It's been an interesting week for the Wii U. Nintendo's—well, anyone's—first new home console in six years has been met with a curious mixture of joy, bewilderment and even disdain by early adopters and critics alike.
Let's look back, then, on the week that was for the Wii U. Below you'll find the biggest, most important and weirdest stories from the past seven days, days where we (and plenty of other people in North America) got our hands on the new machine and weren't quite sure what to think.
Wii U: The Kotaku Review
The Wii U is the first new video game console in six years and the sixth console Nintendo has ever made.
It comes freighted with heavy expectations. It more or less starts the next generation of consoles, one that will see a new Xbox and PlayStation late next year, and therefore it needs to seem... More »
Bad Port or Bad Hardware? We're Already Hearing Complaints About Wii U Visuals.
As Nintendo's first high definition console, Wii U will join the neverending, nothing-really-proven debate between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 over which console's visuals for whatever multiplatform game are superior. More »
I'm Adding Friends To My Wii U, And I'm Not Even Using Friend Codes!
The Wii U firmware update that just went live and will be mandatory for any of the system's online features has enabled me to start adding friends to my system.
The system is pretty easy. More »
Nintendo's Miiverse Dreams of a Civilized, Spoiler-Free Online Community
Welcome to the Miiverse, the online community launching today with the midnight release of Nintendo's Wii U, but before you can access it, you must read through the Miiverse Code of Conduct, portions of which may have been paraphrased from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. More »
What's the Gray Market Like for the Wii U? Check Back After Black Friday
As of this writing there are at least 630 Wii Us listed on eBay for minimum bids or buy-it-now prices of $520 or more. Not a one of them has any takers. More »
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... More »
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. More »
Under 18? You Need 50 Cents to Register on Nintendo Network
As said earlier, Nintendo is serious about making Miiverse into an elegant online service for a more civilized age. They want to keep it safe, too, and make sure some adult in the house is aware of what the kids are doing on it. More »
What The Wii U Looks Like Naked
PC Perspective, the same guys who tore a couple of Wii U consoles up on launch night, did so while taking some very nice pictures at the same time.
So if you're sick of all these glossy press shots showing the outside of the Wii U, here are some glossy shots (and video) showing what it looks like... More »
Guy Reckons He's Accessed Miiverse Debug Mode by Accident, Can See Other People's Messages
NeoGAF user Trike claims, after messing around with the Wii U's Miiverse, that his console suddenly allowed him to access the service's debug/admin options.
As you can see in the pictures posted above and below, he appears to have access to screens that let him monitor users, reset their passwords... More »
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 a video tonight... More »
Don't Lose/Break Your Wii U, Because Your Nintendo Network Account is Tied to it
In the past six years I've been through four Xbox 360 consoles and three PlayStation 3s. Which has been a pain, but each and every time I've been able to simply transfer my existing system account to the new console through the magic of the internet.
You'd think that would be something Nintendo... More »
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? More »
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. More »
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. More »
When The Wii U Crashes, It Sounds Like A Vuvuzela
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. This is horrible. Kotaku reader vipeness sent in this video, which shows his Wii U hard-locking and crashing during a game of Nintendo Land.
It seems to be happening to a bunch of other people too.
Vipeness isn't too dismayed, though: More »
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. More »
THQ Tries To Clear Up Comments That The Wii U "Has A Horrible, Slow CPU"
Oles Shishkovtsov, from Metro developers 4A Games, delivered a short-but-interesting verdict on Nintendo's new console recently when he said "[The] Wii U has a horrible, slow CPU."
4A & THQ PR man Huw Beynon (THQ being the publisher of 4A's Metro: More »