Mixed reviews for Wii U

Two reputable industry voices have expressed their opinions on the Wii U, with one declaring the new console a '$400 Xbox 360 seven years late'.

That’s from Darksiders II senior UI designer Xander Davis, who also recently lashed out against the game’s studio, Vigil Games for apparently treating him poorly while he worked on the game.

Davis describes the Wii U as “idiotic” and claims its draw-card user-interface is a gimmick that won’t draw customers.

“I doubt any studio or publisher is truly giving it the kind of proper UI design and thinking it deserves…from what I’m hearing from people who have actually played a Wii U as recently a month ago, the games pretty much suck and the tablet is pretty much a complete gimmick.”

He believes if developers spend more time developing and taking advantage of the console’s capabilities it will be more successful.

“I’m already a known sceptic on whether the interface paradigm is at all anything but idiotic. But if you’re gonna do it? Fine, then you HAVE to do it right. You HAVE to innovate on the UI. You HAVE to enhance game mechanics and gameplay in a MATERIAL way that justifies all the hassle and a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late.”

However, opinions from British developer Sumo Digital are entirely different as they report the console’s graphics to be “on-par” with current generation consoles – “or maybe even better”.

Admittedly that comes from a fairly biased place, as Sumo are currently in the process of developing Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed for the Wii U.

Although the Wii U is not scheduled for release until later this year, the current hype surrounding the console has been decidedly iffy – so we’d like your thoughts.

Will the Wii U be as innovative as some believe, or are we looking at a cheap and short-lived gimmick?