The Wii U launches in less than two months, and I’m already getting hyped.
The gaming industry looks forward to console launches the way Saturday Night Live does election season. There’s always something big and brash coming from console-makers and fans alike, and everyone starts looking on with speculation about how this game might play.
The speculation! It’s magnificent; I’m of the opinion that it’s more fun to cover console-launch speculation than it is the actual console launch. So many what-if scenarios and so much imagination and bowled-over romanticism about what the future might bring! Console launches are the one time when gamers let their imaginations run wild with the possibilities of what the hardware can do. Granted, not many of these hypotheses or allegedly-plausible-ideas actually come to fruition—still, like Hemingway once wrote, isn’t it pretty to think so?
I’m particularly looking forward to the Wii U. As the first new home console launch since, well, the original Wii back on November 19, 2006, the Wii U puts me right back in the salad days of guesswork and sky-high expectations. It’s more than just the thrill of unknown hardware, though; this is Nintendo we’re talking about. There’s something about the launch of a new Nintendo console that fills 8-year-old Andrew with glee. New Mario! New Zelda! Maybe a new Metroid that doesn’t screw it up! It’s a bit partisan to think so, but I get the feeling that a new Nintendo console brings the promise of more, well, joy than a Microsoft or Sony console. With those companies, gaming is merely one branch in their corporate strategy. With Nintendo, it’s the whole damn tree, and that still feels special, even if it means they stiill do stuff that’s bat-guano loco.
Plus, the Wii U isn’t just a new Nintendo console. It’s a new Nintendo console that actually has games I want to play on it. I already passed on getting a Wii until, no joke, last month, and I’m not planning on getting the Wii U simply because Shigeru Miyamoto and Reggie Fils-Aime say that I should. The Wii U looks like something I would play regularly. I opted out of getting the Wii because I wanted to play videogames, something the front-loaded motion controls didn’t let me do in any way approaching what I was comfortable. Third parties didn’t want to make games for it, either, and the Wii’s under-powered hardware wouldn’t let devs translate their hot-ticket properties to the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The Wii U has Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham City, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II—that right there is more third-party love than Nintendo ever got last generation. Jason Schreier summed it up beautifully last Friday: “[Nintendo’s] not making the same mistakes with Wii U, and the system's launch lineup is proof of that.”
Yeah, yeah, touchscreen controller whatever. You know the part about the Wii U controller that has me the most excited? It has two analog sticks, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons. Port city, chick, port- port city, chick.
The Wii U is a new console from Nintendo that actually feels worthy of the Nintendo legacy—the legacy of being the gold standard of living room entertainment. Nintendo has a few months to iron out the remaining uncertainties, like its online plans and what the hell a non-cable dude like me is going to do with TVii, but the baseline messages are clear: Nintendo is back, and it’s here to play videogames. Oh hell yes.
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