Well it’s about time. Ever since the current generation of consoles has been sat in our living rooms, annual gaming expo E3 has been bereft of any serious hardware announcements. Or at least one that hasn’t been either a handheld or peripheral.

E3 2010 was dominated by Microsoft and Sony as they locked into a bizarre battle over who could best imitate the hugely successful Nintendo Wii, which this year has left Nintendo with only one choice: innovate yet again and jump ahead of the pack.

The result is Nintendo’s Wii U.

Something for everyone

Nintendo says that this new machine is a revolutionary console and controller duo designed to be “something for everyone,” which in our opinion simply means packing the motion-control aspects of the Wii while also bringing what’s expected (a full compliment of controls and joysticks, for example) for core game styles like shooters and sports titles.

With that mission statement in mind, you’d expect things to be graphically up to muster. They are. HD is a welcome (if late) addition, for one.

The first tech demo we saw was of a bird flying around a large colonial Japanese garden, and it was stunning. The controller tilted the camera in real time, proving that what was on screen was in fact in-game footage, and as rain fell on the garden it soaked the bird’s plumage and reflected in its beady eye.

While it was all undoubtedly very pretty, it was hard to tell exactly how powerful the machine is because even the most demanding tech demo still had that Nintendo ‘cartooniness’ about it.

We’d have loved to have seen something like CoD running, just to see how real the ‘New Console’ could make things. That said, initial impressions were that it’s a hugely powerful console with bundles of potential.

Next-Gen Multiplayer

Further Wii U demos were all about showing how having one new controller and multiple Wiimotes added a new angle to local multiplayer.

If you’ve got a screen that no one else can see, for example, that gives you an edge, while your opponents can have a different viewpoint that you won’t see, which in turn gives them a different edge. It became obvious that Nintendo was pushing this set up: one new controller and multiple Wiimotes.

The games we played were fun, but the whole thing seemed like a bit of an effort to hide the fact that additional ‘new’ controllers will clearly be pretty expensive and that offline, 4-player Metroid where each player has their own will be an unlikely home setup for most as a result.

It’s also fairly obvious that, considering the processing power and the impressiveness of the inbuilt screen, the controller will be a power-hungry beast that’ll do doubt need some fairly frequent charging.

The good, the bad and the weird

Brushing those points aside, we have to say that we were impressed. While it’s odd that the display on the new controller doesn’t boast the same 3D tech as found on the Nintendo 3DS - a point they refused to comment on - it’s still vivid and bright, despite not offering the ‘HD Experience’ that Ninty is so proud of bringing to your TV.

It’s also great to see a pair of thumbsticks and trigger buttons, too, as it opens the door to less gimmicky titles that hardcore gamers bemoaned the lack of on the Wii.

The motion control aspects were seamless, responsive and new, but we’re unsure what part, if any, the front cagin camera played.

This is probably something for developers to explore, but at this stage we don’t know whether it’ll be used for things like video calling, or more intricate applications like eye-tracking.

The fact that it’s a touchscreen was almost a moot point, given that it was only ever used in a ‘Touch to begin’ capacity.

The controller can be used in lieu of a TV all together, so that one person can play while another watches Eastenders. With this, we really can see a shift in the way a home console operates, especially if the wireless range is big enough to allow play in other areas of the house.

Unanswered questions

There were lots of questions that Nintendo simply couldn’t answer at this stage. The gaming giant referred to this year’s E3 as a ‘coming out party’ rather than a launch, stating that the machine won’t hit the shelves until some point in after April 2012.

That’s a long way off and it shows; The dev-kit console was built around the shell of a Wii and details were sparse. Rather than splurging facts and figures, Nintendo wanted to show T3 what it was like to actually play it - to experience it. Now we’re hungry for more

T3’s Adam Bunker gives his verdict:
“Crumbs. This is an ambitious attempt to do three dissimilar things at once: innovate within the market again, win back the alienated hardcore gamers and retain the Wii’s family-friendly heritage. And it works, thanks to mind-boggling tech inside both the console and the controller. Spinning the latter to view what’s happening around you, independently of what’s happening onscreen, is magnificent and the fact that you have your own display adds a new dimension to offline multi-player.

It’s certainly a machine with the wow factor then, but my biggest concern is the fact that Ninty might alienate developers with too many options. Do they use the screen for key gameplay or just mini games? Do they use motion control or just treat it like a joypad? We know innovation is Nintendo’s bag, but with popular franchises game makers find it easier when you give them a set of rules and say ‘just put FIFA 13 on that’. Indeed, Nintendo couldn’t (or wouldn’t) talk about which developers were signed on, so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. One thing’s certain: the potential is enormous.”