I’ve just got done playing with the new Wii U, Nintendo’s next generation console. It’s the first console to uncover itself in time for the upcoming Christmas season, and it’s probably the most important thing Nintendo’s done in a long while.

Since the explosive success of their first Wii console in 2006, sales have slowly dropped off, and those Wii’s out in the market have fallen into disuse. Why? Lack of games. They had min support from 3rd party developers, and their own titles kept you interested for a week at best. No real competition for the Xbox and PS3 generation.

The Wii U though looks promising. Essentially it’s made up of an 854 x 480 resolution, 6.2-inch portable screen that compliments and adds to what’s going on in the main screen. Think of it as a convergence between your traditional kidney remote and a portable touchscreen tablet.

It’s quite comfortable to hold thanks to finger clasps in the back and it weighs about the same as a 10-inch tablet.

The Gamepad is backward compatible with all of your past Wii accessories like the Wii Fit and the Nunchuck.

The second screen is constantly connected to the Wii console, and adds new elements to the game you’re playing. For example in group games, one person will take on the Gamepad and play a role only he can see and control on the Wii U Gamepad, while the other players compete against him/her on the divided big screen. Here’s an example inside Luigi’s castle where the ghost is only visible on the Gamepad but must be caught by the other players staring at the main screen. Nintendo call it ‘asymmetric gaming’.

Another intriguing application of the Gamepad can be seen in Wii’s new Sing game. Same concept as SingStar and the like, except this time you don’t have to look at the big screen, you can turn around and sing to your audience while reading the lyrics off the Gamepad and the big screen telling your audience when and how to dance and clap. It’s a potential cringe machine, I know, but it definitely opens up the experience.

With the Wii U Gamepad you’re able to walk out the room while continuing your game on the Gamepad in a similar way that you can port your current PS3 game on to your PS Vita and carry on playing. (Important to note is that you can’t play disc reliant games like Zombie U as a wireless game only on the Gamepad. What is Zombie U?)

However, if the Wii U is going to be the saviour of Nintendo, and tease those Christmas bucks to roll through the gaming giant’s door, they’re going to have to look far past the “social gamer” that the Wii caters to. They’ve got to get some serious titles launched and start impressing the couch-jockey ghoof balls that enjoy 24 hour marathons of Call of Duty and Gears of War.

Nintendo’s answer is the launch of this new kidney remote control.

I had a brief play with it and the good news is you’ll already know how it functions because it’s exactly the same as the Xbox or PS3 remote.

This remote control you would use for more serious, single player games and Nintendo have quite a few on the horizon including Batman Arkham City, Zombie U, Trine 2 and Ninja Gaiden.

I had a brief play on the demo version of Zombie U, and it shows real promise. Pity there was no story-line and little experience of how the long hours at the console will be spent, but if they get it right, this could be big.

And it’s not just the kidney remote you use for these games, the Gamepad also comes into the gameplay of these adult games by letting you scan your environment, access your inventory and even aim and shoot at characters on the screen. Inbuilt gyroscopes and accelerometers take care of letting the Wii U know where you are in space and time and in relation to the console. Check it out.

I had a very brief play with the Gamepad and their new kidney remote and I was quite impressed. There’s no lag, it’s a relatively comfortable experience and quite a lot of fun if you don’t mind childishness at your friends 30th birthday party.

Nintendo haven’t said much at all about the specs of the machine. We know it runs an IBM CPU and has multi-cores but that’s about it. The loading speed on Zombie U was less than “now” so it’ll be interesting to see how the console handles when graphic heavy and more importantly multi-player games are attempted.

Obviously the tripping point for Nintendo is going to be if their 3rd party games like those mentioned above don’t deliver. I know some people who take their gaming pretty damn seriously, and they’re not going to be won over by cheap gimmicks like a map popping up in front of you or 360 degree scanning of an environment. The reason Halo and Gears of War did so well was because it had likeable characters, a great storyline and cliff-hangers at the end of the games. Package that with eye-incinerating graphics and a good storyline and Nintendo could be on to a winner.

Making it easier for developers to port their games over from the Xbox and PS3 is the first step here BTW.

Although I didn’t play it for long, Zombie U looks like it’s on the right track. It’s gritty, violent and graphic and it looks challenging.

Nintendo think the Zombie U is going to be a good franchise for them and if it is, there could be a whole new army in the console game wars. I’m reserving judgement until we get to play a whole game.

Get it: Don’t know how much
From: www.nintendo.co.za
When: Christmas 2012