Sam Gibbs - 

Nintendo’s finally spilled the beans on the Wii U, including pricing, well, for everywhere but the UK; release dates, and game line-up. It’s got a whole raft of decent-looking games for launch, and two models, a “basic” and a “premium”, but neither is likely to be cheap.

The white, basic Wii U will come packing 8GB of storage, a GamePad (the fancy controller with a 6.2-inch screen), some AC adapters, and an HDMI cable. The black, premium Wii U adds 32GB of flash; some stands and charging docks, as well as a sensor bar, a Nintendo Network Premium subscription, and NintendoLand. Prices are “region specific”, whatever that means, but the basic appeared on Amazon for £200 before being quickly pulled, so I should think it’ll be around the £200 mark with the Premium clocking in at £300-odd — pretty pricy when stacked up against the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Still, the Wii U is apparently 20 times more powerful than the current Wii, which isn’t hard I know, but that should at least put it in-line with the current generation PS3 and Xbox 360. Wii U discs will pack 25GB of data. Apparently Nintendo hasn’t gone Blu-ray, though, which makes me suddenly think HD-DVD, but surely Nintendo’s not that stupid, right?

Nintendo’s rolled out some pretty decent first and third-party titles for the launch, which gives me hope that they’ll be something actually worth playing, at least in the beginning. Highlights include Assassin’s Creed, Fifa 13, Mass Effect 3, NintendoLand, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Bayonetta 2, which is apparently a Wii U-exclusive. Even a full-blooded Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been confirmed, and should look decent enough.

Whether this is enough to get people to jump back to Nintendo, who knows. It’s a bit pricy for a second console, so big N is clearly taking whatever Sony and Microsoft have in the oven, head-on. If, and that’s a big if, Nintendo can keep the premium third-party titles coming, maybe it’ll take off. But my money’s on the the PS4 or Xbox 720 with built-in holodeck. [Nintendo]