A look into the future: The Wii U impression

11/2/12 6:07pm

tl;dr

Thanks to Rayman: Legends, Nintendo seems to have something special with the Wii-U.

I WILL WALK

Sometimes, if I'm up early enough, I have this urge to walk out. When I do go out, I go to the nearest Gamestop, which takes an nearly an hour to get there on foot. Most of the time I don't have a good reason except my own boredom. I just walk and listen to music. Today, Gamestop had a Wii U station and the demo they had playable, at the time of this writing, was Rayman: Legends.

SO THAT IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

Contrary to what the pictures have shown, the Wii U is surprisingly big. Take a PlayStation 2, lay it on its side, and stick the disks in the side, and that should give you an idea of how big it is. It's not as big as a PlayStation 3 or an X-Box 360, but bigger than the original Wii. The controller fits in your hands like a glove. It's smooth and easy to hold. The four main buttons and the d-pad is strategically placed to make each button easy to reach. The buttons feel like a 3DS pad, and the analog sticks feel like what analog sticks should feel like. If there was one gripe about the controller it is its weight. Holding it with both hands will serve no problem. Holding it with one hand will make you notice. It's not that heavy, but through extended use with only one hand, the weight will present itself. You will feel the weight, and this is mostly due to the screen.

The screen is quite large and is in full HD. It's bigger than the 3DS and the PlayStation Vita combined, with it looking much better than the two. The interaction with the TV screen and the controller screen is instantaneous. This is much better than I ever imagined. Once it reaches its full potential, the Wii U will do wonders to gaming.

RHYTHM OF THE BEAT

All of this would be meaningless without the games. The only game that was available was a ten minute demo of Rayman Legends. There were two modes to play: the normal platforming you would expect from Rayman and a rhythm platforming stage that was simply stunning.

The first part of platforming is easy enough. You go through and do what Rayman does. That's fun enough, but once you reach the castle, it goes to show you what the Wii U is capable of. Instead of playing as Rayman, or any character you pick, you play this fairy. The fairy guides the character you picked and you must take care of the character. It may seem like a pain, but it's far from it. You create pathways, take out obstacles and take out threats. AI Rayman is willing to wait for you. You do all this by touching the screen; this is where you start to feel the weight of the controller. If you keep your holding hand behind the screen while using it, it should be fine. It's perfectly fine as a one player game, but it seems to bring home the fun of Rayman Origins. (Assuming you bring over your friends.)

The second part is a little hard to explain. There are the music stages. If you saw the videos, then you know what to expect. Keep going to keep the music going, and you will have a fantastic time. The events around you and what you do match the music perfectly. There was a stupid grin on my face while I played it.

Rayman: Legends are exactly what Ubisoft had promised. They put everything you love about Rayman and put it on Nintendo's wonderful new system. Rayman: Legends looks to be the benchmark for the Wii U and the gold standard of what the Wii U should do.

» Tagged In: #Nintendo, #Rayman, #Rayman Legends, #Wii U

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

thatguyandrew

November 2, 2012 - 9:08pm

Honestly, I really hated the feel of the controller. It was just really really wonky, especially with the placement of the shoulder buttons/triggers. Maybe I need a little more time with it, but honestly, I hope they release more compact versions of the controller at some point.

Yashooo

November 2, 2012 - 7:30pm

Really hope this game sells well. Looks like it deserves it :)

Jawbreaker Alumni

November 2, 2012 - 6:22pm

Castle Rock was awesome! I want my Rayman NOW!

seniormeld

November 2, 2012 - 6:20pm

I tried out one myself, and I have to disagree with you on the fairy missions. I absolutely hated the fact that I had to rely 100% on the AI to do what I wanted. You can guide him semi decently although its not very close to perfect, also the fact that it messes up so much and the WIIU screen's resolution was too great compared to the size of the screen made everything that you need to touch extremely small. I want to see what other companies do with the game pad, but I think putting too much emphasis of the player switching focus between the screens will piss more than a few people off.

ultrakirby64

November 2, 2012 - 8:02pm

The AI seemed to work well with me, it did whatever I needed it to do, and never messed up. When it did, it was because I messed up the path. And I never had a problem with the touch screen either. It responded well to what ever I touched, and didn't have to be 100% perfect for it to register.