Weight Loss with Wii Fitness Games and Nutrisystem

At first glance, The Hip Hop Dance Experience seems to be another in a series of “Hey! Let’s squeeze yet more money out of people who like Just Dance” games from Ubisoft.

Usually when there’s a successful video game franchise, you’ll see a bunch of copycat games pop up to try to capitalize on the success. The interesting thing in the case of Just Dance is that most of the “copycat” games were produced by Ubisoft, the publisher of Just Dance, themselves. We’re reviewed most of these games on this blog, from Just Dance: Summer Party to Dance on Broadway to ABBA: You Can Dance to the Black Eyed Pea Experience.

What was annoying about most of these specialized games is that the gameplay itself was in most cases identical to Just Dance; in fact these games often contained much less functionality than what you’d find in the main Just Dance games. The Michael Jackson Experience was probably the best of these games, as it at least contained some original videos from choreographers who worked with Michael Jackson himself. But for the most part, aside from some unique graphics and dance moves (both of which could have been replicated in $5 downloadable content), these games were just thinly veiled attempts to get people to shell out another $40-50 to buy a few set of songs, rather than making those songs available via downloadable content. Ubisoft hit rock bottom when they decided to re-release a number of songs from Just Dance and Just Dance 2 in a full-priced new titled called “Just Dance Greatest Hits”.

So I picked up Hip Hop Dance Experience with some pretty low expectations. But I’m happy to report that this is not just a Just Dance clone, but stands on its own as a very good game that fans of hip hop music will enjoy, and which aspiring hip hop dancers can actually learn some authentic moves from.

The soundtrack right away tells you that this isn’t a typical Just Dance game. The songs feature the hottest artists from the hip hop, dance, and R&B scene, all by the original artists. Some of the songs are even pretty new and fresh off the charts.

Each song is identified in a menu by the song title, artist, and difficulty rating out of 5. Here’s a full song list:

• 1 Thing – Amerie – 1/5
• Airplanes – B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams – 3/5
• Creep – LTC – 2/5
• Danger (Been So Long) – Mystikal ft. Nivea – 4/5
• Day ‘N Night – Kid Cudi – 1/5
• Down – Jay Sean ft. Lil Wayne – 5/5
• Drop Like It’s Hot – Snoop Dog ft. Pharrell – 2/5
• Funkdafied – Da Brat – 1/5
• Hard – Rihanna ft. Jeezy – 1/5
• Hip Hop Hooray – Naughty By Nature – 4/5
• How in Herre – Nelly – 3/5
• If It Isn’t Love – New Edition – 3/5
• Ignition – R. Kelly – 3/5
• International Live – Pitbull ft. Chris Brown – 2/5
• Lean Back – Terror Squad ft. Fat Joe Remy – 2/5
• Lollipop – Lil Wayne ft. Static – 4/5
• Look At Me Now – Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes – 3/5
• Moment 4 Life – Nikki Minaj – 3/5
• One Two Step (ft. Missy Elliot) – Ciara – 3/5
• Over – Drake – 3/5
• Replay – Iyaz – 4/5
• Return of the Mack – Mark Morrison – 3/5
• Run It – Chris Brown – 2/5
• Say Aah – Trey Songz ft. Fabolous – 2/5
• Sexy and I Know It – LMFAO – 4/5
• She Wants to Move – N*E*R*D – 3/5
• So Good – B.o.B. – 1/5
• Vivrant Thing – Q-Tip – 3/5
• Wild ONes – Flo Rida ft. Sia – 4/5
• You’re a Jerk – New Boyz – 5/5

The main menu options are:

1) Dance Party – Just like Just Dance, this is where you just dive into the songs and start dancing. One to four players can participate. Just as with Just Dance, you copy the moves of an on-screen dancer, but unlike Just Dance you can see both a dancer facing you and a dancer with his or her back to you. It turns out that watching the dancer facing you (like you’re in a mirror) is still the better choice to follow, but for certain moves, it’s definitely helpful to watch the dancer with his or her back to you to see the full range of motion for some of the more complicated moves.

This leads me to one of the first things I noticed about this game: while in Just Dance the dance moves are “authentic”, they tend to be on the more fun and frivolous side so whole families can play together. With this game, the target audience is decidedly more niche (if you can name a song from 70% or more of the artists named above, the game was made for you). So the moves are a lot more intricate, similar to what you might see in a dance club or on a music video. Each song has a unique set of dance moves that are specific to the song (the game even gives names to distinct dance moves) and similar to what you’ll see in the music videos or live performances of the song.

As with Just Dance, you’ll get feedback of whether you’re doing the steps right; if you do it wrong you’ll see “Busted” flash on the screen. Do it right, you’ll see “Nice” and “Cool”, and hit the move spot-on and you’ll get “Hype”, along with a buzzing of your Wii remote.

Motion detection is very accurate; the game uses the MotionPlus feature of your newer Wii remote (or a MotionPlus attachment on an older Wii remote) to get a pretty precise read of your hand position, angle, and motion.

Now don’t get me wrong; this is hardly the kind of precision you’d get on an Xbox; the game at the end of the day only reads your hand gestures. There were plenty of times where I knew I wasn’t hitting the gestures, but I’d still get a “Nice”. And conversely, there were times I was sure I was hitting the moves right, but got a “Busted”. Having said that, the more I practiced the moves with my full body, the higher my score got.

As you can see, songs have a “break period” built in for you to rest (or freestyle, if you have the energy).

Graphics are pretty good. You see the dancers in the foreground along with one of several pretty detailed venues, more of which you unlock throughout the game. The original artist’s video plays in the background.

I like that players can jump in any time by grabbing a Wii remote and pressing the “A” button. All players dance to the same steps–there’s no individual choreography as in other games.

2) Dance Battle – The game’s description of this mode says, “In this multiplayer mode, 2 or more players perform dance moves to boost their own scores while attempting to take away points from others. The player with the most points wins.”

Here’s a video of me playing the dance battle with the wife, playing through Replay, International Love, and Wild Ones. We weren’t exactly sure how to “take away points from the other”, but I’m guessing it means that if you hit a move and your opponent misses, the points go from his or hers to you. In any case, it was a lot of fun to compete head-on, and it was nice that unlike on the Xbox, you can put a little separation between the two of you so you’re not bumping into each other or smacking each other in the head.

Overall, playing with someone is a lot more fun than playing alone; it’s interesting how competition can motivate you to play more and play harder.

3) Dance Marathon – The game’s description of this mode is: “Dance as long as you can! Your moves will earn a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” depending on how well you do. If you get 4 “thumbs down” ratings it’s Game Over. Opening the PAUSED screen ends the routine.”

This is one of those “survival” modes that’s perhaps a little better on paper than it is in real life. I tried Dance Marathon to Amerie’s “1 Thing” and immediately got booted off the stage. But after playing a string of other songs, I’d collected over 75 “thumbs ups” and would have kept going if I hadn’t stopped. Despite their instructions, it’s a bit awkward figuring out how to exit this mode too; they could have used some help from some user interface experts.

At the end of your marathon it’ll tell you how many dances you got thumbs-ups to and how many Kilocalories you burned.

This wasn’t the most compelling part of the game for me, as it looked like it would just go on forever. But if you’re just looking to get exercise, it’s probably the closest thing to a “Just Sweat mode, as collecting “thumbs ups” is great motivation to keep going.

4) Power Skooling – This is one of the better dance tutorials I’ve seen in dance games. It lets you choose any of the songs and watch individual dance steps within any of them. There are literally hundreds of them, and it’s a great education for those who want to learn real hip-hop steps that they can use not just for this game but to show off in a club or party. Here are a couple steps from “International Love” that I learned which helped me when I played the song in both Dance Battle and Dance Marathon modes.

5) Options lets you adjust latency; if you find that you’re making all the right moves but consistently not getting credit for it, it’s possible that your TV is taking too long to render the image on the screen. You’ll be able to perform a simple exercise of adjusting your latency by watching a vertical line zipping across your screen and pressing the “A” button when it reaches the center; once this is one the Wii will compensate for any delays your TV is encountering.

Overall, granted while coming in with lowered expectations, I was pretty impressed with The Hip Hop Experience. This didn’t seem like just another clone of a dance game, but one that was designed from the ground up with its target audience in mind. Its focus on real hip-hop dance moves, a solid soundtrack with original artists, good multi-player capability, and excellent tutorial feature makes it a great buy for anyone who wants to learn more hip-hop moves, enjoys this music, and would like to have some “cool” workouts. 4.5 of 5 stars.

A year ago I reviewed the original Nickelodeon Dance for the Wii. Well, a year later, Dora and all her friends from Nickelodeon are back with Nickelodeon Dance 2.

As with last year’s review, I’m going to try to review this game through the eyes of its intended audience: toddlers and young children who are in the target audience of Dora and her friends at Nickelodeon and who watch them on TV every day. And for those kids, this game is a really good one. For the rest of us, I’d stick with games like Wii Fit or Just Dance.

When you start the game you’ll hear some catchy music and see a startup screen with Dora, Diego, Molly from the Bubble Gumpies, and Bot, Milli and Geo from Team Umizoomi. If you don’t press anything, Dora will nag you by saying “if you want to play, just press the “A” button on your Wii remote over…and over…and over again every three seconds until you comply.

Strangely, you don’t see a cursor on the screen so you have to use your plus control pad to make choices. This probably eliminates some frustration for younger players who can’t point and click as easily as older kids, but I can also see a lot of kids who are used to every other Wii game in the world waving their remotes looking for a cursor.

Your options are Quick Play, Dance, Workout, Freeze, Achievements, and Options. If you don’t press a selection, Dora will chime in and explain what it is, and then begin nagging you to press a button every three seconds again. I’ve listed each of the choices below, as well as Dora’s explanation of what they are.

Quick Play. “Choose this to play a random dance or workout song”. Dora’s not exactly right here. When you select this option, it’ll randomly put you in a sub-menu under the “Dance” or the “Workout” menu, where you still have to scroll through it and select a song.

Dance. “This lets you choose dance songs to play”.

There are three sub-menus under the Dance menu that correspond to different difficult levels: Starting Steps, Smooth Moves, and Fancy Footwork. Next to each song, you’ll also see icons that correspond to the intensity level of the song (there’s an icon of something walking, running, and sprinting). Certain songs are locked, and you need to earn a certain number of stars to unlock them.

Here are the songs under each.

Starting Steps Songs:

Bubble Guppies Theme Song – Bubble Guppies (2)
Butterfly Dance – Team Umizoomi (1)
Get Up and Go Go – The Fresh Beat Band (2)
Team Umizoomi Theme Song – Team Umizoomi (3)
Tonight Is a Holiday – Bubble Guppies (2)
The Travel Song – Dora the Explorer (1)
Mary Had a Little Lamb – Dora the Explorer (1)
Shapes All Over the Place – Team Umizoomi (2)

Smooth Moves Songs:

At the Zoo – Bubble Guppies (3)
Freeze Dance – The Fresh Beat Band (2)
Here Comes Santa Claus – Dora the Explorer (2)
Hurry Home – The Backyardigans (2)
Just Like a Rockstar – The Fresh Beat Band (3)
Once Upon a Time – Bubble Guppies (2)
We Totally Rock – Bubble Guppies (2)

Fancy Footwork Songs:

Anything to Help My Friends – Team Umizoomi (2)
I Wanna Be a Cowgirl – Bubble Guppies (3)
La Bamba – Dora The Explorer (2)
The Piranha Song – Go, Diego, Go (3)
Stomp the House – The Fresh Beat Band (2)
Tweedily Dee – The Backyardigans (3)
Questing, Questing – The Backyardigans (2)
Reach for the Sky – The Fresh Beat Band (3)

Gameplay is pretty much identical to Just Dance and all the other copycat games that have come since it: your child holds the Wii remote in his or her right hand and mirrors the moves of the character on screen dancing. Icons will scroll across the bottom of the screen, which most will ignore.

Scoring is much, much more lenient than with more grown-up games–there are no numerical scores, and the goal is to fill up three stars. This is great for kids  2-6 years old who may be frustrated by more difficult adult-oriented games on the Wii and even worse, the Kinect. There are plenty of accomplishments to be collected.

Many of the songs will be familiar to those kids whose eyes are glued to Nick Jr. every day. The “dance” portion of the game actually does introduce kids to real choreographed dance moves, albeit much simplified. Dora will even shout out what dance move is being done.

Workout. This will take you to the workout dance songs. These songs are

Workout Songs:
Bananas – The Fresh Beat Band (1)
Go, Go, Go – The Backyardigans (3)
Good Times – The Fresh Beat Band (3)
Sing-Along Party Mix – Dora the Explorer (3)
The Band Plays On – Bubble Guppies (1)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Dora the Explorer (2)

The workout portion of the game really does focus on more aerobics-type moves rather than dance moves, and the highest difficulty songs really will get your kids to exercise and work up a sweat.

In a funny way, I actually think the way that Nickelodeon makes a very clear delineation between dance moves and aerobic exercise moves is better than even how Just Dance does it.

Freeze. “Choose this to play dance songs where you have to freeze at different times during the song”. This is a bit of a fun new feature that lets two players compete against each other.

When you choose this, you see the same menu of all the songs above. When you play the song, gameplay is also the same as usual, except at random times in the song the narrator will shout at you to “FREEZE”, at which time you have to freeze in your tracks. It’s fun for kids to compete against parents or against their siblings and have fun as they see who can freeze the best. With scoring as lenient as it is, chances are both players will end up in a tie, which perhaps is the best outcome.

Overall, I was impressed with Nickeolodeon Dance 2 as a way for toddlers and young children to get some good exercise, especially on rainy or cold days when it’s hard to go outside. Parents will appreciate the wholesomeness of the songs and the dance moves, while children will appreciate that the game was made easier for them, and that they’ll have a game of their own they can play without feeling left out or frustrated. I highly recommend it for any parent of young kids, especially those who are fans of Nickelodeon.

Gangnam Style by Korean rapper PSY is a, by all accounts, a phenomenon. On YouTube, as of this writing the official music video has 1 billion, one hundred ninety three million, three hundred forty thousand, four hundred and ninety-four view. And counting. The video is approaching 7 million “likes”. The video is so popular that even YouTube designed a special icon just for this song.

My friend Jack (who’s always on top of these things) actually tipped me off to this song when it still had only a couple hundred thousand views on YouTube. I rewarded him a few months later by making him, as my best man, walk into our wedding reception to the music. By then, the whole crowd recognized the song and were clapping along.

On my recent honeymoon to Taiwan, I met my wife’s uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, and nieces for the first time. She had a 8 year old cousin who didn’t speak English, and my Chinese is really bad. But the second he started doing the Gangnam Style “horsey” dance, I joined in and we bonded instantly.

Similarly, the other night we were at a friend’s house for a dinner party. Their 3 year old daughter started jumping up and down when they played the song. It’s a song that seems to know no boundaries.

Unlike previous one-hit wonders like the Macarena and Who Let the Dogs Out, for some reason Gangnam Style has captured the imagination of the world. Chalk it up to a catchy tune, an easy-to-learn dance, the power of social media, and a song (and performer) that manages to be so ridiculous that it’s somehow cool. No less than British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama have admitted to dancing to it. And UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon even called it a “force for world peace”.

No, I don’t pretend to understand the phenomenon

PSY himself probably knows that he is never, ever going to top this, so he’s doing the right thing and cashing in while he can. He’s done live performances on every continent, and even danced with MC Hammer (speaking of one-hit wonders) on New Year’s Eve.

I also noticed that Gangnam Style is available as downloadable content for Dance Central 3 (on the Xbox) and Just Dance 4 (on all platforms, but I ended up buying it for the Wii/Wii U version). The Dance Central 3 DLC costs 240 Microsoft Points (about $5) while the Wii download costs 300 Wii Points (about $3.00). Walmart is an excellent place to stock up on points if you don’t have them. They sell a 2000 Wii Points Card for only $19.96, as well as a 1600 Point Xbox LIVE code for $19.96.

As someone who’s played all the dance games known to man over the years, a lot of people ask me which is the best dance game franchise: Dance Central or Just Dance. If you read the marketing material for each, you’ll see that both of them try to take the prize. Microsoft touts the fact that they’re the most popular dance game for the Xbox, while Ubisoft rightfully points out that if you add up all the games from the entire Just Dance franchise, not only do you have the world’s most popular dance game, but one of the most popular game franchises in history.

So which do I think is “better”? Rather than answering the question right away, here’s a video of Gangnam Style for Dance Central 3 (on Medium difficulty) vs. on Just Dance 4.

In many ways, comparing Gangnam Style on both games and platforms really highlights the differences between them.

In Dance Central 3, notice how there’s a lot more full body movement and the choreography is more “professional”, to the point where you can take it onto a dance floor. For sheer exercise, this one is pretty hard to beat. I was panting and my heartbeat was elevated just after one dance. And unlike on the Wii or the PS3, you can’t really “cheat”, as the Kinect is detecting your whole body’s movements. Another advantage of the Dance Central 3 version is that you have four choices of difficulty levels, from beginner to expert, and each level of choreography is unique and stands on its own.

In Just Dance 4, notice how the choreography focuses less on elaborate dance steps and more on just silliness and fun. This makes Just Dance 4 the better game to play if you have dancers of all levels, from kids to adults. Even better, with the Wii you can dance with up to four players at the same time, and you can spread apart without hitting each other (something that’s harder to do on the Kinect).

In the case of this song, both dance games were “true” to the silly style of PSY’s music video. Either one will let you practice the signature moves that 1.2 billion people have watched, although again the edge seems to go to Dance Central 3 in terms of being more “true” to the artist’s style.

And so the burning question: which game is better: Dance Central 3 or Just Dance 4? In many ways, I found that my experiences just reinforced what I wrote back in 2011 about Dance Central 2 vs. Just Dance 3 (and I’ll weasel out of an answer the same way today that I did then). Microsoft takes the prize of the best motion control, while Just Dance 4 continues to be the most fun. So if your goal is to learn how to dance, Dance Central 3 is the way to go, while if your goal is to have a party game that everyone in the room can step up and participate in instantly, Just Dance 4 can’t be beat. Both will give you a decent workout if you put all your whole energy into dancing.

Long story short, you really can’t go wrong with either. So it really comes down to what style you feel most comfortable with. As for me, I like to take both off the shelf from time to time. What do you think?

A few weeks ago I published my review of Just Dance 4 for the Wii U. As I know a lot of folks out there still are using the Wii as their main console (or have purchased a Wii U and are using their old Wii in their home gym exclusively for working out), I figured I’d spend a few minutes to talk about Just Dance for the Wii.

Just Dance 4 for the Wii is for all intents and purposes the same as its Wii U counterpart, with its simple opening menu with two options (Just Dance and Just Sweat), the same ability to create Dancer Cards, virtually the same song list, and the same fun 1-4 person choreography. You’ll also be able to unlock Battle Mode which is a fun two-player game putting you against another player (all 5 battles must be unlocked).

It also has the same “Dance Quests” under each song, and the same system of unlocking new features using Mojo Points. The only thing missing are a few Wii U exclusive songs, as well as some Wii U features like “Puppet Master Mode”.

Just Sweat Mode is also set up exactly the same on both systems. You start out with four sessions (Aerobics in Space, Sweat Around the World, Electro Body Combat, or Cheerleaders Boot Camp) representing 80′s Pop, World Music, Electro Music, or Punk Rock genres and Dynamic Fitness, Latin Dance, Cardio Fighting, or Extreme Training styles. You’ll also be able to unlock one more (Swinging 60s Workout) as you advance.

These aren’t just the standard choreographed songs set to music, but specially designed workouts with moves that exercise specific parts of your body and have proper warm-up and cool-down routines. Here’s a video of “Sweat Around the World” workout that features Latin dances; not surprisingly, there’s a very Zumba-esqure feel with a lot of the dancing.

Assuming you really perform the workouts to the best of your ability for a sustained period of time (at least 30 minutes a day), they are intense cardio workouts that rival or surpass the best “pure workout titles” on the Wii (and in fact have such a good balance of fun, replay value, and exercise that it still ranks #1 on our list of Best Wii Fitness Games).

Just Dance, Just Dance 2, and Just Dance 3 for the Wii were already excellent titles, but as I did with the Wii U version of the game I wholeheartedly give this one 5 of 5 stars. There are a lot of things that will make you want to take Just Dance 4 off the shelf and play it again and again, whether it’s collecting Mojo Points to unlock new game features (some songs will flash an icon telling you you can double-Mojo points), hitting a fitness goal, or mastering a particular routine with a friend.

While the Wii U features certainly do add some fun and frivolity when playing in groups, they are certainly not central to the gameplay. The meat of the game is still intact in the Wii version, and it’s still a worthwhile buy if you don’t have immediate plans to purchase a Wii U. I was a little disappointed to find that the stats I had earned while playing the Wii U version were not reflected when I played the Wii version, meaning that if you do get the Wii U version eventually, you’ll have to unlock all the bonus features from scratch.

Something else Just Dance 4 has, which I didn’t mention on the Wii U review, is an excellent in-game Store where you can purchase downloadable content. I knew exactly the first song I wanted to buy.

Okay, I know it’s this generation’s “Macarena” or “Who Let the Dogs Out”, but hey, I’ve been wanting to learn PSY’s moves since I first saw Gangham Style on YouTube, and while the Just Dance choreography isn’t an exact match to the video, all of his signature moves are there.

As you can see, the download process is amazingly simple; as long as you have Wii Points in your account the 300 points will be deducted from that, and the song will appear right in the Just Dance 4 menu once you download it. You can choose to download the song to Wii System Memory or to an SD card. Within the options menu, you can even move your downloaded content between the memory and the SD card.

Merry Christmas! If the last few years are any indication, on Christmas morning and for the next few days into the New Year we’ll be getting a flood of new visits to the site from people who’ve gotten brand new Wii and Wii U’s, and who also may have eaten a little too much roast ham or turkey on Christmas, who may be making their New Year’s resolutions, who may feel cooped up inside amid the winter weather, or all of the above. This usually leads to a perfect storm that compels people to look for the best fitness video games.

The State of Wii Exercise Gaming 2012

Sadly, as opposed to previous years there aren’t many innovative new titles for the Wii this holiday season. While in previous years we saw innovative titles like My Fitness Coach and EA Sports Active 2, this year the Wii has all but been abandoned by new publishers. Perhaps part of the reason is that publishers are turning their attention to other platforms like the Wii U or the Xbox Kinect, while part of the reason may just be that publishers are acknowledging that the current set of fitness games for the Wii have maximized the potential for that platform.

With the exception of Just Dance 4 and Zumba Fitness Core, which are just updates of already-top fitness games, the top 5 Wii fitness games are pretty much the same as last year. The good news is that most of these titles can be found pretty cheap if you buy used copies on Amazon or look on eBay.

1) Just Dance 4

2) EA Sports Active 2

3) ExerBeat

4) Zumba Fitness Core

5) DanceDanceRevolution 2

As for Wii U fitness games, there are only a small handful to choose from. Right now the only games I’d put on the high echelon of Wii U fitness games are:

1) Just Dance 4

2) Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013

It hasn’t been released yet, but Nintendo has such an excellent track record that I’ll go on a limb and say that Wii Fit U
is going to be a winner that’ll breathe new life into your old Balance Board when it comes out.

Hopefully there’ll be more to report in the coming weeks. Good luck on your resolutions!

Transferring data from your Wii to your Wii U is a step you do after setup, again a poor choice of timing because they force you to create a new Mii from scratch before you have a chance to port your old Mii over from your Wii. I just set up a dummy player which I later deleted, knowing that I’d be able to use good ol’ Stii-Wii later down the road.

During the conversion process from the Wii to the Wii U, a LOT of data gets transferred, including your Miis, saved game data, downloaded software, and Wii points. I’m not sure if it’s for technical or security reasons or both, but Nintendo is VERY careful about making sure that data is transferred from the Wii to an SD card (and subsequently erasing all the data from the Wii), and then transferred from the SD card to the Wii U (again, deleting all data from the SD card). The most important thing to remember before starting the update process is to make SURE you don’t accidentally kick the power cord or otherwise interrupt the process, or you may lose all your data.

The process is pretty painful and time-consuming, but the results are pretty good.

You need to start by making sure both your Wii U and Wii are plugged in, connected to the Internet. The process is convoluted enough to begin with, but if you’re sharing a single Wii remote or video connection between both machines, the process will be nearly unbearable. For me, I made things a little easier on myself by plugging the Wii U into the HDMI port of my TV, plugging the Wii into the component (YPbPr) port of a monitor, and viewing both screens using two TV screens (you can also use Picture-By-Picture mode on your TV).

You start out by going to the Wii menu on your Wii U (you’ll need your Wii remote for this), and then clicking the “Wii System Transfer” icon. You’d think that this would start the process of transferring your system data, but no–it takes you to the  Wii Shop Channel where you download the Wii System Transfer Channel. Seems like it’s adding some unnecessary steps, but okay.

After installing the channel you’ll see the real icon to start the process. You’ll need an SD card that has at least 512 MB on it to get started.

Once you start up the channel you’ll see a welcome message.

There are three steps to completing the transfer, which you can read about on your TV screen. They are:

Step 1: Prepare the Wii U console.

The first step is taking your SD card and putting it into the Wii U. Data used to prepare for the transfer is written to the SD card in the Wii U. Once it’s done you’ll see this message. Pop the SD card out of the Wii U and set it aside.

Step 2: Transfer from the Wii console.

Next, you’ll go to your old Wii. You have to go to the Wii Shop Channel on your Wii to download the Wii System Transfer Channel there. Annoyingly, I was first prompted to perform a Wii System Update to update the Wii Shop Channel.

By this time it was about 1 AM and I was tired. Thanks Nintendo.

Once the update is complete you have to select Wii Shop Channel and once in click “Start Shopping”.

On the main screen, you need to select “Wii Channels”

And the finally, select Wii U Transfer Tool.

Install it, and then go back to the Wii menu. At this point, you need to select the new Wii U Transfer Tool from the top menu (It may be on the second page or later depending on how many channels you already have)

You’re asked if you’ve finished the preparations on the Wii U.

It’ll then connect to the Internet to verify that you can do the transfer, and then FINALLY get to a screen asking you to insert the SD card from the Wii U.

There was a confusing message about Miis that kind of freaked me out.

When I first read this, I thought it meant that all my Miis would be deleted, which was kind of the main reason I did this whole transfer in the first place. But after examining more closely, I realized that they meant that Miis stored in the Mii Channel under “Mii Parade” (basically a section of the Check Mii Out Channel that stores a lot of different Mii’s you download from online) would be deleted, while Mii’s stored under “Mii Plaza” (the main section of the Check Mii Out Channel (would be converted). If you’re not sure, cancel out of the process and double-check that all the Miis you want to transfer are in the Mii Plaza. Since Mii Parade was a short-lived and failed feature that few people used, chances are you’re not affected.

There may be more warning screens after this informing you which software cannot be transferred to the Wii U; in some cases updated versions of these Channels are available on the Wii U; in other cases the functionality is being deprecated.

If you have software stored on SD cards, those also will not be transferred to the Wii U, but the system will recognize and remember that you are eligible to re-download them for free from the Wii Shop Channel on the Wii U’s Wii menu (got that?). Any software stored in main system memory will be transferred over.

You’ll see more scary red letters and a big blue Transfer button. Push now or forever hold your peace.

Next, you have to endure yet another update process that depending on the amount of data you have on your Wii may take upwards of another hour or more to finish. But this time Nintendo did something interesting–they have a mesmerizing animation of little Pikmin characters gathered around an icon of your Wii console.

Then, the little Pikmins start collecting icons…

…and then start carrying them through winding paths that put me in the mind of the  world of Tron. A percentage meter will appear in the lower right-hand corner, while status text will scroll on a marquee on top of the page telling you what’s being transferred.

Finally, they all get to a rocket ship.

And then blast off towards a sun that says “Wii U”. At that point, you’re told how many Wii Points (if any) you had in your balance that have been transferred over, as well as that your Wii Shop Channel purchase history has been transferred along with a list of games you’re eligible to download on your Wii U.

Finally, you’re told to take the SD card out and move it back to your Wii U.

Meanwhile, back on the Wii U, the message that’s been sitting your screen since you took the SD card out tells you to put it back in.

The animation continues from where it left off on the Wii, with your ship of Pikmins continuing towards the Wii U sun.

The Pikmins disembark and start carrying stuff to the Wii U.

They finally get to a large icon representing your Wii U and GamePad and start dropping their icons back.

And then they all celebrate.

All your games, save data, and credits should be transferred over now. Note that there’s still a little work you need to do to get your Mii. You have to go back to the Mii Maker application and use the “Send Mii/Receive Mii” option to get the Mii available for you to register. Happily, I saw both Stii-Wii and Wiisa in their full glory on my Wii U.

Once this is done, go into User Account and either replace your already-created character’s Mii with your Mii, or create a new character.

While I applaud Nintendo for making this long (again, over an hour) process at least a little entertaining, I really would have liked to see a more friendly approach, such as the ability to do the transfer completely online instead of dealing with an SD card, or better yet, the ability to just turn on both systems connected to the Internet and have everything done for you while you sleep.

Sadly, on the Wii U Deluxe I encountered another issue that is being widely reported–the phenomenon of taking a long, long time for the system to go back to the Wii U Menu after being in another channel or game. At some points I was literally waiting  five minutes while the GamePad screen appeared to be hung. This is a major, major flaw that I’m shocked that Nintendo allowed to go into the final production product, and if they don’t fix it soon, they’re going to deal with a whole lot of returns.

Well, Thanksgiving at my brother’s house went very well. As predicted, the kids were very happy with their uncle’s somewhat extravagant gift of a Wii U Basic, and we had a lot of fun playing Super Mario Bros for the Wii U. What I really liked about the game were the mini games that involved both the Wii remote and the GamePad which introduced a whole new level of cooperation to game playing. It was cool watching my older brother and my little nephew bonding by working together to achieve goals and then celebrating when they completed them.

The surprise hit of the evening was Just Dance 4, which I’d rented from GameFly. It turns out all the grown-ups in the room had a blast playing it (with participants ranging in age from about 35 to 65). The kids at first felt a little self-conscious playing with the adults, but when we unlocked “Puppet Master Mode” they had a blast controlling the grown-up’s every move (I’ll be posting a full review of Just Dance 4 for Wii U shortly).

Since my nephew and second niece both have a DS, they took to the GamePad almost immediately. We did encounter the bug that many people are reporting with the Wii U taking a ridiculously long time to load menus (particularly the Wii U menu). More on this below, as I’m encountering the same problem multiple times on the Deluxe to the point of ridiculousness.

So, about the Deluxe. I’d placed a pre-order at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago and it finally arrived on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The box looks identical except for the obvious difference in the colors of the units pictured on the box, as well as two stickers in the corner, one that says that the NintendoLand game is bundled in the box, and the other with a URL to something called “Deluxe Digital Promotion” at ddp.nintendo.com. I found out later that this was a promotion where buyers of the Wii U Deluxe can earn 10% of their digital purchases on the Nintendo eShop back in the form of points that can be used to make other digital purchases.

Opening the box revealed the same impeccably packaging as the Basic.

For those of you wondering, only a few parts pictured below (plus an additional 24 GB of internal memory and the aforementioned 10% discount on digital downloads) mark the only differences between the $349 Deluxe and the $299 Basic. As you can see below, this includes the NintendoLand game, a charging cradle for the GamePad, a stand for the GamePad (for when you don’t want to charge it), and two cheap pieces of plastic which they’re calling the “Wii U Console Stand” which lets you stand the console on its edge without worrying too much about it tipping over.

Since the system is pretty much identical to the Wii U Basic, I won’t talk through through the entire setup process again. In short, once again I found the hardware to be impressive both in technology and design (the black console looks especially sleek). But once again, the process of setting up the system was painful, if not in complexity then in sheer time. Again, it took me over an hour on a fairly fast Internet connection to download the update.

This time I did do two things that I skipped the last time. The first thing I did was to set up TV control during setup. This step was ridiculously smooth, at least for me. It just asked me to type in the make of my TV (Westinghouse), and then test out a few buttons to make sure they worked. They did for me on the first try.

Voila, suddenly the GamePad could turn my TV on and off and adjust the volume.

The second thing I did was to convert my data from my Wii to my Wii U. This was a long and arduous process, so I’ll dedicate a future post to it.

I’ll be posting reviews for Just Dance 4, Your Shape 2013, and ESPN Sports Connection for the Wii U shortly. And not to worry fans of the original Wii, I’ll still be posting reviews of Wii fitness games and maintaining the Wii top 10 separately from the Wii U top 10. And don’t worry fans of the original Wii–as fitness and exercise games become available, I’ll still be writing reviews. In fact, one of the great things about the Wii U coming out is that Wii’s are going to get a lot cheaper to buy; in some cases I’m seeing them for under $90 for a whole set. A Wii and an old TV set would make a great addition to any exercise room.

By the way, the elusive Wii U is still hard to find, but not impossible. GameStop has had fresh stocks of Wii U Basics and Wii U Deluxes the past few days. And word is that my mid-December, a whole new shipment will be coming in. So don’t panic and pay a ridiculous amount for yours at Amazon or eBay.