So like I’m sure a lot of you did, I got an email from Nintendo today announcing that they’ll have a midnight unveiling of the Wii U on Saturday, November 17.
So, I decided to take a walk past the Nintendo Store in New York City. The outside of the store is eerily quiet, sort of like the calm before the storm (and New Yorkers know a thing or two about storms these days).
In front of the store there were a ton of policemen. At first, I wondered if this was because people were actually lining up for the Wii U unveiling already. But I soon realized they were there because One Direction had just left the Today Show stage at Rockefeller Center about two hour earlier.
Still, I did see three guys set up in front of the store, one of whom I assume is Isaiah Triforce-Johnson, who’s become a bit of a minor celebrity in himself by being the first to buy a Wii, a 3DS, and now is going for being the first to get a Wii U. Triforce made a little news lately when all kinds of games press deliberated on whether he’d attempt to ride out Hurricane Sandy (spoiler alert: he didn’t). But good for him, he seems to be back now.
I walked inside the store, which was also eerily empty, but I noticed that they were already setting up for Saturday. There are actual Wii U units (along with GamePad controllers) set up.
The systems were mostly not playable, mainly displaying video demos of launch title games. The exception was a demo version of Rayman Legends (which ironically is no longer a launch title). I was immediately struck by how clear the HDMI video quality was. This is not your old Wii.
The coolest thing was getting a feel for the GamePad controller. It’s going to take a little getting used to in terms of something to use for everyday play, as it’s not small; it’s about the size of a small tissue box. You hold it in two hands, and control the left joystick and arrow keys with one hand and the right joystick and the buttons with the other hand. The picture quality on the GamePad was phenomenal, and the latency seemed almost non-existent. I get the sense that it’ll take a little time before game developers figure out how to develop for it (it was doing stuff during gameplay of Rayman, but in all honesty I didn’t pay much attention to it).
It looks like motion games will be alive and well on the Wii U. As I’ve written in past posts, the launch titles will include Your Shape 2013 and Just Dance 4. Wii Fit U’s launch date is a little later (sometime before March 2013), presumably a decision by the marketing department to keep interest in the Wii U high after the initial flurry of activity.
And now the burning question: how do YOU get your hands on a Wii U? Unless you’re feeling like coming to the City and standing on line, at this point my best advice is to just keep checking online to see when the one you want comes back in stock. Here are direct links to the product pages for each version of the Wii U:
Best Buy: Wii U Basic – White – Wii U Deluxe – Black
GameStop: Wii U Basic – White – Wii U Deluxe – Black
K-Mart: Wii U Deluxe – Black
Walmart: Wii U Basic – White – Wii U Deluxe – Black
Sears: Wii U Deluxe – Black
. There are a couple reasons you do NOT want to buy from either, at least right now. The first reason is that these are third-party sellers and not authorized retailers, so chances are they’re waiting on line to get their Wii U’s right along with everyone else.