After watching the E3 conference getting my hands on the WiiU and as many of it’s games became of course high priority. First stop, was a hands on session with New Super Mario U. Thanks to the random that jumped into multi-player with me we were able to get feel of both sides of the game experience with and without the WiiU game pad.

I was pleasantly surprised at the responsiveness of the touch screen. Without the stylus I was still able to place blocks swiftly and accurately for my cohort to land on in Mario. The strategic side of adding the “plus” mode did give the game a new angle of depth. If a vine was missed or sent the wrong way, I could reroute him with blocks. No ramp? No problem! Build one yourself.

I’ll also add that the WiiU controller felt very good in my hand, it didn’t feel unnatural or unwieldly. With a phenomenally responsive touch screen and a great front screen interface Nintendo has the tools to release a successful console.

Check back tonight for a more indepth look at their other system featurs and the handheld line up coming down the road.