novice gamer - what to get with wii u?

[bluepapermonkey]

Neither I nor DH are gamers but the dcs (5 & 7)are after something so i thought i'd get a wii as the most family friendly and fun option.

now i've settled on the new wii u (i think although it's hard to tell if i need it if for the dance,singing etc stuff we'll do?!)

but i think i need more than one controller (do i?) but there seem to be a 'remote' and 'controller' and neither looks like the controller with a screen which comes in the wii u package.

what's the difference between a remote and a controller? which do i need?

do i need a wobble board? i assume i need a microphone...?

can anyone shed light?

You can do dancing and singing on the old wii, if you want to - of course the new one looks good too

Or might be worth looking at xbox with kinect? This is the best of all the motion-controlled games consoles, IMO.

i'm looking at wii as that's what mumsnet deems the most family friendly system (as i say, i'm clueless!).

it does seem to do games for young children. not sure my brain can take researching the xbox (which does sound, well, sexier than 'wii')!

Xbox has games for young children as well, although it does have more adult games. But there are 18-rated games for the wii too, you don't have to buy them :) The main difference is that the camera (kinect) is a total motion sensor which means all you have to do is stand in front of it and move. With the wii you have to move the controller itself, press buttons etc (for example with bowling you have to press a trigger which you release as you swing forward to release the ball) and my 4yo struggles with this. It also makes it slightly more restrictive, for example with the zumba games you have to wear a waistband or tuck the controller into your trousers which isn't the smoothest way of dealing with things!

It's up to you of course :) I'm just a bit wary of this new wii system, the wii consoles were £300 when they came out just six years ago and they're now selling for around £40 second hand. Conversely the Xbox 360 and PS3 (which have been out for 7 and 6 years respectively) are still retailing (second hand) at around half their original release prices (£200/£400) and have held their value. The new wii seems very gimmicky and I think you'll find if you watch and wait that the features it brings out will be replicated in other consoles in better ways and the price of the wii-u will drop dramatically.

I'd go for the wii for now personally and maybe pick up the wii-u in a couple of years when the hype has died down around it. The accessories are all backwards compatible, so you could keep all of your wii accessories for the wii-u then. However, because the xbox has such a wide range of games available, that would be a good long term choice too as it will grow with your family as your children get older and want to play different games.

ah, now that is interesting THANK YOU bertieBotts. the motion sensor does sound better.

it's also occured to me that i don't know where we're going to find hte time to do all this 'family activity' as we rarely find time for board games... except the kids will be hassling more to play video games...