as they did when the current Wii console was launched. However, if we are to believe claims of more powerful graphics than the PS3 and Xbox 360, then not only could casual gamers be interested, but also serious gamers as well. Do you believe Nintendo will be able to replicate the success they had with the Wii?