Weight Loss with Wii Fitness Games and Nutrisystem

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?

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.

So, I pre-ordered a Wii U Deluxe from Walmart, which should be arriving sometime before the end of the week. But in the meantime, I was in Toys R Us yesterday and saw a big stack of Basic systems in stock. I figured I’d go for the title of World’s Greatest Uncle, so I bought my nephew and nieces a brand new Wii U Basic. My nephew’s birthday happens to fall on Thanksgiving, and I’ll be going to my brother’s house in a few days to celebrate.

I wasn’t originally planning to be so extravagant (especially since the wedding pretty much blew away a healthy chunk of my savings), so I guess I’ll just have to start bringing healthy home cooked to work instead of eating out for lunch every day for a few months. It’s all part of the great Nutwiisystem weight loss plan.

But I figured they’re the perfect ages for a Wii U (9, 11, and 14) and it won’t be long before they’re all growed up, so I figured I should seize the day. I actually got them the Wii five years ago, and it brought a ton of joy to almost every family gathering. My nephew Michael has a penchant for jumping around wildly whenever he plays the Wii, which was one of my inspirations for starting up Nutwiisystem.com. He can beat anyone on the planet on Super Mario Kart, so it’s worked out well for him.

Anyway, the box sat here in my living room unopened for about a day when it stuck me, I really should test out the system, right? After all, I don’t want the system to be DOA when I give it to the kids, and if there’s any updating to be done, I should really do it first, right? (Okay, I really wanted to play, but we’ll keep that between us )

So today’s post will be all about the unboxing of the Basic (White) Set of the Wii U. When the Deluxe system comes, I’ll plan on unboxing that as well.

And so, without further adieu, the Wii U (Basic):

The Wii U Basic comes in a blue box marked “Basic Set – 8G”

The 8G stands for 8 gigabytes of built-in memory (as opposed to the Deluxe set which has 32G). At the beginning this will be plenty of memory for anyone who wants to just play games and store save data in the memory. But as you download games and downloadable content, chances are this 8G will fill up eventually. The good news is, you can easily expand the memory just by using SD cards, USB drives, or even external hard drives.

Opening the box reveals everything very nicely packed.

There’s a couple of quick start guides in Spanish, French, and English, as well as an Owners Manual you’ll never read (which is a testament to how intuitive Nintendo makes their hardware and their on-screen setup instructions). There’s also a card inviting you to join Club Nintendo. If you haven’t joined, it’s a fun little site where you can register your console and any Nintendo-produced games and earn points to buy Nintendo-branded schwag. If you earn 300 points in a year you’ll get Gold Status, while 600 points will earn you Platinum Status where you can get a crappy gift the year you earn platinum. Linking your Wii U will get you 160 points, or more than halfway to Gold. They used to extend warranties by a couple months for registering a console, but unfortunately they’ve discontinued that practice with the Wii U. I’d suggest buying the system with an American Express or Discover card to get the extended warranty benefits.

Next, of course, there are lots of wires. There are two AC adapters, one to power the Wii U console and the other to charge the GamePad controller.

There’s also a standard HDMI cable that (finally) lets you view the Wii’s improved graphics on your big 1080i HDTV.

I liked the fact that they also included an old style component cable (yPbPr) in the box, as well as a Sensor Bar. I especially like the fact that both of these are 100% compatible with the old Wii (if you like, you can keep the new Sensor Bar in the box, and just plug in the old from from your old Wii without taking it down from the TV).

The next things to come out of the box were the things I anticipated the most. First, the Wii U console.

This looked like a sleeker, rounder, more modern version of the Wii. It’s only slightly longer and about the same thickness. On the front is a power button, an eject button, a sync button, and a door revealing two USB ports and an SD card slot. On the back are two more USB ports, as well as connections for HDMI monitor, component TV, and power.

Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for–the GamePad.

This is the part of the Wii U I wasn’t sure what to expect. Half the reports I’ve heard are people complaining how big it is. For me, it felt great. The joysticks to the left and right corners were very comfortable for my hands, as were the arrow keys and buttons. There’s a camera on top, and a microphone on bottom which has the potential to revolutionize social gaming and chat, if developers make good use out of them.  Two tiny holes to the left and right produce surprising loud and clear stereo sound. There’s an orange LED that turns dark when the battery is fully charged, as well as a TV control button for using the GamePad as a remote for your TV and the Power button.

The whole unit is recharegable, and doesn’t use AA batteries, but a battery pack that’s meant to stay inside the unit all the time (until a few years later when presumably it’ll lose its charge, but by then the Wii U Plus will be out, I’m sure).

Connecting the units was a piece of cake. I plugged the console AC adapter into the wall, unplugged my old Wii Sensor Bar from my Wii and into the Wii U, and plugged the HDMI cable from the Wii to the TV. The unit powered on, with the familiar blue LED light telling me it was working.

Next, I plugged in the GamePad controller, which I found was charged.

On the TV screen was a big, beautiful Wii U logo, and then a screen telling me I needed to sync the Wii U console with the GamePad. This was ridiculously simple–you just press the red “sync” button on the console (to the right of the on/off button), and then you go to your GamePad and press the red “sync” button on the back of it (to the lower left under the serial number barcode–you’ll need a paperclip or toothpick or something to press it).

Then, it’ll come time for you to play your first “game”. It’s actually a little step to make sure the sync between the console and the GamePad is complete, but they made it a little challenge where you have to match symbols you see on the TV screen by using your finger on the touchpad.

Once you successfully key in the right combination of symbols, you’re brought through the setup provcess. You then see a Nintendo logo and then the message that “Your Wii GamePad is ready. Tap the screen to set up the console. Instructions will appear on the TV screen”.

What follows is your first experience at two-screen gaming. The TV screen will provide detailed instructions, while the GamePad screen will show you options to select. I found myself ignoring the TV screen and just looking at the GamePad, which worked fine. But I think it’ll take a while for me to learn how to properly look at the TV at the right times and look at the GamePad screen at the right time.

1) You first go through a series of steps where you set the display language of your GamePad (I set mine to English), select your country (I selected United States). Then, a screen showed up telling me that moving forward, I can power the console on and off by using the GamePad power button. Which is pretty cool, although the next thing I need them to invent for me is a way to get a game CD to pop out of the box and into the console without me getting off the sofa.

2) Next, you set the date and time. It felt a bit old-fashioned for me to have to set these manually. I wish Nintendo had put the WiFi setup first, so the system could pull the date and time from the Web.

3) In the next step, the system detects your TV resolution. 1080i on a Wii, who would have ever thought?

4) The next step lets you set up the GamePad to control your TV be using the “TV Remote Function”. At this point I felt like I didn’t want to deal with this, so I told it to skip it for later.

5) In the next step, just like on the original Wii you have to specify where your sensor bar is located (if you want to use your Wiimotes). I put mine above the TV.

6) The next screens are courtesy of the Nintendo lawyers. It’s health and safety information and and End-User License Agreement where you basically say you won’t sue Nintendo if you end up throwing your Wii remote out the window into traffic.

7) Next, you set up the console’s Internet connection. While there will be ways to connect an Ethernet cable through USB, most people will opt to use their WiFi network. You just choose your network, enter your WEP password, and you’re connected.

8) The next step, the Wii U will innocuously as if you want to connect to Nintendo to download updates. Sure, I thought.

Little did I suspect that the update would take a LONG time; over my WiFi connection it took almost exactly an hour to download the update and install it. At this point I was really happy that I opened the box and didn’t subject my nieces and nephew to an hour of watching a blue bar.

At long last, the update was downloaded and installed and the TV screen said “The update is complete. Check the Wii U GamePad screen.”. The GamePad screen said “the update is complete and the console will now restart”.

After the system restarted, the GamePad screen had a button that said “Add New User (for first time user). There’s another button that says “Add User From an Existing Nintendo Network ID”. I actually got a little confused at this point, as I wasn’t sure if my Club Nintendo login counted as a “Nintendo Network ID” (it doesn’t).

I chose “Add a New User”. The first thing you see on the TV screen is a message that tells you that you will create your Mii. As someone who has a Wii, I was mainly interested in seeing if I could copy my Mii from my Wii to my Wii U (say that 10 times fast).

There are two options: “Create or Receive” or “Choose a Look Alike”. “Create or Receive” lets you create your Mii from scratch (the same way it was done on the Wii), from a photo, by connecting to a Nintendo 3DS, or by scanning a QR code. I found out that this is done through what they call a System Transfer, which allows you to transfer data from a Wii console to a Wii U console. This is done from the classic Wii menu (see below).

I did try the photo feature to see if I liked the new Mii it would create for me. Here, you first choose your gender, skin tone, eye color, hair color, and hairstyle, and then take a picture of your face. While it was a little bit of a pain to go through the process of creating my Mii all over again, I have to admit that doing it using the GamePad was a load of fun. As you form the features of your Mii on the GamePad, a large version will appear on the TV screen. At the last step, you take a photo using the GamePad, and the Wii U will capture your facial features with surprising precision. You can then fine-tune the Mii to your delight–you’ll see a split screen on the TV that shows your real face and your Mii face. My photo Mii turned out to be a little too close to reality for my tastes, so I went through and recreated something similar to my original Mii fairly quickly.

Once you Register your new Mii, you’ll be asked if you want to link it to a Nintendo Network ID, which gives you access to Miiverse (an online service where people from across the world meet up using their Mii characters), Nintendo eShop (View information and videos for all kinds of software, much of which you can purchase directly), Wii U Chat (make video calls to friends over the Internet), a Friend List (so you can see online status of friends and what games they’re playing), and online features of Wii U games where you can compete with others around the world.

If you choose Yes, you’ll need to enter a lot more information, including a Nintendo Network ID (not necessarily the same as your Mii nickname), as well as your full date of birth, email address and whether you want to receive commercial email from Nintendo. You’ll be sent a confirmation email containing a 6-digit code that you’ll need to enter.

At this point I understood what it meant in the beginning–I’m guessing that now that I have a Nintendo Network ID I can take it to any other Wii U by creating a new Mii and choosing “Add User From an Existing Nintendo Network ID”. Your Mii and your Nintendo Network ID will be linked at this point, and you’ll be able to access online features.

There are, of course, parental controls so that parents can restrict kids from using certain software, visiting Web sites, etc.

A screen appeared which said that the Wii U is set to power down automatically if left unused for 1-hour. You can change this setting in System Settings.

Another screen explained that the five colored icons on the bottom of the screen were software you can use by connecting to the Internet. It inclues the Miiverse, the eShop, an Internet Browser, the upcoming Nintendo  TVii, and Notifications.

Finally, about two hours after I got started, I got to the Wii U menu, which looks like this on the GamePad. There are pre-set icons for things like NetFlix, Hulu, Amazon Online Video, and YouTube.

On the TV, it’s a rather confusing screen where you see a bunch of icons, flashing tips, and a bunch of Mii characters roaming around. I guess Nintendo is trying to drive home the fact that the Wii U is meant to connect with others.

You can insert a CD and start playing. You can also access the Wii menu. At this point you’ll be promted to pair your Wii remote with the console. To do this, you click a button that says “pair Wii remote”, and then you’ll press the “sync” button on the controller you want to pair (located in the battery compartment). It took me one shot to pair my MotionPlus controller, a much different story than my old Wii when trying to pair Wiimotes became a futile exercise in button mashing.

At this point the menu showed up on the TV screen, and the random scene of Miis went to the GamePad. You can press X to swap the menu between the TV and the GamePad.

You can select Wii menu again, and see the old style Wii menu. While I liked the GamePad, there was something nice about being able to use the Wii remote to navigate again and seeing the old familiar screen, albeit much more sparse than on my Wii. You can fill up the menus with Wii channels again from the Wii Shop Channel, or you can go back to the Wii U menu.

Note if you try to access any online features without having linked to a Nintendo Network ID, you’ll get a cryptic error message saying you can’t access that feature. To fix this, simply go back to the Wii U menu and make sure to link your account to a Nintendo Network ID.

At this point I’d been setting up the Wii U for a full three hours. Granted, the time flew by as I was getting acclimated to the Wii U. But if you get one, be prepared to spend a lot of time setting it up before you play your first game.

My first impressions are mostly positive, with a few reservations. First of all, the GamePad is going to be an amazing device. I can see myself playing Wii games on it (freeing up the TV for my wife), and I’m hoping that game developers really make great innovative use out of the second screen. I think it’s actually a bonus that the camera is built into the GamePad versus sitting all the way on the TV like the Xbox and PS3; again, good game developers will figure out very clever things to do with this. The GamePad is a pleasure to use; it’s comfortable to hold and has a beautiful bright picture. I’m hoping that when TVii comes out, it’ll also allow for watching movies from the GamePad.

As you can probably tell from the above, the setup was a bit more grueling than I’d hoped. There are some things that should have been a lot simpler than they were. I’m not exactly sure why they decided to have a separate Wii U menu than Wii menu; presumably they’re setting up the Wii U to be more than just a gaming machine (i.e., the Wii menu) and hoping that we’ll use it as our entertainment hub (i.e., the Wii U menu), but the way they’re going about it just makes it confusing. Also, I suspect a lot of people are not going to figure out how to port their old Miis from their Wiis using System Transfer and will waste a lot of time trying to recreate their beloved Miis.

Of course, the real test will be once I finally start playing games, which I hope will be soon.

Well, Wii U’s have launched as of midnight today. I just got my e-mail notice from Walmart that my pre-order will be coming in a few days, at which point I’ll give you my take from it (of course the Internet is all abuzz with other people reviewing the system, but of course I’ll be doing it from a workout and exercise perspective).

Here again are links to various online retailers selling it. Most are sold out online, but some stores that have in-store stock such as Target and Walmart are showing the systems in-stock or available for pickup sometime this week.

Best Buy: Wii U Basic – White - Wii U Deluxe – Black

GameStop: Wii U Basic – White - Wii U Deluxe – Black

K-Mart: Wii U Deluxe – Black

Walmart: Wii U Basic – White - Wii U Deluxe – Black

Sears: Wii U Deluxe – Black

As I wrote earlier, my prediction is that you won’t see the same craziness we say five years ago with the Wii, that we’ll see more supply before Christmas than we did then, and that a lot of these people snapping up systems thinking they’re going to strike it rich are going to be left trying to get rid of them. So if you find one, grab it, but I wouldn’t necessarily advise buying several thinking you’ll make a fortune. I still have a closet full of Zhu Zhu pets that were supposed to make me rich

So like I’m sure a lot of you did, I got an email from Nintendo today announcing that they’ll have a midnight unveiling of the Wii U on Saturday, November 17.

So, I decided to take a walk past the Nintendo Store in New York City. The outside of the store is eerily quiet, sort of like the calm before the storm (and New Yorkers know a thing or two about storms these days).

In front of the store there were a ton of policemen. At first, I wondered if this was because people were actually lining up for the Wii U unveiling already. But I soon realized they were there because One Direction had just left the Today Show stage at Rockefeller Center about two hour earlier.

Still, I did see three guys set up in front of the store, one of whom I assume is Isaiah Triforce-Johnson, who’s become a bit of a minor celebrity in himself by being the first to buy a Wii, a 3DS, and now is going for being the first to get a Wii U. Triforce made a little news lately when all kinds of games press deliberated on whether he’d attempt to ride out Hurricane Sandy (spoiler alert: he didn’t). But good for him, he seems to be back now.

I walked inside the store, which was also eerily empty, but I noticed that they were already setting up for Saturday. There are actual Wii U units (along with GamePad controllers) set up.

The systems were mostly not playable, mainly displaying video demos of launch title games. The exception was a demo version of Rayman Legends (which ironically is no longer a launch title). I was immediately struck by how clear the HDMI video quality was. This is not your old Wii.

The coolest thing was getting a feel for the GamePad controller. It’s going to take a little getting used to in terms of something to use for everyday play, as it’s not small; it’s about the size of a small tissue box. You hold it in two hands, and control the left joystick and arrow keys with one hand and the right joystick and the buttons with the other hand. The picture quality on the GamePad was phenomenal, and the latency seemed almost non-existent. I get the sense that it’ll take a little time before game developers figure out how to develop for it (it was doing stuff during gameplay of Rayman, but in all honesty I didn’t pay much attention to it).

It looks like motion games will be alive and well on the Wii U. As I’ve written in past posts, the launch titles will include Your Shape 2013 and Just Dance 4. Wii Fit U’s launch date is a little later (sometime before March 2013), presumably a decision by the marketing department to keep interest in the Wii U high after the initial flurry of activity.

And now the burning question: how do YOU get your hands on a Wii U? Unless you’re feeling like coming to the City and standing on line, at this point my best advice is to just keep checking online to see when the one you want comes back in stock. Here are direct links to the product pages for each version of the Wii U:

Best Buy: Wii U Basic – White – Wii U Deluxe – Black

GameStop: Wii U Basic – White - Wii U Deluxe – Black

K-Mart: Wii U Deluxe – Black

Walmart: Wii U Basic – White – Wii U Deluxe – Black

Sears: Wii U Deluxe – Black

Right now, you can supposedly find the Wii U “in stock” on eBay and on Amazon. There are a couple reasons you do NOT want to buy from either, at least right now. The first reason is that these are third-party sellers and not authorized retailers, so chances are they’re waiting on line to get their Wii U’s right along with everyone else.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Lots of things to report, including the results of my lose-weight-before-my-wedding plan, as well as several new Wii game reviews. Hopefully I’ll have some time in the next few weeks to catch up on my blogging!

In the meantime, I just wanted to give an update on the Wii U. It appears that Wii U launch titles are finally available for pre-order at Amazon and Best Buy, including a number of promising fitness games, including:

ESPN Sports Connection:

• ESPN Sports Connection at Amazon
• ESPN Sports Connection at Best Buy
• ESPN Sports Connection at Gamestop

Just Dance 4:

• Just Dance 4 at Amazon
• Just Dance 4 at Best Buy

Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013:

• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 at Amazon

Wii Fit U

• Wii Fit U at Gamestop

As of right now, pre-order links for the console at Best Buy and Gamestop are still showing the units completely sold out, but keep checking. While Amazon appears to have sellers who are selling, my best advice is NOT to buy it from them, as they’re price gouging. If they’re asking for more than $299.99 for the basic (white) set or more than $349.99 for the deluxe (black) set, they’re asking too much. If you’re willing to wait a few weeks, chances are there’ll be plenty in stock by then and you won’t have to pay the exorbitant markups.

The conspiracy theorist in me originally thought that Nintendo might be artificially holding back on inventory in order to create huge demand for the product, but I’ve since heard that they really do have production limitations with their new touch-screen controllers which is keeping initial supplies low. This makes sense–they probably don’t want to invest the resources to completely fill demand on day one, and then be stuck with excess capacity afterwards.

Early feedback on the system is that it’s “surprisingly powerful”, which bodes well for Nintendo as far as making a dent in market share as Sony and Microsoft both sit on the sidelines milking as much as they can out of the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Related articles

• Ubisoft: Wii U is “Surprisingly Powerful” (escapistmagazine.com)

So, the information is out now! The Wii U will officially be in stores on November 18, 2012!

It will come in two flavors. The “Wii U Deluxe” is black and will retail for $349.99. It’ll come with 32GB of internal storage, a Wii U GamePad (with the touchscreen), a stylus for the GamePad, a sensor bar, AC adapters for the console and the GamePad, an HDMI Cable, the Nintendo Land video game, a cradle for the GamePad, and stands for the console and GamePad.

The “Wii U” is white, costs $299.99, and comes with a GamePad, a stylus, a sensor bar, an HDMI cable, and two AC adapters.

Your current Wii remote, Wii Remote Plus (or Wii Remote with MotionPlus attachment), Nunchuk, and Balance Board accessories will still work with the Wii U. Older GameCube accessories like the DDR dance pads, Active Life game pads, and CyberBike will not work, although I’m sure an enterprising company is working on conversion adapters as we speak.

One very interesting new bit of news is that the Wii U will double as a set-top box, turning the GamePad into a universal remote that can also display “second screen” information (think live stats updating when you’re wathing a football game) about different shows you’re watching.. This was an unexpected and welcome surprise. If you’ve been thinking about buying a Google TV, you may not have to now. You can control your regular TV, TiVo, and streaming services like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix all from one controller.

So for $300, you get a video game console, a handheld video game system, a Web surfing device, and a streaming TV set-top box all in one. And as predicted, among the 50+ launch titles will be Wii U Fit and Your Shape 2013, so fitness gaming on the Wii is alive and well. And of course we’ll be reviewing them here

I’ll post pre-order links right here as soon as I get them. I’m going to predict that while the demand may not be as great as the original Wii, that it’s going to be much, much greater than the so-called experts think. So get your order in now

Pre-Order Your Wii U Today!

For your best chances of getting the Wii U on release date, I’d suggest ordering it from GameStop or Best Buy. I love Amazon, but my last few experiences with pre-ordering from them have been disasters. Still, if you don’t mind getting it a few days later, they’ll have the best prices and service.

Here are links to pre-order on GameStop:

Wii U Deluxe at GameStop

Wii U Basic at GameStop

Wii U Deluxe at Best Buy

Wii U Basic at Best Buy

Links to Amazon when they’re ready…

We interrupt our fledgling diet coverage to bring you back to video game news.

As the weather breaks 97 degrees here in New York, our thoughts turn of course to, the fall and winter. Specifically, game sites like Amazon, Best Buy, and Gamestop have all started to accept pre-orders for Wii U games coming out in the fall to coincide with the launch of the new Wii U (which somewhat ironically itself isn’t available for pre-order yet, probably because they haven’t decided on a price yet).

Here are the games that are looking promising as Wii U fitness games, along with pre-order links on Amazon, Gamestop, and Best Buy, depending on your preference. I’ve put them in approximate order of my anticipation of them based on what I’ve been able to preview so far.

Wii Fit U from Nintendo promises to be a true “next generation” version of Wii Fit that still very much uses the Balance Board, but also makes use of the Wii U’s new “second controller”. I would expect much of the same kind of “eastern-style” workout that characterized Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, with a lot of emphasis on balance, posture, stretching, and so on. The inclusion of a pedometer peripheral also bodes well that Wii Fit U will be able to track your daily workout, regardless of whether or not you do it within the game. For now it’s only available for preorder at Gamestop, but expect it to come to Amazon soon.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 by Ubisoft finally brings the Your Shape franchise up-to-date on the Wii family (the last we saw was the unfortunate Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy). I don’t think the precision of motion detection will quite match the standards set on the Xbox Kinect, but on the other hand expect more cool things to be done with the new controller and expect the developers to make the most of the Wii U’s improved graphics and processor. With EA abdicating its Sports Active franchise and other companies like Adidas and Nike focusing on Playstation and Xbox, it looks like this’ll be the only “traditional cardio workout” game in town.  Preorder at Amazon or Gamestop.

Just Dance 4 by Ubisoft is a no-brainer of course. After the franchise has made buckets and buckets of money for Ubisoft, it’s only natural that they’ll be releasing this new version for the Wii U, the Xbox Kinect, the PS3 Move, and yes, the good old Wii all at the same time. Again, expect something different with the Wii U version, where players holding the touchscreen controller will be able to be “puppet masters” for the players dancing. Knowing human nature, you’ll probably get the best workout of your life as your friends make you do outlandish things. Preorder at Amazon or Gamestop.

Sports Connection by Ubisoft rounds out this early list. Curiously, Nintendo doesn’t seem to be interested in producing a follow-up to Wii Sports, the game that established the Wii. Instead, they’ll be focusing on a game called “Nintendo Land” as their bundled game where Luigi, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and a ninja game based on a 1986 Famicom title will all come together to showcase the new Gamepad controller. That leaves Ubisoft to lay the foundation of sports games with this title. Again, expect standard Wii Sports-live action with the twist of your opponent playing against you on the Gamepad. Preorder at Amazon or Gamestop.

If you click on any of the links and they’re dead or some outlandish price shows up, don’t worry, if you place your pre-order the retailers will give it to you for the lower price if it drops between now and the launch date. Speaking of the launch date, a lot of them say 12/31/12, again probably because the publishers are still trying to figure out the best dates (which will most likely be in the September or October timeframes).

From what I’ve seen so far, Nintendo is going to try to market the Wii U more towards traditional gamers rather than to the casual, family audience that embraced the Wii, and perhaps even to place heavier empahsis on the GamePad than on the old Wii remote. I’m not sure how wise a decision this is–it’s best not to bit the hand that has fed you so well these past few years, and Microsoft is itching to fill the void. On the other hand, between these offerings by Nintendo and Ubisoft, it’s clear that  there’s still enough room for casual fitness and fun games.

Leave a comment if you hear of any other Wii U fitness games for launch.