One month to Wii U

The launch of a new console is always something to look forward to because it opens up new possibilities, especially when it comes to a Nintendo console. Just one month from now Wii U will launch in Australia and I’m excited to see first-hand just how well the Wii U GamePad shapes up.

When Wii (the original Wii) was announced all those years ago, it was called a paradigm shift in gaming by President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata… who then laughed (okay he didn’t laugh). Wii’s motion controls were meant to change the way people played video games, and to some extent it has changed quite a few things since both Microsoft and Sony eventually embraced the ideas and concepts Nintendo were pushing and made their own versions which were then ignored for the most part.

With Wii U, I am… cautiously optimistic. I know that what Nintendo has come up with their vision for Wii U is great, but I’m not 100% sure if it’ll be embraced by, well, everyone else. I’m sure we’re going to get a lot of great Nintendo games out of the system, but that rarity is seeing excellent third-party titles for their home consoles.

Which brings me to Wii U’s launch… for Australia the launch happens on the 30th of November, a month from now and there’s a selection of games to be launched alongside the two versions of the console. Naturally I’ve pre-ordered the black Pro version of the Wii U and along with it I have chosen to buy a SINGLE game.

The game is Ubisoft’s ZombiU…

I’ve already been burned by Ubisoft in the past with their attempts to create an early “killer app” for Wii in the form of Red Steel. We all know how that turned out and their second attempt with the WiiMotion Plus and Red Steel 2 was better but still nowhere near the level of quality you generally attribute to a killer app.

Despite the past disappointments, I want to believe in ZombiU because Ubisoft has obviously sat down and come up with a concept and designs to really take advantage of everything Wii U has to offer and showcase it all in a single game. I chose ZombiU as my only launch title game to be bought alongside the Wii U console because I want to believe that third-party developers have some ray of hope to cling onto.

Nintendo has a very short window in which it can really capitalise on the equalization of the consoles on a purely technical level and these early titles are the ones that will really shine the way for the console before we inevitably get all of those awesome Nintendo games that end up overshadowing everything else that’s on the system.

Ubisoft may have failed on their attempts on Wii, but I like their risk taking attitude and their willingness to try to go with something new and do things others would generally scoff at due to negative perceptions they have about an idea. We don’t know if a game will truly work until we all actually play it and see for ourselves… and I want to do that with ZombiU because, to me, it tests both what third-party developers can do with the system and what the system itself can do.

I know I’m looking forward to Wii U… and I’m looking forward to a more traditional (actual) survival horror game… (I’m also looking forward to LEGO City Undercover, damn it looks so awesome!)