I was really skeptical. Reading reports of the slow menus, lazy backwards-compatability, and poor battery life I was tempted to sell my Wii U on ebay or maybe just return it. I'm glad I didn't.

To me the original Wii was a dissapointment. It promised a "Revolution"... online Nintendo gaming, new interfaces, and a fresh new wave of gameplay never before seen. We didn't get any of that. Online was an afterthought, having to point at the screen all the time quickly got tiring, and motion gaming was a gimmick... resulting in the same old games but with Waggle Inside (R).

The Wii U delivers on all that. The attention to detail here is astounding, you can tell a lot of love was poured into making a full experience causing the Wii to look like a beta test. The dual-stick, touch-screen, gyroscopic, stylus-drawing, stereo sound, video recording gamepad is a joy to use. I find myself looking at the gamepad more than the TV, and in fact you can do almost everything with the TV completely off. At any time, even in game, you can hit the Home button and access most of the WIi U features without interrupting what you were doing.  And those features are plentiful...

The "Miiverse" is Nintendo's take on social networking. Basically every game and app gets a picto-chat forum. You can also leave notes inside games for people to see (if the game supports it). These messages/drawings pop up on the Wii U's home screen, appear in games, and in the dedicated Miiverse app. The general public can comment and "Yeah!" your posts. I love how it is a prominent feature and is tightly integrated with everything. You can have 100 "friends" but can "follow" more. A friend gets special treatment, so you can easily find their posts and be notified when they are playing a game.

Other apps like Netflix and Youtube are pretty standard, same thing you've seen on other consoles. The Wii U Browser though is fantastic. Having so many control options, stylus, dual-stick controller, and touchscreen is great. You can throw images and videos up on the TV to watch while you continue surfing the web. This feature actually makes the YouTube website better than the YouTube app. You can quicly pop in an out of a game to search for answers, or post a question to the Miiverse.

The Nintendo eShop is much improved over the old Wii Shop. Wii Points are gone and you just pay with your credit card in good ole fashioned dollars. I was surprised to see that you can download almost all the launch titles instead of buying them from a store on disc (still not sure it's a good idea though, due to Nintendo's strict DRM)

There are other features I havn't tried yet, like WIi U video chat and the upcoming TVii service. Oh did I mention that the gamepad can be used as a TV remote control? The TVii will then add interactive features to that while you watch TV. 

Now, about that gamepad. I am a believer in the "2nd screen experience". Having a companion screen opens up a ton of possibilities. Many games, like Mario, can be played completely on the gamepad which makes everyone else in the room happy that you are not hogging the television. Most of the multiplayer games now are some variant of hide-and-seek, but hopefully more creative ideas will pop-up soon. I am really tempted to get Call of Duty Black Ops II since it features split-screen with one player on the TV and other on the gamepad. Also of note, the charging station for the gamepad is great, just rest it down on the stand and you dont have to mess with any wires.

The Wii U is arguably the best home console and the best mobile gaming platform. The most popular place to play mobile games is on the couch, lying in bed, and while watching TV. Nintendo has made a home console that competes with mobile gaming. If anything, they should fear that they are cannibalizing their own 3DS sales. The Wii U is the easiest pick-up-and-play console of all time, easier than even a tablet or portable game system because it has a "home" and can be left on.

Is the Wii U perfect? Of course not. The fan noise is noticable in a quiet room. The gamepad battery is small, so you can't just leave it on undocked all day. Starting and stopping apps/settings does take about 5 seconds to load. The backwards compatabilty is just a lazy boot into Wii mode. It's still yet to be seen if online multiplayer and DLC will be given equal treatment as other consoles, but having CoDBLOPS2 as a launch title with online and voice chat has helped calm fears. Most of the minor issues can be fixed with a software update. There will probably be a Wii U+ at some point with a bigger hard drive and battery, but for now what we have is adequate.

tl;dr; The WIi U is everything I wanted the Wii to be. Sure the motion gimmicks are still available here, but they play second fiddle to a legit new gameplay feature... the 2nd screen. Somehow they even made social networking feel like a game. No doubt Sony and Microsoft will have a similar experience coming soon, but it won't be anything like the creative and charming experience that you get from Nintendo. The Wii U is not a super multimedia machine integrated with all your other devices and social networks (like the upcoming Xbox and Playstation will fight it out to be) but it is a fantastic fun machine that is a delight to use.

p.s. friend me: "EliteNerr"