Wii U coming November to change motion gaming again

Nintendo is all about playing games with motion control, what with the titles that get us off our backsides and playing with large body movements, dance moves, and reaching for our toes, but now we may be reaching for our wallets with the announcement of the next Wii coming in November.

Originally announced mid-2011 and then previewed again in June of this year, Nintendo is finally talking up its follow-up to the popular Wii console released in 2006.

The new console will try to push the motion-based Wii format even further, by encouraging more players to get in on the fun and action with a new type of controller, allowing up to five players a field of view that is motion controlled or touchscreen enabled.

Regular Wii-motes will be accepted with the Wii U, as well as the new Wii U GamePad, which incorporated a 6.2 inch colour touchscreen, left and right control sticks, directional pad, buttons and triggers, Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, speakers, a microphone, and the classic motion controls that all Wii-motes have had since the release of the first console.

With two ways of playing, games can be designed differently, and experiences can be more innovative.

Other Wii accessories will work here, such as the Super NES style controller released for the Wii, the Balance Board used with Wii Fit, and even the Nunchuk controller, making it possible to play games in some seriously different ways.

Of course, with a new console comes new technology, and the Wii U will finally support proper 1080p Full HD, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, video chat, and new higher performance graphics power with an AMD Radeon multi-core processor and IBM processor.

Support for most of your old Wii games are included, but you’ll have plenty of new titles to play, too, with quite a few of the popular publishers chiming in and telling us what will be coming out in time for the release or shortly after, including “Rayman Legend” from Ubisoft, “Mass Effect 3: Special Edition” from EA and Bioware, THQ’s “Darksiders II,” “Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition” from Warner Bros., “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” from Activision, and Nintendo’s own first-party title range, including “New Super Mario Bros. U” and “Wii Fit U.”

New Super Mario Bros.

All of this information is nothing without the pricing and availability, and we have that, too.

There will be two packs available from Nintendo 30, with the Nintendo Wii U available in the white basic pack for the $349.95, including a console with 8GB internal storage, while the Wii U Premium Back will come in at $429.95 and feature a black Wii U console and gamepad with 32GB internal storage.