Wii U Review

First of all I have not been paid for this review, it is simply my opinion on these products. We spent our own money buying the products after months of wondering whether we should.




I’ve said before that I live in a house of gamers, the hubby has worked in the industry for a long time and both my boys love their computer games, be it on the iPad, Xbox, Wii or computer. Up until the recent consoles our household had the newest consoles on day one, as soon as they were available we would have them and plenty of games to play on them too. However in recent years we’ve seen less games that we want to play and our Xbox 360 is on its last legs but we still refuse to buy the Xbox One. Why? Various reasons, one of which is backwards compatibility but this isn't about my irks with the Xbox One. This is about the Wii U.

When the Wii U came out I read a review over on Stressy Mummy’s blog about how great it was for the children and how they could all play together. At the time I convinced the hubby to have a look at it but he said there weren’t enough games out that he wanted to play so it wouldn’t make it worth spending the money. He was right of course, if we’d bought the Wii U back then it would’ve sat on the shelf just like the Wii did, unused.

Before Christmas we decided to give it another look and find out what games were available. We were amazed to see that there were now plenty of games we wanted to get and you could buy the Wii U in a pack that included games too! In the end we caved and bought it for Christmas, we were so excited (me and the hubby) that we almost opened it before Christmas! 

On Christmas morning the boys opened the Wii U and thought it was fantastic, then they piled up the games. Here’s what we got:

A favourite in our house!

Wii U that came with NintendoLand and Lego City Undercover
Wii U Party that came with an extra controller
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Brothers U
Pikmin 3
Super Luigi U
Zelda The WindWaker
Rayman Legends
Game & Wario

Ok, so we may have gone a tad overboard!

The first game to get opened was Super Mario 3D World and to our surprise this is a game that is great to play together. All four of us have played this game on a few occasions, the hubby and I have worked our way through the whole game and are now on Crown World which is immensely difficult. I have given up now but the hubby keeps trying. Super Mario 3D World is one of those games that you don’t need to think about twice, there’s no profanity and no chance of your children seeing something inappropriate. It’s a great game for all the family.

Pikmin 3 is one of my hubby’s favourites, he played both previous games and really enjoyed them so when he found out there was going to be a third it gave him a reason to buy the Wii U. I haven’t played this game and I think it is too complicated for my four-year-old but the hubby and my eldest love it. They have both spent a lot of hours working their way through the game and it is one that my eldest continues to ask to play. This in itself is a great feat because he often gives up on games.

NintendoLand is another great game for the whole family. My youngest loves this game because there are lots of mini games and he can join in with most of them. He particularly likes ‘Mario Chase’ where you run around and hide from the rest of the group and they have to come and find you. You, as Mario, have the added advantage of their new controller with screen - you can see your team mates on the maze as they get closer and you can run and hide elsewhere. 

The boys have played Super Mario Brothers U briefly but I haven’t seen much of it yet so I can’t comment. The same goes for Lego City Undercover, the hubby started playing but we’ve only seen the very start so far. As for the other games? They’re still in their cellophane and we’re hoping that we can make them last. The boys are still enjoy the games that are open and we’re trying to encourage that. I don’t like it when they’re spoilt for choice because then they can’t choose.

Although my boys have Skylanders Swap Force and Disney Infinity for the Xbox 360 these games haven’t been touched for a while. Also since the Wii U has been such a big hit with the boys I think my next purchase of Skylanders or Disney Infinity (because let’s face it, there will be another one.) will be for the Wii U. At least the Wii U is backwards compatible which means you can play old Wii games on it. You aren’t able to do that with the Xbox One.

So far I’d say that the Wii U was their favourite Christmas present and it’s getting used almost every day. My youngest already knows there’s going to be a new MarioKart coming out soon and he’s saying he wants that for his birthday. In this household the Wii U is a definite hit.

Did your children get any Christmas presents they really loved? Any surprise hits?


SuperBusyMum