Following the Nintendo Direct Presentation in relation to the Wii U, Nintendo had to announce what they announced, but to their credit, they had to drop an A-Bomb, and they certainly did that. However, while there were plenty of positives to take out from it, sadly there are also quite a few negatives.

First up, the pros: The new Mario game definitely is worth throwing money at, and Mario Kart U is a must, so when we get to see footage of those at E3 will determine just how excited we are for it. I do like the idea of another Yoshi lead game, and while the art-style is cute, it's Yoshi, it's supposed to be cute. I'm definitely looking forward to that. The Wonderful 101 looks as good as ever and I anticipate that it'll be right up there with Game of the Year status once it's out. Bayonetta 2's development looks to be one of "pushing beyond the limit", but I do hope the first Bayonetta game is released on Wii U through the eShop. I totally called the Firmware updates coming along, and as long as they do fix the sluggishness issues the Wii U is facing, that would be a huge plus for Nintendo.

The best news however was the Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover. I have a feeling that it's going to be one extraordinary game once it's out. The new Xenoblades game (just called X) also looks brilliant, and also looks like it's going to be an MMORPG. Definitely throwing money at it. Also, news of more info on Smash 4 is definitely welcomed, so we'll wait until E3 2013 for some more lowdown.

Next up, the cons: Wind Waker HD is nothing more than a novel idea and certainly not something I'd be throwing money at. The Famicom Anniversary celebration is nothing more than a mere gimmick, and one I feel they've missed the trick at, and then there's Virtual Console. Once Nintendo release their first firmware update only the NES and SNES Virtual Console services for Wii U will be available. Why Nintendo are being ridiculously anal about it I'll have no idea. I'm sorry, but the only enhancements the emulators need are to support the following:
1. Save States, because this should've been a thing on Wii's Virtual Console emulators.
2. Miiverse integration, which is nothing more than a screenshot.
3. Game Pad play, which in itself is a different protocol.

If Nintendo have coded this properly those three points would be code modules (or classes, if you will), and the main emulation code would've been a straight port with no issue. There is no debate to this. We know the Wii U in Wii mode is a sandbox due to the prevalence of Homebrew exploits on Wii (hence why it's sandboxed). The architecture code for the Wii U's processor is exactly the same as the Wii's (it's all based on the same PowerPC architecture, therefore is native) so porting the code isn't an issue. NES and SNES is not good enough. The entire back-catalogue of Virtual Console services should be available at around this time. Nintendo have announced that the Wii U Virtual Console will be expanded to cater for Game Boy Advance games. I'm sorry to say that they'd make more sense on the 3DS (as if you're an ambassador, you've already got the ten GBA games from them). Nintendo promised us GameCube Virtual Console titles and so far we've had nothing of the sort. However, what annoys me the most is if you've already purchased a particular game on Wii's Virtual Console, you get to re-download it on Wii U for a reduced price. This is complete and utter nonsense. Why should we have to pay for a game we already own? It's not difficult for the roms (which is what they are) to be moved or copied from the NAND storage the Wii U has for Wii mode (which again, is sandboxed) to the Wii U's internal SSD. So I ask you, why was this not the case? There is no excuse for this. Nintendo can claim any form of excuse they want, but said excuses would just be sacks of bovine arse candy, and I don't give a cows arse about said excuses. It's about time Nintendo stepped up to the mark and actually delivered on these. I understand it's early days, but they have this year with seemingly and virtually no contested competition. This year is set to be Nintendo's year, but they've got to start pressing home the advantage. There's also no news on the unification of Nintendo Network ID's either, and this could well turn out to be a long overdue issue if it isn't addressed in the future.

So, there you have it. Nintendo dropped the A-Bomb, but I have a feeling the wind took it off-course and it's exploded closer to home. To use a sporting term, they've kinda scored an own goal here for the moment. There are definitely no shortage of games coming out in the foreseeable future, especially from March onwards (with Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate and Lego City Undercover being two that Wii U owners are definitely anticipating to buy), but I can't help but feel that Nintendo have missed the trick, and have offered no real concrete explanation as to why they cannot live up to consumer expectations. They need to do a lot more, and I suspect that if they don't buck their ideas up by E3 2013, they might have let a real advantage slip through their fingers.

Your move, Nintendo.