The Skylanders Are Here

I promised the boys that I would take them to buy some new video games for them this weekend. And oh boy, were they good at reminding me of the promise. Irfan was ready from this and both of them actually had a list of preference which they wanted to ask.

But all of that stopped when they had a look at Skylanders. They played Spyro the Dragon before, made by the same company, but this game was radically different.

It came with a USB platform called the portal and three action figures. When you play the game, you changed the characters by replacing the characters on the platform. You could go and buy new characters as you expand the game in the future and all these characters have unique abilities. As you play the game, you could also develop these characters by gathering skills.

A novel concept I thought. And in could see them glued in front of the console for the next few weeks. Still early days, but they seemed to get the hang of it.

Wii U

Over the years, the only game console we had in our household was the Nintendo Wii. We had PSP and iPads of course, but we were talking consoles here. We never bothered with PlayStation, but we loved our Wii. When I was in the US, the Wii U was released, but I want sure if the games and consoles were compatible in Malaysia. So, I gave it a pass.

But when I found a unit being sold during our trip to Plaza Damas, I just couldn't say no. We went straight to buy it.

It wasn't a local unit, so, it needed a step down voltage unit. I was pretty sure it was a North America set from the voltage setting, but it worked fine. The Wii U was definitely an upgrade from the Wii. The graphic was better, the games were more sophisticated. It can still play the original Wii games and some of the peripherals were still compatible.

The console also came with a small handheld display unit called the Gamepad. It connects seamlessly with the console via Bluetooth, and it required a separate charger. So, I had to get a couple of step down transformers to play the game.

I bought the black 32GB unit, which came with a game called Nintendoland, which showcases what the Wii U can offer in terms of gameplay. I also bought a couple of extra games for the boys.

After playing for a couple of times, the unit appeared more responsive, but I just wished that we had a bigger TV. The one we used for games was an old CRT TV. It was good enough, but not HD! The sound was also pretty basic from our setup. I was sure we were yet to explore then full potential of the Wii U. At this time, the games were still limited.

But from what I explored so far, it certainly retained the same charm as the original Wii. If you loved the Wii as a casual gamer like us, I was sure you would love the Wii U. Adventure time!!!!!