My original intent was to do this in a video blog fashion, but my camera phone didn't have enough juice and actually cut out on me. Pressed for time, I decided to just do it in a text blog. I hope you'll read it, because it will be quite long. I'll talk about them in the order I played.

The one game that many soon-to-be Wii U owners were hoping for turned out to be a dud, well at least according to GameSpot, but please keep in mind the Metacritic. It's currently at 71, and one source even gave it a 90, so not all is lost. If you're still interested in getting the game, get it. Just keep the receipt.

The largest complaint GS has about this game is the meleeing, and I definitely agree with them. You might think Condemned, but it really is no where near as good. The problem is the meleeing with the cricket bat is inconsistent. Some zombies can take as many as nine swings to knock them down to the ground, and I even killed one in one shot. The real problem is there's no control over your swings. Sometimes you will swing quickly while other times, you'll hold the bat over your head for a long time, like you're going to swing hard. If you did, I'd understand, but it makes no difference. It's problematic when you're trying to fight off more than one zombie at a time.

The cool thing about the game is the survivor mechanic. When you die, you respawn as a new survivor, and your previous body is now a zombie roaming the area where you last died. Like Demon's Souls, if you can make it back to your last corpse, you can recover your loot, provided you kill the zombified survivor first. I also love how well it uses the Wii U tablet controller. You can tap on your radar to ping for zombies in your area, or you can use it as a scanner and gleen some really important information regarding your surroundings. You can avoid dangerous areas altogether if you play it safe.

The graphics aren't what I would call very good, especially by today's standards, and it's not the game you want to showcase your new system with. The textures for the most part are murky and muddled, but with the right lighting, the game's pretty atmospheric. It's even a bit scary at times. Surprisingly enough, this is the game that I wanted to come back to the most as I was playing my other games. There's an addictive quality to it that I can't quite put my finger on. I guess when you die, you get an urge to see how much farther you can go when you try again. If you have a Wii U and are interested in the game, don't dismiss it completely; just use some caution.

If it weren't for me having all these other games to play, this would be the one I'd still be playing. After New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS, this is a breath of fresh air, which is weird to say because of everyone's preconceived notions that all Mario games are the same. It's clearly seen that a lot of thought and creativity were put into the game's level design if World 1 is any indication.

I guess what makes the game so cool is we finally have a Mario that's displayed in HD. The game looks absolutely gorgeous. It's so bright and so colorful and so smooth, it helps give the game a bigger feel. I love the flying squirrel suit and I can't wait to see what else the game has in store. I'm also really digging the music. Yeah, a couple tracks here and there are still pretty familiar, but it has enough original music to make it sound fresh.

It's also the only game that I know of that you can play on the tablet entirely independant from the TV. I'm kinda disappointed that more games don't let you do this, because a few that I have delegate the controller to banal map duty. Anyway, it's really nice to have a Mario game at launch, even if it just a 2D platformer.

I decided to get this game on the Wii U because I heard it performs better at 60 FPS, but so far, I can't really see it. The graphics do look great, and are an example the Wii U is no slouch when it comes to graphics... for the current generation. which will always be Wii U's problem. Still, it's a great looking game.

As for the game itself, I can't really talk too much about it, because I'm still early in. I just made my way to Boston and am still playing as Haytham Kenway, I think his name is. I've heard you need about two or three hours in the game for it to pick up, and I'm just not there yet. It's a big difference from the rest of the games as far as openings go, but I'm sure I'll start enjoying it. I will say I'm finding myself fumbling with the controls a bit. I'm not sure if it's the set up of the game itself or if my fingers haven't really come to grips with the contours of the controller.

This was the big pill for me to swallow, even bigger than ZombiU. You should know by now the game's not faring well. It got a 5.0 from GameSpot for the PS3 version, and when they review the Wii U version, they'll give a lower score. Why? Frame rate. I don't know what happened when they were making the game for the Wii U, but the frame rate simply struggles, and for no reason at all! I'm talking 10-15 frames at times.

And it's such a shame, because the game otherwise looks fantastic. The cartoon art design, the textures and build of the game, the animations and characters. It's just beautiful... when it's standing still. The presentation is also fantastic, and now the Mad Doctor sings a song every time you meet him and I can't wait to meet him again to hear the next song!

Gameplay wise, it's about the same as the first game, which is disappointing, because the first had potential to be a much better game, if only they'd fix the problems like their camera, which they didn't. As for the incompetence of Oswald, I haven't really encountered that yet, but I'm sure I will eventually. He's not exactly the sharpest tack in the box. Man... I really wanted to like this game better. If you got a Wii U and have other systems and want this game, PLEASE don't get the Wii U version.

This actually turned out to be a pleasant surprise. But it's a bit awkward for me, because I don't have people to play with. For me to try out the multiplayer mini games, I had to pull out a Wiimote and let it idle. But there's defintely a lot to do with 12 different mini games. Some are short and rather boring, but others such as Pikmin Adventure and the Zelda game are quite beefy for mini games.

As a pack in, this is a great. It'll be a fantastic party game, but it won't really offer much in the way of singler player enjoyment. For a 60 dollar purchase, no. There's no need for this game to be 60 dollars. Although it is a good demonstration of what the Wii U can do features and graphics wise, I just can't see someone plunking a full 60 dollars down for a mini game compilation.

Hey, you can't go wrong with this game since it's only 40 bucks! It's also online as well, although I haven't tried that out yet. I played a few races, and it's fun, better than that ModNation Racers I played on the Vita. What I like about the game are the tracks. Sometimes the terrain changes and you transform into boats and airplanes. The basic kart gameplay doesn't deviate much from Mario Kart and other clones but it's what works well.

I like how they have their World Tour set up. Each event has stars you can earn and you only need to place in the top three to get the stars. Most racing games require you to get first to earn them all. Speaking of first, still haven't gotten it yet in this game! It also has different types of events as well, such as boost challenges, to mix things up. I wouldn't mind playing this game online some time.

****

As for the console itself, I really like it. It's got a sleek design, and the tablet controller is something special. I've already tried out Netflix on it while having the TV off just to see what it's like. I can see lots of families doing this when one person wants to the TV for one thing and the other person wants to do something on the Wii U. It's simply a brilliant idea. I also love the fact that you can use the tablet as your TV remote control!

The one feature I absolutely love about the Wii U is Miiverse. This really is awesome. If you don't know what it is, it's an online community linked to each game that you play. At any given time during gameplay, you can access Miiverse where you're taken to a forum of sorts where people comment about what they like or questions they might ask. You can Yeah comments (which is like Like) and respond in either type or handwritten posts. You can even send friend requests to people. Fantastic thing.

So, I'm rather happy with my Wii U so far, even though I got a couple duds. I already know ZombiU will grow on me a bit, but man... that frame rate issue with Mickey 2... just breaks my heart. I'm glad I got my Wii U, and I hope everyone who wants one doesn't have to wait months like they did with the first Wii.

Also, sorry for this blog not being as detailed as it could have been. I'm getting a bit tired and running out of steam and I want to spend the rest of the night playing.