Wii U No consider Nintendo?

Last week my fellow games Editor Maximilian Eggl pointed out some of the main differences between the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One. Although I see many good things in both of these consoles I feel that even though it has already been out for a year, the Wii U deserves a mention. I am, as some may have noticed, a pretty hardcore Nintendo fan but I shall try and keep this as informative and unbiased as I can. So here follows an account of why I believe the Wii U is a real competitor and something that should be considered, and just a general overview of what I think of consoles. Maybe the first thing to start with in a console comparison review is a little background of consoles I own. Nintendo wise I own everything back to the SNES and hopefully one day I will get a NES too. With Sony I have a PSP go and a PS2, and from Microsoft I have the Xbox 360. So as you can see I have owned a little of everything. In the last generation of consoles despite loving the Wii my favourite was the Xbox 360. I played my Xbox to death (literally many red lights of doom death) and I just went straight out and bought a new one. I preferred the Xbox mainly because it had pretty much every title I wanted to play. I was a major fan of Halo (until 4) and Assassins Creed (until Revelation’s), and played a stupid amount of GTA4. This is something I couldn’t have done on the Wii! So then why did I play my Wii? Simply because it’s the only way to play games in my favourite franchises of all time. Nintendo consoles are and always will be the only way to play Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash Bros… In my view these games are unique, and as mentioned before there is nothing else like them on any other console and in this way Nintendo has the best exclusive title lineup. Yes Xbox has Halo which I dearly love, however there are other shooter games on just about every console. In fact orignially I bought a Wii entirely for the Virtual Console. Here I was able to download just about every classic game that I dearly missed from the Nintendo 64 and back (except Donkey Kong 64). Things changed when I got my computer. I was able to download cheaply in Steam sales just about every game I had loved on the Xbox and play these with the wired controller plugged into a USB socket. My Xbox was therefore replaced by the superior (and quieter computer). My Wii however was not replaced. It was still my TV console of choice, enabling me to relax and play classic games, and the excellent Wii games Nintendo makes. I did miss the Xbox but my new gaming combination of Wii and computer was far more suited towards my needs. I bought the Wii U shortly after launch for many reasons. Primarily because I wanted to play the new Nintendo games that were coming out such as New Super Mario Brothers Wii U, but also because I wanted back something of the console gaming feeling. Sometimes I just prefer to lie back in my bed playing games on the TV rather than sat at the computer. This time around though, I think the Wii U is enough to not make me want the Xbox One or PS4. It is powerful enough to have 3rd party games. At launch it had titles I really wanted to play, Assassins Creed 3 and Batman Arkham City (which, even though I played before, wasn’t boring to play as they revamped it for the Wii U). The Wii U controller itself has a large screen which enables you to play most games entirely on it and, despite the size, is really comfortable to hold. It even offers interesting multiplayer options where one person uses the controller screen and the other the TV. If you still want a controller more like the Xbox and PlayStation ones, Nintendo offers the Pro Controller which is super comfortable, looks great and has crazy long battery life. For some games you can even use the Wii remote and Nunchuck. For me this just shows that Nintendo lets you play games exactly as you want. Playing Black Ops 2 on Veteran difficulty with the Wii Zapper attachment is epic and makes up for any loss in graphic quality. If you want amazing graphics why not just invest once in a computer? Nintendo is also the only next gen console to offer free online multiplayer. Unfortunately the Wii U isn’t getting every new title (GTA5) but as I can pick most of these up on the computer I am not too bothered. In the end the Wii U is a great living room console, which lets you play games how you want. It offers the most diverse controller options, is the only backwards compatible console, has a great line up on the virtual console and has on demand TV services such as Netflix. When considering which console you want I hope you pay attention to the Wii U. It is currently available for £230 (far cheaper than its competitors) and will only get better with time.