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The Today Show Fails at the Wii U
Yesterday morning’s Today Show featured the Wii U, the hot new Nintendo console that’s like a tablet merged with a game console. Should be great for live TV, right? Not quite, as you can see above. At least no one has thrown a Wii U GamePad through a TV screen yet. Remember that stuff? Let’s…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 27, 2012 -
ReviewsZombiU: The Kotaku Review
I would like to tell you that the butler did it, but he did not. Alfie White, the zombie-killing butler, was going to save rotted London. He shot zombies, whacked some of them to death with a cricket bat and got awfully close to finding a possible zombie cure. But he failed. And then he…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 26, 2012 -
All The Wii U Specs You Could Dream Of, Except The Ones You Really Want To Know
Way back when the Wii U first came out, lo in the day of the 18th of November in the year 2012, Nintendo’s console included the most curious thing: a virtual instruction manual that included within it an option called “product specifications.” By pressing the Wii U controller’s home button and then clicking on “manual”,…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 26, 2012 -
“There’s a lady on the ground” – Scenes of Black Friday Video Game Shopping Madness
Scenes of people shopping for video games today on Black Friday—specifically at Wal-Marts across the country—don’t resemble shopping as much as they resemble feeding frenzies. Why they do it like this is beyond me. This kind of thing is a great argument for downloading games or at least ordering them online. Here’s the video referenced…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 23, 2012 -
Your Thanksgiving Video Game Adventures
Playing a good Vita or iPhone video game under the table instead of eating turkey? Trying to convince your family to play the Wii U with you? Or maybe you’re trying to escape your family so you can get some PC gaming in? Celebrate or commiserate right here. Up top: pics of the Pikachu and…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 22, 2012 -
You Can Download the Sequels to Zelda and Pushmo to a 3DS Today
Here in America, it’s Thanksgiving. It’s a day to be be thankful, a day for eating turkey and cranberry sauce and a day for ignoring the normal Nintendo download update. Cutting to the chase, the sequel to Pushmo my favorite 3DS game is out today. The new one is called Crashmo. In the old game…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 22, 2012 -
Mass Effect 3 On Xbox 360 Vs. PS3 Vs. Wii U
We heard rumbles and grumbles about the quality of the graphics in the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3. Now you can see what the world experts in technical comparisons have to say. Folks, go to Digital Foundry at Eurogamer and you will be counting framerates with the best of them. Here are the…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 21, 2012 -
Why We Like To Shoot
A few days after the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the first-person shooter game’s publisher, Activision, released their annual braggadocious press release about the success of their most successful video game series. “Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 21, 2012 -
Forget Two Screens. Listen to the Wii U’s Dual Audio Trick.
We’ve got something for you to listen to. So grab some headphones. Ready? OK. Listen to the first clip. Watch it as you listen. Then let me explain: One of the weirdest innovations of the Nintendo Wii was the inclusion of a speaker in the system’s controller. It could crudely play sound effects or even…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 20, 2012 -
You Might Be Able To Download the Wii U’s Firmware Update in the Background
You might be able to download the Wii U’s large, slow-downloading day-one firmware update while playing games, according to online reports from Wii U owners on Reddit and GoNintendo. It seems that there’s a secret background-downloading option. Good to know! We can’t test it on our already-updated Wii Us, but those of you who are…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 20, 2012 -
The State of the Wii U, Just Three Days In
Nintendo’s new console is just three days old and already one of the most controversial creations the company has ever produced. The Wii U is better than you may have heard, but it’s in some ways worse. It’s also changing. Constantly. And mostly for the better. Just as new issues are being discovered some of…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 20, 2012 -
560 People Are Playing Black Ops II Online on the Wii U Right Now
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is now out on the Wii U. It’s just not being played online that much. Too many people still at work or in school? Console too new? People drawn to other Wii U games? Everyone distracted by the surprisingly terrific Miiverse? It’s early days, so these stats will be…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 19, 2012 -
Nintendo’s Miiverse Isn’t Xbox Live. It Might Be Something Better.
Nintendo’s brand new online social network Miiverse has had its ups and downs since it went live on Saturday night. And by that I mean it’s actually been up and down, online and offline, since then. When Miiverse is down it’s still just about as good as Nintendo’s previous online efforts for its consoles. When…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 19, 2012 -
Nintendo Boss Declares Wii U The Start of the Next Console Generation, Teases Looming Surprises
The Wii U is not the last of the first wave of high-def consoles that began with 2005’s Xbox 360 and 2006’s PlayStation 3, according to Reggie Fils-Aime. It’s the first of what comes next. “This is absolutely the beginning of a new generation,” Fils-Aime told me during a quick interview late Saturday night, just…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 19, 2012 -
The Elaborate Pants Rules For Miis on Nintendo’s Wii U
One day, you might boot up a Wii U, see a bunch of Mii avatars gather in the system’s main menu/plaza, and you will wonder: Why are these Miis wearing different-colored pants? What to the colors of these pants mean? Good news. The Wii U’s digital instruction manual explains the fashion rules for Mii pantwear.…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 19, 2012 -
Some Wii U Features Load Fast. Others Do Not.
The Wii U’s best trick is its lightning fast swap of the graphics on your TV and the graphics on the Wii U GamePad. The Wii U’s worst trick is the absurdly slow loading time users have to sit through when accessing the machine’s system menu or any of the applications in it. I shot…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 18, 2012 -
Nintendo’s Cool New MiiVerse Social Network Goes Down on Day One [UPDATE: Back up!]
The Wii U’s MiiVerse service is currently offline. Trying to access it spits out an error message like the one you see above. It’s too bad because Nintendo’s ambitious social network for its new console is pretty cool. I’ve been messing around with it for much of the day. It lets Wii U users post…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 18, 2012 -
ZombiU Is Like an FPS Demon’s Souls With Zombies. That’s A Great Thing.
Technically, ZombiU reviews can start hitting right now. Realistically, we won’t have a review until early in the coming week. Sorry about that. Too many Wii U games to try, to many system features to cover and too many snags with what could be a terrific, albeit imperfect game. I can tell you some stuff……
By Stephen Totilo Published November 18, 2012
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