We now have Nintendo’s “entertainment” pillar for the Wii U, Nintendo TVii. At Nintendo’s September 13th conference they revealed their big step into the entertainment portion of Wii U. Its features include but are not limited to:

• cable/satellite integration
• Netflix, Hulu Plus
• Amazon Instant Video
• TiVo
• family member preferences

…all seamlessly mixed into one application. The interface looks very polished, and the ability to watch shows, comment on them, and see your other friends thoughts all in the same place is an interesting concept that seems to have been working very well.

At the recent Nintendo Conference, the impressive Wii U launch lineup was revealed. You can find it after the break!

• Nintendo Land- Nintendo
• New Super Mario Bros. U- Nintendo
• Rayman Legends- Ubisoft
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2- Activision
• Assassin’s Creed III- Ubisoft
• ZombiU- Ubisoft
• Mass Effect 3: Special Edition- Electronic Arts
• Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition- Warner Brothers Games
• TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2- Namco Bandai
• Scribblenauts Unlimited- Warner Brothers Games
• Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two- Disney Interactive
• Rabbids Land- Ubisoft
• Just Dance 4- Ubisoft
• Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth- Ubisoft
• Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed- SEGA
• MADDEN NFL 13- EA Sports
• NBA 2K13- 2K Games
• TRANSFORMERS PRIME- Activision
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013- Ubisoft
• Game Party Champions- Warner Brothers Games
• ESPN Sports Connection- Ubisoft
• Darksiders II- THQ

Even more games are coming in the following five months after launch, a period of time Nintendo refers to as the “launch window”. These are the games in it:

• Chasing Aurora
• Cloudberry Kingdom
• Little Inferno
•  Mighty Switch Force HD
• Nano Assault Neo
• Tank! Tank! Tank!
• Toki Tori 2
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
• 007 Legends
• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Ben 10 Omniverse
• Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2013
• Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
• Funky Barn
• Game & Wario*
• Jeopardy!
• LEGO City: Undercover
• Pikmin 3
• Rapala Pro Bass Fishing
• Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
• The Wonderful 101
• Wheel of Fortune
• Wii Fit U

We also had a very exciting announcement that  Bayonetta 2 is a Wii U exclusive, developed by Platinum Games and published by Nintendo. This is not in the launch window, but is currently in the works.

You can read their article and a link to it after the break.

(CNN) — Will Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U breathe new life into its aging Wii concept?
Hard to say at this point, but the Wii U is a solid device that will bring a fresh element to Nintendo gaming.
I got my hands on the redesigned device, which was first previewed a year ago, after Nintendo’s Electronic Entertainment Expo event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Here are my first impressions:
First, the device. It is smaller than a tablet, but larger than your mobile phone. It doesn’t feel heavy in the hands, and you will really have to try hard to snap it in two (not recommended). The device is part controller and part handheld console, and new games are expected to take advantage of both abilities.
I tried out the Wii U on two games, each featuring a different use for the device. “Luigi’s Haunted Mansion” takes advantage of what Nintendo calls asynchronous gameplay. This allows the Wii U to have unique goals and abilities in the game when played simultaneously with other people holding regular Wii controllers.
In this game, the player with the Wii U is a ghost trying to track down and capture the four players using Wii controllers. The ghost player uses the Wii U built-in screen to see everything on the map while the four other players must watch the TV screen to capture a ghost they can’t usually see.
The Wii U screen is large enough to make small shapes easy enough to distinguish. The two joystick controllers feel natural and sturdy, and comparable to other console joysticks. There are also two sets of shoulder buttons which are appropriately placed and don’t feel uncomfortable to use.
In the second game, “Donkey Kong’s Crash Course,” those buttons are used to manipulate a course you navigate by tilting the Wii U in the appropriate directions. The shoulder buttons raise and lower bridges and elevators while the joysticks are used to turn cranks.
It was a little difficult to rotate joysticks while also trying to tilt the Wii U. But with practice, I was able to get the right amount of touch without dying.
Players can watch the overall action on their TVs or get an up-close view through the Wii U screen. I can’t envision players using the big screen for games when the small one is in their hands.
Nintendo plans to release a wide range of games, from kid titles like “Pikmin 3″ to offerings for hardcore gamers like “ZombiU” and “Mass Effect 3.” The promise of additional gameplay features for the Wii U make it an intriguing option.
Overall, the Wii U is a solid hybrid of a souped-up Wii controller and a handheld gaming device. It’s larger than a traditional console controller, but not so heavy that it would cause fatigue problems.
Despite no announcement of a specific launch date or a price, the Wii U will only be as good as the games made for it. Nintendo’s focus on games during Tuesday’s event is a sign the gaming company may have its eye on the right target.

Fox and CNN both fail with gaming, nothing more needs to be said.

Well, Nintendo has finally announced that, along with being able to import previous Wii eShop purchases, the Wii U eShop will be available with the launch of the console. Games already announced are BIT.TRIP Runner 2, Chasing Aurora, Cloudberry Kingdom, and 1000 Spikes. We also speculate that Gamecube games may be on the horizon for the Wii U eShop.

Iwata, the president of Nintendo, conducted an interview with Takashi Tezuka, the director for New Super Mario Bros. U, for the game regarding new information, features, and gameplay.

You can watch it after the break.

]]> http://wiiugo.com/new-super-mario-bros-u-iwata-asks/feed/ 0 http://wiiugo.com/pikmin-3-announcement-2/ http://wiiugo.com/pikmin-3-announcement-2/#comments Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:19:37 +0000 Robert Maloney http://wiiugo.com/?p=6600
Pikmin 3 has been unveiled! We have new Pikmin, such as the rock Pikmin, more realistic effects, such as Pikmin finding natural things to build bridges with, and a beautiful HD display. You can play on the nun-chuck and Wiimote or simply by using the Wii U controller. We have the ability to use four leaders in the game as well. A new mode includes a a fruit collecting mode.

You can view screenshots and a video after the break.

Tyrone Rodriguez of Nicalis recently made statements of the Wii U being ‘Nintendo’s most powerful console’, and that it could ‘last five to ten years’.  This was mistaken as a possibly negative comment, but Jonathan Holmes of Destructoid got more details after contacting Tyrone.

Sadly, the original quote was taken a bit out of context. Here’s exactly what I meant: for what we need, and maybe for other developers, the Wii U’s [capabilities] are more than sufficient for five to ten years. We’re not making AAA games or using a crazy insane 3D engine, but the Wii U can definitely do both. With that said, for what we are doing, we could work on the Wii U easily for another five years without making it break a sweat. We don’t do massive productions.

This is still fairly ambiguous, but at least we know for now that it isn’t overly negative.  Hopefully more news regarding the Wii U’s official power will be released by Nintendo when they show it off at E3 this year.

While I’m not sure how much stock you can put in Wal-Mart for making reliable pricing at this point in time, this is still something to go on to help in confirming how much the Wii U may cost in the end. It’s also worth noting that the original Wii’s price was set by Wal-Mart before its release and was correct, so this may prove to be a similar situation, though it’s too soon to know anything concrete.

A lot of speculation seems to be that a $350 price point is too high for a successful launch of the console, but the price really isn’t anything higher than other consoles have sold for in the last generation, so only time will really tell.

Katsuya Eguchi, game designer and manager at Nintendo, discussed the ‘Wii’ in the Wii U, explaining that…

…there were also things [with Wii] that we weren’t able to accomplish with that system, that we would have liked to see in it. Wii U is kind of the natural progression in looking at what we did, how we changed gaming.

He went on to say:

This is the next logical step for us and we wanted to convey that in the name. in addition to that there are many Wii users out there – and we are very appreciative of this – who invested in lots of peripherals, such as more Remotes, balance boards, Classic Controllers, and they can continue to use these peripherals with Wii U as well. We wanted to make sure they understood that.

This is interesting, although I feel Nintendo should have gone for a more distinct name. They might see the same problem as with the 3DS, when people don’t realise it’s a totally new console.

In an interview, Harada suggested that the Wii U controller could be used to create custom stages which players could then share online. Another interesting feature that he suggested that Tekken Wii U would have is the ability to draw on your opponent’s face if you win. This idea came about because of how easy it is to draw using the Wii U controller’s touch screen. The embarassing picture that you draw on your opponent’s face could remain there for a whole year.

Carry on reading for the whole interview.