With the launch of Nintendo's latest console, the Wii U now just two weeks away (we're almost at the point where we start counting down in days now!), the final details about the console are beginning to come out - although currently, not in a language we can understand. Over the past week or so, Nintendo have been releasing a series of videos detailing the console's features, but they've mostly been in Japanese only, with no sign of an English translation. Instead, we've had to rely on our incredibly ropey knowledge of the Japanese language, YouTube auto-translate, helpful users on forums, and, well, a guy wearing gloves moving beads from box to box to figure out what's going on. And here's what we've learnt so far.
Parental Controls
Here at Everybody Plays, we try our best to help parents learn about the content of the games, so they can make their own minds up about what their children see and play, through the Parental Perspective featured on every review. But we also know that some parents may want to play games that aren't all suitable for children when their young'uns have gone to bed - games that wandering hands may easily find when those parents aren't looking...
Luckily, this sort of situation is something Nintendo have taken into account, which is why they've included a Parental Control system on their latest console. Letting parents set up limits across all parts of an account, parents will be able to control exactly what their child can see, do and play - if they so choose.
The parental settings will allow people to block inappropriate websites, prevent children from spending money on Nintendo's eShop, restrict the use of games by PEGI rating, stop accounts being able to add friends without your permission, and disable the use of the system's built in social network, Miiverse. As an added bonus, it also appears you'll be able to block children from moving/deleting data on the hard drive - which should help avoid any nasty accidents.
USB Storage
For those of you that plan to be heavy users of the Wii U's eShop, which lets you download demos, videos, Wii U Ware games, and downloadable versions of full disc releases (like New Super Mario Bros U), one of the things you may be worrying about is space. Games have a tendency to stack up pretty quickly, and with downloadable versions of games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2 set to take up a whopping 17GB of storage, chances are you may find yourself running out of space pretty quickly.
In the recent video, Nintendo gave us even more reason to be concerned about our storage, by revealing the Wii U's operating system will take up a whopping 4.2 GB of space. With two bundles available - the Premium Wii U with 32GB of storage, and the Basic Wii U with 8GB - rather than running off some separate, internal memory, the console's operating system will instead reside on your console's storage - meaning if you've bought a basic Wii U, you'll only actually have around 3 GB of usable space. While that's fine for save games, and user accounts and the like, it's going to fill up pretty quickly if you start downloading any games. The solution? You can plug in a USB storage device, such as an external hard drive, and save anything you want.
The Wii U can support an external hard drive of up to 2 Terabytes in size (2,000 GB), giving you plenty of room for any demos, videos, and games you may want to download. Better yet, any games you have on your hard drive will show up as icons on the Wii U's menu, meaning you won't have to navigate to a slightly awkward sub-menu to launch games (as you had to on the Wii). However, Nintendo can't recommend that any external hard drive will function correctly - instead, they recommend you use a hard drive that uses a y-lead (which splits into two USB leads) in order to guarantee it'll work. Currently, the Wii U can only make use of one USB hard drive at a time, but Nintendo have stated that they plan to increase this in a future system update.
Another interesting snippet revealed in the video was that you won't be able to store your Wii U save data on an SD card. While no reason was given for this, it does raise the question of how we'll be expected to take our saves round to a friend's house, as we sometimes do. On the Wii, all we had to do was transfer the save across to the SD card - but whether it's even possible on the Wii U remains to be seen.
Nintendo Network Premium
A few months ago, back when Nintendo revealed the release date and price of their upcoming console, they told us that the Premium Wii U bundle would come with a service known as Nintendo Network Premium. Not much was known about it - but with the launch just a few weeks away, Nintendo have decided to shed some light on what the service will include.
A kind of digital reward service, Nintendo Network Premium will see you earn 10% back from every purchase you make on the Nintendo eShop. To take advantage of this service, all you have to do is create a Nintendo Network ID and user account - and from there on in, every purchase you make will earn you points.
In order to redeem your points, all you have to do is log into a website (which will be up and running when the Wii U launches), where you can choose to exchange your points for a code which can then be redeemed on any of Nintendo's digital shops. This includes the Wii Shop, the DSi Shop and also the 3DS eShop, as well as the Wii U eShop.
Whilst points can be spent on any of these services, you can only earn points by purchasing items from the Wii U eShop. Points can be redeemed in increments of €5, and you need at least 500 points in order to obtain this amount. Whilst it is currently unknown how this will work in the UK, we are assuming that 500 points will equal roughly £5.
Backwards Compatibility with Wii Software
Of course, most people picking up a Wii U around the launch will already have a Wii sitting near their TV, which makes the question of backwards compatibility a particular poignant one. Luckily, the Wii U will be fully backwards compatible with Wii software, letting you run Wii games from discs, and any Wii Ware or Virtual Console games you may have downloaded. However, there are a few limitations.
Whilst Wii, WiiWare and Virtual Console games will all be playable on the Wii U, they will not be able to take advantage of Nintendo's innovative tablet controller, the Wii U GamePad. This means that you won't be able to play your collection retro games, like the original Super Mario Bros. on the smaller screen. At least part of the reason for this is that, in order to play a Wii game, you'll have to launch a program which turns the console into Wii mode, and means only controllers and accessories which were designed for the original Wii console will work. While this is disappointing, it doesn't come as a surprise, since these games were all designed with Wii in mind, when the idea of a tablet controller was just a glint in Nintendo Boss Iwata's eye.
It isn't all bad news though, as Nintendo already have plans to make Wii U Virtual Console games playable on the tablet controller, when the Wii U's own Virtual Console launches - but as of yet, we have no idea when that might be.
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And so, as we approach the Wii U's launch, the pieces slowly start to fit into place. Slowly. With the US launching first, the UK and Europe second, and Japan last, it actually makes very little sense that Nintendo are putting together these videos in Japanese only. After all, if Japan needs to know these details before picking up their Wii U, you'd imagine the rest of the world does too.
