Nintendo Finally Explains the Social Features of the Wii U

 

When Nintendo first revealed the Wii U, there was a lot of talk of the social features.

 

Month after month, Nintendo gave us vague details of  what the social features could be, even on the big announcement that showed the price and all the other details of the Wii U. With the Wii U being released in North America in the next few weeks, Nintendo has finally decided to give us the scoop on the social features of the Wii U.

 

And it’s about time.

 

The Wii U start screen has been dubbed the WaraWara Plaza, and it shows game icons and various Mii characters from around the world. The Mii characters are actually players worldwide who are currently playing a game, represented by the icon, who are leaving comments about the game. For example, people playing Super Mario would show up under the icon for that game, and the comments are either questions about the game, or criticism, or anything as long as it is related to said game.

 

Besides that, the other featured they showed off was Wii U Chat, a service which lets the player go on webcam with another player using the Gamepad. Think of it as Skype, but it’s all about video games. This feature was previously used for Nintendo’s handheld consoles, the DSi and the 3DS. The only notification a player would receive while in-game is that the Home button on the Gamepad would start flashing, which may seem distracting or easy to forget about, but they might show a bigger notification on the TV in the future. Other than basic chat, the user can also draw on the screen with the included stylus of the  Wii U Gamepad.

 

Previously, Nintendo had shown a promotional video somewhat showcasing some features that were not talked about here. For example, when the user selects a game icon, a forum-like screen would show up where players can give each other advice and hints on a game. This could be either using Wii U Chat or through text, which seems like a great feature to have to communicate with other players, though it is unknown if this could be used for users to play online together.

 

Nintendo will release the Wii U on November 18 in North America.

Nintendo Finally Explains the Social Features of the Wii U