Wii U

the Pro Controller is really nice, and 80 hr battery life.

I mostly use the gamepad though, I've never had a problem with it but someone with small hands might.

the Wii U Pro controllers are EXTREMELY comfortable, in my opinion. The tablet is also very nice, but you will want at least 1 or two Pro Controllers if anyone else plans to play with you. The Tablet is surprisingly comfortable as well, but the battery on it doesn't last overly long. I've had 3 Pro Controllers since July and only charged them once or twice. The Tablet pretty much needs to be charged after every long play session (sometimes inbetween, but its got a long cord and can be used while it charges.

I've been far more pleased with the Wii U than any other system I've owned. I play a lot of games on it and so does each member of our family, all the way from our 5 year old to a 14 year old and also the wife.

The Original Wii games do look a bit grainy / low resolution, but all the modern Wii U games are very nice and bright graphics.

All the "good games" that have previously been mentioned (Mario 3d, Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong, Hyrule Warriors, Zelda Wind Waker, Bayonetta 2 etc) are really good. Its a nice family system and if you were a solo gamer I think it would be equally good. I've put countless hours into Hyrule Warriors and Super Mario 3d World with the 5 year old.

Im glad that I went with a Wii U instead of a PS4 or XboxOne for the family, its been a great system for us and we continue to enjoy it as new games come out.

I picked up Lego Undercover for the 5 year old, looking forward to watching him have his own mini Skyrim experience with the open world part of it.

Was torn between the Pro controller and Wii remote+ and nunchuck, but went with the latter simply for Galaxy 2 which I've been meaning to play for a while. It seems like if you want to play older Wii games the motion controller is necessary, and I noticed quite a few Wii U games support it as well. How is playing Mario Cart 8 with either tablet or Wii remote and nunchuck?

Galaxy 2 was awesome. I'm really glad it didn't focus on Yoshi. Playing the first few levels in the game when it first came out, I encountered him and fucking hated him. I fought through it after getting the Wii U, and glad I did. The game was great.

MK8 with the tablet is great in my opinion. Ive got 2 sets of the nunchucks but never really liked them for the original wii unless I HAD to use it for a game. MK8 with the older wii "motion" controllers was not fun for me, you've got to tilt the older ones to steer, so we promptly bought 3 Pros for everyone who wasnt the player1 / tablet user.

The Wii U pro controller is really great. The battery life on that thing is pretty nut. One charge allow for at least 20 hours of play. I never timed it but I wouldn't be surprised if it does 40 hours of gameplay between charge.

It's more like 80 hours.

Picked up my Wii the other day. I'm loving Super Mario 3D World. I'm looking forward to picking up Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, etc.

Is the eShop the best place to buy games? I mean, is it like Steam where you'll get some crazy good deals now and then, or am I better off hunting down deals on hard-copy games from Gamestop, Walmart, etc.?

The deals aren't crazy good but you can wait and get decent prices. Biggest boon for me is not having to swap physical disks.

There are some great deals sometimes - Metroid Prime Trilogy for just $10 last week for example.

the deals on digital games are super rare, like once per year per game so if you see it on sale snap it up like metroid trilogy above, was only good for a week. That said a bunch of games are onOfficial Nintendo Rewards Program | Club Nintendoso you can buy codes on ebay/etc for cheap for stuff like Wonderful 101, Wario, Mario Party 9, etc.

Physical discs tend to be on sale more often, I have picked up most games for $30-35 but it be weeks or months in between sales whereas on ps4/xbone its usually every few weeks. On the plus side the list of games you gotta get is pretty small, like 5-10, so being patient easily pays off. I'd say MK8, SSMB, Zelda HD, Donkey Kong TF, W101, Lego Undercover, Bayonetta, Pikmin 3 (go digital impossible to find now), and Super Mario 3D are the must haves but be patient. I'd get MK8 and SSMB asap though those are fun to play always.

if you do decide digital I'd buy an external drive and a Y-usb cable, 32gb isn't a lot of room and might as well put stuff external now. Best Buy is also having a sale on Nintendo eShop cards until saturday (tomorrow), buy 1 card at retail and get 2nd at 20% off so you could buy like 2 $100 cards and pay $100+$80, plus get whatever credit card cashback.

McCheese_sl said:

Picked up my Wii the other day. I'm loving Super Mario 3D World. I'm looking forward to picking up Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, etc.

Is the eShop the best place to buy games? I mean, is it like Steam where you'll get some crazy good deals now and then, or am I better off hunting down deals on hard-copy games from Gamestop, Walmart, etc.?

Click to expand...

Enjoy!

I only want digital, so I'll buy through eShop whether or not the game is on sale.

eShop is nothing like Steam with sales, but every couple or months they put a really desirable game or two on sale -- within the last few months it was possible to get Mario 3D World and DK: Tropical Freeze for $30 each and Wonderful 101 for $20. eShop offers update weekly on Thursdays at 1PM EST.

Just buy a titan one. You can play with any controller on any console. Has Macro support for games, as well as remap features.

Works perfectly

Utnayan_sl said:

SO I figured out why I never use my Wii U it seems.

Button placement on the controller is all fucked up.

I am used to 360 controls. If I am asked to press X, I automatically press the left button. A? Bottom. Y? top. B, right. Nintendo's layout is reversed and I want it to be like my Xbox 360 controller. I need to check, but are there remapping functions in the 1st party games and those such as Monster Hunter 3? Or a different controller I could use which is mapped like the 360?

Click to expand...

Smash can remap. New Super Mario can remap. Pretty sure Donkey Kong and Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors can remap. Not sure about others.

Utnayan_sl said:

SO I figured out why I never use my Wii U it seems.

Button placement on the controller is all fucked up.

I am used to 360 controls. If I am asked to press X, I automatically press the left button. A? Bottom. Y? top. B, right. Nintendo's layout is reversed and I want it to be like my Xbox 360 controller. I need to check, but are there remapping functions in the 1st party games and those such as Monster Hunter 3? Or a different controller I could use which is mapped like the 360?

Click to expand...

Smash can remap. New Super Mario can remap. Pretty sure Donkey Kong and Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors can remap. Not sure about others.

Yeah just read that. I guess you can just use the Wii U controllers on everything else.

Sucks, because Titan one is pretty damn good. Never had a problem with it on my Ps4

I remap my controls on SSB for the same reason. The controls are all fucked up and backwards.

Alex_sl said:

I remap my controls on SSB for the same reason. The controls are all fucked up and backwards.

Click to expand...

Technically it's PS/Xbox control layouts that are backwards since Nintendo invented the D-pad and 4 button control scheme