V. Amoleo

Almost always I've had pre-orders with Super Saver Delivery be sent second class. You're probably looking at Monday unfortunately.

I'm sorry I moaned about you the other day, Play.com. My copy arrived today. They sent it by first class post. Have they changed the way they dispatch pre-orders? I didn't pay for the postage.

and it's been cancelled. It was obviously far too cheap for a new console release. I'm still thinking £250-£300 is more likely.

Yeah, that is a bit rubbish of Play. Surely if it's not out of the door yet they should give you the option of cancelling. It saves them the hassle of having to wait for it to be returned through the post. The Hut Group are terrible. They give you a cancel button but often will reject the cancellation. I should mention that while I generally dislike their service and customer support, I do still use them if they have a good deal. They've never offered me any credit for their crap though (though they once did offer a bribe for me to leave them positive feedback on their eBay outlet). I'm not sure what the daily stuff is. I think it's probably just challenges based on how the game is randomly generated. Probably wouldn't take much for them to do. Maybe they'll repeat the first few at the end like how Dead or Alive: Dimensions did. I'll throw my hat into the ready-for-coop ring too. I'm not much of an online gamer but I do enjoy playing co-op!

I've had bad prior experience with ShopTo so I'm never going with them again. I don't have many problems with Play.com but I have been hit with their "receiving stock within two weeks" meaning "never receiving stock", they're a lot like The Hut Group with that. I usually receive pre-orders on release or the day after with them though, which I think is fine for free delivery. Amazon used to be excellent but now only ever dispatch my pre-orders out on the day of release or the day before with second class postage. @Rummy Play.com do have a cancel button, don't they? Update: Mine is processing in warehouse too. Definitely looking like Monday-Tuesday next week. I hope we're not missing out on too much with the daily levels.

Anybody who ordered from Play.com had theirs dispatched yet? I haven't so there's no way I'll get it by tomorrow. Means I'll miss out on the first few downloadable levels.

It's the IR camera which is missing from the Wii U GamePad. I'm guessing that it's one of the more expensive parts in the Wii Remote too which is why they've dropped it. There's a bit more info about it here. Really wish they'd kept it though.

It's an IR transmitter (remote control) and receiver (what we saw with the pedometer during the Wii Fit U trailer). The Wii Remote works completely different with the black strip above/below the TV emitting the infra-red and the Wii Remote calculating it's position based on the location of those using an IR camera.

This will probably be cancelled. Even more so if one of the deal sites post it. Still, t'is worth a shot!

Just a follow up to this. The Wii U GamePad definitely doesn't have an IR sensor on it: http://kotaku.com/5918070/nintendo-has-a-plan-to-deal-with-its-wii-u-calibration-problem

Instant buy for me if it's the same price as the Mario one.

Just to add to what others have been saying about Retro Studios. As much as I love Metroid I hope they're working on something original. That would a) expand Nintendo's IPs and b) show us what Retro can actually do.

I wonder if the survivors all starting in the same place is just because it's a demo or if that's how it'll be in the end game. I was sort of hoping it'd change up where you started from too, just to add to the disorientation.

I felt that on the character select screen the 3D is far too strong, did anybody else? It was only that screen though and after actually entering the game it was fine.

They made an unauthorised charge to my credit card and didn't want to know when I contacted them about it. It wasn't very much (and not the initial check your cc details are valid) but it was enough for me to not use them again. This happened over a year ago now and I had nothing but good service before hand.

I agree but I don't believe it's stated that the Game Pad actually has this functionality. It has an IR transmitter/receiver but that's different to what the Wii Remote has.

I estimate that the price of the Wii U will be between £250 and £300 so a price of £280 seems possible to me. Even so, I wouldn't order from ShopTo again even if I were paid to. I would prefer the black Wii U to match the rest of the equipment in my AV shelving. The white Wii bugs me at the moment but if I could swap that out for my old black GameCube and a black Wii U it'd be excellent. As for games, I think I'm looking for Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros U, ZombiU and Lego City Undercover. It depends on release date and total cost as to which I'll get though.

Does the Wii U Game Pad actually have an IR pointer? I thought it was using just it's motion sensors like the Wii Remote Plus in Skyward Sword.

I really enjoyed the demo of this. It's a bit short but confirms that I do want the game.

I think it was under an hour but I wasn't on the look out for it so I can't be sure. If it didn't happen for you the Wii Remote Plus is most likely not to blame. I'll have to see if I can get it to happen again. UPDATE: Today the Wii Remote Plus + - HOME buttons only remained active in the first area I was in. I asked here because there are other cases of this happening when you Google search but none of them seem to have found the cause of it. I was hoping that between us all we might be able to solve it! I've just been using another Wii Remote to get around it. I don't mind! I'd still like to find out the answer but your question really interested me. I've been trying all week to think of a good reply but after playing all three I feel there's so little between them all. Gameplay-wise I'm going to say Skyward Sword. It's looking like that's an unpopular view but I was impressed with how it worked. It wasn't exactly traditional Zelda but we need the series to evolve rather than just putting a fresh coat of paint on it. I felt that the controls in Skyward Sword were the natural progression from the waggle controls in Twilight Princess and they were really good when they worked. But I do believe they should have put more forced Wii Remote Plus configuration points in places where precise controls were required (such as before boss fights). I also liked how Skyward Sword had the ability to upgrade weapons based on items that you collect. The musical instrument in Skyward Sword was nearly pointless though, they were better in the other two. Stylistically I think I prefer Skyward Sword and Wind Waker. The environments and the character design in Skyward Sword are incredible. While Wind Waker's cel-shaded look is an entirely different take on Zelda. They're both those type of games where it doesn't really matter that it's in SD. That's not to say that Twilight Princess doesn't look nice, it's just that it's the one that I feel would actually be improved if it were a HD game. Story-wise I like all three of them equally. Fi is significantly more annoying than Midna and the King of Red Lions though.

Definitely not just you. I love the Metroid Prime series and I've enjoyed the little I've played of Donkey Kong Country Returns but surely their talent should be spent on new games!

Thanks @Hero\-of\-Time for posting the link. I'm looking forward to this game even more now.

I wouldn't register your games today. I've had problems in the past with 'bonus stars' not registering when I've activated it before the release date. Enjoy playing it!

Nintendo seem to be giving an extra 250 stars for this if you register the game before Monday. It's on the banner displayed on http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/

I finally got around to completing this the other day. I really enjoyed it overall but here are some issues I did have: The controls were a bit of a chore. The Wii Remote Plus kept losing track of where it was so any of the game mechanics which required specific strikes became far more difficult than they were conceived to be. Fi was annoying like many have pointed out and would have been much better if you had to actually activate her to get her massive clues rather than them being given freely. The final boss was pretty cool and the whole story of it was really good but because it was so awkward to get Skyward Strikes on demand I just brewed up a Guardian+ Potion which made it a pushover. Even so, I'd say it was one of my favourite games of last year and one of my favourites on the Wii.