Me and U, Wii U

November 21st 2012 my second full day of just me and U, Wii U that is. Ah days like this don't come along all that often anymore. Used to be every 5 years now it's every 6. The day when a brand spanking new video game console comes out and you get to spend all day in your jammies vidding out on the coolest new stuff they got to offer. Last time I got to do this was 6 years ago on Nov 18th 2006 when the Wii came out. The Zupancic brothers and me all slept out in front of the Greensburg Target all night. While an interesting event to be a part of, that was the week after I started the job I have now and I did get sick and miss the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Wii Sports and Twilight Princess kept me alive long enough to get better and return to work the next week. ;)

As much as I'd have loved sleeping out somewhere again I figure I can probably afford one-day shipping so that's what I did. I was waiting to get it thru Amazon but Gamestop did their preorderes first so I went with them. I got a Deluxe Set with New Super Mario U, ZombiU and Lego Undercover. I figured I could get the system and mess around with Nintendo Land for a day or so until the other games got there or I could just go out and buy them at a store. (This is what I did actually but Gamestop still shipped my other games even after I cancelled. Guess I'll have to fight to get my money back there.)

I had requested off Monday thru Wednesday this week but since I didn't know how the one day shipping was going to work I figured I'd save a day and go in Monday to make sure all was good. I even bought Assassins Creed 3 to throw in the mix. It figures that I get a text as soon as I get to work Monday morning saying the shipment was delivered. At least I didn't have to sit around all day wondering where it was.

I got home and all was good. of course the main thing everyone is talking about is that the moment you turn it on you have to download and install an update that take well over an hour. I wasn't happy about it but I know the PS3 does that all the time so it's not like I haven't had to suffer that before. I got a taste of how everything was that night by the time everything was ready to go.

November 20th was the day I got to sit around all day and play. Good times!

The Gamepad is so sweet. It's like having the best gaming Nintendo branded tablet thing. It's like having a huge 3DS, the top screen is your TV and the bottom is the touch screen in your hands. There is going to be some sick stuff taking advantage of this.

It took them a few days but the YouTube app is now turned on. You can do your searching on the Gamepad but it looks like you need the TV to watch the videos which isn't as cool as the Netflix app where you can bounce the video back and forth at leisure. Hopefully an update will fix it. At least it's working now. 

I thought they would expand on the Activity Log app they started on the 3DS but it seems to me it's been cut down greatly and that is disappointing to me. If you don't get trophies or a score of whatever for your overall game play it's nice to at least know how long you've spent playing each game and be able to do all kinds of cool reports and comparisons on that. Doesn't seem to be the case here. You get daily and monthly totals by user. That's it.

I'm also disappointed the system can't recognize a media server. If Nintendo wants this to be the center of my entertainment then it should be able to play all my stuff everywhere.

If you want to save everything off you old Wii you are forced to perform a strange ritual. Lots of sd card swapping and downloading the Wii Transfer program twice and internet connection tests, it's a real mess but it at least seemed to work for me. It goes and gets all your licenses for all the games you purchased off the Wii Shop Channel and all your game saves and Miis and moves them all over to your Wii U. This wipes your Wii clean. There is a channel on the main menu that just makes the console go into Wii mode. The Wii U just reboots itself as a Wii and there you go. It seems like they could have done that a little cleaner but I can't see myself using it all that much anyway.

QUICK IMPRESSIONS:

ASSASSIN'S CREED
I'll admit that I have yet to really play a game in this series. I played a tiny bit of part 1 but didn't get into it. A lot of watch a cut scene, get control back long enough to walk out of the building then back into another cut scene.I like the weird effect of seeing glitches in the Matrix interface. I do not know what you'd call that.

ZOMBIU
The twist here as you've probably heard is that the character you play is a random citizen of the UK and when being chased by zombies he/she happens to run by the right place and the guy in the panic room controlling all the the cameras shows you his hideout. You start with missions and if you ever get overwhelmed by the undead you wake back up in the hideout as whoever the next random citizen he saves is and so forth. If you find prior (now zombie) you, you can kill them and get your backpack with all your stuff you acquired back. That is a cool mechanic, different at least. The gameplay is typical fun adventure, search ruined city, buildings etc on this guys mission to turn on more cameras and eventually find a cure for the virus. Sometimes I find a room with so many zombies in it, it takes me 4-5 survivors to clear it all out. It's not fun to waiting for loading to go thru all these boards to get back to where the action is only to finally get there and get killed by the first zombie only to have to wait to do it again. I'm still not clear on when they can jump you. Sometimes it seemed like a had a lot of health left but they took me anyway. My record I think for 1 guy is about 2hrs. I have no idea how many survivors you go thru affects anything. I could imagine a gold trophy for winning the game on your first guy but Wii U didn't pick up on trophies. It's an original game I support it. It's fun and it uses the Gamepad well.

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS U
I just played thru New Super Mario Bros 2 on 3DS not a month or so ago so I thought I night not be as thrilled with this as I could have been. Wrong. This game is awesome. This may not be the next level Mario game but it totally satisfies me as far as new Nintendo system launching with a Mario game. Same formula, got thru the stages and each one has 3 big coins you eventually need to come back and collect to fully beat the game. The over world is like Super Mario World but next level. Everything interacts with each other. Plenty of secrets and challenges. Do not miss playing thru this one.

NINTENDO LAND
I didn't get this one at first. The interface was off putting to me. I eventually got it and we've since had some mega awesome multiplayer matches. It's fun. It shows you interesting uses of the Gamepad. Just buy the Deluxe set so you get this for free.


We're now waiting for Lego City Undercover. Hopefully it will be available by Xmas. Can't wait to see what else they come up with soon.

Good Gaming Xmas 2010

I got a bunch of cool new games this year for Xmas. Most were bought by myself but for Isaac. Just a quick list:

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time (PS3)
I got this game in November and opened it early to give me something to do up until Xmas but I actually platinumed it over Thanksgiving break.

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
Ale used some store credit from Amazon to buy my this game for Xmas. She's such a sweetie. Now I finally get to see why every one compares it to Zelda. I like it so far but it's really going to take up some time as it is old-school difficult.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (PS3)
Isaac plays the demo all the time so I thought to get him this game. Also got him his own PS3 Dual Shock (blue, his fav color) so we can play simultaneously.

Cars Race O'Rama (PS3)
Isaac loves the Cars franchise and I read up on this game that it wasn't too horrible. Kids would like it anyway. Plus I checked and I could be able to platinum it as a bonus.

Donkey Kong Country Returns (WII)
I used my Xmas game from my mom to get this also for Isaac but he didn't seem to care about it that much. I played it a little and it's okay. Very familar to what I remember the old ones being like. No trophies and the lack of HD graphics really hurt it in my eyes.

Just Cause 2 (PS3)
This was another game that Isaac constantly plays the demo. I wasn't too keen on getting this but I figured what the heck. It is a mature rated game with lots of shooting, etc but I have determined that Isaac is well grounded for the most part it doesn't bother me to let him play most games like this. I didn't really play the demo that much but let me tell you it quickly became my favorite game out of all of them. The game world is huge, the options are seemingly unlimited, the controls are very well done and the grappling hook just makes getting around extremely fun. I could probably write a whole blog about this game alone.

So that was not a bad haul for Xmas. I told Isaac that we'd use this gift card for Gamestop I had to buy Dead Space 2 when that comes out at the end of January. Hopefully this will keep us busy for a while and having fun well into the new year.

Wii Are Back In Business

I ended up having to pay $85 but my Wii is working (and sounding) fine again.

After I beat Super Mario Galaxy 2 I couldn't get it to boot anymore to collect the green stars. I was bummed but I didn't do anything until Metroid: Other M came in the mail. Brand new game and I couldn't play it. It was time to quit messing around and get something done. I packaged it up, wrote a letter describing the issue as they requested, stuck in the check and waited a few days until it was almost payday. My mom has FedEx pickup at her work so she took it and got it sent away.

I got an email fairly quickly after sending it and they said they were on it. Not a few days later I got another saying they had shipped it back. If there's one thing I can't complain about it's that they communicate well and work fast. The papers in the box they shipped it back in said they put a new motherboard in and a new disc drive. So far I have had no issues and I am super happy.

The 2nd Time My Wii Was broke

Well my order from Amazon finally came. I opened my mailbox when I got home from work last night and there was a nice little brown box addressed to me. I grabbed everything up and went in the house to open it up. I swear I heard Mario yell as I took it out of the box and the theme song even played underneath - SUPER MARIO GALAXY!!!

My Wii better be working I thought as I ripped the plastic shrink wrap off. I heard the disc drive start up as I popped the game in. Uh oh!! :(



This was not good. My Wii has never been the same since lightning struck.

(FLASHBACK TO FEBRUARY 2008)
Two days after the Patriots failed to achieve the perfect season (THANK YOU LORD!!) I got a frantic phone call while I was at work to get home quickly. There was a disaster! Apparently across the street from my house a tree fell and landed on some power lines and fried our whole house. The guy right next to the pole got some too but we were really bad off. Maybe I'll tell this whole story somewhere else later because I am getting off track here.

The point is my Wii didn't work anymore. I thought it was toast so I cried and called Nintendo support. They were convinced there was no problem. They were confident that the plug adapter thing was designed to stop that sort of thing from happening and they would send me a new one at no charge. WHA??! That's awesome. What was even awesomer was that when it came, it worked!! The only issue now is that my disc drive is LOUD! I know it wasn't like that before but at least it works. I have regained my happiness. I buried the old plug in the backyard at sundown. It was a martyr. It gave it's life to save my Wii and would always hold a place of honor in my heart.

(FLASH FORWARD TO FEBRUARY 2010)
No problems with the Wii (other than the airport decibel level disc drive) in two years. I got Wii Fit Plus for Xmas and I have been jamming on that lately. I got a lot of stuff unlocked and Isaac and I are having a good time exercising. Until one day it told me the save was corrupt and I had to create a new one. WHA??! All my progress is lost. WTF? I never had that happen before. Ok, I'm not happy about this but whatever. I had to do everything over. Unlock everything again. My awesome 1 full hour exercise session was lost. All my graphs of progress are gone too. I guess I'll live though. I mean I did the exercise so I am that much healthier so it doesn't really matter in the end that those results are not saved. Correction: It didn't matter much until it started happening again and again. Every other week my save was corrupted and the Wii was getting more and more troublesome to get to work properly. I started using an SD card to save off my Wii Fit saves every day when I was done and then deleting the system save and re-copying it over the next day to continue but that was a pain in the neck. I pretty much eventually stopped using my Wii due to this issue.

(FLASH FORWARD TO PRESENT)
So now I'm sitting here with a brand new 10/10 Mario game and no working Wii to play it on. This was a major bummer. I went to my computer and sent Nintendo an email. I was pretty sure that this was it. I'd probably have to send it in for repairs which would cost me at least $50 plus shipping and handling and I'd be without a Wii for a month. I'd probably also have to rip my cool skin off the Wii or they'd ruin it there and where would I put it, how would I get it back on later? This was depressing. An hour or so later I checked my email and they had written me back already. Due to my issue they needed to talk to me personally so they gave me the number to call. I called and got a nice younger kid that seemed so eager to assist me and was sooo sorrry that I was having troubles. Yeah cut the crap kid just tell me what I need to do here. He seemed to think that it was a system memory issue and to reformat the entire Wii. I'd lose all my saves, and channels and Virtual Console games but I could redownload some of the stuff if I needed. I wasn't too happy about having to do that but at least it was a solution, one that would not force me to send it in. I contemplated sticking the SD card in there and trying to save off my saves but what exactly did I need and why? The Wii wasn't responding properly anyway. I doubt even trying that would work so I decided I was just going to wipe everything.

I clicked on Reformat Wii System Memory and waited to see what would happen. It didn't seem to take that long and when it was done it shut down. I gave it a few seconds and then hit power to boot it back up. When it came on it was like I just got it brand new. I had to choose the system language and set the clock and re-establish my internet connection but it was a lot faster now and everything seemed to be working. I went straight to the Super Mario Galaxy 2 disc and hit Start. It fired right up. I could play!! Everything seemed to be okay now. This was fantastic news!! :D

I really haven't played around with the other stuff so I don't realize what I'm missing yet but so far so good. Nintendo has come thru again for me. You can read my SMG2 blog to read about what I thought there which will be published sooner or later.