Until Sunday, my Wii U’s lobby screen came up population: me — a skinny little guy in a red wool cap and glasses, wandering in a white void, mumbling stuff like “Been playing NintendoLand” as effervescent electronica grooved in the background. Nintendo’s launch day system update ended my seclusion (if not my word balloon soliloquies), dispatching a full company of Miis in multicolored clothing to invade my lobby-space. They scampered across the screen after the system update finished, congregating in little clusters beneath clickable, hovering icons designed to highlight key Wii U features. And then they started talking. “Connect to the Internet, and play a game with your friends!” said one, waving its little ball-hand. “What should I play today?” asked another, facing no one in particular. “You never know what you’ll find until you go online and see!” said a third, smiling and doing a little victory dance. Of course they’re just ersatz pals — cute little Nintendo robots designed to plug the system’s features and warm up the joint until I’m able to add actual friends of my own. (MORE: Nintendo Wii U Review: A Tale of Two Screens) I was worried even these fake friends wouldn’t make it by Sunday. The Wii U’s online features were supposed to be ready a while ago, but Nintendo kept pushing the rollout back, right up to launch. My review unit could play games last week and that’s it. Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Miiverse, Internet browsing, Amazon Instant Video, Nintendo eShop — all unavailable until Nintendo deployed a massive zero-day update on Sunday that added them. Well, some of them anyway. Netflix, Miiverse, Internet browsing and Nintendo eShop are working at this point, but Hulu Plus, YouTube and Amazon Instant Video are missing in action. Tap their icons in the Wii U’s menu screen and you’ll see a note saying you need a software update — an update that’s coming no one knows when. What about TVii? Nintendo’s ballyhooed interactive live TV service was supposed to be one of the console’s crown jewels,![]()
