A few weeks ago I picked up the Disney Infinity starter set (and a few extras) for the Wii U. I have to say this is a pretty impressive game. Essentially you get multiple games in one package. Each of the figures in the starter pack have their own game world plus you have access to the Toy Box world.

The concept of the system is pretty interesting. You can place up to two figures on the game pad (included in the starter set and connects to your system via USB) and the game world piece. In addition you can add up to two power up discs under your figure and if you are just going to play around in the Toy Box you can add a disc there instead of using the game world piece. This gives you the ability to expand the game easily by purchasing additional figures or game expansions.

I have played all three game worlds (Monsters U, The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean) and so far I like the Pirates world the best. It is quite fun to sail a pirate ship around the sea and attack other ships. I did also pick up the Cars expansion but haven't played that one much. For me the most interesting thing about the game worlds is trying to track down all the Toy Box pieces. Some of them require certain characters to access (so you gotta buy 'em all!).

The Toy Box aspect to the game is very interesting. Essentially you get to use all of the items you have found in the games to build your own world. You can spawn bad guys to fight, build racetracks and all kinds of mini games. You are mostly limited by your imagination! I haven't had a lot of time to explore the Toy Box area yet but will do so and post my thoughts (and screenshots)!

There have been a lot of posts out there stating that the Wii U is dead and that Nintendo is in trouble, so I won't talk about that here. This post will cover my interactions with the system. I only recently purchased the Wii U Deluxe system. There were a couple of reasons why I picked this system up; TVii and Pikmin 3.

TVii

I am very intrigued by the TVii application, but it still needs quite a bit of development work. I like the fact that I can use the Wii U Gamepad to control my TV and that I can interact with others via the TV Tag as I am watching TV shows. This is a great feature, but limited to live TV. It would be great of the TVii could interface with TiVo or some other DVR system and let you interact with recorded shows since there are a lot of people that are "time shifting" their TV watching. People are really starting to leverage the "second screen" during TV shows and TVii could be a real asset to the Wii U. The best part about TVii is that the Wii U doesn't necessarily become your media machine. You can still use your standard cable box and DVR. The Wii U then stands out from the Xbox One as it doesn't try to become your home media machine.

Pikmin 3

Now I have never played Pikmin 1 or 2 but when I read a review of this game I thought it sounded pretty interesting. I really like strategy games and this one had a different twist to strategy than most games.

The graphics on this game are superb. It is really fascinating to walk around Earth as a miniature creature, plucking Pikmin out of the ground and hurling them at enemies and barriers. This game is challenging from the beginning and makes you want to keep playing. I have been using the Gamepad to play this game and the controls take some getting used to. I have read that using the Wiimote and Nunchuck make the controls a bit easier so will have to give that a try.