Review by Hag and Con
Available from all good Retailers (PEGI 3) Hag “Top, Top, Top, Top, Top, Top, Top end” 5 Stars/ Con “Infinity and beyond” out of 5 (or 100 Stars – If thats more?)
Parent View:
Yet again Nintendo have not let the family gaming market down with the first of the next generation Home Entertainment consoles to hit the market. Wii U is everything you had with the original Wii and more – also it very comfortably sets itself up as competition to the gaming market normally dominated by PS3 and Xbox 360.
Games such as Ninja Gaiden 3, Black Ops 2, Zombie U, Batman: Arkham City and Assassins Creed 3 offer the same gaming experince as Wii U’s competition plus new features created for the tablet style handset. Teenz (16 years plus) who normally see Nintendo product as childish gaming or for old people are likely to reconsider their position on the console brand.
Teething problems we’re aware of: Some of the older online routers won’t connect to the Wii U, Virgin customers will need to connect online manually and Wifi won’t work to stream films from Netflix. You must use a cable.
The main selling point for Hag and Con is that they can play the Wii U or watch NetFlix Films/TV shows on the handset when the rest of the household wants to watch the TV.
This is a magnificent Entertainment system and highly recommended to any family. So whats’ Microsoft and Sony reply to the Wii U – watch this space for the new Xbox and PS4.
Wii U Games reviewed by Hag and Con
Marvel The Avengers Battle for Earth: CLICK HERE
Sing Party: CLICK HERE
Nintendo Land: CLICK HERE
Skylanders Giants: CLICK HERE
New Super Mario Bro. U: CLICK HERE
Just Dance 4: CLICK HERE
Rabbids Land: CLICK HERE
Disney’s Epic Mickey 2 – The Power of 2: CLICK HERE
Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed: CLICK HERE
FIFA 13: CLICK HERE
Family Party – 30 Great Games (Obstacle Arcade): CLICK HERE
Ben 10 Omniverse: CLICK HERE
Wii U – The Home Cinema system: Lovefilm v Netflix
Netflix:
Cheap monthly subscription (First month free to trial). Good choice of films for Mum’s, Dad’s and Teenz – although tend to be limited on titles from the last 2 years.
Where Netflix excel is the Kidz entertainment titles – everything from classic movies you’d want to own in the home to complete TV shows from the past such as the entire Power Rangers, Super Mario Brothers,iCarly, Teletubbies, Doctor Who and many more with easy access for Kidz to pick and choose for no extra cost to the subscription.
Also – Kidz can either watch on the TV or Wii U handset.
Customer services are outstanding and free to contact. One small issue at the moment is the streaming wont work through my BT broadband unless its connected via a cable. I’m sure this is a teething problem for the new system and it works fine. Once fixed I’ll return to streaming via Wifi.
Lovefilm:
Cheap monthly subscription (First month free to trial). Good choice of films for Mum’s, Dad’s and Teenz – the choice of films are far more recent than those on Netflix.
The Kidz products available are OK, but no different to what you’d find on Sky TV every day.
I’ve had issue with Lovefilms customer services over the years unfortunately. They’re very nice and polite – but don’t always deal with any issues agreed to be fixed. From my experience they appear to have communication issue within their systems.
KIDZCOOLIT’s choice of the Two: NETFLIX
As a rental streaming package they offer a point of difference to the family market Lovefilm don’t – classic Kidz TV shows not available on TV or DVD. Lovefilm are a little too close to just being another Sky movies channel with the same films available to stream though apps and On Demand.
These show s may well be readily available through Youtube (Also on the Wii U) – but they are made very easy to access via the Wii U menu and presented with a good quality picture.
Nintendo eShop:
Easy to access, connect and download – but if set up correctly in the Parental control section safe from little hands running up a large credit card bill.
All the latest games are available to download. There’s a mixture of prices from £8.99 all the way to £49.99 along with many free playable Demos from time time. I would like to see the more premium titles at a lower cost as they are set at a similar price to the boxed versions at retail. I’m not an expert on this – but I would think even with the licence costs to one side the overheads must be cheaper to produce a streamed version of the game?
The launch titles are out of this world though – so much choice.
