I don't have buyer's remorse but I regret it being worse than I expected.
Like, I knew from the start that it was not going to be a powerful machine, ok, I knew from the start the OS would be a little slow, alright, I later found out still before launch that WiiTV would be late, fine, what I didn't know was that it'd all be this bad. I was always going to get the system, I will have the next Metroid, the next Zelda, the next Fire Emblem, the next Monolithsoft game, Bayonetta 2, me buying a Wii U was a given. So I had already kept my expectations reserved, they were already pretty low, I didn't expect the Wii U to fail to even live up to my low expectations.
It seems to be an even weaker machine than I first thought, Jesus.
The OS is WAY slower than I thought Nintendo would dare put out, slower than I imagined anyone would put out in 2012.
I didn't think their download speeds would be this slow.
I knew that some HDDs would require a y cable but not that their USB ports on the back of the system would be so underpowered as to make a USB HDD that was only a one cable drive on a PC a y cable drive on the Wii U.
The battery life of the gamepad is less than I imagined too. I knew it had relatively shit batterylife compared to a 360 controller or PS3 controller and was 3 to 5 hours while playing a game but since I figured most games I played wouldn't really require the screen that I could extend that. I wish there was an easier and more universal way to get the damn thing to not display anything to eek some more juice out of it, some games at least have the option but yeesh, it's died on me every time I tried gaming with it. Fuck that. The Pro Controller's a decent enough controller with a good batterylife but Nintendo in their arrogant attempt to force me to use the gamepad despite my wishes, and despite selling the actual alternative, force me to use it anyways to use the eshop, system settings, Miiverse and idiotic 3rd party developers like Hulu and Amazon seem keen to follow that trend by forcing me to use it on their apps despite have fully functional versions of their software that run on the PS3 and 360.
Soon before launch I learned that the VC titles transferable to the Wii would have to be played in the Wii mode. Already this is a gripe but it's made even more annoying because of the reason listed above.
If I plan to play a game, watch a movie and maybe play something on the eshop I'm looking at having to bust out not just my Pro Controller but the gamepad, wii remote and whatever attachment needed. I have to prepare way too much. If I don't then I find myself playing, feel like watching something only to remember I now have to get up and grab the gamepad from the charger, because I'm now stuck in Hulu Plus or Amazon Video and my Pro Controller can't even connect to the Wii U to get me out of the program, to get out and do something else or to watch the movie. It's absurd. Not having the VC easily accessible via one of the real Wii U controllers has rendered it dead to me. I'm not hauling a box full of controllers over to my side for the night to play, fuck that, nor could the gamepad stay alive long enough while I play either. So despite all this fancy shit it can do I end up using it like my PS3 and just keep the Pro Controller by my bed and play inferior ports biding time for Zelda. Not bringing the gamepad to my bed because then it'd be dead the next day. No streaming video.
Of course people will say "well then you just haven't bought into the revolutionary idea of dual screen gaming" or some shit, you're right, I haven't. But only because Nintendo didn't pull it off very well. The battery life is too shitty for the extent I use my game console. If you want me to use the gamepad like I use my Kindle Fire, or like I used my iPad when I had one, then you need the thing to be fast, which it isn't. If you want me to use the gamepad like I use my PS3 controller then you need the thing to have decent battery life because when I sit down to play I sit down to play. It has shit battery life. So it's neither a good controller or tablet. But further, I'm not opposed to dual screen gaming, I had a DS and a 3DS, the DS was a great system though the 3DS was a step back IMO. Nintendo's just been executing like crap lately.
And while I have a list of gripes about the software and the OS in the Wii U that'd take two full posts to document I'm sure someone would just come in and say Nintendo can fix it, it's just software. That's true to an extent except looking at the history of the Wii and now 3DS I'm not actually that hopeful. People crapped on the 3DS's battery and Nintendo figured it was fine and did the gamepad. Many of the software design issues I have from the 3DS have carried over to the Wii U meaning that Nintendo has people there that not only don't think some of their decisions are not bad but actually like them and used them again! So, no, I don't believe any of my gripes with the Wii U will be fixed, I think what I have now will be what I have until the next Nintendo console except it'll at some point get Tvii.
Still though, not fair to call it buyer's remorse because I'd get it anyway once Zelda and Metroid hit.
Bitching about something != not a fan, lapping a companies ballsack != being a fan.
