The Good
- The controller is very comfortable to hold and surprisingly light
- The size of the controller seems bigger than I had expected, but in a strange way, it looks less bulky than the forced perspective shot of the GamePad on the Wii U marketing materials
- I've heard a few commentators disparaging the resolution of the GamePad, but my impression is that it looks quite bright and sharp and very comparable to a smartphone screen. And it is certainly quite comparable to iPad 1 and most laptop/notebook screens. I have a hard time seeing how a casual user is going to know it's not retina or hold that against the product in a significant way. This seems more like a tech geek issue that only exists for people living in a bubble.
The Bad
- Similar the early demo units at the Nintendo World Store in New York, these Canadian demo units only have Rayman Legends as a playable game. Irony 101 - As I walked up to a demo unit, a father of 2 was fiddling with the GamePad and looking at Rayman Legends. Next to him was a copy of Rayman Origins for the 360 that he was about to purchase.
- The resistive touch screen does in deep feel a bit cheap if you're expecting to feel glass on what is very clearly a tablet looking GamePad. The surface is plastic, similar to every Nintendo DS and 3DS device.
- The menu is sparse but does include a video previewing Wii U accesories, the Wii U and the GamePad. On-line features, Miiverse and NintendoTVii are conspiciously missing. This feels like a missed opportunity here for Nintendo to rope in casual users who might be interest in features.
The Ugly
- While I don't doubt Rayman Legends is a good game to interest a segment of the core gamer set, every other game including marquee titles are in video form. Worse, titles like ZombiU and Assasin's Creed III start with a slide show video. I'm not sure if the slide show gives way to a full on video demo, I didn't stick around for it, but it just feels so... wrong to be treated to a slide show with a demo station.
While I walked away impressed and reassured the hardware, and especially the GamePad is a great product with a more than acceptable screen, I can't help but feel Nintendo dropped the ball with planning their demo content.
Apparently, these units can get updates overnight via the Internet. I would highly recommend Nintendo roll out more and better content for these units as soon as possible. Rayman Legends is not going to sell Wii U to the public.
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