The Nintendo Wii U Buyer’s Guide

The Nintendo Wii U will launch in North America with 2 separate SKUs on November 18th. While options are always a welcome addition to anything you purchase, figuring out which system bundle that’s right for you could be confusing. Breaking down the two bundles individually will show you which one to purchase for yourself this holiday.

Bundles

#1 – Basic

The Basic Wii U bundle will ship in one color, white, and will have the bare essentials needed to enjoy your Wii U out of the box. This will include the Wii U Console, the Wii U GamePad, an HDMI cord (time to make the HDTV jump,) a Wii U sensor bar, and the power cables. This system comes with a paltry 8GB of memory and will cost $300.

#2 – Deluxe

The Deluxe Wii U bundle will also ship in one color, black, and will give more options for a $50 increase in price. This includes everything covered above in the basic package and includes these items as a bonus. First off you get a game, Nintendo Land, which is a compilation of mini-games ranging from Mario to Zelda (A $60 value,) a Wii U GamePad charging cradle, a stand for the console and the GamePad, and a subscription that will give you 10% rebate from everything you purchase in the Nintendo Digital Store. This version comes with 32GB of memory, obviously better than the 8GB offered with the basic one but still not a lot, with a $350 price tag.

But which one should I buy?

The Nintendo Wii U will launch with two bundles meant for two separate groups of people. The Wii U Basic will be perfect for gamers that watch a lot of Netflix, play the occasional exercise game, or parents looking to stay hip.

The deluxe bundle is meant for the core Nintendo fan that offers an already updated system memory wise, a game that features all of Nintendo’s key characters, and a cradle to make your Wii U GamePad stand out.

If anyone is even remotely interested in Nintendo Land, the Wii U Deluxe edition is the obvious choice. If you have no interest in that game you could save the $50 difference and upgrade your Wii U’s memory using an external hard drive, flash drive or SDXC card.

Verdict

The Wii U will likely sell out this holiday season if you don’t preorder one in advance (as in the second you read this.) I believe the deluxe bundle will be much tougher to find due to the value it creates while packing in a $60 game for a $50 increase in price. If you can’t find the deluxe model, the basic configuration should be just fine as long as you don’t care about Nintendo Land. Stay tuned for a verdict on the games you should be paying attention to for the Wii U launch window (Nov 18- March 2013.)

What do you think about the Wii U options? Which bundle do you plan to buy this holiday season? Let me know in the comments below.

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