Thoughts of a year-late Wii U adopter

Setting up the Wii U a year after its launch was way easier than I'd expected. I remember all of the horror stories about lengthy updates required to do anything, systems getting bricked because an update froze them, or because the system was powered off during the process for some reason or other. Even if it was a year later when I finally got the Wii U (Merry Christmas!), for whatever reason, these problems were expected.

But those expectations were foiled.

Though, the Wii U's hardly a plug and play system. You still need to set up a user account, run a few updates for most of the pre-installed channels/menus, and configure a few of the GamePad's features. These set up processes alone should be the criteria for a console to be considered "Next Gen," since I'm sure you need to go through the same things with the PS4 and XBox One. Specs and such aside, I will always consider the Nintendo console with a year-long head start part of the same video game heat as Sony and Microsoft's latest machines.

Yet, now that I have a Wii U I also have to admit that Nintendo really didn't make good use of its head start. The Nintendo Direct from 18 December left me feeling excited for 2014, but what, then, happened in 2013? It seems that Nintendo took the time to relax before (hopefully) turning their efforts up to 11. The Virtual Console is,as it was on the Wii, a prime example of Ninty's playing the hare.

The only two consoles represented on the VC as of this writing are the NES and SNES. Some of the games available for these are also available on the Wii (the VC of which is accessible via the Wii Menu). But, even then, when I turned off all of the eShop's search filters and went through all of the available titles I was dumbfounded to see there were only eight pages worth of software. Some of which wasn't even available on the Wii U, but only available for the 3DS. Since the two consoles now share the eShop, it seems that the eShop is doubling as a strange cross-platform advertising delivery system.

Yet, Nintendo has still captured my imagination with its GamePad. Off-TV play is, at its core, a simple concept. But it's so cool. Being able to take games or apps around with you is incredibly convenient. This convenience probably sounds familiar to owners of smartphones or tablets, but the GamePad's screen is bigger than most smartphones. Its being tethered to the Wii U console cuts down its mobility, but at the same time the GamePad is, essentially, a portable Wii U - which makes it super cool.

Hyrule Warriors raises my hopes for the future of the Wii U. Perhaps this spin-off in the Warriors series is a hint at some element in what will eventually be in Zelda Wii U. Or, perhaps the use of Link (and maybe Zelda?) in a spin-off game is just nodding towards a very late release date for Zelda Wii U.