Speaking very slowly...PLEASE PLEASE can someone explain the Wii U to me?

[AngelOnTop]

The DC want a Wii U with Mario Maker (or whatever its called...the one where you can create your own levels within the game!) for Christmas.

Originally we said 'No, too expensive' etc, but have just got a tax rebate and am now considering buying it.

But.. I am totally baffled by it the buying options. Have spent the last half an hour looking at it online, and still none the wiser.

Basically... what do I need to have/buy so that two children can play this Mario maker game on the Wii U on Xmas day?

I'm not thick, honest. I just cannot work out how many screens/controllers/games etc I am supposed to be buying!

Any guidance massively appreciated

I take it you don't already have a Wii U and so need the console too?

We bought one last Christmas and it comes with the game pad which acts as a controller aswell as an individual screen so you can play on it at the same time as someone watching the tv for one player games,
We then bought 2 additional controllers as the ones we had with the old Wii weren't the motion plus ones and you need that technology for the Wii u. If you have motion plus controllers you won't need to buy any more.
The Mario maker game is one player so can all be done with the game pad, no need for extra controllers at all until you come to play other games.
Old style Wii games will work on the Wii U but not via the screen on the game pad.

Does that make any sense? I asked a similar question last year as I wondered if you needed to buy an additional game pad thing but you don't. It's quite simple once you've got one (if you are a child, or just not me, it's all a bit beyond me!).

Oh, and just to reiterate, 2 people won't be able to play it at the same time as its only for one player. My dds play together in that one person makes the level and gets the other to test it out, so it can work, just takes an element of sharing and teamwork!

You want to be looking at a Premium WiiU, the black one with 32gb of memory.
This will come with a sensor bar, which plugs in and sits in front of/below the tv, and allows you to use standard Wii controllers.
The console will come with a game pad screen, which is what player 1 will use. For multiplayer games (mario maker is not one of them), additional players will use standard Wii controllers.
You can get 'WiiU' additional controllers but these are just repackaged old controllers and cost about £40 each. You want to look for preowned/secondhand Wii controllers, preferably with Wii motion plus. You can get these on eBay or in Game or CEX.
If the kids want to play a multiplayer game together, I'd recommend Mario Kart 8 or Mario Party 10.

You cannot buy the game pad separately, by the way. It comes only with the console and only one game pad can be used on a console (though additional Wii controllers are fine). So just buy the console and 1-2 extra Wii controllers.

Super Mario Maker isn't a multiplayer, so only one of them will be able to play at a time. The wii U comes with the gamepad, which is all you need to design / play levels. So the absolute minimum you need is the wii u and the game itself.

However, there's other great multiplayer options for the wii u so if the budget stretches it's definitely worth getting a second controller. The second controller would be a wii remote plus. Technically there's also a nunchuk, but I've not actually come across a game that uses it (although I've only a few) so you might be able to hold off on that one.

This www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nintendo-wii-u-premium-pack-mario-kart-8-splatoon-dlc-207-delivered-with-code-from-2350336 seems to be the best deal at the moment (and if you look in the comments there's a better one linked to, but the reviews for the website are mixed). Mario Kart is, I think, a must buy, and Splatoon gets really good reviews (although is another single player).

Mario Kart goes up to four players, so if you do end up getting it you might want more remotes!

Also, if you do go for it, plug it in the night before and get it working / do all the updates etc..... When we got ours it was stuck for 40-45 minutes doing whatever it was doing and was a big anti-climax!

Thank you SO much, all of you!

We have had ours for a while and it didn't like our wi-fi so it's plugged into the router. IIRC we got a separate adaptor for this.

Get disney infinity instead. You can build levels and it's two player

Definitely agree with the poster that says set it up the night before. Ours took well over an hour to set up/update etc. The game pad took a couple of hours to charge fully too.
We also set up Netflix on ours too which was reasonably quick but still time.
You can always leave the cables etc out and wrap the console back up again so will just need plugging back in.
We mostly use old wii games so have our 4 old wii controllers (£8 each second hand Amazon) They play things like toy story, mario party etc together. The wii u has a wii function where you can play the older games and don't use the game pad. We only have a couple of wii u games and they are single player so the included game pad is enough.
We bought our wii u at smyths a couple of weeks ago for £179 including a game and sky landers. Was meant to be for Christmas but I weakened!

Just be aware that the wii u connects to the Tv via a HDMI port so if you don't have one of those free on your Tv you will need to buy a separate connecter