Finally back with a brand new Buyer’s Remorse. Initially this entry was planned not to be a Buyer’s Remorse simply because I hadn’t felt like I’d added much to my collection that it would be worth devoting a whole entry to the concept. However as more time elapsed I did pick up a few more things that are worth a quick mention. But as opposed to doing my usual rant of telling you one by one all the things I’ve picked up I have put them into two pictures. One that is older stuff and the other has the new generation items. Then to close off this entry I want to talk a little bit about my first encounter playing the Wii U.
Speaking of the Wii U I’ll start with my recent pickups for the current generation systems. As Tyson talked about his Wii U purchase in his last entry I’ll spare you the details of mine as it was almost exactly the same. We went the same night, traded in lots of games that we had no need for in our collections and made use of a couple promotions that GameStop/EB were offering at the time. If you want more info regarding this please check out Tyson’s last blog right below this one. As a result we both were able to get a good deal on the Wii U system as well use some trade towards a few games. Saying our bundles came with ZombiU and Nintendo Land I didn’t pick up any other Wii U titles that night but instead grabbed the new Tomb Raider and Ni No Kuni, I forgot to include these in the picture below.
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| I wonder when they'll figure out that Wii U games don't have to have a 'U' in the title |
I also went back with another stack of games that I was hoping would meet the criteria for their trade in deal and was able to gain a bunch more store credit which netted me my two other Wii U games Lego Undercover and Super Mario Bros U. I don’t usually trade anything in but considering some of the deals that Tyson and I find this particular offer was great as in most cases we were getting more in trade than we had paid for the game originally and were titles that were really just padding our numbers as opposed to being something that we really wanted to play.
In the picture below are the games I found through a combination of Value Village, pawn shops, retail stores and the flea market. I was very excited to find a couple more NES titles to add to my collection but the big find was definitely the Sega 32X in the box. One of the local retail stores finally had dropped their price on their 32X’s by over half of what they had been selling them for. I walked into one of the locations that I don’t get to too often and they had a boxed one out for the same price as their loose ones so I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on it. That particular day sort of turned into Sega 32X Saturday as I also found 3 loose games for it at Value Village for a couple bucks a piece.
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| I'm going to get drunk one night and Fred Couples and I are going to ride Yoshi's and play golf in Syberia |
Obviously the big pick up this time around was the purchase of the Wii U. I honestly hadn’t expected to pick one of these up anytime soon. Mainly because they were initially a little slow out the gate but Nintendo has really ramped up the amount of announcements and it did start to intrigue me a little more. Factor in that we were able to leverage the EB sale in our favor and suddenly getting one so soon seemed like a no brainer. So far since making this purchase I’ve probably had the time to play around a dozen hours of games for it and just want to share my initial reactions to the experience.
Wii U Console Menu- Found it relatively easy to navigate. I do own a Wii and a 3DS so the learning curve was rather small due to the similarities. Not much to say about it but I did probably spend an hour checking out the options and tailoring my preferences.
Wii U Control/Game Pad- I was very impressed with the feel and layout of both the Pro Controller and the Game Pad. I’ll admit that I was one of the people sneering at the Game Pad when it was first introduced. I just didn’t see the appeal of using a “tablet” to control a video game. However Nintendo did a great job laying out the buttons and so far from what I’ve played the small features that some of the games have built in to enhance the game play using the screen have been neat. I can’t wait to see what developers start using it for once they’ve had more time with the technology.
Nintendo Land- This was the first game that I tried on the console. While it is more or less a tech demo for things the system can do, they did manage to design some very addictive and competitive “Attractions” for the player to try out. I know my wife and I got very competitive at DK Crash Course the first night we tried it. But I’m going to be bias and say that Yoshi’s Fruit Cart was my favorite thing to play in the game.
ZombiU- The reviews this game got early on were rather unfavorable but the longer it’s been out people seemed to have softened their stance. This game was a very pleasant surprise and while I’ve only gotten to spend about an hour with it so far I can’t wait to sit down and have a good solid play through with it. I’ve been very impressed with the overall atmosphere of the game and was a real treat to skulk around the shadows as a survivor during a zombie apocalypse. Most other recent outings that other zombie games have put forth have an emphasis on action as opposed to survival. Sure you could go around killing everything you see but is that really a proper use of supplies? Guess we’ll find out.
Super Mario Bros U- If you’ve read previous entries you’ll know that my wife loves Mario games. In fact the night that I came home with the Wii U her first question was did I buy Mario; needless to say I went back in short order and bought it. I’ve played about two hours and my wife has probably logged about double that. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. Honestly its Mario if you’ve played one of the recent titles in the series you’ve played this game. They’ve added new levels and a new squirrel? Power up but that aside it’s the same thing that Nintendo has been putting out for this series. That being said if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.
That more or less wraps up all I had to say about my first 10-12 hours with the Wii U. I’m sure as I have more time to spend with it I’ll comment as such in future blogs. I have picked up Lego Undercover recently and do really want to play it but I really want to put more time into ZombiU before I start another new game. Anyways as usual thanks for the taking the time to read this, until next time!
