Wii U Out Now In USA. Europe Release Date Is November 30 2012 (Australia Too)

The Wii U is out now in America! Wii U releases in UK, Europe and Australia on November 30th 2012! It will cost $300 for the Basic Set and $350 for the Deluxe model. This marks Nintendo's first-ever high-definition videogame console supporting 1080p quality visuals.

This officially marks the beginning of the "next-generation" of videogame consoles, the 8th generation. It will be available in both a 8GB Basic Set or a 32GB Deluxe set. The basic is white-colored and the deluxe is black-colored. The major hook of the Wii U is the Wii U GamePad, a tablet, touchscreen-based controller (It has a giant screen in the middle, with the Analog Sticks on both sides, a D-Pad on the left, four face buttons on the right and trigger buttons (L, R and ZL and ZR). It also has Motion Control (built-in accelerometer and gyroscope),  a sensor strip, rumble force feedback, built-in camera and microphone, Infrared Transceiver (allowing you to use the Wii U GamePad as a TV remote) and near-field communication capabilities. The sensor strip could be incredibly revolutionary, as it can read cards or figurines like the Skylanders codes by simply placing them onto the corner of the controller itself!

The Wii U also supports all of the previous regular Wii accessories including the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, Wii Balance Board and a very Xbox 360-like standard controller called the "Wii U Controller Pro".

One of the neatest features of the Wii U is the ability to play your console games on the smaller Wii U GamePad touchscreen while someone else watches or plays something else on the TV screen. You can even use your Wii U GamePad to control all of your digital services such as your DVR, television channels,  Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Blu-ray/DVD Player, etc., giving the Wii U broad entertainment capabilities. It also has a built-in web browser, and you can "toss" what you're viewing on the net using the Wii U GamePad's touchscreen by flicking it to your TV screen, at which point it will appear on the TV. Nintendo is also talking up the ability to use the Wii U GamePad screen to get new views and gameplay experiences by combing it with the TV screen.

So far the Wii U launch has been a huge success, as the system has sold out at many retailers in the USA, and is selling for over $500 on ebay!

Zelda Kickstarter Second Quest Project From Braid Artist. Graphic Novella Will Tackle Modern Gaming Issues and the Failures of the Zelda Series to Evolve

A Zelda Second Quest Kickstarter project takes a highly controversial essay "Saving Zelda" by Tevis Thompson about how the Zelda series has been fundamentally broken since Ocarina of Time, and marries it with Braid artist David Hellman who have teamed up to create a graphic novel that tackles the modern state of gaming and the failure of the gaming industry, in their eyes, via established conventions that they believe are in error. And have led to what they perceive as the failure of the modern Zelda series and many modern videogames.

The story will focus on "the non-Princess", who discovers she has the ability to draw out memories from objects while in her home town of the "already-saved" sky (a twist on Skyward Sword's Skytown). She then is able to piece together scattered legends that reveal that everything she thought she knew about herself, are not true.

The comic will make many statements about the state of the industry today, and tackle issues ranging from the failure of AAA games, to how gaming treats women, to the issue of unnecessary handholding that make games too easy.

Clocking in at 50 pages, they are attempting to raise $50,000. The comic will be distributed via FanGamer. You can snag both a digital and physical book for only $35, among other tiers, so be sure to back this project if you're interested in the statement its making!

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge Wii U Gameplay Trailer and Videos (Launch Game)

Ninja Gaiden 3 Wii U (Razor's Edge) is an exclusive new version of Tecmo's latest entry in the Ninja Gaiden series. This version of the game features significant new updates over previous versions, taking into consideration all of the complaints gamers had, and working hard to fix them. This makes Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge the definitive version of the game. 

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge for Wii U is essentially a "Sigma" version of NG3 with significant updates, as Tecmo has done with previous Ninja Gaiden games.

New improvements over the Xbox 360 and PS3 originals include:

* Exclusive new weapons like the Lunar Staff and Dual Katanas
* Improved A.I. for smarter and deadlier enemies.
* New battle areas.
* All-new enemies.
* All-new Karma Counter, a feature that previous games had but was absent in the original NG3.
* All-new Upgrade Menu, allowing you to spend Karma Points to enhance your Ninpo, Weapons, health and more.
* All-new decapitation and dismemberment animations more in-line with previous Ninja Gaiden titles.

Even more significantly, this game will allow you to use the Wii U GamePad Touchscreen Controller to play the game and use the touchscreen to select different weapons, perform your Ninpo Magic Attacks, view new game information and such. It even features a touchscreen-controls-only mode where you play the game exclusively with the GamePad and perform touch-screen gestures like in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the DS.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Wii U will also feature an all-new female playable character! That's right, the girl ninja Ayane is a playable character! Her moves will be similar to how she played in previous games, although all-new cutscenes will be added that focus on her for this new Wii U version of Ninja Gaiden 3.

Last but not least, an all-new Cooperative Gameplay mode has been added and is playable online!

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge for Wii U is being published by Nintendo, and marks their first M-rated game since Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Geist for the GameCube. And is a milestone in that this is only the THIRD Mature-rated game to be published by Nintendo ever.

New Super Mario Bros. U Gameplay Trailers and Videos (Launch Game)

Super Mario Bros. Wii U (er, New Super Mario Bros. U) launches for Nintendo's newest system as THE AAA must-have killer-app for the system out of all the other 23 games that will be available to purchase on day one. 

More than anything else, this is the game that everyone who buys a Wii U will have beneath their Christmas tree.

However NSMBWiiU does not seem to differentiate very much from previous games in the series like the original NSMB DS and the Wii version of the game, which was the first Mario platformer ever to feature four-player play.

This game pretty much follows in that game's footsteps, however it allows one person to use the Wii U GamePad Tablet Controller to enable 5-player! In this special "Boost Mode", one player makes use of the touchscreen on the GamePad to place blocks across the course as the other player(s) are making their way through it. They can use these blocks to either help or to hinder, and some special Coins and areas will not be accessible unless you are playing in boost mode.

Another big addition is the inclusion of MiiVerse. MiiVerse is the Wii U's special social media mode that allows players to share comments, hints, suggestions, tips and more IN-GAME(!!) via special speech balloons that pop-up while you are on the World Map (as long as you are connected to the Internet of course). 

This feature alone will surely make New Super Mario Bros. U a very exciting new entry in the series, as it also features the fantastic side-scrolling platforming Mario gameplay that you know, love and expect from the series.

Another very cool new feature is the addition of "Flying Squirrel Mario". This all-new power-up is similar to previous power-ups from the series like the Raccoon Suit from SMB3 that gave Mario and Luigi flight. Although it doesn't grant flight in this game, it does grant you the ability to float or hover, allowing you to easily access new areas sections that you couldn't reach without the power-up.

All in all, this is definitely a Wii U game to keep your eyes on and it is sure to be the hit of the new system's launch.

Just Dance 4 Wii U Gameplay and Trailer Videos (Launch Game)

Just Dance 4 is a Wii U launch game and the latest installment in the extremely popular series, which was released earlier in October for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

This game will be largely the same as previous entries in this dancing series and features new modes that include Dance Battle Mode (an expanded Just Sweat mode), bonus routines for songs that are unlockable, new Dance Quests that players can undertake (six missions for each song to tackle), create-able "Dance Cards" that display your favorite songs i the game, your top scores, challenges to complete, online leaderboards and exclusive modes for the Xbox 360 (Just Create, a mode that allows you to create your own routines) and the Wii U exclusive "Puppet Master" mode.

The Wii U Puppet Master mode allows one player to use the Wii U GamePad Tablet Controller and it's touchscreen to manipulate the visuals and routines of the 1-4 other players dancing with Wii Remotes.

The Just Dance series was most popular on Wii and the first two entries in the series were Wii-exclusives, however with the third entry in the series it went multiplatform. It will be interesting to see if casual gamers go back to embracing the Wii  U version in particular, or if the game will remain just as popular or more-so, with the Kinect Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move PS3 versions.

Game Party Champions Wii U Trailer (Launch Game)

Is Game Party Champions for Wii U a game you should care about as a launch title? What is Game Party Champions?

This is the fifth game in the Game Party series and is the sequel to Game Party: In Motion for Xbox 360 Kinect. This game, like previous Wii versions and the Xbox 360 version, is simply a budget-priced (typically) mini-game collection.

Sadly I couldn't find a video on this game, so it is probably not worth purchasing.... but we'll see. I'll update this when I can find more information on it.

FIFA Soccer 13 Gameplay Videos and Interviews (Launch Game)

FIFA Soccer 13 for Wii U will try to compete with the other versions of the game, and will likely be more in line with the current-gen console versions for Xbox 360 and PS3 than ever before for Nintendo's previous Wii system. 

In addition, this version of FIFA Soccer 13 for the Wii U will likely make extensive use of the Wii U GamePad Tablet Controller, allowing you to have a more indepth soccer experience using its touchscreen and different viewing angles.

It will be interesting to see how well the Wii U version of FIFA Soccer sells compared to other versions of the game, and see if additional features of the Wii U drive more people to pick it up over standard console versions.

The game will be released for every major system: Microsoft Windows PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation Portable, Wii U, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Android, Mac OS X and will be in stores on November 18th 2012.