25 Awesome Things To Do With Your Wii U

So you caved to the hype and bought a Wii U. How could you resist the charms of a new Nintendo system? The Wii U promises a whole generation of amazing first-party Nintendo games, and Nintendo finally seems poised to win back some of that precious support from third-party developers.

But what can you do with your new Wii U while you're waiting for all that to happen? You've popped in Nintendo Land and messed around with the GamePad, but chances are you haven't even scratched the surface yet of just what the Wii U is capable of.

Of course, we won't really know just what that is until talented developers have plumbed the system's depths and discovered its true potential. But in the meantime, here are 25 things you can do with your new Wii U right now.

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The Wii U is the first Nintendo console in many years to launch with a Mario title, New Super Mario Bros. U, on day one, but that's not the only milestone for the new system. It also marks the first time ever that any Mario game has been available in HD.

The results? The most gorgeous Mario game ever made. We can't wait to see what they do with Zelda.

Out with the friend codes, in with the Nintendo Network. Nintendo's terrible friend codes, randomly assigned 16-digit ID numbers that made it a pain in the ass to add friends on the DS and Wii, have been replaced by the Nintendo Network ID.

Yes, Nintendo has finally caught up with everyone else in this regard: you choose your own ID, just like on Xbox 360 and PS3. And adding friends is as easy as typing it in. Welcome to the modern age!

The Wii U's backwards compatibility is somewhat different from what the other consoles do. It's more like putting your PC in MS DOS mode than simply sticking a PS2 game into your PS3. When you select the Wii channel on your Wii U, it boots up the system as if it was a Wii.

And by transferring the data from your old Wii onto the new Wii U (via an adorable Pikmin-themed loading screen), you can retain everything you had on your Wii, including game downloads, saves and more.

Nintendo may have created the new Nintendo Network ID system, but that doesn't mean that all the game downloads from your old Wii won't transfer over. With the system transfer feature, you can move everything you've purchased—including unspent Wii eShop points—to the new system.

That means that those digital copies of Super Mario World, Majora's Mask, Castlevania IV, and Pokemon Snap aren't going anywhere. You can still get your retro game on with Nintendo's new console. We're even hopeful that they'll add support for Virtual Console games on the GamePad.

One of the most surprising and useful functions of the Wii U's screen-equipped GamePad controller is its ability to control your TV. After a quick set-up process, the GamePad can control your television's power, input, volume, and channel, even if the Wii U itself is powered off.

It's going to be really hard to lose the remote when it's a massive tablet-shaped GamePad with a screen on it.

Making a Mii was one of the funnest things to do when the Wii came out years ago, and that much hasn't changed with the latest generation of Nintendo hardware. The Mii system returns, and creating virtual versions of yourself and your friends is as fun as ever.

And now, with the GamePad's camera, you can take a picture of your face and have the system make a Mii for you automatically, just like on the 3DS.

Facebook and Twitter are great, but most of your friends probably don't give a shit that you just beat the seventh castle in New Super Mario Bros. U. That's where the Miiverse comes in.

It's a social network just for the Wii U, with a cross between Twitter and a message board focused on individual games. When you beat a tough level, a game might ask you if you want to write a message or draw a small picture to celebrate, then others can see it in-game or from the Miiverse application itself.

One of the other benefits of the Miiverse is that it makes it really easy to find new like-minded gaming friends. If someone posts an image or statement that you identify with, you can easily follow them or add them to your friends list.

The new Nintendo Network IDs make it much less painful to add new friends, too—it's easier to communicate "RogueCheddar" than "5HS*.83-KF#*G-SH3M!-X9}{0Q" after all.

Just make sure you're not holding the GamePad in your lap while you're chatting. It's not a flattering angle.

You may find that out the hard way while you're playing a game like Nintendo Land—some mini-games project an image of the player who's using the GamePad up in one corner of the screen. No doubt your multiplayer opponents will get a kick out of the quadruple chins that appear when your head is tilted down to stare at the controller in your lap, but you may not.

Nintendo isn't as far behind in this area as you might assume. The PS3 has had an internet browser all along, sure, but it's pretty much the worst browser imaginable. And the Xbox 360 only recently got its version of Internet Explorer, and it's not that great either.

With the added convenience of the Wii U's GamePad, which can display a keyboard for easy typing, the Wii U may actually have the best console browser right now. And it's definitely better than the Wii's slow and weird Opera browser.

The other incredibly nice thing about the Wii U's browser is that you don't have to quit out of your game to access it. That means in the middle of a puzzle in Trine 2 or Arkham City Armored Edition, you can head directly into the browser, look up the solution and then go right back into the game.

In addition, you can do the same thing with the Miiverse—as long as you don't mind possibly seeing some spoilers, you can check a game's room on Nintendo's new social network and see if anyone has any hints.

The Wii U launched with only Netflix, but within the first week Hulu and Amazon got their apps in working order as well, and now you can get paid video on demand on the console no matter which service you subscribe to.

All three add some unique functionality to the Wii U's GamePad controller as well, ranging from playback controls on the touch screen to IMDB-style info accessible while you're watching.

Let's be honest: most of the shit we watch on Youtube is pure crap, like videos of cats, people crashing their skateboards into each other, and clips from random TV shows. But at least now we can watch that crap on the Wii U.

It may not seem that useful to you, but trust us: the next time you want to show everyone that video of some porn star doing the cinnamon challenge in her underwear and you don't have to crowd around your tiny laptop screen, you'll be thankful.

Nintendo's much-hyped (by them, at least) TVii functionality wasn't available on the Wii U at launch, but they've promised to add it some time in December.

It's a little hard to explain, but essentially TVii will allow you to search every possible video source, including your cable hook-up, for whatever you want to watch. Type in Breaking Bad, and it tells you exactly where you can watch it: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon, or even live on AMC right in the moment. It'll even track individual users' viewing habits and provide them with personalized recommendations, and you can mix and match users (i.e. what does it recommend for you and your girlfriend together?).

If TVii is as smart as Nintendo says it is then we may have something awesome on our hands when it launches.

The 3DS started this revolution for Nintendo, and now the Wii U is continuing it: in addition to smaller downloadable games, the Wii U is capable of downloading full retail experiences directly from the eShop.

So if you suddenly get the urge to play ZombiU but your local store is sold out of it, you can simply buy it online and install it directly to the console. Just be careful not to run out of space—it's probably best to spend the extra $50 on the deluxe console with more storage.

The Wii U has a nice selection of downloadable indie games at launch. There are only three, but in the grand scheme of things that means that over ten percent of the Wii U's total games right now are downloadable indie titles.

Between Trine 2, Little Inferno, and Chasing Aurora, there's definitely something for every indie game fan on the console right now. And they're priced accordingly, as well.

Not that we're addicted to games, but we'd probably go insane if we couldn't play them anymore. That's not bad, is it? Luckily, if we ever start to get worried, we can keep track of our habits directly using the Wii U's new statistics application.

It'll tell you if you spent two hours watching Netflix yesterday, or played 200 hours of Black Ops 2 last month. Whether you should be worried about that is a personal choice.

When all else fails, R(ead) T(he) F(ucking) M(anual). That's what our mothers always told us, at least.

And since no one hangs on to their physical instruction booklets anymore, the Wii U has extensive documentation available on the system itself. Just tap the icon and you've got all the troubleshooting assistance you'll ever need right on the GamePad.

It's hard to believe, but the Wii U is the first Nintendo system to allow for background downloads. It even does one better than the Xbox 360 and PS3, as it's not just game downloads that can be performed in the background—it's mandatory updates, too.

So when you boot up a game that you haven't played in a while and it tells you you need to download an update, you can still play the game while it's happening. Then the next time you start up the game it'll ask you to install it. It's so convenient that we're shocked it hasn't been done on another console before.

The Wii U, like its predecessor, is lacking a hard drive. What paltry internal storage it does have is capped at 32GB, and that's only with the console version that costs $50 more. But thankfully, it's never been easier to simply hook up an external hard drive to the console and store everything on that.

It's a simple process, and if you can honestly find enough downloadable items on the Wii U to fill up a terabyte of storage, then good for you. For most people, though, it'll be more than enough.

You may not get to experience this one for a while, especially if your birthday is in early November. But the Wii U knows, and it'll wish you a happy birthday with a short round of applause from the Miis in your plaza and a modest burst of confetti. It's not much, but what are you expecting, a personal letter from Miyamoto himself? Take what you can get!

Here it is on Youtube.

Did we miss any important functions of the Wii U? Do you know something we don't?