Missing The Mark: Nintendo Wii U Review

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, January 02, 2013, 12:04 PM EDT

About six years ago, Nintendo completely changed the way the world viewed console gaming. The Wii remote (affectionately dubbed Wiimote by most) was a brand new paradigm in gaming control, and it ushered in a wave of motion-based gaming that forced Sony to follow suit with the Move, and Microsoft to do likewise with Kinect... Pundits seemed certain that Nintendo's risk taking would be its undoing. They seemed certain that motion-based gaming could never be a success in a world long dominated by joystick or push-button controllers. But Nintendo pulled it off.

Today, the Wii U has arrived at a time when there's a notable shift going on in the way consumers view and use technology. We're undergoing a transition away from the input devices of yesteryear, and we're teaching an entire generation that interacting with technology can be done in a multitude of ways.

Just as the Wii ushered in the Wiimote, the Wii U is ushering in yet another new control mechanism. It's the first major console to ship with a primary controller that not only has an LCD in the middle of it, but a touch panel that acts as the centerpiece of control...

Yet for all its innovation, the Wii U falls short, at least in its current state...

Missing The Mark: Nintendo Wii U Review

Tags: Gaming, console, Nintendo, Wii, Streaming, review, wiiu

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com