Penfold

It's probably best not to get caught up with the labels; calling it a tablet doesn't speak to its function as much as the form. "Tablet" or "gamepad" refers to the same thing, and I doubt anyone here is using the term otherwise. While you're right that it's not a huge deal that it may not carry a lengthy charge, it is inconvenient, even if mildly so, because the controller will become teathered to something for some, if not most, of its use and the charger's cable will inevitably be a nuisance.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/wii-u/Wii_U_Trivia Assuming accurate sources, 3-5 hours for a single charge of the tablet is shorter than I'd hoped. I bet for a lot of people the tablet will be mostly plugged in while they play. On the bright side, the range the tablet can be from the console is pretty decent.

While I agree they should have included the game with the basic model, Nintendo is giving good incentive for anyone intending to buy NintendoLand to get the premium model. It seems like TVii is just an aggregate of other services (tivo, hulu, etc). Here's their promo video: http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/videos/#/nintendo-tvii It looks like the pro controller doesn't teather to the tablet, which if so makes it way more convenient to use than Wii's standard controller was. Especially nice if Nintendo makes good on offering Gamecube games digitally.

Maybe they'll finally make an effort at console-handheld connectivity. It'd be great to use a 3DS instead of a second tablet controller for a Crystal Chronicles-like game (assuming they will eventually make games that support 2+ tablets).

Megaran's thoughts: http://random.bandcamp.com/track/nintendo-power

I ended up buying a number of games that I wouldn't have if not for the sale. Interested to start Bastion.

Aside from one puzzle where it forces you to close the screen (which seemed entirely unexpected to me), the only issue I can recall Phantom Hourglass suffering from was forcing you through the same dungeon several times, which I didn't think was such a big deal. I'd recommend both DS Zelda games. Fire Emblem, GBA or DS entries, is also a good recommendation. Bowser's Inside Story was really great - if you liked Mario and Luigi/other Mario RPGs it's right up your alley.

Any plans for a physical release?

http://wii.ign.com/articles/119/1191301p1.html

I don't recall having read or heard anything about the medium, but it's not like it's particularly signficant. At best we could know the space available on the disc, and that's pretty trivial. As a point of clarification, without seeing the source I'm not entirely convinced that merely calling it "proprietary" necessarily rules out BD - it is a proprietary format, in that manufacture of media on BD or devices capable of playback of BD must be done under license from the BD Assocation.

Whoops. Well, apparently it was good enough to be posted twice

http://ds.ign.com/articles/117/1176744p1.html This was pretty funny.

HD-DVD has been dead, there is no physical competitor to BD; so no, it is the standard for physical HD media. The system could very well use BD, but merely mentioning that the system doesn't have a separate function related to the medium doesn't "suggest" that it does or doesn't use it. To be clear, I'm not arguing a value judgement for or again its use, merely that it doesn't logically follow.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/3ds Good place to get averaged reviews. Average 96 out of 10 reviews for Ocarina of Time 3D as of right now.

I think you're reading too much into it. BD is the standard for physical HD media, so it makes sense to generally state it doesn't support its playback (and you're totally right, that was pretty much expected).

One thing about the Wii that I was originally excited for yet never came to fruition was connectivity with DS. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seemed like the extent of that was later when we could download DS demos using the Nintendo Channel; this is compared to the hopes of games using the DS as a controller (anyone who enjoyed Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles or Legend of Zelda: Four Swords certainly hoped for the same) or some innovative way, having more interplay between certain DS and Wii games, etc. Here's hoping that there will be some unique aspect between the Wii-U and the DS/DSi/3DS. I also have to say how nice it'd be to transfer our Wii-bought VC games (I'm assuming these can transfer to Wii-U) to DSi/3DS to play on the handheld (I'm sure someone will respond "just use an emulator" but that's not what I want).

I'm sure someone has already posted a similar thought on here, but just have to say how conceptually awesome it would be in a Metroid Prime game to hold the tablet controller up and use it as the scanning visor.

Curious how much it'll retail for. Unless I've missed something, so far they've only stated it'll likely be more than what the Wii retailed for...which was, what, $250?

Lots of cool announcements for 3DS, especially Super Mario, Paper Mario, and Luigi's Mansion.

Nice. With Peace Walker on PS3, I can go back to not wanting a PSP haha. After seeing this thread, I checked Amazon, and naturally there's no preorder available for either yet.

I agree with the rest of your post, but this just seems non sequitur. While what you're saying is true, I don't think anybody was hinting at that at all in the previous posts.

While the negative impressions of the 3d are a bit disconcerting, I (positive-optimistically) wonder if at least part of the issue could be due to the demo units' positioning, etc. To be honest, when they first announced the 3d capabilities I was disappointed since I'm someone who doesn't like going to see 3d versions of movies. Only recently reading impressions of the added depth from the "drop away" 3d has it sounded enticing to me, even if "gimmicky." Regardless of the 3d, or even regardless of how poor the 3d may be, I think I was resigned to buying the system eventually just because it is the successor to the DS and games I'd like to play are being released for it.

If I recall, the eShop (or whatever they'll call it) isn't available at launch but after some future update. I hope I'm mistaken though.

I got the black one from amazon...I'd rather have it shipped a couple days late than go out of my way to pick it up. Didn't order any games, I'll wait for reviews to come in and see if there's anything worthwhile (I'm thinking pilotwings resort if anything).

Watched the longer informative video they have on amazon for the system, and was rather suprised that it can perform more than a single task at once (this has likely been brought up before, but it was news to me). Their example was that hitting the home while playing a game would take you to the main menu, and unlike pressing the power button on DSi where it closes the game this simply puts the game on hold and frees you to open another task simultaneously. A pretty minor update, but I think these minor updates add a lot of value.