Rethinking How I View the Wii U

So as you can see its been months since my last post, I still play my Wii U but not nearly as much as my other consoles. I want to start out by saying that I think that the Wii U does have great potential as a gaming console, but I think Nintendo needs to stop trying to compete with Sony and Microsoft as a leading console. I don't see Microsoft ever being able to compete with Microsoft or Sony on that level. We hear the argument all the time that Nintendo should pull a SEGA and just make games, get out of the console market, well that isn't a bad argument. Can you imagine being able to play a Legend of Zelda game on the PS3/PS4? I would personally love to have Pokemon on my Vita so I don't have to carry my 3DS with me, but I think Nintendo is doing well enough with their handhelds that it would never happen.

Has anyone else noticed that the Wii U optical drive is crap? I already had to send mine back to Nintendo once because it stopped reading discs, but it seems if a disc has the tiniest scratch the system won't read it. I'm only buying digital games from now on but its pretty annoying.

Nintendo just released Wii U Fit on the eShop, I have it downloaded and will give it a try tomorrow, I'm looking forward to playing it, I had a lot of fun playing Wii Fit back on the original Wii. Just in case you didn't know Wii U Fit is free for a month, after the month of free use is up then you'll have to buy a Wii Fit Meter that unlocks the game again. The Wii Fit Meter looks like a pedometer but I haven't really looked into it enough to give anymore details than that.

I mentioned above that I do still play my Wii U, my son and I play Disney Infinity together and I still play the new Mario from time to time. I'm looking forward to more VC games, I think that is when I'll start playing more Wii U is when I can play some of my N64 or Gamecube favorites. On a closing note the next Wii U game I pick up will probably be Batman Arkham Origins, I'm in no rush to get it because Call of Duty Ghosts comes out tomorrow and the PS4 comes out next week but I will eventually pick it up and it will be for the Wii U because the Wii U version of Arkham City was my favorite version.

Bad news for Nintendo?

Looks like another round of bad news for Wii U owners as EA has announced that they will not be bringing Madden 25 to the new Nintendo console. Wii U launched with the last Madden game so it is very surprising that they are skipping this one, it brings about a lot of questions about the future of EA's partnership with Nintendo. EA says they still have a strong relationship with Nintendo but it really doesn't seem that way. Also it's worth mentioning that when Call of Duty Ghosts was announced it also didn't mention a Wii U version, since Black Ops 2 was a Wii U launch game this is pretty bad news, does EA and Activision think that the Wii U isn't worth the money to develop games for? Madden and Call of Duty are two of the biggest franchises in gaming and absences on the Wii U doesn't look good for Nintendo.

I hate to read news like that because it really puts a damper on my hopes for the Wii U system, but I'm still having a lot of fun playing Monster Hunter and Batman AC, and I had a blast playing AC3 so I'm going to keep playing my Wii U and hoping that things turn around for it. Watchdogs is coming to the Wii U and is probably the game I'm most excited about this year. The new Batman Arkham game is also confirmed for Wii U which is good because the Wii U controller is great for that game and should be pretty amazing for Watchdogs as well.

The Wii U also appears to have been hacked...so that actually may boost sales but if that is the case they will lose third party support. Egh not looking so good right now. If things don't turn around my next blog might be called back to Microsoft or Sony.

Lego City Undercover

So I've been watching my wife play Lego City Undercover on the Wii U and it is a fun little game, lots of really cute jokes and goofy characters with a fun story. The game-play is very much like Grand Theft Auto but instead of stealing cars you are using them for "police business", no hookers to beat to beat up or kill, so its a GTA like game that your kids can play.

If you have played the other Lego games you are familiar with how only certain characters can access specific parts of the game, well this one is no different, but your main character Chase unlocks different clothing and depending on what clothing you are wearing you'll have access to certain spots. So far we have the default, police, butcher, and inmate attires. I'll do a full on review once I get a turn!

Nexus of Nerds

Back to Nintendo is my personal Wii U blog, everything here is dedicated to the Wii U, but I also run another website with a couple friends called Nexus of Nerds. The Nexus of Nerds website was an idea that I've had for a long time but never acted on until I had a friend mention something to me about wanting to write reviews for games. So I started the website and it has grown from game reviews to pretty much anything nerdy, comic books, movies, TV shows, zombies, and of course gaming. While the Nexus of Nerds is still pretty new it will soon be booming with a lot of reviews and we'll be adding a retro gaming section which will talk about the best games of the past.

This blog will not go away or be merged with that one, they are two separate projects and this one is only for me to post on. But please if you enjoy this website check out http://nexusofnerds.net

What I'm currently playing April 2013 Edition

Hello everyone, since I'm in the process of bringing this blog back from the dead I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know what I'm doing in the gaming world. I'm playing a few different games right now on a few different consoles so I'll start with the Wii U and work my way down the list.

On the Wii U I am currently playing through Batman: Arkham City, I'm also trying my hand at Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and playing a little Lego City Undercover with my 4 year old son. Batman: Arkham City the armored edition is a fantastic game, I had briefly started it on the PS3 but stopped playing when I found it was coming to the Wii U. It feels very much like Arkham Asylum but on a much bigger scale. I'm having a lot of fun with it and I'm pretty much only doing the main story for now. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate...I watched the review on IGN and thought that would be a cool game if I had someone else online to play with, well later that day one of my co-workers told me he was playing it. I bought the game and I'm still learning and figuring everything out but I can see it being a very addictive game. Lego City Undercover is something we got my son because he loves Lego's and is starting to get into gaming, the game is cute and goofy just like the other Lego games, but has the GTA feel to it.

On the PS3 I'm playing Bioshock Infinite and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Bioshock Infinite I already beat once but wanted to go back through the game again in 1999 mode, but I'm starting to question whether or not I'll even be able to do it, it is pretty hard on that mode. Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is something I just occasionally hop on with my friends for multi-player, I'd like to play through the story when I get time. I'll also probably start Infamous 2 soon.

On my Vita...yes I got another one I'm playing PS All-Stars. I'm going to get the Walking Dead game when it comes to the Vita so I can play through it with new story choices and of course I'll be getting the newly announced Batman game.

Starting Tuesday I'll be spending most of my time playing Injustice: Gods Among Us, still waiting to get word on whether or not the Wii U will get the Season Pass, I've been tweeting at the Injustice team almost everyday to try and get an answer.

In other news a new Batman game was announced, Batman Arkham Origins and it will be coming to the Wii U so I'm pretty excited about that and even more motivated to finish Arkham City.

Back to Back to Nintendo!

What is going on everyone? It has been a while since I posted here, a lot of things going on with gaming and other projects I'm working on, but I'll get to that in a bit. I am still playing my Wii U and I'm still having a blast with it. I went through a brief time (about a month or so) where I was convinced that it was a failure and that I shouldn't have wasted my money, I'm no longer feeling that and it is my go to system now.

So I was playing Call of Duty Black Ops 2 almost daily on my Wii U and I was getting pretty good! But all my friends at work played on the PS3 so I traded in my copy for the PS3 version. As I started playing that more on my PS3 I got back into Bioshock because Bioshock Infinite was coming out soon and since that game wasn't coming to Wii U I was kind of upset and played my PS3 a lot more. I finished Bioshock 1 and 2 back to back, then finished The Walking Dead episodes 1-5, then I finished Infamous 1 and finally Bioshock Infinite. I went through this big trophy kick too where I was playing games over and over to try to unlock more trophies. I have no clue why I was doing this, one of the features I liked most about the Wii U was beating a game and not worrying about beating it on other difficulties to unlock trophies. I get way too caught up on trophies or achievements if they are there. I wanted to play new games to get new experiences but couldn't because of those stupid trophies!

The Wii U has such great potential and I'm really hoping that developers will start giving it the same love they give to PS3 and Xbox 360. Like I mentioned above I was pretty upset that Bioshock Infinite wasn't released on the Wii U, Bioshock is one of my favorite games so this was a big big deal to me. I know there are a lot of Wii U games coming out in the future and a lot of good ones so there is still hope. One of the other things that has been kind of upset is that Injustice: Gods Among Us isn't getting the season pass or Arrow skin for the Green Arrow. I've been in a bit of a DC comic phase as of late and I'm really digging the TV show Arrow and I was pretty excited to see that you can get that skin for Injustice, but when I saw it was only for PS3 and 360 I was crushed. I currently have Injustice with the season pass pre-ordered for PS3 but if they announce the Arrow skin for Wii U I'll change my pre-order today.

Fast forward to a little more recently I decided I wanted to beat Batman Arkham City, since I have the Armored version for Wii U I fired up the Wii U and started playing around with TVii and Miiverse, then I started playing Batman and I remembered how much I loved the controller, how much I loved being able to keep playing on the controller with my TV off. I also went out and picked up Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Lego City Undercover, both are a lot of fun and they will likely keep me on the Wii U for a bit longer. Also some pretty good games have been announced like the new Assassins Creed and Watchdogs, plus a HD Zelda games. I don't know what will happen when PS4 and Xbox 720 comes out, I don't know how the Wii U will compete with those systems and at this point I don't care, my Wii U is a lot of fun and I'm going to keep playing it until I have a good reason not to play it anymore.

Initial Wii U Impressions

So my kids have taken over my TV to watch Netflix so I thought it would be a good time to post my initial impressions of the system and games I've played so far. I'll start with the system, the update seemed like it took forever but a lot of that was probably just me being impatient, the whole setup process went really smoothly with no issues. I created my Mii and checked out Miiverse which is amazing. By the way there are some really talented artists on Miiverse...did anyone else notice? Miiverse is like a gaming Facebook, its really awesome and makes gaming even in single player games feel more alive. I added my Netflix and Hulu Plus accounts, no problem there. The Netflix interface is really good, easy to navigate on the game-pad alone, but the Hulu Plus app needs some work. If you don't have the TV on it limits your navigation. The internet browser is really fast and works great, the only problem that I have had with it is that when I access Facebook, it gives me the mobile version and I have no idea how to change that..but a mobile version of a website on my 55in screen seems a little silly.

The first game I tried was ZombiU, this is a game I've been waiting for since the first time I saw the teaser, and it is exactly what it says it is, a survival game. At this point in the game I'm on survivor number 8 and my longest survival time is about 37 minutes! The game is dark, scary, and hard! Because you spend a lot of time with a bat you are constantly having to avoid groups of zombies because they aren't easy to kill with it. My wife and I have been playing the multiplayer a lot and because of this game I went out and grabbed the pro controller (amazing controller). The single player is hard but very fun, and the multiplayer is just as good. I'm not very far into the game yet but once I am I'll post a full review. So far I give it an 8/10

I have spent some time with Black Ops 2 as well, the game plays exactly like you would expect it to play on the 360/PS3. The graphics are beautiful and the multiplayer is a blast. This is a game that you can play fully on the controller and not have to use the TV. I was able to go lay in bed with my wife and while we watched Sons of Anarchy I was able to keep playing Black Ops 2 online, it was lag free and an amazing experience. I'm not very good at it, but I have fun anyway. I haven't started the campaign yet but zombies and multiplayer are very good. 9/10 on this one so far.

Scribblenauts Unlimited, I've only spent about 30 minutes or so playing this, if you have played any of the previous ones the concept hasn't changed. It is fun, addicting and looks great on the controller and TV. I haven't tried the object creator yet, so I can't talk about that, but this game has a cute little story line and is very fun. I probably won't play this one too much until I finish ZombiU, but I expect my wife to be playing it this weekend.

So overall I am very impressed with the Wii U, one of my concerns was that it would be hard to play Black Ops 2 using the game-pad  but it is actually very nice, it took me a bit to get used to the button placement and the analog sticks being up higher than the buttons, but once you get used to the layout it feels great. The pro controller has an awesome weight and feel to it, and I would be using it if I wasn't so addicted to the game-pad.